Holiday TV Movies & (Non-Rankin Bass) Holiday Specials - General Discussion

[StaceyNotStacie]

I'm not a fan of Alicia Witt, but I liked this movie more than her previous ones. She reminds me of Ashley Williams in the sense where she always appears too perky or cheerful. 

I was pleasantly surprised by A Puppy for Christmas on UpTV. The leads were good and the story wasn't too bad. The cute puppies didn't hurt. Their other movies this week look hopeful. 

Lifetime has a new movie debuting next week that I'm hoping will be good. I enjoyed the majority of their movies last year. 

[Chas411]

I watched 12 Gifts of Christmas last night and I think it's my favourite one so far. Not an overly exciting storyline but the leads were great and had great chemistry. Katrina Law was easily the standout but I thought Aaron O Connell was great as well - often in these Hallmark films one half of the couple stands out significantly while the other half comes off like a dud. It definetly wasn't the case here.

[Aliconehead]

2 hours ago, Chas411 said:

I watched 12 Gifts of Christmas last night and I think it's my favourite one so far. Not an overly exciting storyline but the leads were great and had great chemistry. Katrina Law was easily the standout but I thought Aaron O Connell was great as well - often in these Hallmark films one half of the couple stands out significantly while the other half comes off like a dud. It definetly wasn't the case here.

It's a good one but I believe it's from last season. 

[Kaoteek]

Really enjoyed Married by Christmas. It was fun, dynamic, the cast seemed to be enjoying itself, and even though the ending could have benefited from a little more work, the lead actress made it work all through the movie. And the online outrage, in some circles, re: the gay character and the drinking... #facepalm.

On the other hand, contrary to most, I really didn't like Love Always Santa. The cast wasn't the problem, since I liked the main characters & actors, but something just didn't work for me, as far as the overall tone of the movie went. On one hand, you had the dull cinematography, the omnipresent piano score, the tears, the drama, and so on, which screamed "we're doing something more dramatic & serious, here, it's Hallmark Movies & Mysteries !!" ; and on the other hand you had the silly supporting cast (the post office grandmas, the "boyfriend" and his potato gun, the kids storyline), and a bunch of typical tropes that tried to veer the movie into a more traditional Hallmark rom-com direction. Both vibes clashed way too much for me, and I really didn't care for the end product. Also, I know they kinda lampshaded it at the end but Moreau's kid (despite being adorable) just didn't really sound like a 7yo (even a precocious one).

[kirinan]

I watched UP's Falling for Christmas, the one about the figure skater previewed above in In2You's post, and I liked it well enough. As a long-time figure skating fan, I think most movies do a lousy job of portraying the sport, and this one was no exception.

But the story kept my interest for two hours, and I liked the leads--Niall Matter from Eureka as Luke the most. Leah Renee was cute, if bland--so much so that I can't remember the character's name. But she had a definite character progression, from uptight athlete focused on her goal at all costs to accepting that her body was starting to rebel at the stresses she'd subjected it to over the years (although I think they should have cast an actress who looked just a bit older to make that truly believable. I looked it up and she's 31 IRL, but she looks about ten years younger).

I also liked some of the supporting characters--Luke's daughter Chamonix (like that name!) and his friend Lou (?--he was played by Lochlyn Munro, I remember that), and Lisa Whelchel as the skater's mom. Julian the coach was a caricature and annoying. The scenery was breathtaking. 

I would probably watch it again.

Edited November 27, 2016 by kirinan

[Irlandesa]

19 hours ago, Stacey1014 said:

I was pleasantly surprised by A Puppy for Christmas on UpTV. The leads were good and the story wasn't too bad. The cute puppies didn't hurt. Their other movies this week look hopeful.

This is gonna be long because I watched quite a few movies in the past two days.

