Kaoteek

The best part of this episode was Lance, and the slime-making challenge. The worst part ? Everything else. Neither the creativity nor the skill were there... and the winning looks would have ended up in the safe zone, at best, during any previous season.

Not a good week, far from it. And the final results were really a case of best of the worst, rather than really top quality make-ups. Can't say it was disappointing, since my expectations were pretty low to begin with, but still...

I still really like Robert, but honestly, this week, all the make-ups were flawed to some degree, to the point I would have been hard pressed to choose a winner. Wolf-head, however, should have been in the bottom 2 or three.

Mediocre Who episodes, overall mediocre Torchwood seasons as showrunner (and very uneven as writer), and one-trick pony (or should I say one season-pony) on Broadchurch. Can't say I'm thrilled at this news... in fact, it was the one name I was dreading to hear/read.

Not a fan of the winning look, concept-wise. Too basic, too derivative... but it was sold well by the model, and the paintjob was pretty good. Pretty disappointed in the race car team, where the only whimsy was brought by the model, and the beauty make-up failed. Crayon-man just plainly sucked. Boardgame-man wasn't much better, Candyman was gorgeous but depressed. Also, the 3-contestant team wasn't gonna win, anyway. As for the Key, all I could see was "fancy zombie", so...

Can't say I particularlyl liked the winning look (had i been the judge, it would have been safe, nothing more, mostly because it kinda had a derpy look to it), but the horned lizard was pretty decent for a first look/collaboration between two guys who never met. As for the bottom look, well... it really was the worst, so no surprise there. I like German-Texan guy, he's got personality, I hope he'll stay at least for a good half of this season.

Can't say I was particularly convinced by A Christmas Melody, but it was more because I ended up focusing on the numerous directing issues (awkward staging, missed reaction shots & inserts, wrong camera angles, repetitive establishing shots, and of course, Mariah Carey's soft focus single shots & close-ups, which led to some pretty dodgy eyelines matches whenever she was in a scene... as if her stilted acting wasn't already a distraction), rather than due to the overall quality of the movie. In fact, I'm sure that, with a more experienced director, and without the whole "Mariah" deal, it would have made for a fine regular Lacey Chabert movie (speaking of whom, I'm so glad she decided to step it up after seemingly be on autopilot in Family for Christmas). The ending could have been worked on a tad more, though.

Yeah, she is looking tired, these days. And plastic surgery probably doesn't help. Wish Upon A Christmas would have been a perfectly fine, perfectly cute Christmas movie if it didn't feel so much like three movies put together in post. You had the nice romance between two likeable leads, taking place over that company restructuration situation : perfect Hallmark fare in and of itself. Then you had those magic santa scenes shoehorned in, with that bauble & that crash in the forest, and all those on-the-nose family names (Tomte, Marley, Donner) : kinda superfluous, really, but why not... if only that kid didn't bother me so much ; and then, Alan Thicke. Inebriated, filmed-all-his-scenes-in-one-sitting, shot-everything-at-home, couldn't-care-less, only-there-because-Lifetime-has-probably-promised-him-an-Unauthorized-Growing-Pains-movie Alan Thicke. In the end, it was a perfectly watchable movie, but also a perfectly forgettable one.

Yeah, don't bother, really. When I watched it late November, I posted this here : 80% of it are mostly Christmas unrelated, and the other 20% really feel underbaked & rushed.

A Christmas Reunion. Boring. Just plain boring. Also, cheap. And acting-wise... eh. Typical Hybrid/ION production, in short. I'm sure i've spotted Megan, the hyperenthusiastic tiny blonde model from the Face Off competition, as one of the extras, towards the end, though.

Maybe it's because I went in not totally convinced by my previous encounter with Meghan Ory (I didn't like some of her acting on Once Upon A Time) & was happily surprised, or maybe it's just because I'm in bed with a 102F fever, but I quite liked Dashing Through the Snow. It wasn't "movie of the season", or anything close, I'd even dispute its place under the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries brand, but it was likeable all the way through, Ory & whatshisname worked well together, it seemed to have an okay budget (see, Lifetime, there's no need to be cheap and to film your car scenes in front of a bad green screen, or an antiquated rear-projection system) and the incompetent FBI subplot wasn't much of a mystery or a believable storyline, but it was a fine, light-hearted distraction, although it kind of disrupted the overall flow of the movie, every now and then. Also, already complained about it in here, but... soooo tired of the magical street santa that has profound advice for the lead character trope, and of the melancolic flashback montage before the big finish.

