Friday Afternoon Video: SAAAAAAAAAANTA!

Will Ferrell may be the funniest male Saturday Night Live alumnus still living, which is part of what makes us so sad when he chooses less-than-quality film (Semi-Pro, anyone?).

Amid a sea of bad film choices there can be an occasional bright spot. Certain scenes in Talladega Nights are eye-wateringly funny, though the movie as a whole was better suited to be a 5-minute SNL skit. Stranger Than Fiction is amazing and beautiful, mostly thanks to the incongruity with which Ferrell plays his serious character. And then there's Elf.

Somehow this movie has become a modern holiday classic. Parts of it are tedious, yes, but when you go to the theater expecting the lowest common denominator, it's easy to be pleasantly surprised by a film that doesn't entirely suck.

Houstonist's favorite scene in Elf is the one in which Buddy, runnin' from the law, emulates the infamous Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot footage, mostly because of the super-subtle reference. But if you're going for laughs, the scene below simply can't be beat. We're almost as excited about the holidays as Buddy the Elf.

Elf is this weekend's Midnight Movie at the River Oaks Theater.