12 Days of Unchristmas

Find all the glitz and glamour you’ll need in The Fifth Element.

Chris Tucker in 'The Fifth Element' (1997).

It’s the 23rd century on Earth. Cars hover, space travel is the norm, and aliens roam freely. Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is a taxi driver in charge of saving the world after a very special woman (Milla Jovovich) drops out of the sky and into the back of his cab.

While the plot isn’t always watertight, the visuals, the casting, and the fantastic costumes (headed by the one and only Jean Paul Gaultier) have made this deliciously camp sci-fi an enduring classic. Jean-Baptiste Zorg (Gary Oldman) and Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) wouldn’t look out of place at any Christmas office party.

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The perfect tree does exist. Pan’s Labyrinth.

Pan’s Labyrinth Review

Set during the Spanish Civil War, ten-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother start a new life with a prominent member of the civil guard. While war rages in the mortal world, another war rages beneath. Believing Ofelia is the returning spirit of Princess Moanna, the King of the underworld sets her a series of tasks.

From the pale man to the gnarled fig tree, this dark folk horror from the distinctive creative mind of Guillermo del Toro is as stylistic, memorably creepy, and twisted as you would expect. And nothing the creatures of the underworld get up to is as terrifying as the antics of men.


See the importance of good will to all men (apart from the Greengrocer) in Amélie.

Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a strange and quiet girl destined to live a strange and quiet life, until one day a discovery of something seemingly small leads her to re-evaluate. Her interactions with the peculiar set of characters that fill her limited world leave them better off – and her too.

After helping those around her, can she be brave enough to do something good for herself? To live a loud and exciting life?

If you can get on board with the quirk, it is a film to smother the cynic in you. Amélie is a wholesome romance with lovable characters and a very well-travelled gnome.

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