That Becoming Santa movie was really... something. I enjoyed the main couple, they were likeable, and had fine chemistry... but the rest... eh... I don't know what bothered me the most : the fact that it felt like a rejected draft for a potential The Santa Clause 4 : The Next Generation movie, especially with that Jack Frost rivalry, that wedding clause, those children elves supervised by an older, grumpy, sarcastic chief elf, and so on ; the way the lead male character was written ("what ? I've been drugged and brought to the North Pole ? What ? You're Santa's daughter, you talk to animals, and you've been lying to me all that time ? What ? If I want to marry you, I need to become Santa, face Jack Frost's jealousy & criticism, and you've secretely been training me for that job without telling me ? Okay, let me apologize for reacting like a normal human being, I shouldn't have freaked out, I'm weak, sorry sorry sorry.") ; or the fact that, once again, Lifetime seems unable to produce a "Santa is real" movie that is earnest, and doesn't feel like some network execs thought the whole concept of a Christmas movie is so cheesy that it has to be overacted (everything at the toy company, the chief elf, Frost), underproduced with the cheapest budget ever (the toy company billboard, the fake snow, the awful rear projection in the car scene, Gross's fake beard, the toy dog, the limited sets...), and never really taken seriously by the writers. In the end, just like in Last Chance for Christmas, it gives the impression the "magical" part is half-assed, and deliberately über-cheesy, which in turn clashes with the more serious, romance part, and undermines both. (really, though... that fake snow !!! ^^)

Just finished On The Twelfth Day of Christmas. It was fine. Very predictable, but not annoyingly so, thanks to the likeable lead couple. I didn't quite buy the initial 10 years time jump, though (it wasn't particularly believable, since they didn't even bother trying to age the actors, or anything). Still, a decent holiday movie.

Che : Che was perfectly fine tonight, although, indeed, the first song was so busy, as far as choreography went, that it only highlighted how much Che was just standing there in the middle. The duo wasn't too memorable, though. R&B : Spice Grls medley was chaotic and vocally rough, but the crowd was with them all the way. The other medley was awkward since, in essence, R&B were only the backing vocals on both parts of the medley. Meh. Louisa : big production, and once again, perfectly fine vocals on the first song, although I expected something slightly stronger. Song 2 was clearly the "look at this season's winner" song, even though Louisa was borderline outshone by Rita. As for the results... well, at that point, there are what they are. It's not as if Louisa won't win, though.

Not convinced by Last Chance For Christmas. It wasn't awful (even though these days, Lifetime really seems to be struggling to find its identity, as far as Christmas movies go), it kinda felt like an old-school Disney-type Christmas movie (only somewhat cheaper, half-assed and with a weird semi-ironic "yeah, we know Christmas movies are silly, so we made it ultra-cheesy" vibe re:everything Santa & the North Pole), but I never really bought that insta-romance between Burton & Hogan. Granted, it didn't help that I find Hilarie Burton quite generic, whether here, in Christmas in the Bayou, or in Naughty or Nice... but still, it felt rushed. That said, I liked Hogan's awkward character, and the kid was likeable (despite some overacting here and there), so two out of three aint bad. (not so sure about that very weird on Santa as a bumbling, neurotic mess, and Mrs Claus as a stern, strict, uncompromising headmistress type, though)

In another time and place, How Sarah Got Her Wings could have been a nice theater release featuring Chris Pratt & Kristen Bell. Heck, throw in a Gabrielle Union, a Rosario Dawson, or even a Rashida Jones as the other love interest, Emily Blunt as Daphne, and there you go, you'd have a fine holiday rom-com. As it is, though, it's probably amongst the most likeable holiday tv movie of 2015, and clearly one of the best, if not the best, holiday tv movie ION ever aired (probably because MarVista is only the distributor of this tv movie, and not the actual production company behind it ; also, it was written by a writer from the show Greek). At first, I was kinda hesitant on yet another perky and mostly interchangeable blonde lead character and her romance problems in a non-snowy setting, but the movie took enough interesting twists and turns to shed that first impression and ended up being endearing & quite fun. The cast was also a notch above the usual ION/UpTV standards, acting wise, which is always a plus. A nice surprise.

Gotta say I struggled with The Christmas Note. Not that it was bad - it was typical Donna VanLiere, though, with tons of miraculous coïncidences leading to that unlikely (and yet oh so predictable) reveal tying everything together - , but it felt slightly too melodramatic & overacted (or at the very least, the acting seemed unnecessarily intense, here and there), with dialogs that were too on the nose & overwritten, and as a result I just couldn't get into it. Also, the main recurring musical theme felt awfully familiar, to the point I spent half the movie trying to remember where it has been lifted from.

TBH, I don't remember much about A Christmas Kiss 2, except the fact that I didn't care much for its male lead, so... And speaking of things I didn't care much for... Pretty much the same thing, as far as i'm concerned. Magic Stocking was competently produced (by neither Hybrid nor MarVista), the concept of the stocking was interesting (albeit slightly underexploited), Webster was fine in a very generic part (though I couldn't help but picture him in his Scorpion King getup, which made for a fun mental rewriting of this movie), the puppy was adorable and the grandma was fun, but Bridget Regan & her daughter mostly left me cold, which in turn didn't help the rest of the movie, already quite predictable to begin with. Not a bad movie, but not one I'll rewatch anytime soon, indeed. Also, didn't felt very "Movies & Mysteries" to me. (and I've decided to skip The Bridge, and wait for part 2)

