Countdown to Christmas 2024

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Saw The Christmas Secret again today. Once again, this one is a keeper, ending will have you reaching for the tissues. 

[Badsamaritan]

21 hours ago, giovannif7 said:

I, too, really enjoyed Deck The Walls. I loved the relationships established through the script and cast, especially the brother/sister banter between Rose and Sal (Ashley Greene and Danny Pellegrino), their connection with aunt Gigi (Carolyn Hennesy, mob lawyer Diane from General Hospital), and the work partnership with Sal and Brysen (Wes Brown). I have to admit, my eyes practically rolled out of my head when they first introduced Sal's love interest as his former school bully Jake (Claybourne Elder). But I was impressed by the way the script delved into the misunderstanding that led to the bullying, and the actors sold the shift in their connection once the truth came to light. Honestly, as much as I would have liked to see a kiss between Sal and Jake, it felt too soon.

I find myself hoping for a sequel that focuses on the the blossoming Sal/Jake romance as well as Rose and Brysen's path from first kiss to their wedding. Possibly having Jake produce/finance a home renovation series for partners Sal and Brysen, with Rose contributing her interior design expertise, as they all overcome the various obstacles and pitfalls along the way? I would really love to spend more time with these characters.

I liked Deck the Walls well enough but I think I would've liked it better with a different lead actress. I'm not a huge fan of Ashley Greene, she plays kinda one-note for me. She struck me as a sour puss a little too much, and her comic timing is not as good as all the other actors in the movie. I really like Wes Brown and he does a good job with creating chemistry with his costars but his and Ashley's energies felt off to me and not nearly as good as it could've been with someone like Bethany Joy, Rhiannon Fish, or Rachel Leigh Cook who all have good comedic chops and generate chemistry well. The brother/sister squabbling scenes would've been fantastic with RF or RLC, they're much more expressive (but Rhiannon, sweetheart, please stop injecting things into your face) and would've made those scenes even better.

I did surprisingly enjoy A Chiefs Love Story last night. No lie, I expected to hate-watch it because of all the promo and I'm not a sports ball person (which means I probably missed a lot of the cameos but that's ok) but I ended up really liking it and I will watch again. Hunter and Tyler had good chemistry and the family was awesome. I loved the side comments in the family about all the holiday movie 'meet cute' tropes and Hunter and Tyler overhearing all their plotting. I'm proud of Hunter, she's come a long way since her Y&R days, i wasn't sure if she could pull off comedy that well but she did. 

It's interesting, HM has 4 actresses in their pocket from CBS soaps: Hunter (Summer Newman, Y&R), Lyndsy Fonseca (Colleen Abbott Carlton, Y&R), Bethany Joy (Young Reva Shayne+Michelle Bauer), and Kim Matula (Hope Logan Forrester, B&B). They were all decently popular actresses, I'm glad they've found a home. 

[Kaoteek]

On 11/30/2024 at 8:11 AM, Irlandesa said:

Somewhat interesting double-header tonight. 

A 90s Christmas was okay for a time travel movie.  It's not my favorite genre. I think the only one I've liked recently is Katie Findlay's movie for Hallmark. I really struggled with the decision to set the movie in 1999 and have the same actors play the 17-18 year olds and 44-45 year olds in the present day when the actors didn't look like they could pull off either age.  Just a strange choice.   But hey, at least there was some good family content in this movie and a coming out story. 

Can't say I cared much for this one. I also struggled with the actors' ages, more than I expected to, it kinda felt like they cut corners during the production (continuity was sometimes all over the place - the artificial snow fixed on the roof of the magical Uber was quite obvious, being there in one shot, not there in another, then back, then not), and aside from a few winks here and there, I just felt the 90s setting was underutilized.

[EtheltoTillie]

Deck the Walls was a DNF for me.  I made it 10 minutes.  Oh, well, that's some more time back in my day.

[EtheltoTillie]

I'm really enjoying The Finnish Line!  I love dogs, and I love Kim Matula.  Even annoying Cheyenne from Superstore is doing a great job as the nice best friend.  Now, the come-from-behind dog racing plot may be a bit farfetched.

Edited Monday at 12:59 AM by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

When that dog-racing villain struck Kim Matula's dog, I was reminded of my favorite movie, Breaking Away, when the Italian racers struck Dennis Christopher and threw him off his bike.

[Ele]

16 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I'm really enjoying The Finnish Line!  I love dogs, and I love Kim Matula.  Even annoying Cheyenne from Superstore is doing a great job as the nice best friend.  Now, the come-from-behind dog racing plot may be a bit farfetched.

