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

[MissyPoo]

I think The Spirit of Christmas is also on the Hallmark app that used to be Feeln. 

I wonder if The Runaway Christmas Bride one will be my crazypants bonkers wtf Ion movie of the year. So far, My Christmas Prince is winning in that category. Don't let Lifetime take away your 'so bad, it's bad' crown, Ion.

[In2You]

3 minutes ago, MissyPoo said:

I think The Spirit of Christmas is also on the Hallmark app that used to be Feeln. 

I wonder if The Runaway Christmas Bride one will be my crazypants bonkers wtf Ion movie of the year. So far, My Christmas Prince is winning in that category. Don't let Lifetime take away your 'so bad, it's bad' crown, Ion.

My Christmas Prince was such a horrible movie.

[EyewatchTV211]

I'm one of those weird people who does not have Netflix. But when I googled to see if they had the movie, the site offered me a free month. If it actually works (I had a free month years and years ago, so not sure if it will allow another now), I may go ahead and do it so I can watch the movie a few more times, check out the Netflix Christmas movie, and check out some other stuff I've wanted to see. 

[topanga]

1 hour ago, In2You said:

My Christmas Prince was such a horrible movie.

Ok, I likedit. The lead actress wasn’t great, but she reminded me of Sarah Michelle Gellar. And I liked the little girl Princess Sarah and the actress who played the queen. 

It embarasses me how much I love cheesy holiday movies. My one complaint is how racially segregated they are. Except for ‘Christmas Cupid’ with Christina Milian and Ashley Benson or ‘My Christmas Wish’ from a few years ago, the main casts of these holiday movies tend to be all black actors or all white actors. 

[In2You]

40 minutes ago, topanga said:

Ok, I likedit. The lead actress wasn’t great, but she reminded me of Sarah Michelle Gellar. And I liked the little girl Princess Sarah and the actress who played the queen. 

It embarasses me how much I love cheesy holiday movies. My one complaint is how racially segregated they are. Except for ‘Christmas Cupid’ with Christina Milian and Ashley Benson or ‘My Christmas Wish’ from a few years ago, the main casts of these holiday movies tend to be all black actors or all white actors. 

There was no little girl in My Christmas Prince. Granted I was nodding in and out during it but there were no children. You might be getting it confused with the movie on Netflix. This was My Christmas Prince.

 

Don't forget this year's Wrapped Up In Christmas.

[methodwriter85]

30 minutes ago, topanga said:

Ok, I likedit. The lead actress wasn’t great, but she reminded me of Sarah Michelle Gellar. And I liked the little girl Princess Sarah and the actress who played the queen. 

It embarasses me how much I love cheesy holiday movies. My one complaint is how racially segregated they are. Except for ‘Christmas Cupid’ with Christina Milian and Ashley Benson or ‘My Christmas Wish’ from a few years ago, the main casts of these holiday movies tend to be all black actors or all white actors. 

I saw the competing "A Christmas Prince" on Netflix. I loved that they managed to hit almost every single cliche you could possibly hit in these movies. The only thing we were missing was Amber having a beau who tries to win her back and challenges the Prince to a fight.

Please check out the #AChristmasPrince hastag. The comments are hilarious.

[EyewatchTV211]

Reading the comments now. I like this one that references The Spirit of Christmas 

[twoods]

He really is smoking hot in that movie. I'm shocked that he's not a frequent Hallmark flyer like Paul Greene and Andrew Walker. Just the presence of him in a mediocre movie would make it better.

[In2You]

Saw this on Twitter

[EyewatchTV211]

4 minutes ago, twoods said:

He really is smoking hot in that movie. I'm shocked that he's not a frequent Hallmark flyer like Paul Greene and Andrew Walker. Just the presence of him in a mediocre movie would make it better.

Apparently he was in this other movie.

I wonder if it was on PixL or something since I hadn't heard of it or seen it advertised. Based on the reviews I saw in another version of the trailer, he wasn't enough to save the movie. 

Edited December 11, 2017 by VMepicgrl

[wonderwoman]

I've always liked Ingo Rademacher as Jax on General Hospital. Since the online listing for the movie, "Ray," was wrong, I decided to take a look at the ION movie, "A Royal Holiday Ball" instead.  Now, I'm not a big holiday movie fan, so my frame of reference is limited. But, sweet baby Jesus...  When you can tell EXACTLY what will happen within the first ten minutes, never mind all the exposition and stilted dialogue...

