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

[JasmineFlower]

3 hours ago, CherryAmes said:

Home alone today and have 12 Dates of Christmas lined up on my PVR for some afternoon viewing.  I saw this a few years ago and really liked it but never came across it again.  And for some reason it's never been released on DVD.  I hope it's as good as I remember it :).

Not a DVD, but 12 Dates of Christmas is available to own if you want the option. It is likely as good as you remember. I watched it again last year and Amy and Mark-Paul were great.

[Irlandesa]

23 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

The lead guy has a good look, but oh man, the French accent. It's not good and just got more annoying to listen to given how bad it was as the movie went on. And what's worse, is it's SO unnecessary.

I know.  I spent much of the movie thinking he'd reveal himself to be a villain because of the unnecessary French accent.

So I finally saw Snowmance.  I am very familiar with the Twin Cities area so I was tickled that it took place in St. Paul.  Even though it was filmed in Canada, I do have to give the movie props for actually looking like it could have been filmed in St. Paul.  Their house could have been one of the old mansions in uptown.  Bringing out the lutefisk was hilarious and authentic, although it would not make her sick for the rest of the day.  Nor is it easy to find as part of "take out."  I kept going in between thinking the best friend was being pushy and aching for his pining.  But I did feel the pine so it's a step above in that it made me feel emotion.  It wasn't terrific as the moments spent with the snowman were kind of slow but overall I enjoyed it.  (I liked it more than the short story version, although the first short story is still the best one).

I also watched Four Christmases and a Wedding.  I thought the description sounded interesting and different so I was looking forward to it.  I was really disappointed.  At first, I thought it was going to be similar to Snowmance in having the lead character have an "ideal" version of her perfect guy only to realize the guy who wanted her all along, the slow burn, was right for her in the end.  And when it looked like he was going to push a relationship, it annoyed me.  Then we spent some time with her "ideal" and they were so boring to me that the work guy started looking a lot better.  However, when she got together with her work guy on the third Christmas, I realized my prediction was off and boring love interest really was her OTP.  Yawn.

The Ugly Sweater mini-movie was cute, though.

[In2You]

Just once I'd like a movie where the woman realizes small town life is not for her and gets with the man in the big city while working a non cutesy job.

[twoods]

There was sort of a Christmas movie like that (Christmas in the City with Cheshire Cat smiley Ashley Williams when she wasn't annoying), and the Summer in the City movie. I guess any movie with "city" in the title will mean that the city will win over small town, so yay?

[anniebird]

On 12/2/2017 at 0:33 PM, CherryAmes said:

Home alone today and have 12 Dates of Christmas lined up on my PVR for some afternoon viewing.  I saw this a few years ago and really liked it but never came across it again.  And for some reason it's never been released on DVD.  I hope it's as good as I remember it :).

I just wanted to say I love your user name -- I read every one of those books.

[In2You]

And why does every Prince in these movies have a British accent even though their country never resembles the UK?

[JasmineFlower]

Four Christmases and a Wedding - I'm still processing this one. but I didn't hate it, that's for sure. I think the title makes this seem like it'll be more interesting than it actually was. It's just a regular passage of time, fast forwarding from one Christmas to the next. Not quite as formulaic as others, which is good, but nothing along the lines of the quirky classic it takes it's name from. I like both Arielle and Corey in this. And Arielle can be hit or miss for me and to that end, her eyebrows were not as distracting as they can be here since this was spread out over several years and her hair was varying shades, including several darker looks making her eyebrows look substantially better and less distracting. I l liked the inclusion of his sister and niece here. Not only were they good in the movie, they made his return each year way more believable. I was cheering on Arielle big time when he returned with a girlfriend and chick was all on the frosty side and running in high heels like no biggie. Ugh! Wasn't a fan, but I wasn't supposed to be, so mission accomplished there. I liked how un-dramatic the breakup with the co-worker was. They weren't a good fit, I'm glad he realized it even though she wasn't willing to verbalize it and they really parted as friends. He was never presented as a serious option for her, so it was nice to see unlike the blowups I feel we get too often no matter the circumstances. I liked Corey's approach to things in the last two years better than hers, how he was upfront about realizing he made a mistake. She could've done a better job at saying that too. So pretty okay. I could make way more comments about Arielle's gala dresses, but I'll just say one was fab, one looked really good, one super awkward and another super ill-fitting.

So, I mostly liked this movie, I liked the cast and it was enjoyable to watch, had some good lighter moments in it. Also, this one went really fast for me. If you happen to give this one a shot, keep in mind if you're not paying close attention or you're in and out of the room, and things seemed to have changed a lot from the scene you last saw, it's likely a year has passed in the story. Also, Markie Post plays her mom and great to see her. Judge Reinhold play Markie's boyfriend, haven't seen him in ages.