I like Matula and Mirchoff a lot, but I was kind of disappointed. Matula’s character was way too uptight and came off as kinda annoying. She could have had the competitive and uptight characteristics without coming off as over the top. I stuck with it because the movie was engaging enough. 
 

I watched a bit of the Hemmens movie on HMM that was  reairing at the same time. It seemed decent. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Well, I did not have Kim Matula hanging of a cliff on my bingo card!  Scary.

But also did she cheat at the end by jettisoning the weighted bags? 

[jpgr]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

When that dog-racing villain struck Kim Matula's dog, I was reminded of my favorite movie, Breaking Away, when the Italian racers struck Dennis Christopher and threw him off his bike.

My brother and his team came in third in the Little 500 one year, and were in the crowd scenes of the movie!

I haven't watched this movie yet, but I'm sure it will be on another 100 times or so in the next few weeks so I'll get a chance.

[argrow]

Shirtless scene in The Finnish Line was highly appreciated. Was that the longest shirtless scene we've seen in a Hallmark movie?

[EtheltoTillie]

53 minutes ago, jpgr said:

My brother and his team came in third in the Little 500 one year, and were in the crowd scenes of the movie!

 

We're not worthy.  We're not worthy.  This is seriously mindboggling to a superfan like me.  My related brush with greatness is that Barbara Barrie lives in my neighborhood and used to go to my gym (now closed). 

[Irlandesa]

The Finnish Line was my favorite movie of the weekend, I think.  And this night of movies was superior to last night's two features.  It feels odd that they decided to air these two on Sunday vs. Saturday.

[EtheltoTillie]

Hey, no one has answered my question about cheating by throwing the weighted bags off the sled.  Please help.  This is a serious question.

[absnow54]

I am so far behind on this weekend’s offerings. I managed to watch Deck the Walls and agree with others. The story was solid, and I think they did a good job building backstories for each character. Ashley Greene isn’t my favorite. Her performances are typically wooden. I found her serviceable in this role, but agree that there are many actresses from Hallmarks rotation who would have done better. She needed some Type-A spunk, while Greene mostly played it “cool girl.”

I also watched a 90’s Christmas, which I really wanted to love but didn’t. The wigs were bad. I spent the entire movie trying to figure out what was going on with Chandler Massey’s hair. I think it was extensions because his hair was still bad in the present, but shorter. Anyway, I agree with others, they should have cast some 20-somethings or 40-somethings for the roles. Using 30-something actors was distracting because they either looked too young or too old. They do get major bonus points for the “I love Joshua Jackson” notebook, because 1999 was peak Pacey, but also timely since JJ is in the midst of a TV comeback. 

[bankerchick]

11 hours ago, argrow said:

Shirtless scene in The Finnish Line was highly appreciated. Was that the longest shirtless scene we've seen in a Hallmark movie?

Shirtless scenes seem to be few and far between these days.  At one time you could count on Christopher Russell, but he seems to have a new contract where the shirt stays on.  Did I mention it's been a while since I liked any of his movies?

[Kaoteek]

Struggled with Believe in Christmas. I know that the lead couple is a couple IRL, but eh. And the apparent age difference between the bff and her love interest just didn't work for me. Also, something fun could have been done by pushing the whole immersive experience premise even further, but alas...

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

On 12/1/2024 at 10:14 AM, Badsamaritan said:

I liked Deck the Walls well enough but I think I would've liked it better with a different lead actress. I'm not a huge fan of Ashley Greene, she plays kinda one-note for me. She struck me as a sour puss a little too much, and her comic timing is not as good as all the other actors in the movie. I really like Wes Brown and he does a good job with creating chemistry with his costars but his and Ashley's energies felt off to me and not nearly as good as it could've been with someone like Bethany Joy, Rhiannon Fish, or Rachel Leigh Cook who all have good comedic chops and generate chemistry well. The brother/sister squabbling scenes would've been fantastic with RF or RLC, they're much more expressive (but Rhiannon, sweetheart, please stop injecting things into your face) and would've made those scenes even better.

I did surprisingly enjoy A Chiefs Love Story last night. No lie, I expected to hate-watch it because of all the promo and I'm not a sports ball person (which means I probably missed a lot of the cameos but that's ok) but I ended up really liking it and I will watch again. Hunter and Tyler had good chemistry and the family was awesome. I loved the side comments in the family about all the holiday movie 'meet cute' tropes and Hunter and Tyler overhearing all their plotting. I'm proud of Hunter, she's come a long way since her Y&R days, i wasn't sure if she could pull off comedy that well but she did. 