All I can say is there's two hours of my life I'll never get back. 

[In2You]

15 minutes ago, wonderwoman said:

I've always liked Ingo Rademacher as Jax on General Hospital. Since the online listing for the movie, "Ray," was wrong, I decided to take a look at the ION movie, "A Royal Holiday Ball" instead.  Now, I'm not a big holiday movie fan, so my frame of reference is limited. But, sweet baby Jesus...  When you can tell EXACTLY what will happen within the first ten minutes, never mind all the exposition and stilted dialogue...

All I can say is there's two hours of my life I'll never get back. 

Did he past for 39 in it like the description said?

[Irlandesa]

10 minutes ago, wonderwoman said:

When you can tell EXACTLY what will happen within the first ten minutes, never mind all the exposition and stilted dialogue...

Welcome to holiday movies. Heck, you normally can tell before it even begins.  I'm debating whether or not to watch it.  I've always though Ingo should do these but starting like...10 years ago.

I watched Can't Fight Christmas on TVOne in an effort to have real diversity in leads.  Heck, the heroine was even a curvier gal.  Still, wasn't great.  The male lead was hot but he got engaged to his not-girlfriend just because she made it up.  And he was going to go along with it for really dumb reasons. I liked the female lead, though.

[wonderwoman]

24 minutes ago, In2You said:

 

40 minutes ago, wonderwoman said:

I've always liked Ingo Rademacher as Jax on General Hospital. Since the online listing for the movie, "Ray," was wrong, I decided to take a look at the ION movie, "A Royal Holiday Ball" instead.  Now, I'm not a big holiday movie fan, so my frame of reference is limited. But, sweet baby Jesus...  When you can tell EXACTLY what will happen within the first ten minutes, never mind all the exposition and stilted dialogue...

All I can say is there's two hours of my life I'll never get back. 

Did he past for 39 in it like the description said?

 

if you didn't look too close:)

[JasmineFlower]

6 hours ago, MissyPoo said:

I think The Spirit of Christmas is also on the Hallmark app that used to be Feeln. 

I wonder if The Runaway Christmas Bride one will be my crazypants bonkers wtf Ion movie of the year. So far, My Christmas Prince is winning in that category. Don't let Lifetime take away your 'so bad, it's bad' crown, Ion.

Feeling like between The Runaway Christmas Bride and A Royal Christmas Ball, Ion is more than up to the task to try to take that crown from Lifetime. Neither is as bad as My Christmas Prince, cause that's a very low bar, but combined, they are making the case for Ion.

And @In2You, no Ingo isn't passing for anyone's 39. He can barely pass for his real age of 46 if you ask me. He still looks good, but my man seriously needs to take a look at some anti-aging creams and industrial level sunscreen. That skin is looking leathered for real. And don't believe there is one scene where wrinkles on his forehead aren't super prominent. Tara Reid can easily pass for 39 as long as you don't ask yourself too often why her skin looks so plasticky smooth. But she's looking scary thin in this. Faune Chambers looks fab though and in scenes where the camera goes from Tara to Faune, you see what Tara's skin should look like if it was natural.

[Jaded]

I saw Ingo on B&B recently where he's using an American accent which is weird to watch and hear. I noticed he looked thinner then I remember him being previously. If he gained some weight back it might fill in his various wrinkles and lines a bit.

[In2You]

To me the whole fairytale Prince fantasy has an age cut off of like 25/30.

[Shanna Marie]

I'm finally catching up on the DVR, and I have to say I kind of liked Four Christmases and a Wedding. I had a few quibbles with it, mostly that I think they were far too emotionally invested for as little contact as they'd had. Her being in tears because a guy she'd met once a year ago had a girlfriend seemed a little over the top. It would have made more sense if they'd kept in touch via e-mail or were Facebook friends and she'd had high hopes when she learned he was coming back, but he hadn't mentioned a girlfriend. And then it seemed a bit much for them to be saying "I love you" after meeting a few times in years. The wedding was a year later, which made sense, so all they really needed at that point was to decide to start dating then. But in general, it was cute and with less sap than in most of the Hallmark movies, though seeing Judge Reinhold in the "dad" role made me feel old.

[Chas411]

Just watched Christmas Incorporated - adorable. Really easy to watch with limited drama which is exactly how I like them.

[ShelleySue]

15 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Welcome to holiday movies. Heck, you normally can tell before it even begins. 