Enjoyed the Ugly Christmas Sweater short that came on after.

A Very Country Christmas - turned it off after 20 minutes. Great to see Greg Vaughan and the lead guy seemed decent, but the lead woman was a non-starter for me. Maybe it gets better, but she seemed like a disagreeable, unhappy woman. That joke he told about the vase was funny and she acted like it was the most offensive thing he could've done to make light of it. And then when she came storming into the community center or whatever to blast him for getting her fired was when I said, can't do it. Even if it hadn't been a mixup, she needed to chill big time. Seemed like she would be entirely too much to take for 2 hours.

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

l liked the inclusion of his sister and niece here. Not only were they good in the movie, they made his return each year way more believable.

That helped until it didn't.  When the little girl didn't age in four years, it became a distraction.

A couple of other things I forgot to mention about this movie.  I did get a kick over how often they were promoting Dear Santa, which Lifetime reaired tonight. I actually really like that movie so it tickled me but I'm was a little surprised they chose that six year old movie.

And did anyone else think the room where they held the annual party looked like the same room that was used for the party Danica's character through in Home for Christmas? Or Christmas  Homecoming?  Or Christmas Come Home?  Anyway, some movie with Christmas and Home in its title.

I really wanted to get into 12 Days of Giving because I've liked David Blue since Ugly Betty and I also like the lead actress but I could tell after 15 minutes that the combination of sentimentality and low energy would not be a winning combination for me.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Irlandesa

[twoods]

Dear Santa is definitely one of my favorites. I'm glad that Netflix is airing it.

Caught tonight's Ion movie, The Spruces and the Pines, and it was a decent movie. The lead actress was pretty good, and the guy was wooden at times but I liked their chemistry. Like other Ion movies some scenes were choppy, but overall I enjoyed it.

[JasmineFlower]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

A couple of other things I forgot to mention about this movie.  I did get a kick over how often they were promoting Dear Santa, which Lifetime reaired tonight. I actually really like that movie so it tickled me but I'm was a little surprised they chose that six year old movie.

And did anyone else think the room where they held the annual party looked like the same room that was used for the party Danica's character through in Home for Christmas? Or Christmas  Homecoming?  Or Christmas Come Home?  Anyway, some movie with Christmas and Home in its title.

The Dear Santa thing was HIGHLY RIDICULOUS. It was in the trivia alongside Miracle on 34th Street! You kidding me, Lifetime? You think that has similar name recognition? I mean, it made me laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it being included and the promotion of their own movie, but it was a joke.

I didn't mind the daughter not aging. It didn't occur to me while watching, and I though I can see why that could bother a bit, I'd have been more bothered by switching kids since she had bonded with Arielle's character. Not sure it would have carried over quite as well with a different or even older girl. But they definitely could've done a better job of making her seem younger in the early years and older in the later years. Her look was static if memory serves.

Danica's movie isn't ringing a bell. So, maybe it's a newer one? Or maybe there's just too many at this point and I don't remember the one you mean because I'm struggling to keep up with all of them. But I'm very open to the idea that the room has been used in other TV movies because it felt familiar.

[kirinan]

6 hours ago, twoods said:

Caught tonight's Ion movie, The Spruces and the Pines, and it was a decent movie. The lead actress was pretty good, and the guy was wooden at times but I liked their chemistry. Like other Ion movies some scenes were choppy, but overall I enjoyed it.

I only really know Jonna Walsh, the lead actress, from being married to Lee DeWyze. She was in his first video after American Idol, which is where they met, but she mostly just had to look cute in that so I never really saw her act (although I know she's been in other things). But I was impressed with her in this movie. She's a very natural actress--much better than the bland actresses they use in so many of these Hallmark/Up/ION/Lifetime romantic movies. I'd like to see her in more.

I wasn't as impressed with the rest of the cast, except the guy who played Bear. I just thought he was adorable.

[JAYJAY1979]

ABC family has always made good holiday tv movies going all the way back to when they were called the family channel (Christmas everyday and the Christmas list are still faves of mine).  I'm not sure why I like their movies the best...maybe it's because they make only one or two a year...and their movies usually have a modern sarcastic wit.  Thinking about it...some of my fab holiday tv movies come from this channel...above mentioned movies, three days, the mistletones, snoeglobe, holiday in handcuffs, 12 dates of Christmas, the Jennie Garth movie with Cameron Matheson (blanking in the name)., Christmas in Boston, Snow, etc.

[anniebird]

14 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

That helped until it didn't.  When the little girl didn't age in four years, it became a distraction.

 

i couldn't stop thinking about that as every year passed.

