On Sunday night I watched the premier of Love Always, Santa on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel. I am not going to reveal any spoilers because it airs frequently in November and some of you may not have seen it yet.

It was cool to see the names of some Northfield businesses in the background. I saw someone wearing a Northfield letter jacket. Other streets I recognized from the Northfield area. And I saw a couple of fixtures from my neighborhood in north and northeast Minneapolis -- a shot of the Lowry Avenue Bridge and a Ferris wheel at a bar restaurant on Marshall Street in northeast Minneapolis.

The actors in the movie are not famous, but I thought they did a very good job. I missed part of the movie so will probably watch it again.

I have five, well six really, other movies filmed in Minnesota that are my favorites.

 

  • 1

    Grumpy and Grumpier Old Men

    Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau star in this comedy about two aging Minnesota neighbors with a long history of getting on each other's nerves. They fight over everything, from ice fishing to the woman next door, trading barbs laced with profanity and pranks one might not expect from either the elderly or rural Minnesotans. The ice fishing scenes, including the disaster of John Gustafson's (Lemmon) ice house, were filmed on Lake Rebecca in Rockford, and the hometown of the two curmudgeons is a fictionalized version of Wabasha. The town still hosts a Grumpy Old Men festival every February with ice fishing, cribbage, and a pet pageant. The downtown drug store scene and a few other shots were done in Faribault.

    Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau from Grumpier Old Men
    Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau from Grumpier Old Men
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  • 2

    Airport (1974)

    Starring Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, George Kennedy and a host of stars, Minneapolis-St. Paul International was filmed as Lincoln International in Chicago. It was the first of the airplane disaster movies.

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    Getty Images
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  • 3

    Purple Rain

    Prince filmed this in and around the Twin Cities. Purple Rain tells the love story of the Kid (Prince) and Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero), and takes place in the midst of a feud between Prince's the Revolution and Morris Day's the Time. Production of the movie shut down First Avenue for a month. One famous Minnesota location mentioned in the movie is notably absent, however. As the Kid says: "That ain't Lake Minnetonka."

    Getty Images-People Paying Tribute to Prince Outside First Avenue
    Getty Images-People Paying Tribute to Prince Outside First Avenue
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  • 4

    Jingle All The Way

    The fact that this movie is so bad is why I like it.This silly family holiday film follows mattress salesman Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as he attempts to make up for not paying enough attention to his son by getting him TurboMan, the hot new toy of the season.
    Of course, he waits until the last minute, and along the way he runs into zany obstacles at a variety of Twin Cities locations, including the Mall of America and downtown St. Paul. It is interesting to note the scene that mocks the former Holidazzle Parade, called the Wintertainment Parade, was not filmed in Minnesota.

    Sinbad and Arnold in Jingle All the Way
    Sinbad and Arnold in Jingle All the Way
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  • 5

    Fargo

    Again this movie was so over the top for its portrayal of Minnesotans, and that is what made it so funny. No, we don't all talk like that. No, we won't say "you betcha" for you. It's still one of the greatest movies to be filmed and set in Minnesota. The bloody comedy of embezzlement, murder and dogged police work stars William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, and Frances McDormand. Native sons the Coen brothers used locations all over Minnesota in the making of the film.

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    Getty Images
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