UP is kind of speaking my language this weekend.  With Puppy For Christmas, sure, "save the Christmas tree farm" isn't exactly a new and exciting plot but they added a cute puppy.  And the leads had a really nice chemistry.  The male lead did look a little unkempt which I actually appreciated.  It made him different.  And the way they saved the farm wasn't some unrealistic ability to sell a ton of trees in the week leading up to Christmas but rather a huge slush fund.  Still a bit of a stretch but somehow more believable than a last minute miracle.

The negatives were the fact that they gave him a never-seen fiancee that he decided to dump as he fell for the coworker.  And the sister who, while never explicitly stated, sometimes came off as a predatory lesbian. (Insisting the lead didn't need boys--she's the lumberjack....etc." ) And while I don't mind a cariacture bad ex-boyfriend, you really should never buy a puppy without consulting the person you live with first. 

If I squint hard enough, Falling for Christmas could pass as some sort of AU fan fiction for The Cutting Edge (i.e. figure skater & professional hockey player clash and then fall in love.) Again, I think the leads had good chemistry. I especially liked the male lead here and this was a much better movie than Finding Father Christmas, the one he did for Hallmark. The mom with the buddy Lou (I always love Lochlyn Monroe in the sidekick role--in fact just rewatched Lucky 7--and Lisa Welchel can bug but was used perfectly here) may have even had more chemistry.  Plus, it was about something more than the love story.  Ultimately, it was about realizing a dream and realizing when it's time to walk away.

20 hours ago, In2You said:

I'll be watching TV One's The Christmas Swap tonight 

I was torn about whether or not to watch this movie but ultimately I decided to because I think Dondre Whitfield is a very handsome man whose vibe I really like on Queen Sugar. For those looking for non-romance movies, this is one to check out.  It was both lighthearted and about family.  There was some romance but ultimately both relationships were left somewhat in the air.  It was not a bad time to spend two hours.

Quote

I'm not a fan of Alicia Witt, but I liked this movie more than her previous ones. She reminds me of Ashley Williams in the sense where she always appears too perky or cheerful. 

Finally Hallmark. I do think this movie was better than her previoius movies.  Even though I feel like it fizzled for me in the end and I didn't like the romance as much as I expected to (seriously, I like Gabriel Hogan so I thought I would), I think more fondly about it than I do about other entries this season.  I think it's because I felt it put in just the tiniest bit more of an effort into the reasons she wanted to do Christmas things.  Making it be about gingerbread houses and caroling because she never got those things as a kid, and probaby only experienced them through holiday movies, made sense.  She chose to do those activities.  They weren't foisted upon her by someone wanting to show her the Christmas spirit.  And the movie even had fun with her quest in the beginning.  It started to be less interesting the more serious it got but overall it wasn't bad.

This weekend's biggest surprise for me was A Heavenly Christmas in that, after being disappointed by the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies recently, I really liked it.  It was predictable and a story that has been told before but Kristin Davis was perky enough to keep up the energy in the movie.  I thought the writing had some clever dialogue and the cast had good chemistry all around.   My only complaint, other than there was no reason for Kristin's character to give up her partnership, was the inconsistency in the snow.  It was almost always snowing but you could sometimes see leaves on the trees in the windows outside.  And when the wreath was delivered to her brother's house, there was green grass outside.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Irlandesa

[twoods]

I also really enjoyed the Christmas List. I thought the leads had the same great chemistry they had in Christmas at Cartwrights, and it was a realistic storyline for once. After seeing how nuts the mom is, you can understand why she wanted to go through with her list. 

[Chas411]

Quote

It's a good one but I believe it's from last season. 

Yeah I'm in Ireland so I'm probably a year behind with all the movies l..

[In2You]

I watched both Falling for Christmas and The Christmas Swap on Saturday.

I'd say the Christmas Swap is more one for the adults who don't want the usual Christmas rom com. I'm not the biggest fan of Christian Keyes but I thought he played his role here well compared to some of the other movies I've seen him in.  And I really enjoyed Dondre Whitfield and his character. And it was nice to see the relationship his character had with his mother helping her through her Alzheimer's.  Christian's character was just selfish. I wasn't expecting that ending.

