Countdown to Christmas 2024

[Notabug]

40 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

So much to keep up with as usual—to weed the wheat from the chaff. 
I’m not feeling The 5 Year Christmas Party.  Turning it off. Anyone else?  

The general consensus was that people liked the overall premise and the actors.  However, the leads had no romantic chemistry which made it easy to see why it took them five years to hook up but hard to care.

2 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

Fell asleep a quarter of the way through.  What a snooze.

Very underwhelming.  The leads were two tried and true Hallmark vets but the story was implausible and the repeated near misses unbelievable.  The story of the daughter and her boyfriend was superfluous and could've been dropped entirely.  I take it we are supposed to think that 45 year old Nikki DeLoach is too young to have an adult child, so she was the stepmom instead; but it seemed like a lot of effort for nothing.

[DanaMB]

11 hours ago, ECM1231 said:

Just finished watching Carol for Two tonight. Wow, I think this is my favorite Christmas movie of the season so far. What talents! 

Same! It was so good. Lots of humor, the leads had chemistry and were very talented. Will definitely watch again. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I'm catching an oldie (from 2013), which I'd never seen.  A Very Merry Mixup.  Couple meets cute during auto accident and girl goes to meet wrong prospective inlaws.  True love ensues.  It's really good. Also funny. The real mother-in-law to be is a character! The best Hallmark Christmas movies are the funny ones. 

Edited Sunday at 08:39 PM by EtheltoTillie

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, Notabug said:

I take it we are supposed to think that 45 year old Nikki DeLoach is too young to have an adult child, so she was the stepmom instead; but it seemed like a lot of effort for nothing.

That might have been part of it but I also think they made her the stepmother so they could use the same actors for the current scenes and the 'how we met' scenes.  If they had both actors be the parents, then the 'how we met' scenes would have taken place approximately 25 years ago and they likely would have felt a need to use younger actors.

4 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I'm catching an oldie (from 2013), which I'd never seen.  A Very Merry Mixup.  Couple meets cute during auto accident and girl goes to meet wrong prospective inlaws.  True love ensues.  It's really good. 

That's a gem. 

[EtheltoTillie]

.deleting duplicate. 

Edited Yest. at 04:28 AM by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

Carol for Two is very good.  The two leads have great voices and have both been in Wicked.  I really liked Ginna Clare in Heidelberg Holiday last year. I agree the cousin was too annoying. Oh yeah someone else just reminded me she was in the Rockettes movie too. I loved that one.  The final song, “Who Knew,” really has the makings of a hit song. Very catchy. 

Edited Yest. at 04:26 AM by EtheltoTillie

[Irlandesa]

If you were a fan of Sabrina: The Teenaged Witch you might like the reunion of the women who played her aunts in The Holiday Mismatch. 

I didn't watch the sitcom, but I found myself really enjoying tonight's movie.  The promos I saw for the movie hid the fact that it used some of my favorite tropes.  The kids agree to fake dating to keep their respective mothers from continuously trying to set each other up.  And then the women, who considered themselves enemies, decide to join forces to break their kids up and they end up becoming friends...a bit of a play on the enemies to lovers trope or the trope where two people who are exes of another couple try to break the new couple up so they can get their exes back only to fall in love with one another.

Except this time, it's one part love story and another part friend story.  And the gay couple got lines in this movie so...yay?

 

 

[EtheltoTillie]

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

If you were a fan of Sabrina: The Teenaged Witch you might like the reunion of the women who played her aunts in The Holiday Mismatch. 

I didn't watch the sitcom, but I found myself really enjoying tonight's movie.  The promos I saw for the movie hid the fact that it used some of my favorite tropes.  The kids agree to fake dating to keep their respective mothers from continuously trying to set each other up.  And then the women, who considered themselves enemies, decide to join forces to break their kids up and they end up becoming friends...a bit of a play on the enemies to lovers trope or the trope where two people who are exes of another couple try to break the new couple up so they can get their exes back only to fall in love with one another.

Except this time, it's one part love story and another part friend story.  And the gay couple got lines in this movie so...yay?