This is the formula, not just for holiday movies, but just about every Hallmark movie.  One hour into the show the leads each realize that they are falling in love.  One hour and a half into the movie there is a "Great Calamity" (see below for a list).  One hour and 59 minutes into the movie Happily Ever After.  Mr. ShelleySue and I try to figure out what the Great Calamity will be within the first ten minutes.  Once you're highly trained it's easy to spot.

Great Calamities include, but are not limited to:

• The original boy/girl friend that it's totally not right for the lead shows up unannounced
• One of the leads finds out that the other lead lied to her (way back before s/he fell in love)
• One of the leads overhears the other lead and totally misunderstands the conversation
• The project that the leads were working on reaches a conclusion

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the mini-movies (15 minutes long) on Lifetime.  They're really cute.  I loved the Ugly Christmas Sweater and thought that the Christmas Trap was sweet.  A Family for Christmas was good, but I didn't know why they didn't invite the neighbor to their house.

[Shanna Marie]

One other thing about Four Christmases and a Wedding that I just remembered when I looked at today's TV listings: It cracked me up that they were using Dear Santa as some kind of well-loved, classic Christmas movie of the sort that people would eagerly unironically watch as part of the town's Christmas festivities and that would be fodder for a Christmas movie trivia contest alongside things like Miracle on 34th Street. I know they probably did it because they own the rights to it and could show clips of it, but it was still amusing. Well, tonight it looks like they're showing the "director's cut" of Four Christmases and a Wedding as a double feature with Dear Santa. I wonder what the extra material might be. They made it pretty clear that they didn't try to stay in touch while he was gone, so it won't be more relationship development. If they'd just become e-mail pen pals but he never mentioned the girlfriend, then the way she reacted would have made more sense -- they'd stayed in touch, developed a long-distance friendship that she thought was developing into something more, got excited when he said he was coming for Christmas, then got blindsided by the girlfriend.

As for the Great Calamities, there's always the "she sees him with another woman (possibly also a child) and thinks he's married." It's always his sister and niece/nephew. Always. You're probably not safe always assuming that any woman you see a guy being affectionate with is actually single and with his sister, but you should probably check before you flounce and refuse to take his calls.

[twoods]

I'm struggling with Christmas in Mississippi. So far there isn't an annoying significant other, which always brings down a movie. Maybe it will pick up.

[Kaoteek]

20 minutes ago, ShelleySue said:

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the mini-movies (15 minutes long) on Lifetime.  They're really cute.  I loved the Ugly Christmas Sweater and thought that the Christmas Trap was sweet.  A Family for Christmas was good, but I didn't know why they didn't invite the neighbor to their house.

Those kinda crack me up, honestly. I can totally imagine the Lifetime execs asking various production companies "hey, pitch us your Christmas movies for this year's lineup, we'll take a couple, and we'll give you ten bucks and a roll of tape to shoot the other ones in under 10 minutes, okay ?"

That said, I gotta say I liked the Christmas Snowman (better than Snowmance, imo, and the fact that Jesse Hutch was in Snowmance and appeared on tv in the Christmas Snowman cracked me up), and Brendan Fehr's Ugly Christmas Sweater. Probably because both of those were well-cast. The other ones were pretty underwhelming, especially the postman one filmed by David DeCoteau (!!!).

[In2You]

I didn't care for the mini movies I saw. 

I was thinking the other day that's its been awhile since I saw one of those Santa's son or daughter finds romance and saves Christmas movies.  They were pretty popular when I was a kid. 

[twoods]

There was that Lauren Bundy movie last year where she was Santa's daughter and her fiancé finds out. Does that's count?

[In2You]

51 minutes ago, twoods said:

There was that Lauren Bundy movie last year where she was Santa's daughter and her fiancé finds out. Does that's count?

Was that on Hallmark? Cuz I skipped all their movies last year. Did she save Christmas and deliver all the gifts?

[twoods]

Something like that. Look, you didn't even have to watch the movie to know the ending! I think it was on Lifetime.

Watching Hitched for the Holidays right now, and what a great movie. I don't know why there are more Hanukkah movies.

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, twoods said:

I'm struggling with Christmas in Mississippi. So far there isn't an annoying significant other, which always brings down a movie. Maybe it will pick up.

Wes Brown is hot in that "Good ol' Southern Boy" kind of way, but yeah, that story just didn't do it for me, at all. The similarly themed Christmas in the Bayou was a lot better. And I'm pretty positive that was filmed in the same house.

