Kaoteek

Didn't really care for The Christmas Contest. It wasn't bad, or anything, I just found it a bit dull, with a weird juxtaposition between John Brotherton's hammy, grinny, sitcomy acting and CCB's often ponderous and pseudo-deep platitudes about love, life and so on. I think the idea of a Christmas Contest could have been done with more oompf, fun and pizzazz, but this wasn't it for me.

A Kiss Before Christmas was unexpectedly likeable, despite being very tropey. Hatcher & Denton had fun chemistry (obviously) and I was (happily) surprised that Hallmark didn't go for the obvious, ie Teri Hatcher as the main protagonist having her wish granted. Been there, seen that. Nine Kitten was... okayish. Honestly, as much as I liked the Routh/Sustad couple, some of the supporting characters and the cute cats, the first movie was barely a Christmas movie per se, and could have been set around Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, in summer, or whatnot. Having recently rewatched it, it's a very 2010-2015 Hallmark movie, with all the tropes, and so on. This sequel... is more of the same, just as autopiloty as the first one was, as far as the plot is concerned, and just as carried by its leads. It was fine for what it was, the kittens were cute, but overall, it wasn't very memorable. I didn't expect it to be, though, sequels rarely are. (funnily enough, I felt Routh's acting was a little broader in this one, probably a consequence of his years working on Legends of Tomorrow).

Watched a bunch of non-Hallmark Christmas movies, this past couple of weeks. - Home Sweet Home Alone. Yeesh. Way to totally miss what made the original charming and enduring. Then again, SNL writers... - Father Christmas is Back. Yeesh (again). It clearly wanted to be a zany british Christmas comedy, but the lack of humor and the panto acting just killed it for me. - Love Hard. Meh. Not terrible, but I didn't care for the "let's make a checklist of all Christmas topics that were popular online around 2015, and have our characters talk about it, it will be so edgy" writing. Tired of those younger writers thinking that namedropping Die Hard in their Christmas movies is particularly smart or original - it's the third movie this year that had such a reference, and i'm getting bored of it all. - Food Network's Candy Coated Christmas. Your bog-standard MarVista-produced, über-generic Christmas movie that probably would have aired on Hallmark or Lifetime a few years ago : absolutely nothing special here, you've seen one, you've seen them all... except I didn't hate it. Mostly due the very likeable cast. Tropes aplenty, low(er) budget and nothing to go out of your way for, but the actors made it work for me.

- One December Night was a decent surprise : not too heavy on the sobbing melodrama (even though Eloise Mumford tends to overemote slightly, always on the verge of tears), not too heavy on the romance, not too tropey, and with a fun Bruce Campbell/Peter Gallagher duo. I probably wouldn't watch it every year, but it was enjoyable.

- Coyote Creek Christmas. Über-derivative and generic, but watchable. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see the gay bff get a lead role in the near future, she was very likeable and memorable. - On paper, Next Stop, Christmas should have been a slam dunk for me, esp. with an added BTTF reunion. Sadly, the overbearing music score, the blandish male and supporting parts casting, and some bits of awkward writing just left me cold. Lyndsy Fonseca did her best, though, even overcompensating at times, but overall, it didn't quite work for me.

- Loved last july's Crashing through the snow. But then again, I've always liked Amy Acker and Brooke Nevin, there was chemistry between the leads, and the focus on Acker's character being a good mom was a nice touch. And it was different enough from the usual HM formula to be enjoyable through and through. - Boyfriends of Christmas Past was fine. I certainly appreciated the diversity and the light-hearted tone, though I gotta say I've probably had my fill of Christmas Carol-inspired holiday movies with a romance twist. - Didn't care for the latest Mrs Miracle. Nothing against Caroline Rhea and her scenes with Paula Shaw were fun, but the writing felt very heavy-handed, esp. in the way it made the lead character's life totally miserable (she's an orphan and it still haunts her ! she doesn't talk to her dad ! grandpa recently died ! grandma is depressed ! their last foster placement failed and they're unhappy ! they have money trouble ! they're breaking up !...). To be fair, though, I'm usually not the target audience for those melodramatic holiday movies where everything ends in cathartic tears, especially not when there are angels involved. Still better than Mr Miracle, though.

Finally decided to start watching this year's batch of HM movies. Only got through two of them, so far : - You, Me and the Christmas Trees : I didn't mind most of that one, the "Danica McKellar loves science" touch kinda cracked me up, and it was okay... up until the final stretch, the big misunderstanding, the rushed resolution, yadda yadda, and, of course, worst of all, Jason Hervey's as the big tiny bad guy, probably just as awkwardly written as it was acted. Yeesh. - Gingerbread Miracle : Didn't like it. Didn't hate it either. In fact, I felt it was very competently written and produced. Also, the lead couple worked fine. But overall, it was just very bland, and the latino touch didn't really add much to the mix. Not bad, just meh.