 

 

I'm looking forward to this.  I set it to record. I used to watch the sitcom.

Edited Yest. at 01:53 PM by EtheltoTillie

[bankerchick]

On 11/2/2024 at 10:53 PM, Irlandesa said:

A publication said if there was one holiday movie to watch this weekend, it should be Our Holiday Story.  I have to say that I disagree.  I really like Nikki Loache and Warren Christie, but that was one boring "Here's How We Met" story. 

Major dud.  No fan of Nikki DeLoach and she did nothing to change my mind in this movie.  I have no opinion on Warren Christie one way or the other.

Not to mention, their story and their almost-meetings weren't even interesting or fun.  I got so bored I never did figure out what was going on with the festival and the daughter and her boyfriend were cringe.  'I love him, I want to say I Love You but I fear he'll say it, what do I do?  Oh, I know, I'll freak out and run away.'  (I could be wrong about how this came about due to aforementioned boredom.)

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, bankerchick said:

Major dud.  No fan of Nikki DeLoach and she did nothing to change my mind in this movie.  I have no opinion on Warren Christie one way or the other.

Not to mention, their story and their almost-meetings weren't even interesting or fun.  I got so bored I never did figure out what was going on with the festival and the daughter and her boyfriend were cringe.  'I love him, I want to say I Love You but I fear he'll say it, what do I do?  Oh, I know, I'll freak out and run away.'  (I could be wrong about how this came about due to aforementioned boredom.)

Your summary of the daughter's thoughts is pretty accurate.  And it sounds even more stupid in writing.  There is nothing cute or interesting about being in a supposedly serious relationship with another person, and to be afraid to tell one's partner that they're just not ready for the next step.

The father, stepmother relationship drama was equally dopey.  They happen to run into each other on the way to important business meetings and he wants her number so he can call her later.  Except his phone is dead or he forgot it or something.  And, apparently, neither one has a pen and a piece of paper.  And all the people working and wandering around the Christmas market they're in don't have them  either.  Because, although Nikki seemingly has her phone with her; he cannot possibly enter his number into her phone or text his phone with her number.  Because, of course, Nikki, being the girl, is not allowed to contact the boy first.  And sending a text from her phone to his is way too risque.  Or something.

Edited Yest. at 06:02 PM by Notabug

[Acmeproducts]

I loved Sabrina the teenaged witch. Will check out the aunts’ movie.

[Dimity]

I am halfway through this one right now and enjoying it.  It's a cut above the usual IMO, sure there are the tropes we've all come to expect (I have never seen so many adults drinking hot chocolate at the drop of a Christmas cookie!) but it's very well done.  The highlight being Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick.  I hope they use this pairing again in the future.

ON a shallow note I looked up their ages and was a little surprised.  If anything they look older than their ages - or at least older by Hollywood standards.  Very refreshing!

[Kaoteek]

Gotta say I didn't care much for A Carol for Two. I don't know, I care about Broadway and carol singing about as much as I do about the tough, harsh world of aspiring playwrights & wannabe actors (in 5-year Christmas Party), the cousin was grating, and I must say that, although they've got great voices, both leads felt kinda bland to me. Eh.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

I muddled through it somehow, mainly because I'm such a Kate Findley fan. You're 100% right , that storyline sucked for taking so long to even resemble a romantic connection. 

[EtheltoTillie]

The Holiday Mismatch turned out to be an okay watch.  Not an all time favorite, but definitely watchable.  I'm a crocheter, so I was hoping that Caroline Rea was going to give Beth Broderick her own granny square sweater at the end. 

[Kaoteek]

I liked Our Holiday Story... until I didn't. I like the main couple, and it was fine for a while, but then, it dawned on me that it was all really just the same old "he's a manly single-dad small town woodworker who believes in fate and is messy, she's a rational, numbers-oriented careerwoman who recently came back in town, yadda yadda yadda", only wrapped into that How I met your mother schtick of telling it all in a fractured way...

So overall, meh. Might have worked better without all the unlikely plot contrivances, but then, it wouldn't have lasted 90 minutes.