Yeah, I guess. Still bothered me, just as the on-the-nose "It's a wonderful life" clip did. Unrelated, but one of my pet peeves, this season, is the relationship flashback montage accompanied by a sappy pop song. I've mentioned it before in this thread, but this season, that montage has popped up in at least four or five different Christmas movies (which isn't really surprising, since they're all produced and written by the same pool of producers & writers), and with every new one, I'm growing more and more annoyed by this trope. Also, Merry Kissmas was a dud. Like, "Doris Roberts forcing herself upon the male lead in an elevator" dud. *shudder* (however, it's about all it had in common with the above-mentioned A Christmas Kiss, which I recently rewatched, and enjoyed, thanks to the cast)

Man, all those movies seem to be produced by either MarVista or Hybrid... anyway, The Christmas Gift was mostly... slow. Not necessarily boring, but pretty damn slow & lifeless. Also, the script is to be commended for going the interracial romance route, and I tend to like Michelle Trachtenberg, but on a more shallow note, I'm really not a fan of her current look and style (or of the unflattering way her makeup & wardrobe were done here).

Didn't care much for The Flight Before Christmas, which indeed felt like A Christmas Detour redux. And given the fact that I didn't enjoy that one much... But as far as this one went, it all just felt... forced, for lack of a better word. McPartlin's glasses & suit felt forced & artificial, Bialik's "I talk to myself out loud" neuroses & constant snark felt forced and artificial (also, a tad overacted, compared to the rest of the cast's underacting), that annoying "magical undercover Santa" (that seems to pop up in a lot of those Christmas romance movies) felt forced, the entire unlikely romance thingie felt forced, the country dance competition felt forced, the final party scene felt forced... I can take forced & artificial in this kind of movies, but only to a degree, and this was way too much : I just never bought into this premise, and into this couple. So far, Lifetime's 2015 Christmas movies have all been a bust for me (I haven't watched the Trachtenberg movie yet ; and Becoming Santa looks like a cheesefest of the highest magnitude, I'm fearing the worst).

It would be easier if they went back to judges not having a say in whether the contestant they're coaching stays or not. As for this week's result, called it. No surprise there. And Louisa is still gonna win that one.

Christmas in the Smokies was decent... for what was, if I get this right, the first ever christmas tv movie produced by INSP. It wasn't so much a fluffy rom com as it was a melodramatic "family is about to lose farm, girl fights to keep said farm, and ends up reconnecting with an old flame, praise baby jesus" kind of a movie, very old-school in its approach, with a decent amount of religious undertones here and there. Not my cup of tea, but production & casting-wise, it easily ranked above most Up Tv & ION efforts. Speaking of UpTV, A Dogwalker's Christmas Tale was... what it was. The lead was unconventional (also, younger than most Hallmark-type movies) & it was typical UPTv quality & overall casting, but I couldn't help but feel that in more experienced hands, and with a bit of polish, the same script could have ended up on Hallmark & Lifetime, and delivered a perfectly fine Christmas movie. And speaking of ION, A Prince for Christmas. Aka let's take Once Upon A Holiday & A Royal Christmas, mix the scripts, change the names, and shoot it for cheap with no-name, bland actors in a snowed-in little town in the state of New York. Bland, bland, bland. I liked the kid sister, who had chemistry w/ everyone, and the filming locations looked good, but it just was generic and flat as hell. And now, while we're on the subject of bland, back to Hallmark, with Just in Time for Christmas. I know that the Hallmark HOF seal doesn't mean anything anymore (aside from "hey look, a famous actor is in our movie, and we've given production an extra couple thousand dollars"), but this shouldn't have been in it. Generic, uber-predictable screenplay ; generic It's a Wonderful Life/love vs career combo ; bland lead couple (well, let me rephrase : Mumford is likeable and a good actress, but ultimately unmemorable & not really believable as the best-selling author of a self-help book holding deep thoughts & meditations on the sense & meaning of life) ; annoying flashback montage of the lead couple's best moments edited together on a sad pop song (it annoyed me in A Prince For Christmas, and it did here, too) ; and not enough screen time devoted to Captain Kirk's beard. Also, not a huge fan of "hey, everybody's life seems to have turned out pretty good in this future, everybody seems happy, and I've got my dream career... but let's just ruin all of this because I want my ex-boyfriend back, dammit". Gotta love Christopher Lloyd, though.

Gotta say, those "two songs per week" shows are boring me to death. - Reggie & Bollie : first song was a complete misfire, second song was standard R & Bollie. Not much to say about it. - Lauren : Didn't care much for her first song, which was quite uneven ; cared even less for that second song. - Che's first song was pretty good. Song #2 was decent, but left me kinda cold. - Louisa was pretty shouty, tonight, during both songs. Song #2 was better than song #1, imo. Lauren & R&B for the bottom 2, I guess. But if the crowd is really behind R&B, then Lauren & Che as the bottom two, with Lauren leaving.

Angel of Christmas wasn't awful, but boy did it lack energy & rhythm. It certainly did feel like a Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, though. And I had a good laugh at the kilotons of fake snow they felt they needed to dump on the actors during every. single. outside. scene. (also, that wooden angel ornament ? Pretty ugly)