Falling for Christmas had a good leading male. Niall Matter was really good in this one I liked him better in this than Stop the Wedding. I'm a little meh on Leah Renee. That little girl annoyed me as most of the little girls in these movies do. My mother and I were discussing this because she asked why these children in these movies are so eager to fix their parents up with someone.

Going to watch A Rootop Christmas Tree on UP tonight. It looks like it will be a really good one.

[movingtargetgal]

The whole premise of A Rootop Christmas Tree is that Tim Reid's son is too stupid to figure out how to google his father in order to locate him.  Instead, he drives around his old home town looking on the roofs of houses for a Christmas tree.  

[In2You]

2 minutes ago, movingtargetgal said:

The whole premise of A Rootop Christmas Tree is that Tim Reid's son is too stupid to figure out how to google his father in order to locate him.  Instead, he drives around his old home town looking on the roofs of houses for a Christmas tree.  

The movie was based off a book that was based on a true story so I'd love to know when the actual case took place.  Also would love to know what small town it took place in as those folks were obviously overly concerned with what someone else does on their own property. I know they said outside of Christmas it was like Mr. Landis didn't exist. When they looked through his records they couldn't find much. 

 

I did enjoy the movie though and I'm interesting in reading the book. There were some very touching moments with Mr. Landis that made me a little misty eyed.

[ChelleGame]

Just watched The Christmas Shepherd with Teri Polo. A few years old but I really liked it.

[JasmineFlower]

I watched 3 movies over the last couple of days.

Contrary to some, I mostly liked A December Bride in spite of the many, many frustrating, aggravating things that her family did. I liked that it was mostly straightforward, that it was a romance between the guy and the girl in the midst of the ruse, but they have history, were friends and it all fell into place and wasn't nearly as ridiculous as it would have been if they were strangers as we've seen many times in these movies. I liked that the house decorating competition was just what it seemed. The former boss didn't go snooping in the windows to try to figure out a way to expose Layla and Seth's charade that she was suspicious of in an attempt to gain the staging contract. So, in that way it worked for me, I found the basic romance here entertaining enough, though nowhere near a favorite or in the category of the best Hallmark has to offer.

BUT, I'm perfectly aware and completely agree that this movie is highly ridiculous on the other side, where the cheating couple is looking to make amends on their timetable, where the aunt who Layla didn't want to make choose sides pushes her constantly towards a reconciliation in almost every scene we see her in trying to bypass her daughter's abhorrent behavior like it's just no biggie, and everyone is just ready for Layla to move on from her whore cousin stealing her fiancee. And, Layla is not blameless in the outrage in my opinion as she held this uber grudge against Seth for years because of this, because he was the first to introduce the cousin and fiancee at a party that all 4 were attending and because he was being helpful in trying to get the cousin some investor help with her business. Layla and her brother were acting as if Seth had set up the fiancee on an Ashley Madison date with the cousin or something. Acting like he as in cahoots with the cheaters and being made to feel like he had to apologize over and over for it was ridiculous. I was outraged plenty by this movie, but I was able to separate these things. If you don't think you can, it's a definite skip. Because there's no way this part isn't maddening.

Broadcasting Christmas. I enjoyed this one a lot, not perfectly, but completely entertaining and only minor issues. Possibly this is benefiting from me being completely underwhelmed by many of the movies this year where, like above (and Married by Christmas is another one), I have to pick and choose parts of a movie I can like. Broadcasting Christmas was just an enjoyable one for me from two known quantities. Melissa is as you'd expect, a slightly older version of the characters she played in her many ABC Family movies and Dean being what you'd expect in large part, good looking and successful though not knocking it out of the park. This won't go down as one of my favorites ever, but I'm guessing it will be towards the top of favorites from this year. My complaints on it were minimal, the supporting cast was better than we're likely to get in most movies, and it was a better script and the storyline was surprisingly current. So, I liked this one quite a bit.