20 hours ago, VMepicgrl said:

He really is smoking hot in that movie. I'm shocked that he's not a frequent Hallmark flyer like Paul Greene and Andrew Walker. Just the presence of him in a mediocre movie would make it better.

Thomas Beaudoin's too hot in a "bad boy" kind of way. Like you would cast the guy as the bad boy that cheats on his girlfriend. In the Christmas Spirit, he's not even really cast as the good guy, either. These Hallmark movies tend to prefer the blandly handsome, All-American relatable guy. (Well, most of these guys are Canadian, but you get my drift.)

He apparently has a digitial platform movie called The Trouble With Mistletoe coming up, but it's on something called passionflix.com.

Edited December 12, 2017 by methodwriter85

[TVFan17]

Speaking of Thomas Beaudoin... It's not a holiday TV movie, but it's a Winterfest movie.  Thomas will be making his Hallmark Channel leading man debut on January 6th, in Love on the Slopes -- http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/love-on-the-slopes

[EyewatchTV211]

2 hours ago, twoods said:

Something like that. Look, you didn't even have to watch the movie to know the ending! I think it was on Lifetime.

Watching Hitched for the Holidays right now, and what a great movie. I don't know why there are more Hanukkah movies.

Agreed. I think I've had a post every year about how easy it would be to make a similar romantic movie with a Hanukkah backdrop. There's a lot of Jews in Hollywood, but I guess not a whole lot are in the mix at Hallmark or the companies producing the movies for the other channels. 

Edited December 12, 2017 by VMepicgrl

[EyewatchTV211]

19 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

Feeling like between The Runaway Christmas Bride and A Royal Christmas Ball, Ion is more than up to the task to try to take that crown from Lifetime. Neither is as bad as My Christmas Prince, cause that's a very low bar, but combined, they are making the case for Ion.

And @In2You, no Ingo isn't passing for anyone's 39. He can barely pass for his real age of 46 if you ask me. He still looks good, but my man seriously needs to take a look at some anti-aging creams and industrial level sunscreen. That skin is looking leathered for real. And don't believe there is one scene where wrinkles on his forehead aren't super prominent. Tara Reid can easily pass for 39 as long as you don't ask yourself too often why her skin looks so plasticky smooth. But she's looking scary thin in this. Faune Chambers looks fab though and in scenes where the camera goes from Tara to Faune, you see what Tara's skin should look like if it was natural.

Sorry for the double post. Was trying to quote two separate comments and messed it up.

Anyway - I agree Ingo cannot pass for 39 and definitely looks on the older side for this character. But the forehead wrinkles actually aren't indicative of age to me. I think that may be an inherited trait. My brother and dad both have those deep wrinkles/ridges in their foreheads. And they've always had it as far back as I can remember. I know my mom used to joke about it at least when my brother was in his 20s, and he's only in his mid-30s now. Their foreheads look better/worse depending on the facial expressions they are making, but it's a defining feature of theirs. 

[MissyPoo]

3 hours ago, twoods said:

There was that Lauren Bundy movie last year where she was Santa's daughter and her fiancé finds out. Does that's count?

 

2 hours ago, twoods said:

Something like that. Look, you didn't even have to watch the movie to know the ending! I think it was on Lifetime.

Watching Hitched for the Holidays right now, and what a great movie. I don't know why there are more Hanukkah movies.

Oh, I think I remember that one! Isn't that the one with Jesse Hutch as the fiance? Becoming Santa or something. I may have spotted it on Lifetime's schedule in a few days. Justin from Naughty or Nice was Jack Frost, I think was his name, Santa's daughter's ex. I was so amused by that than I should have been.

 

2 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

He apparently has a digitial platform movie called The Trouble With Mistletoe coming up, but it's on something called passionflix.com.

1

That's the Netflix-like subscription service for old-school romance movies and new ones adapted from super smexy books. They made a few already, but I heard that the quality wasn't too high. They plan to turn more books into movies in the future. I heard one of its co-founders is Elon Musk's sister.

Here's a promo shot.  

[In2You]

Netflix is throwing shade

[JenMD]

4 hours ago, twoods said:

There was that Lauren Bundy movie last year where she was Santa's daughter and her fiancé finds out. Does that's count?