[KaveDweller]

On 11/30/2017 at 1:39 AM, JasmineFlower said:

For my money, ABC Family always made the best movies out of the bunch and this follows suit. It's not some formulaic romance like we mostly get this time of year at all. It also isn't some phoned in script that was just churned out and never looked at again. This is a great, higher quality movie similar to what used to make movies on this channel some of the best.

ABC Family/Freeform usually just does one movie a year, so it tends to be more creative than Hallmark and Lifetime which churn out a couple of dozen. Of course when you are doing that many Christmas movies with the same set of actresses they are going to get stale. I saw last night there was a new movie about a girl finding out her boyfriend is actually a prince and has to spend the holidays with a royal family.  I've seen that plot several times now.

17 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

The Dear Santa thing was HIGHLY RIDICULOUS. It was in the trivia alongside Miracle on 34th Street! You kidding me, Lifetime? You think that has similar name recognition? I mean, it made me laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it being included and the promotion of their own movie, but it was a joke.

That made me laugh so hard. Was it the same writer or something? Even funnier, Dear Santa was on Lifetime last night.

Did anyone else watch the new Candace Cameron Bure one where she is twins who switch places on Christmas? It was not as interesting as I thought it would be, I don't think there was enough conflict between the twins. 

[JAYJAY1979]

I was thinking about why I don't really like a lot of the modern holiday movies.. and I think it's because they are lacking in depth especially the ones on Hallmark Channel (I don't really see any from Lifetime so I can't comment on the depth, or lack there of, if those).  I think back in the 70s, there was a certain meloncholy lurking within their holiday movies... Walton's Homecoming, The Gathering, even a Christmas without Snow (from 1980) had a sad undertone that made the movies richer.  Even some of my favorite 80s holiday movies like The Night they saved Christmas and Smoky Mountain Christmas had some sad undertones that made the happy ending more satisfying.  

[JasmineFlower]

4 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

ABC Family/Freeform usually just does one movie a year, so it tends to be more creative than Hallmark and Lifetime which churn out a couple of dozen.  

You're talking about this year, right now, I'm talking historically. They put out one new movie year this year, it's the first original under the Freeform name meaning there wasn't anything last year either. And ABC Family had abandoned making original movies in the last couple of years prior to the changeover. But ABC Family used to put out several original movies every year, with a few over the holidays for many years. And Hallmark was the same way. The volume of movies Hallmark is churning out is a more recent thing. Before, they weren't airing a ton more than ABC Family did, didn't have a second channel, and I still preferred ABC Family and found them more original and contemporary. Hallmark's were better and more original than they are now, for sure, but they were also more Hallmark HOF in tone more often than not, which doesn't tend to be my favorite. But It really doesn't have anything to do with Hallmark churning out a dozen or more now,. They use different production companies to make their films. So, while it may seem like a lot of movies in a short amount of time, because it is, this is not one set of writers and directors working on 10 movies at once for the holiday push at Hallmark. There is no reason the quality of Hallmark movies shouldn't be good across the board because of this.

3 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

I was thinking about why I don't really like a lot of the modern holiday movies.. and I think it's because they are lacking in depth especially the ones on Hallmark Channel (I don't really see any from Lifetime so I can't comment on the depth, or lack there of, if those).  I think back in the 70s, there was a certain meloncholy lurking within their holiday movies... Walton's Homecoming, The Gathering, even a Christmas without Snow (from 1980) had a sad undertone that made the movies richer.  Even some of my favorite 80s holiday movies like The Night they saved Christmas and Smoky Mountain Christmas had some sad undertones that made the happy ending more satisfying.  

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has more of this tone of movie than any other channel, so you should try out a few of theirs. I'm not sure they are doing a ton of these this year, because I'm not sure how they did ratings wise with them last year. Hallmark has purposefully moved away from the tone you are talking about, moving most of those over to HMM and eventually I'm sure to the new channel Hallmark Drama. Also, though not new ones, try to catch Three Days and Silver Bells on Hallmark or possibly HMM if they air it this year, they typically put both on at least once during the season. Both might be to your liking.

[Kaoteek]

As i suspected, I had to give up on Lifetime's My Christmas Prince after 30 min or so. Even Marina Sirtis & Charles Shaughnessy's bit parts couldn't make up for so much awkwardness, cheapness, and blandness at every level of this production. Nearly fell asleep watching it.

[redpencil]

I'm nearly to the end of Four Christmases and a Wedding and I'm not sure how I've made it this far (probably through multitasking and only partially paying attention). I'm finding it to be SO BORING. And I have a very high tolerance and watch nearly all of these movies in their entirety. It's definitely the slowest one for me in awhile. I feel like she's barely spent any time at all with the lead guy, and it's feeling way too repetitive, going from year to year and similar event to similar event with barely any relationship progress whatsoever. This is definitely not going on my rewatch list.