It's interesting, HM has 4 actresses in their pocket from CBS soaps: Hunter (Summer Newman, Y&R), Lyndsy Fonseca (Colleen Abbott Carlton, Y&R), Bethany Joy (Young Reva Shayne+Michelle Bauer), and Kim Matula (Hope Logan Forrester, B&B). They were all decently popular actresses, I'm glad they've found a home. 

Loved__ A Chiefs Love Story !!! The 2 leads were perfect, I think Tyler's performance was the best  I've ever seen him do. Like he was just playing a regular guy. This one's a keeper. Ed Begley Jr. stole the show in my opinion.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

I thought Santa looked familiar. He's the same actor who played Olaf the troll who was married to Anya way back (20 years ago?)   in that episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

[Badsamaritan]

7 hours ago, One4Sorrow2TooBad said:

I thought Santa looked familiar. He's the same actor who played Olaf the troll who was married to Anya way back (20 years ago?)   in that episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Yes! He was also Jerry on ER for a long time but I loved him as Olaf the troll on BtVS. The episode 'Triangle' will be in rotation next week I think on Fuse. They're in early season 5 right now for BtVS. 

[absnow54]

On 12/2/2024 at 5:35 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

Hey, no one has answered my question about cheating by throwing the weighted bags off the sled.  Please help.  This is a serious question.

I don’t know that it was explained, but it seemed like they were supposed to toss the weights (disguised as a sack of presents) at the Christmas trees. She wasn’t the only one doing it, as there was already at least one sack under the tree when she dropped hers. 

[EtheltoTillie]

52 minutes ago, absnow54 said:

I don’t know that it was explained, but it seemed like they were supposed to toss the weights (disguised as a sack of presents) at the Christmas trees. She wasn’t the only one doing it, as there was already at least one sack under the tree when she dropped hers. 

Thanks, I was so confused.  Your explanation makes sense.   But they talked about disguising the weights at one point, and that sounded like cheating.  I think I can live with this explanation LOL. 

[Daff]

7 hours ago, Badsamaritan said:

Yes! He was also Jerry on ER for a long time but I loved him as Olaf the troll on BtVS. The episode 'Triangle' will be in rotation next week I think on Fuse. They're in early season 5 right now for BtVS. 

Jerry was one of the actors keeping me watching ER, week after week-at a time when “tape” space and vcr capabilities were very limited. Loved that character.

[bankerchick]

8 hours ago, Badsamaritan said:

Yes! He was also Jerry on ER

Thank you.  I rewound and stopped play a few times because I knew I knew him but couldn't place him.  Did the same thing for the mom before finally breaking down and checking imdb, only to realize she was the reason I stopped watching the sitcom she was in.

[Kaoteek]

I think I liked the idea of The Christmas Quest more than the execution, which lacked energy, danger, action - heck, everything that makes a good adventure movie (even considering the fact that it was a Hallmark Christmas movie masquerading as an adventure movie). It wasn't bad (though the final cavern, and its cheap decorations + candles all lit up, was pretty bad), and i'm glad Lacey got another one of her paid vacations, but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

As for the Succession/Mrs Miracle quasi-crossover, eh. I don't know, it felt kinda forced - Rachel Boston's Ashley Williams-esque enthousiasm, the plot, the characters... I just never really got on board. And I'm not a huge fan of Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes.

[Orcinus orca]

25 minutes ago, Kaoteek said:

I think I liked the idea of The Christmas Quest more than the execution, which lacked energy, danger, action - heck, everything that makes a good adventure movie (even considering the fact that it was a Hallmark Christmas movie masquerading as an adventure movie). It wasn't bad (though the final cavern, and its cheap decorations + candles all lit up, was pretty bad), and i'm glad Lacey got another one of her paid vacations, but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

I loved The Christmas Quest for one thing and one thing only - the shots of Iceland.  Otherwise the whole premise was so stupid.  Zillions of people searching for this treasure for hundreds of years and these two end up stumbling upon each and every clue with minimal effort.  And the ex-husband is one single living human that can crack the code?  My eyes rolled back so far I could read the tag in my shirt.

[Kaoteek]

To my surprise, I really enjoyed The Finnish Line. It was different enough, funny enough and snarky enough to make up for the obvious Santa Claus village sponsoring, and it went places I didn't expect it to. A nice surprise.

(and I'm also quite enjoying the Holidazed series)

[roughing it]

So I'm a little confused...are we supposed to be posting Hallmark movies here on this thread (Countdown to Christmas) or the Hallmark Movie thread.  Or both?  Well it's obviously both, but would be easier to track if only on one thread.