Falling for Christmas. I watched the first 10 minutes and I think the final hour or so. A bit sleepy and slow paced, reminded me a bit of this country Christmas movie from a year or two ago where the pace and quiet scenery encourages me to fall asleep more than watch (and yes, I fell asleep during this). Lisa Whelchel as the mom worked well as you'd expect, but she wasn't a constant presence. I think the lead guy worked pretty well with what he was given. But the lead girl, while believable as a figure skater, didn't thrill me in general and bugged in terms of her syrupy sweet performance highlighted by her sometimes baby voice delivery. If that's not something that bugs you like it does me, I'd guess you could enjoy this a good deal more than I did as long as you're okay with the slower pace.

[Dejana]

I haven't watched a lot of Christmas movies this year but saw that the latest Candace Cameron Bure effort involved time travel and gave it a shot. The "mechanics" behind the time travel were pretty flimsy (she was stuck in a toolshed during a comet?) and the lead's wonder at all the changes in the world since 1945 were kept limited to pretty benign subjects, but you don't watch a Hallmark movie for gritty examinations of gender and race and sexuality.  I thought the script did a nice job balancing the heroine's fear and confusion of finding herself in a "Rip Van Winkle" predicament and the  skepticism of the townspeople, while keeping the tone appropriately light yet heartwarming. The nosy Mrs. Kravitz-type character who went to the police because People Were Caroling at Christmastime! was a hoot, though I'm glad she wasn't a true obstacle at any point.

[In2You]

7 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

Falling for Christmas. I watched the first 10 minutes and I think the final hour or so. A bit sleepy and slow paced, reminded me a bit of this country Christmas movie from a year or two ago where the pace and quiet scenery encourages me to fall asleep more than watch (and yes, I fell asleep during this). Lisa Whelchel as the mom worked well as you'd expect, but she wasn't a constant presence. I think the lead guy worked pretty well with what he was given. But the lead girl, while believable as a figure skater, didn't thrill me in general and bugged in terms of her syrupy sweet performance highlighted by her sometimes baby voice delivery. If that's not something that bugs you like it does me, I'd guess you could enjoy this a good deal more than I did as long as you're okay with the slower pace.

ITA that FFC had a very sleepy pace.  I had started to watch it on Saturday but ended up deciding to leave it for Sunday to watch The Christmas Swap instead. End up watching it on Sunday after having run errands all day. So it was more like a wind down type of movie before I got ready to watch The Rooftop Christmas Tree.

I'm still looking forward to Girlfriends of Christmas Past Christmas next Sunday which looks like it will actually have the comedy part of rom-com.  And it has a different plot than many of the standard Christmas movies.

http://uptv.com/movies/girlfriends-of-christmas-past/

Christmas with the Andersons is also next week and that one looks like it will be a funny one and its a family comedy so another break from alot of the rom com tropes.

[Whimsy]

I am so bummed out.  I don't get Up.  I've been watching a lot of the Hallmark movies.  I liked Love Always, Santa and Operation Christmas.  My daughter made me shut off Christmas List because she thought Alicia Dewitt's acting was atrocious.  I'll try again later.   

[Shanna Marie]

Which was the time travel one? It seems like there are fewer movies with fantasy/paranormal elements (aside from "Santa is real!"), and those have tended to be my favorites. I'm less fond of the straightforward romantic comedies. Going back a ways, there was The Christmas List (the wish list magically coming true), then there was The 12 Dates of Christmas (Groundhog Day), there have been several about being able to suddenly read minds, wishes being granted, being unable to tell lies, some variations on A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life, a couple of Sliding Doors, there was one about the mannequin who came to life and became the perfect boyfriend, a few going into the snow globe stories, etc. Hallmark especially doesn't seem to like the fantasy ones other than "Santa is real!" and the ones where the woman learns to appreciate her husband and kids after being trapped in an alternate reality where she's single, or else she is single and learns that she really wants marriage more than a career after being trapped in an alternate reality where she married her high school sweetheart. It seems like most of the Family/ABC Family movies were paranormal and a lot of the Lifetime movies were. Now Family/Freeform doesn't seem to be making any at all and Lifetime is trying to be more like Hallmark.