ETA: Having now finished, yep, still boring. I don't even understand how they fell in love. There was some amount of chemistry the first year, and then nothing more than awkwardness every year thereafter and barely any screentime (and clearly they weren't keeping in touch at all in between). That ending was so unearned in my view. And yeah, the niece didn't age in four years.

Edited December 5, 2017 by redpencil

[In2You]

7 hours ago, Kaoteek said:

As i suspected, I had to give up on Lifetime's My Christmas Prince after 30 min or so. Even Marina Sirtis & Charles Shaughnessy's bit parts couldn't make up for so much awkwardness, cheapness, and blandness at every level of this production. Nearly fell asleep watching it.

I kept zoning in and out throughout this. I understand they wanted to make a Christmas royalty movie more for millennials but this was boring and like you said cheap looking. A bunch of archways does not a castle make. I didn't remotely find it believable that the family was royalty. There was nothing princely about the prince but I guess the British accent was supposed to distract us. I looked up the actor and could only find this movie as his acting credit. Not surprised he's so inexperienced. It showed onscreen. And the annoying neighbor who was a Crown Watcher as if I'm supposed to believe this prince is so well known they have women who dedicate blogs to him yet apparently not known enough that his girlfriend didn't find out he's a prince sooner. Jane Carr had no chemistry with Charles Shaughnessy and came across more like the Prince's grandmother than mother.

 

EW did a funny article about the movie compairing it to Netflix's A Christmas Prince

http://ew.com/tv/2017/12/04/how-does-my-christmas-prince-compare-to-a-christmas-prince/

Loved this

Final advantage: A Christmas Prince. Netflix’s original movie offers more delightful manufactured conflict and more castle/royalty porn. If you’re only going to choose one so-good-it’s-bad made-for-TV movie about an American girl who ends up with a prince, go with Netflix’s offering. Or, better yet, just read the news about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry because that story actually has a woman of color in it who isn’t just the generic sidekick.

[MissyPoo]

Argh. Did I miss 12 Dates of Christmas sometime in the past few days? I love that one.

 

On 12/3/2017 at 5:08 PM, In2You said:

And why does every Prince in these movies have a British accent even though their country never resembles the UK?

Right? That always annoyed me like in the Hollywood period movies even though it was like, say ancient Italy, everyone was British. 

 

I also saw Four Christmases and a Wedding and JasmineFlower summed my thoughts up entirely. Which is awesome because I was still trying to sort through my thoughts on it. From the title, I expected more as well. A cute, funny quirky romance that would have me rooting for the characters to get together through it all. Kind of like Serendipity (LOVE that movie). But in the end, it was just kind of there. The Dear Santa bit had me going "Really Lifetime?"

 

Plus, this Christmas Prince thing has me all the way confused. So, Netflix put one out, which is different from the Lifetime one, but both sound like the one that Ion put out last year which had Marina Sirtis in it who is in the Lifetime one that I thought was the Netflix one. So are there 2 new Christmas Prince movies, or is one the rehash from Ion just reshown on Netflix or Lifetime as new? Or are there 3 different Christmas Prince movies altogether? So confused right now. 

[Kaoteek]

Two new movies : A Christmas Prince (Netflix) with Rose McIver, and My Christmas Prince (Lifetime), with Alexis Knapp.

Last year's ION movie was Fred Olen Ray's A Prince for Christmas, with Viva Bianca.

All of those have nothing in common, except, well, 95% of their respective plots, some supporting actors, some shooting locations, and so on. ^^

 

(and of course, thanks to the magic of Netflix, social media & ironic hate-watching, the fact that Netflix's Christmas Prince is apparently becoming something of a Sharknado-like viral sensation, and we'll probably end up having A Christmas Prince 2 next year, despite the fact that all those are sub-par retreads of the same movies Hallmark has been producing for years)

Edited December 5, 2017 by Kaoteek

[MissyPoo]

Thank you Kaoteek. That makes sense. And now I have to run out and somehow get a hold of A Christmas Prince because it sounds simply glorious in its badness. I think A Prince for Christmas was the one I saw and it was a cringefest. That makes sense now why Marina Sirtis is showing up multiple times. I think I was remembering her in the Summer Prince one as well. These royalty movies are starting to blend together in my mind now.

[KaveDweller]

Wait, Netflix has their own Christmas movies now?  I love a cheesy holiday movie, but when is someone supposed to have time for all this programming?

[Irlandesa]

I think the week between Christmas and New Year's is catch up time.  In fact, even the week before could be used since there's only one new movie on the weekend before Christmas. And there's no new TV.  Many of us have work off.  Some would say that time is for family but---priorities.