Late to the party, but I just watched fast-forwarded through the finale, and... meh. Just like the rest of the season. The new formula just doesn't do it for me, especially everything re: Zack Whatsisname, and i'm fearing the worst for Holiday Wars... again. Oh, well...

Oh, man, they've already started the new holiday movies... ? I'm so behind the curve, this year. I haven't even caught up with the Amy Acker one from last Christmas in july, nor carved my pumpkin. *sigh* (also, i've just learned about GAC Family, and everything around it. Yeesh.)

Yeah, from what I can remember of it (it aired last year, here), it felt like they spent all their budget on the filming in Scotland, and didn't have much left for good writing, casting, editing, and so on. It was rough, in short, and very generic. Also very cheap, but much less by-the-book, this year's, A Christmas Exchange. I knew what to expect when I saw the Brain Power Studio logo pop-up on screen : a cheap, Ontario shot Christmas movie, that mostly ends up relying on its leads & supporting cast to make it work. And it did, even though it felt somewhat derivative of The Holiday, the interiors all felt like no-budget sets, and the close-up filming struggled to hide the Ontario-for-London & green screen shooting. Still, the gay BFFs couple was fun (more Yanic Truesdale is always a plus), the accents were... okayish, and aside from some annoying bits of writing (mostly re: Vandervoort's character), it was more likeable and light-hearted than most other Lifetime movies, this season.

We kinda had that debate early on, in November (I think ?), when it felt (to me & to some) like Hallmark overcompensated their usual lack of diversity by frontloading their season with their most obvious diversity movies, to get some early positive buzz. I wasn't too convinced by that approach, but others felt it was just a case of a lose/lose scenario for Hallmark, where they usually got criticised for their lack of diversity, and now, when they try to fix this situation, they get criticized for making it so obvious in contrast. I'm not sure where I stand right now on the issue. Especially since the early rush of diverse movies quickly got replaced by the usual faces in the usual pairings in the usual scenarios, with an occasional token disabled/lgbt/ethnic supporting character and/or couple. Anyway, at least they tried, and they incurred the wrath of their most bigoted crowd... but I wasn't necessarily convinced by the way they went about it. (and despite an overall very mediocre season, I think Lifetime got them beat on the diversity x quality front, with a couple of those Lifetime movies that really are on top of my list, ie Sugar & Spice, Christmas Setup...)

Take this season's A Christmas Break on Lifetime, genderswap the leads, add a dose of meta subtext about how the main character, an actress (the always likeable Tori Anderson), isn't fulfilled by her commercial acting career and finds a new sense of purpose in directing other actors (the movie is written by a regular Hallmark actress, and directed by Ali Liebert), and there you go, Lifetime's Spotlight on Christmas. Mostly bland, very generic, not a lot of chemistry. Meh.

I think my patience has run its course with this season's Hallmark movies, because both Christmas Carousel and Swept up by Christmas kinda bored me, despite usually liking both lead couples. Christmas Carousel should have been called Every usual trope from the usual Royal Christmas movies + a carousel, feat. bad accents, and that's about all I have to say about it, since it was generic AF. For some reason, though, Rachel Boston's make-up artist seemed missing for half the movie, or maybe they were aiming for a natural, tired look, who knows. Same goes for Swept up by Christmas' Lindy Booth, who also seemed to have lost some weight, which didn't help in some scenes. Then again, Bruening looked a little tired, too, and their characters were supposed to be working non-stop to prep the house, so it kinda worked for this, I guess... As for the story, eh. Nothing particularly memorable, neither good, nor bad, just there. I liked the supporting couple of wheelchair dude & barista/caterer, maybe the movie should have featured them more.

Funnily enough, I didn't hate Toys of Terror back when I watched it, before it got to Syfy. It did have that Syfy vibe of a lower budget and so-so actors, but they (it was written and produced by the showrunner of the Stan against Evil show) had a vision for the movie (stop-motions evil toys that kill and even have a song), they stuck to it, the productions values were pretty decent (the house looked good) and the blended mixed family was interesting. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't good per se, but since I expect any Syfy movie to be awful, it was still better than expected. Speaking of Syfy, I didn't care much for Letters to Satan Claus. I couldn't escape the feeling that they were aiming for a Sharknado-type of take on the genre of Hallmark Christmas movies, but didn't have the budget nor someone to reign them in, and better balance the pure spoof moments (that took 80% of the movie and, tbh, weren't necessarily much better than Cup of Cheer, the other bad spoof of the season) and the Satan Claus subplot. That said, the deliberate campiness and "Leprechauniness" of that Satan amused me. As for Dashing in December, it didn't convince me. I felt the writing and acting were a bit too bipolar, with Peter Porte switching from hostile and unlikeable to horny and seductive on a dime, and "Fernando" not being much better in the end. Also, not a huge fan of Andy MacDowell's acting in some scenes. Still, despite the fact that I liked it much less than the Fran Drescher one, at least they both exist, which is a good thing, and was unthinkable a couple of years back.