Maybe I'm being nostalgic, but I think the Christmas movies from 5 or more years ago were a lot better than the ones now -- better cast, higher production values. There were a few really cheesy ones on ION and one or two groaners on Lifetime, but the stories seemed better than the ones we're getting when they're being cranked out, factory-style.

[EyewatchTV211]

The time travel one was Journey Back to Christmas. Did you see the one from Lifetime last year, The Spirit of Christmas? That had a fantasy/paranormal storyline as well. I enjoyed that one, and I also appreciated that it was filmed in Massachusetts or that area during the nonstop snow a couple of years ago, so you get real snow and cold to enjoy. 

[Shanna Marie]

I liked The Spirit of Christmas -- real snow and a ghost story. I'd like more like that, as well as maybe some lighter ones. I'm a big fan of paranormal romantic comedies, anyway, and I particularly like Christmas ones. Anything to break up the monotony of hot widowers with adorable moppets finding love with driven career women realizing that small towns are the only good place to live. Though I guess the ghost of the dead wife could be either playing matchmaker or trying to mess things up, and that would give the story a twist.

It also seemed like the Lifetime movies and Family movies from a few years ago were more about singles and people living in cities, less about the cities are evil and you must have children thing. Movies like Christmas in Boston, Recipe for a Perfect Christmas, and what was the one about the feuding newspaper columnists, where she loved Christmas and he hated it? Not that I believe that columnists doing a pro-con on Christmas would raise newspaper circulation, but I still liked the cast.

I also miss the SyFy Christmas disaster movies they used to do, though I wish they'd done some that were about singles falling in love during the disaster rather than the bickering family finding the true meaning of Christmas by almost being killed by the evil snow globe, or whatever.

[Suck It Trebek]

2015's On the Twelfth Day of Christmas was cute; I liked both main characters and the storyline was sweet. I also enjoyed Love Always, Santa, though the daughter tended towards precocious. 

[zxy556575]

On 11/27/2016 at 9:49 PM, movingtargetgal said:

The whole premise of A Rootop Christmas Tree is that Tim Reid's son is too stupid to figure out how to google his father in order to locate him.  Instead, he drives around his old home town looking on the roofs of houses for a Christmas tree.  

I thought the movie was okay for what it was, but man alive! Call 411, dude. Or make your mother give you the damned address.

[Court]

Journey Back to Christmas is my favorite so far. I loved that while there was some romance, it hardly took up any time and it was straightforward.

[Irlandesa]

4 minutes ago, Court said:

Journey Back to Christmas is my favorite so far. I loved that while there was some romance, it hardly took up any time and it was straightforward.

It was a nice twist that the romance was between the two cops. I suspected as much when I saw his partner.  And of course her husband, although we rarely saw him. Instead the movie was about the journey.  It reminded me a bit of How Sarah Got Her Wings from last year where the romance wasn't between the ghost and her ex but the ex and the new woman and a new guy for her.

[ShelleySue]

My husband is usually a good sport and remains silent while I watch the Hallmark holiday movies.  If he gets bored he just goes to sleep.  But he really hated December Bride.  He felt that the Daniel Lissing character gave off a "stalkerish" vibe.  To me it seemed like he had secretly loved the woman (can't remember her name) for a long time, but my husband thought it was creepy and not romantic.  Did anyone else feel that way?  PS Whey can't Daniel Lissing ever play a character from Australia?  I love his real accent.

[sacrebleu]

I couldn't get into A Puppy for Christmas. As someone who adopted a dog this year, the main character was so clueless about dogs. She's wanted a dog her entire life and is shocked at how much damage a puppy can do?

She buys the dog without consulting the man she lives with? Assumes she can take the dog to work with her, and keep it in her purse all day?

Just, no.