[twoods]

I have a week off next week since I couldn't get the time between Christmas and New Years off, so I'm going to mow through them while wrapping presents and cleaning while the kids are at school. At least with this movie saturation there are a lot of clunkers, so it make sure it easier to delete them after 20 minutes if I'm annoyed. 

I love Rose McIver on iZombie so am looking forward to the Netflix movie.

Edited December 6, 2017 by twoods

[EyewatchTV211]

On 12/1/2017 at 11:55 AM, ShelleySue said:

I told my husband that I wasn't sure if I liked Angry Angel so much if it was because it was a good movie or because it didn't have the traditional Christmas formula.  Does anyone else think that it was a pilot for a series?

Just got to watch it. It was good and entertaining, and I'm certainly sick of a lot of the Christmas formulas. But it really wasn't a Christmas movie. It was a movie that happened to take place at Christmastime. That may have helped for a lot of us in terms of enjoyment, but Freeform could have played that any time of the year and it could have taken place any time of the year and it would have been mostly the same.  

Kind of funny to see how easy it was for the angels to get into Heaven in the movie - selfishly saving people just to get points - compared to the Good Place 

Spoiler

where it is apparently extremely difficult to get into the actual Good Place. Doubtful Lincoln would be there.

Edited December 7, 2017 by VMepicgrl

[In2You]

Freeform had a Christmas  movie last year so Angry Angel is not the first. Last year was one with Bailee Madison.

Edited December 7, 2017 by In2You

[Jaded]

25 minutes ago, In2You said:

Freeform had a Christmas  movie last year so Angrty Angel is not the first. Last year was one with Bailee Madison.

It was this one called Holiday Joy apparently.

[Kaoteek]

IIRC, it was your basic "wish for a better life at Christmas/wish granted/old life ended up better/back to the start" Family Man-type movie, with cheap wigs & prosthetics (they gave "before the wish" Bailee a fake gut, because she wasn't sporty), a high school/popular teen focus, and a strong lack of continuity towards the end.

[twoods]

Four Christmases and a Wedding was decent. I liked the leads, but felt that it could have been cuter. Figured she would get with the coworker one Christmas and he was really adorable, but I preferred her and the lead. 

[MrsClaus]

Did anyone watch The Flight Before Christmas that was on Lifetime the other night?  I'd never seen it before.

[sistersledge]

15 minutes into My Christmas Prince and it’s awful. The actress is terrible.

[Shanna Marie]

On 12/4/2017 at 9:29 PM, JasmineFlower said:

But It really doesn't have anything to do with Hallmark churning out a dozen or more now,. They use different production companies to make their films. So, while it may seem like a lot of movies in a short amount of time, because it is, this is not one set of writers and directors working on 10 movies at once for the holiday push at Hallmark. There is no reason the quality of Hallmark movies shouldn't be good across the board because of this.

There may be some effect in that the talent pool is spread thin. I was reading something the other day about how the quaint small towns around Vancouver get swamped every summer with production of all these holiday movies. Even though the different networks all have different production companies, they're drawing upon the same available people, unless they import people from LA, since most of them are probably freelancers rather than salaried employees. When there are five movies in production in the region, they can pick and choose the cast, production designers, etc., from the broader Vancouver-area talent pool. If twenty movies are being made, they're having to dig deeper to fill out the cast and hire people, and that's going to affect everyone shooting in that area, no matter what production company or network. I've found that, for the most part, the acting seems a lot worse in the more recent films, after the glut, than before the glut. They may bring in one or two names, but a lot of the supporting cast is at high school drama level. There may be competition over the locations. Hallmark seems more willing to spend some money now, as they've built their brand on this, so they may get the good locations, leaving everyone else with places that look more fake.

I really have preferred the Family movies to the Hallmark ones. They tended to have more fantasy elements, which I liked. Then the Lifetime movies from when they were the go-to Christmas movie network were better at being romantic comedies. I rewatched The 12 Men of Christmas the other night, and there's no way Hallmark would have shown that, but that dash of (very mild) naughtiness made it more fun. I kind of hate that Hallmark has taken over and everyone else has mostly given up because I like their movies least. As sappy as they are, I get a vague sense of underlying cynicism with those, like the people making the decisions don't think they have to necessarily make good movies because their audience will eat up whatever crap they throw at them -- some ornaments, some fake snow, end with a kiss, and we're good. No point in trying harder than that.

[JasmineFlower]

7 hours ago, MrsClaus said:

Did anyone watch The Flight Before Christmas that was on Lifetime the other night?  I'd never seen it before.

It's from maybe 2 years ago and stars Mayim Bialik and Ryan McPartlin. Worth checking out. Not my favorite, but an okay watch and not the routine Christmas movie. Mayim remains Mayim in this which can be a good and a bad things at times. 