Nope. That's the name of the movie.

Sugar and Spice Holiday was tropey, but fun and likeable, and a proof that execution counts for a lot in those movies. Christmas on the Menu was a real bore, despite Cynthia Gibb & Kim Shaw, that I both like. Midnight at the Magnolia had a likeable lead couple, but went somehow too broad for my taste, both in execution and in the acting. Also, it kinda went slowly off the rails by adding a couple too many unnecessary twists and turns and unlikely events to the plot.

Eh, it didn't make much of an impression on me either. Just a bunch of the usual tired Hallmark tropes holding together through Reeser/Cupo's chemistry (but honestly, they deserved a stronger movie). I probably won't remember it in a week's time. Also, the movie needed more Latonya Williams, she was fun.

Lights, love, Hannukah was okayish for me : it did change a bit the formula and wasn't bad per se (though the writing struggled here and there, whether through awkward exposition and explanations of the traditions, or unlikely setup of the whole adoption angle), but it had a Movies & Mysteries vibe more than anything, and the male side of the casting felt a bit bland. Also, I'm fine with actors getting older, gaining/losing weight, getting pregnant, and so on, but having a soft focus on nobody but Mia Kirshner and covering her up from head to toe like she's 8 months pregnant (was she ?) only made it really noticeable and artificial when, in a couple of (pickup ?) scenes, esp. towards the end of the movie, she suddenly seemed to lose her rounder cheeks and silhouette. Also, "Château Jean-Marc", really ?

I'll have to disagree on Jingle Jangle. We barely made it through. I don't know if it's the fact that it was overly long, that we really didn't care for the songs, that some characters were just superfluous (the pseudo-Urkel kid, the Ricky Martin-voiced matador), or that it reminded us a lot of the awful A Wrinkle in time (on multiple levels), but... pass. It just felt like a movie that got a carte blanche from Netflix but desperately needed someone to rein the project in and make some hard cuts here and there. We liked the production design, though. And the postal worker/Forest Whitaker bits were fun. (we plan on watching Christmas Chronicles 2 soon, but i'm a bit apprehensive, since most reviews seem to think it's not as good as the first one)

Didn't hate A Little Christmas Charm. Didn't love it either. It was a perfect laundry-folding movie, held together by a likeable lead couple. But that's about it : it was very by-the-book, often autopiloty, and totally unmemorable. (then again, as the season progresses, i'm starting to get less and less tolerant of passable movies, so maybe I would have liked it more in early november)

Eh. I'm not the biggest KStew fan, but I'd argue she wasn't the problem there (as evidenced by her fun scenes with Aubrey Plaza) - imo, the real issue was more the fact that the Stewart/Davis relationship was underdeveloped, with the entire first year of their story being summed up through one early roof scene and an opening credits montage. After that, 90% of the movie was spent separating them, with little to no positive interactions between both women until the end, only lies, rushed meetings and misunderstandings. If you don't really do the legwork in establishing the main relationship's positives early on, you can't really expect the viewers to root for the couple to overcome the bad during the rest of the movie. (but ymmv, as usual)

I didn't hate Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas : let's find a way to tie this (clearly unrelated) script to Blake Shelton's song. I didn't really like it either, mind you. It was just there, low energy, low stakes, totally predictable in every way... but I liked the idea, at least.

As far as i'm concerned, it was fine, albeit unremarkable. For all the praise it got for being a LGBTQ-centric Christmas romantic comedy, it was also a very basic one, and they commited two major mistakes, in my book : a) a tone that didn't always really seem to know whether to go for broad and comedic or earnest and sincere (imo, that's the product of having two writers with different sensibilities working on it), and b) letting the Aubrey Plaza/Kristen Stewart chemistry get so out of hand that their playful scenes outshone the drab Stewart/Davis relationship, to the point a lot of viewers ended up hoping for a different ending to the movie. Aside from that, eh. Very middle-of-the-road.

Funnily enough, the gay component of Christmas She Wrote kinda added to my frustration as he was barely more than the token, semi-sassy gay bff cliché character in 90% of his scenes, and the rest of it was mostly beating around the bush of his gayness and coming out in innuendos, as if this movie's writer didn't get the memo that Hallmark had gay couples, now, and it was okay to piss off a few pearl clutchers. Still, baby steps, I guess.

Really didn't care for Christmas She Wrote, despite usually liking Danica. The whole setup felt really undercooked (despite writing bland platitudes, Danica's so popular that people recognize her wherever she goes, her face is on every cab in town... and yet she's canned two weeks before Christmas "for budget reasons", as if she was an easily replaced no-name columnist ?), the protagonist's romance novelist aspirations were uninspired, the love triangle forced, and let's not even get into the ethical implications of the lead couple's relationship... bleh.