[Mountainair]

11 hours ago, Court said:

Journey Back to Christmas is my favorite so far. I loved that while there was some romance, it hardly took up any time and it was straightforward.

Mine too! I'm a sucker for time travel stuff and the 40s is one of my favorite eras to read/watch about. At first I thought the movie was going to hook up Candace's character with the cop so I'm glad they didn't go there. I thought it was a good movie with a different plot than what your normally see this time of year. 

December Bride would have been ok if they had completely left out the man stealing cousin bit. No way in hell should have ever forgiven her let alone see or speak to her again!

[twoods]

Will try to catch the Journey movie since you guys liked it- the commercials looked weird so I didn't tape it.

[StaceyNotStacie]

I enjoyed Journey Back to Christmas. I was surprised that it ended so quickly. I was expecting to meet the older Hannah at the end of the movie. While I liked the movie, I kind of wish they had gone with a lesser known actress for the lead.  Between the constant repeating of her Hallmark movies and her being The View almost every single day, I just need a break from Candace Cameron Bure.

With so many of the same actors in these movies, it's almost like playing a game to see where we remember the background actors. 

[zxy556575]

2 hours ago, Stacey1014 said:

I enjoyed Journey Back to Christmas. I was surprised that it ended so quickly. I was expecting to meet the older Hannah at the end of the movie. While I liked the movie, I kind of wish they had gone with a lesser known actress for the lead.  Between the constant repeating of her Hallmark movies and her being The View almost every single day, I just need a break from Candace Cameron Bure.

I liked it as well. I was grateful for the lack of current-day romance and happy to see Hannah reunited with her husband. But mercy, do I dislike CCB's acting choices. I normally would have given this a hard pass just because of her, but the premise drew me in.

[catatonictvshoppr]

I pretty much love all Christmas movies, even the bad ones.  But one not even I could get through was Bill Ray Cyrus in Christmas Comes Home to Canaan. 

[beadgirl]

I'm finally ready to start watching some Christmas movies, and I started with A Wish for Christmas.  It was ... not great, but I'll give the writers credit for understanding that standing up for oneself is not the same thing as being bitchy or rude.

[Irlandesa]

Dave Holmes wrote a little defense of bad holiday movies for Esquire.

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a51121/bad-christmas-movies/

[twoods]

Christmas in Vermont was pleasant. Another big time city girl who finds the true meaning of Christmas in a quaint town. Not much happened in the story but for some reason it flew by. Hopefully Firehouse Christmas is just as pleasant- I tend to like Ion Christmas movies.

[LuciaMia]

Would this be the spot to comment on last nights Rockefeller Christmas lighting. Knew that Doll y Parton and Tony Bennet were there also cause they had upcoming specials. But had to laugh how they were continually referred to as "The legendary…"  I  guess 'legendary' is the polite word for 'old.'

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, LuciaMia said:

Would this be the spot to comment on last nights Rockefeller Christmas lighting. Knew that Doll y Parton and Tony Bennet were there also cause they had upcoming specials. But had to laugh how they were continually referred to as "The legendary…"  I  guess 'legendary' is the polite word for 'old.'

Just to let you know...yes, this is the right place.  :-)

[WendyCR72]

You know it's December when A Charlie Brown Christmas airs! Which it is, tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

[In2You]

19 hours ago, twoods said:

Christmas in Vermont was pleasant. Another big time city girl who finds the true meaning of Christmas in a quaint town. Not much happened in the story but for some reason it flew by. Hopefully Firehouse Christmas is just as pleasant- I tend to like Ion Christmas movies.