If they happen to show The Spirit of Christmas on Lifetime soon, that's one I'd suggest catching.

22 hours ago, In2You said:

Freeform had a Christmas  movie last year so Angry Angel is not the first. Last year was one with Bailee Madison.

Hmm. That's true about having a movie in 2016, I watched Holiday Joy last year. Yet, I read the thing about Angry Angel being their first movie under the Freeform name in Freeform's own press release, so that's how they look at Angry Angel. Maybe Holiday Joy was produced by a different outfit and aired on the channel, but wasn't billed as a Freeform original? Not sure. But they've clearly drawn some distinction that causes them to call Angry Angel their first original movie. But that is odd.

 

@Shanna Marie I'm not discounting that things might be busy in Vancouver, but Canada's not called Hollywood North for nothing. It's not some small film production industry they've got going on up in Vancouver, it'll top $2 billion this year and the people working in the area have grown to meet the demand. And in terms of importing from LA and the US in general (as well as other parts of Canada) - they do so and often. People have relocated up there because of the increased business and others travel there regularly to work and shoot, it's one of the reasons it has more production than Toronto lately, because it's geographically more convenient to LA. Plus, Vancouver isn't the only place where Hallmark shoots movies, it's just the most common one. Also, while I can see it's safe to say you're not a fan of the casts of these movies, I don't find the acting as bad as you do and I am usually familiar with around 4-6 people in the cast, not merely the leads (though you can find me complaining about some of these male leads often). Personally, my chief complaint with Hallmark starts with their scripts, it'd be great if they weren't so formulaic.

[JasmineFlower]

In case you missed the social media attention Netflix's A Christmas Prince was getting, here's a good article to check out.  Most here will appreciate the article and selected tweets.

"A Christmas Prince" is So Bad It's Good and Here are the Tweets to Prove It

[twoods]

I am trying with Netflix's A Christmas Prince but if I want to watch an undercover journalist movie, I'd rather watch Snow Bride. Maybe I will come back to it later.

[MissyPoo]

17 hours ago, MrsClaus said:

Did anyone watch The Flight Before Christmas that was on Lifetime the other night?  I'd never seen it before.

Definitely check it out! It's really cute and if you watched a lot of sitcoms during the 90s, you'll recognize a few folks. This is one of my faves from Lifetime's newest movie roster. Funny and cute with a yummy looking lead guy.

 

15 hours ago, sistersledge said:

15 minutes into My Christmas Prince and it’s awful. The actress is terrible.

It looked like it hurt her to speak and act. I cringed through the whole thing. I'm not even sure why I sat through the whole thing because I wanted to turn it off earlier. But it earned trainwreck status for me real quick and I just. Couldn't. Quit.

[Shanna Marie]

10 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

Personally, my chief complaint with Hallmark starts with their scripts, it'd be great if they weren't so formulaic.

That's where I get the sense of cynicism, like they don't feel like they have to make them any better because their audience isn't discerning enough for it to be worthwhile making the scripts better. They can just churn them out, and as long as there are Christmas decorations and a kiss at the end, their audience will love it. I used to say that a lot of the Sci Fi Channel's movies seemed like they yanked a messy first draft away from the writer and went straight into production because there were often some clever ideas in there, but the script itself was pretty klunky. Just a round of revisions to polish it would have made a much better movie. With Hallmark, I get the feeling that a fifteen-minute brainstorming session to get past the cliches would make a big difference, but the bigger problem is the sense that they don't care about making them better.

I also tend to find that unless the leads are "names," the supporting cast is far better than the leads. You get some decent acting in the secondary and walk-on roles, but sometimes the major characters are bland and wooden (or overacting and mugging it up). That's another thing like the old Sci Fi Channel movies (especially the ones in the genre I called "Fantasy Cheese"), where they'd have one fairly big-name "elder statesman" actor in a supporting role, most of the secondary cast seemed to have come from the Canadian Shakespeare circuit and could make the archaic fantasy dialogue sound natural, and then they'd have bland, wooden actors in the lead roles. I usually feel like if you swapped the "best friend" actors for the leads in the Hallmark movies, you'd get a better movie.

[JAYJAY1979]

15 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

It's from maybe 2 years ago and stars Mayim Bialik and Ryan McPartlin. Worth checking out. Not my favorite, but an okay watch and not the routine Christmas movie. Mayim remains Mayim in this which can be a good and a bad things at times. 

If they happen to show The Spirit of Christmas on Lifetime soon, that's one I'd suggest catching.

Hmm. That's true about having a movie in 2016, I watched Holiday Joy last year. Yet, I read the thing about Angry Angel being their first movie under the Freeform name in Freeform's own press release, so that's how they look at Angry Angel. Maybe Holiday Joy was produced by a different outfit and aired on the channel, but wasn't billed as a Freeform original? Not sure. But they've clearly drawn some distinction that causes them to call Angry Angel their first original movie. But that is odd.

 

@Shanna Marie I'm not discounting that things might be busy in Vancouver, but Canada's not called Hollywood North for nothing. It's not some small film production industry they've got going on up in Vancouver, it'll top $2 billion this year and the people working in the area have grown to meet the demand. And in terms of importing from LA and the US in general (as well as other parts of Canada) - they do so and often. People have relocated up there because of the increased business and others travel there regularly to work and shoot, it's one of the reasons it has more production than Toronto lately, because it's geographically more convenient to LA. Plus, Vancouver isn't the only place where Hallmark shoots movies, it's just the most common one. Also, while I can see it's safe to say you're not a fan of the casts of these movies, I don't find the acting as bad as you do and I am usually familiar with around 4-6 people in the cast, not merely the leads (though you can find me complaining about some of these male leads often). Personally, my chief complaint with Hallmark starts with their scripts, it'd be great if they weren't so formulaic.

Doesn't it bother anyone that a lot of film production is outsourced to another country and not being filmed in the US, especially if the movie takes place in the US?  I think having Vancouver be the primary place where filming is done is not exactly a good thing and perhaps it shouldn't be the go to.  

With that said, I love my cynical and sad holiday movies.. and Hallmark Hall of Fame always comes through (even though their recent movies, except maybe the newest one, have also been filmed in Canada) in terms of depth and not so tooth ache sweet.

[In2You]

4 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Doesn't it bother anyone that a lot of film production is outsourced to another country and not being filmed in the US, especially if the movie takes place in the US?  I think having Vancouver be the primary place where filming is done is not exactly a good thing and perhaps it shouldn't be the go to.  

With that said, I love my cynical and sad holiday movies.. and Hallmark Hall of Fame always comes through (even though their recent movies, except maybe the newest one, have also been filmed in Canada) in terms of depth and not so tooth ache sweet.

Industry folks complain about it all the time on Deadline's website.

 

Anyway some production companies are making an effort  to film more movies in the US.  New Mexico has become a popular filming site recently and Georgia has a booming industry as well.

Edited December 9, 2017 by In2You

[Kaoteek]

Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed 12 Days of Giving, from UpTV. It was very low-key, low-energy, subdued, and earnest, but it worked for me. Most likely because the cast was very likeable, and because I liked the fact that it wasn't your standard holiday romance à la Hallmark. That said, the writing wasn't particularly subtle (the fiancée character, for instance, was a caricature), and the movie might have worked much better with a stronger child actor.

[Whimsy]

On 12/3/2017 at 0:03 AM, Irlandesa said:

I know.  I spent much of the movie thinking he'd reveal himself to be a villain because of the unnecessary French accent.

So I finally saw Snowmance.  I am very familiar with the Twin Cities area so I was tickled that it took place in St. Paul.  Even though it was filmed in Canada, I do have to give the movie props for actually looking like it could have been filmed in St. Paul.  Their house could have been one of the old mansions in uptown.  Bringing out the lutefisk was hilarious and authentic, although it would not make her sick for the rest of the day.  Nor is it easy to find as part of "take out."  I kept going in between thinking the best friend was being pushy and aching for his pining.  But I did feel the pine so it's a step above in that it made me feel emotion.  It wasn't terrific as the moments spent with the snowman were kind of slow but overall I enjoyed it.  (I liked it more than the short story version, although the first short story is still the best one).

I also watched Four Christmases and a Wedding.  I thought the description sounded interesting and different so I was looking forward to it.  I was really disappointed.  At first, I thought it was going to be similar to Snowmance in having the lead character have an "ideal" version of her perfect guy only to realize the guy who wanted her all along, the slow burn, was right for her in the end.  And when it looked like he was going to push a relationship, it annoyed me.  Then we spent some time with her "ideal" and they were so boring to me that the work guy started looking a lot better.  However, when she got together with her work guy on the third Christmas, I realized my prediction was off and boring love interest really was her OTP.  Yawn.

The Ugly Sweater mini-movie was cute, though.

I’m watching Snowmance right now and am already annoyed with the depiction of the Twin Cities. I grew up in St. Paul. Why does everyone have the “accent”except the leads?  Also, I didn’t really know anyone with that strong of an accent from the cities. I heard it more the further north you go. Also, I never met ANYONE who just ate elk in the cities. That irritated me for some reason lol. 