The lead actress in Firehouse Christmas was pretty enjoyable in PixL's The Right Girl. And I liked her in the movie Cup of Love too

[KaveDweller]

On 11/28/2016 at 2:28 AM, JasmineFlower said:

Broadcasting Christmas. I enjoyed this one a lot, not perfectly, but completely entertaining and only minor issues. Possibly this is benefiting from me being completely underwhelmed by many of the movies this year where, like above (and Married by Christmas is another one), I have to pick and choose parts of a movie I can like. Broadcasting Christmas was just an enjoyable one for me from two known quantities. Melissa is as you'd expect, a slightly older version of the characters she played in her many ABC Family movies and Dean being what you'd expect in large part, good looking and successful though not knocking it out of the park. This won't go down as one of my favorites ever, but I'm guessing it will be towards the top of favorites from this year. My complaints on it were minimal, the supporting cast was better than we're likely to get in most movies, and it was a better script and the storyline was surprisingly current. So, I liked this one quite a bit.

How did it end? My mother and I were watching this the night before Thanksgiving, but she fell asleep and I was cooking.

On 11/28/2016 at 8:47 AM, Dejana said:

I haven't watched a lot of Christmas movies this year but saw that the latest Candace Cameron Bure effort involved time travel and gave it a shot. The "mechanics" behind the time travel were pretty flimsy (she was stuck in a toolshed during a comet?) and the lead's wonder at all the changes in the world since 1945 were kept limited to pretty benign subjects, but you don't watch a Hallmark movie for gritty examinations of gender and race and sexuality.  I thought the script did a nice job balancing the heroine's fear and confusion of finding herself in a "Rip Van Winkle" predicament and the  skepticism of the townspeople, while keeping the tone appropriately light yet heartwarming. The nosy Mrs. Kravitz-type character who went to the police because People Were Caroling at Christmastime! was a hoot, though I'm glad she wasn't a true obstacle at any point.

I liked this, despite the flimsy explanation for the time travel. I was also pleasantly surprised that she didn't end up in a romance with the cop (although it was pretty convenient that her dead husband turned out not to be dead. Candace Cameron Bure was really good at the 1940s fish out of water story. She kind of naturally comes across as old-fashioned.

I knew we were going to see the kid from the 1945 scenes in the present.

On 11/28/2016 at 3:58 PM, Shanna Marie said:

Maybe I'm being nostalgic, but I think the Christmas movies from 5 or more years ago were a lot better than the ones now -- better cast, higher production values. There were a few really cheesy ones on ION and one or two groaners on Lifetime, but the stories seemed better than the ones we're getting when they're being cranked out, factory-style.

I think they made fewer in past years and so they had bigger budgets and put more time into them. Now it seems to be about cranking out as many as possible so they can have new ones throughout the month. 

[In2You]

58 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

 

I think they made fewer in past years and so they had bigger budgets and put more time into them. Now it seems to be about cranking out as many as possible so they can have new ones throughout the month. 

The only one who mainly does original movies and has this issue is Hallmark.  Ion is just a distributor who selects movies that were already produced from other production companies.  UP does the same thing save for one or two original movies they help produce . And the ones they did this year we're not filmed back to back and weren't even filmed in the same areas. Lifetime mostly does that as well.  The one new movie I saw for Lifetime Heaven Sent was filmed back in 2014 and she level for distribution. 

Hallmark looks at viewer like "Gotta Catch Em All!" so they decided doing the most movies will keep all eyes on them. 

[Valentine]

Freeform is showing a lot of the old ABC Family movies at midnight. Those movies are some of my favorites. (12 Dates of Christmas, Three Days, Snow, etc.) Sadly, I couldn't find The Christmas List with Mimi Rogers on the lineup. 

[Karen885]

41 minutes ago, Valentine said:

Freeform is showing a lot of the old ABC Family movies at midnight. Those movies are some of my favorites. (12 Dates of Christmas, Three Days, Snow, etc.) Sadly, I couldn't find The Christmas List with Mimi Rogers on the lineup. 

The christmas list with Mimi Rogers was on the regular hallmark channel one day last week. Check the schedule, hopefully they play it again.

[Karen885]

2 minutes ago, Karen885 said:

The christmas list with Mimi Rogers was on the regular hallmark channel one day last week. Check the schedule, hopefully they play it again.

Nevermind.  I just checked my recording. The description for it says it is the Mimi Rogers movie but I just turned it on and it was the movie from this year with the same title.