On 12/7/2017 at 8:13 PM, MrsClaus said:

Did anyone watch The Flight Before Christmas that was on Lifetime the other night?  I'd never seen it before.

I like this one because the writer (and therefore one of the leads) is from the town I love in now in Massachusetts where no one is ever from in movies. 

So fad, my favorite has been Angry Angel. 

[In2You]

This one sounds good and it's on UP tommorrow

http://uptv.com/movies/christmas-princess/videos/christmas-princess-the-experience-of-a-lifetime/

Christmas Princess

The true story of Donaly Marquez who, through a childhood of neglect and abuse, achieved her dream of becoming a Rose Bowl Princess. An inspirational story of resilience, strength and finding a family to call your own. 

[EyewatchTV211]

On 12/8/2017 at 4:34 AM, JasmineFlower said:

 

If they happen to show The Spirit of Christmas on Lifetime soon, that's one I'd suggest catching.

I second this. It was nice to have a different storyline from all the other Christmas movies. Also liked that we got a ton of real snow (it was filmed in Massachusetts the year they got nonstop snow), Jen Lilley was really good in it, and the lead guy was good looking if a little awkward. They had great chemistry.

On the other side of the snow spectrum, I appreciated that The Spruces and the Pines didn't feel the need to create fake snow. It actually did seem cold - there was steam in some scenes - but probably was filmed last winter when there wasn't much snow. Even in cold parts of the country, it doesn't always snow, and it certainly doesn't time often with Christmas. 

[Irlandesa]

7 hours ago, Whimsy said:

Why does everyone have the “accent”except the leads?

While I liked Snowmance because it did feel like St. Paul to me (snow, the houses) I did forget to mention that it seemed like her co-workers had the Fargo dialect coach.  And if they were to run into that accent, it probably wouldn't be at a magazine.

You were all right about Angry Angel.  It was really well written and I like how it ended.  A sequel could be done but her arc is through. 

I thought Runaway Christmas Bride's description had potential but it ended up wasted.  Nothing worse than having a duo fall in love via silent montage.

[In2You]

I don't like anything with Cindy Bushby in it so I skipped Runaway Bride

[methodwriter85]

So wait, hold up, Freeform is still making Christmas movies? I really thought they had gotten out of the biz of doing that, because it seemed like they hadn't made any since they made the switch to Freeform format. I did tend to like a few of them.

I just watched Christmas in Mississippi. It was okay but I didn't really get into it. The leads were fine and Wes Brown is totally that "good ol' Southern boy" hot but I don't know, it didn't quite do it for me. The location shoots were pretty cool, though. The house looked exactly like the house from Christmas in the Bayou, the one Hilarie Burton did a few years back with Tyler Hilton. I kind of had the same problem with that one, too- competent perfromances and really cool location shots, but something just wasn't drawing me in.

I did enjoy Wrapped in Christmas. This is where you DEFINITELY know that this is Lifetime over Hallmark, being that they had a black female lead and it was set at an urban shopping mall instead of a quaint cozy mall. It's also nice to see Brendan Fehr again. The other interesting thing about it is that it does, in a roundabout way, address the struggling of shopping malls right now, although they didn't go far enough into making this a "dead" mall. I'll definitely watch it again.

It's also weird to see Jasmine Guy playing Mom to Kim Fields given that they are like 8 years apart in age, but that's wacky casting for you. Jasmine is now in her mid-50's and looks it while Kim could probably still pass for early 40's so it wasn't too awkward.

There was another movie that had Michelle Tractenberg falling for a black guy so I'm guessing Lifetime is taking the fact that people are bitching about the lack of diversity on Hallmark and adding some people of color to their movies.

I haven't seen it yet, but Entertainment Weekly did a piece on A Christmas Prince:

13 Questions About A Christmas Prince

Ben Lamb's big moment before this was playing a teen guy who gets his eye gouged out in Divergent. His role was supposed to be span at least the second movie, but they cut him out of the sequel. Dude should probably just embrace it, at this point.

I am so there for "So bad it's good" stuff so I'll watch A Christmas Prince as soon as I get the chance.

[EyewatchTV211]

I did a search for The Spirit of Christmas on one of the websites that lists the whole holiday schedule, and I don't see it. :-( Guess they aren't re-airing. That's a shame. They are re-playing enough other bad movies several times. And I somehow accidentally deleted it from my DVR even though I was trying to save it from the last time it aired. People are selling DVDs on ebay, but they're still pretty pricy for a TV movie. 

[Misslindsey]

The Spirit of Christmas was on Netflix. I am not sure if it is still there, but if you have Netflix you might want to take a look. 

[twoods]

I checked yesterday and it's still on Netflix. Definitely one of the better films.

The Runaway Bride was terrible and turned it off after 10 minutes. Come on, Ion.