[Shanna Marie]

Freeform has a lot of their older movies on demand, too. They have 12 Dates, but, alas, not The Christmas List. I had that recorded on VHS, but I suspect it was a tape I never labeled, and I purged most of my VHS tapes a couple of years ago. It was up on YouTube a few years ago. Hallmark has a few holiday movies on demand, but Lifetime doesn't seem to have much of anything so far.

[twoods]

Falling for Christmas so far is decent. I like the lead from Stop the Wedding, and I did like the actress okay enough in her Love By the Book movie on Hallmark but her mousy voice still grates. I'm going to stick it for the actor alone and hope it gets more interesting that I'm not surfing my phone the whole time.

[BitterApple]

On 12/1/2016 at 8:52 PM, KaveDweller said:

How did it end? My mother and I were watching this the night before Thanksgiving, but she fell asleep and I was cooking.

 

The original host of the morning show decided to retire, and gave both open slots to Dean and Melissa Joan's characters. I thought it was a cute movie overall.

I'm usually a sucker for Hallmark Christmas movies, but the new ones have been meh. The only one I've really enjoyed so far is Journey Back to Christmas. Like everyone else, it was nice that the romance angle wasn't overplayed the way it usually is in these things. I hated Heavenly Christmas and Christmas List. I didn't last more than twenty minutes with either one.

[Kaoteek]

- A Puppy for Christmas left me cold. Yeah, the dog was cute, and the lead was fine, but the overall romance just never clicked for me, and the script felt too cluttered by unnecessary secondary characters, who were there just for the sake of being there & excentric.

- Christmas Cookies. Not really bad, but boring as hell. Which is sad, since I like Jill Wagner & she's good in this, but everything felt so (pardon the pun) half-baked, and too business-centric to keep me interested.

- My Christmas Dream. I could watch anything with Danica McKellar in it, she's just that likeable... except this movie, I guess. Once again, not particularly bad, but as much as i'm used to a big dose of predictability & tropes in those Hallmark movies, this one just laid all of its cards down on the table in the first few minutes, and you could predict every single thing thing that happened later. Which wouldn't be too problematic if the movie was dynamic, or the cast compelling, but aside from Danica (who kinda overacted, in this one), the lead male character wasn't really memorable, one way or another, and the kid... yeah, I wasn't a fan of his acting.

And right now, I'm in the midde of Christmas List, with Alicia Witt, and... man, her acting.

[kirinan]

Last night HMM had Finding Father Christmas and Journey Back to Christmas on from 7-11, so I took over the couch for the evening and watched them. Both pretty much winners, IMO. I liked the casts, and the stories, and appreciated that neither film was the usual Hallmark generic fluff with bland leads and the same old romance tropes. I thought the leads in both movies had great chemistry (of course, in Journey they weren't a romantic pairing, although I kinda wish they had been). All in all, one of the nicer evenings I've spent in front of the TV lately.

I think I'm getting a little burned out on Christmas, though. :)

Edited December 4, 2016 by kirinan

[zxy556575]

I was at IMDB looking up an actor in a Christmas movies and these suggestions came up in the "recommended" area. Talk about the holiday movies all running together!

[Kaoteek]

Just finished Christmas List. I usually like Alicia Witt, even if her Christmas movies aren't always the best, and this one had a pretty decent concept & script (though it could have done with a less caricatural boyfriend), but I just couldn't with Witt's acting in that one. I'm not sure why, but most of the time, she seemed like she was half-tipsy, over-acting & over-reacting to anything and everything, with weird affectations here and there. Very distracting. The shooting locations were nice, though.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Kaoteek

[twoods]

I haven't gotten through Firehouse Christmas, but from I've watched I like enough. It's refreshing that the female lead is the firefighter, and her and her boyfriend are pretty good at communicating with eachother. What I could have done without is the over the top evilness of the ex wife and her dad. They are obnoxious and unwatchable.