That's the one with the famous (infamous?) squishy snow!  Best part of the movie, heh.  Actually, I just about died watching Four Christmases and a Wedding as they used a clip from that (the actual squishy snow scene, no less), the 2nd time they did movie night, I think.

I somehow made it through The Christmas Prince, mostly reading my kindle, to be honest.  But it was bad.  So, so bad.  Normally, my sister and I would have given up on something that bad well before the end, but she just kept watching.  I actually turned to her at the end and said something about hoping the young man playing the prince had a back up career.  Acting might not be his thing.  So bad.  The one redeeming quality was seeing Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy together again.  My inner 10 year old might have squeed just a little.  It wasn't quite the level of awesome as seeing the Keatons as parents to Hilarie Burton in Naughty or Nice, but it was still pretty cool.

I admit to being a little puzzled over the hoopla surrounding how bad A Christmas Prince is.  We finally watched it last night and were pretty much entertained throughout.  I mean, it's not great drama, but for a cheesy Christmas movie it worked for me.  Loved the location (and I spent much of the movie trying to figure out if any of the interiors were from Hallmark's A Royal Christmas, it looked familiar), liked the actors (I adored the young actress playing the princess, she was quite good, very natural) and I admit they surprised me at the end with what was on the secret page.  Basically, in the pantheon of bad Christmas movies (genuinely bad), this doesn't even rate for me.  I'd watch it again (not every day, perhaps...).

I do find that the closer we get to Christmas and the more movies I record (poor dvr is begging for mercy), the less patience I have for mediocre movies.  If they don't grab me by the first 15 minutes, pretty much they're toast.  Speaking of bad movies I didn't make it through, what was with the Runaway Christmas Bride with Cindy Busby?  It looked like it was made by a film class, there were some really weird camera angles and such.

Edited December 12, 2017 by JenMD

[In2You]

44 minutes ago, JenMD said:

I admit to being a little puzzled over the hoopla surrounding how bad A Christmas Prince is.  We finally watched it last night and were pretty much entertained throughout.  I mean, it's not great drama, but for a cheesy Christmas movie it worked for me.  Loved the location (and I spent much of the movie trying to figure out if any of the interiors were from Hallmark's A Royal Christmas, it looked familiar), liked the actors (I adored the young actress playing the princess, she was quite good, very natural) and I admit they surprised me at the end with what was on the secret page.  Basically, in the pantheon of bad Christmas movies (genuinely bad), this doesn't even rate for me.  I'd watch it again (not every day, perhaps...).

I do find that the closer we get to Christmas and the more movies I record (poor dvr is begging for mercy), the less patience I have for mediocre movies.  If they don't grab me by the first 15 minutes, pretty much they're toast. 

Both movies filmed in Romania so that's probably why it looked familiar. 

I must agree. I have one more Christmas novel to finish reading but I just can't do these slapped together Christmas movies so close to the actual holiday.

[JasmineFlower]

A Royal Christmas Ball on ION wasn't good and I recommend skipping it. But it probably wouldn't be considered as bad as My Christmas Prince (what little I saw of that was very rough) and possibly not worst than Runaway Christmas Bride, which again, was mighty rough and just as ridiculous. I thought the daughter played by Haley Pullos (Molly, GH) and her Emma Stone looking friend were the best parts of the movie, not great mind you, but not that bad either. I also liked Faune Chambers enough in her role, too over the top at times, but in comparison to Tara, no question that Faune helped those scenes along. Tara didn't know this wasn't Sharknado. If you start at the movie, I think it seems like she's going to be okay, because her first scene was her best scene by a mile. She was more natural, her voice wasn't going off the rails, and just barely anything that was overacting or over the top. But that ended quick. Ingo was decent enough with what he had to deal with, but that wasn't much to put it mildly. His security and staff were highly ridiculous and just an annoyance throughout the entire movie.

The weirdest thing to me was there was a montage closer to the end when Tara and Ingo have cleared things up and realize they were duped and he meets his daughter, but before the ball. And swear to you, there is a montage and music playing in the back, but it's of them in the beginning of the movie and looks they shared and it was just a complete WTF? This was not a flashback to their college days when they met or when the daughter was young or anything like that. Not that it would've made a ton of sense to use, but it would've been something. But no, these were just action shots of when they were talking to each other in one place or the other in the first half of the movie and literally nothing special happened to have this. It's like they felt the need to recap the images we'd seen thus far. I'm SO confused on why they thought this was a good idea, though I do understand the whole movie was a bad idea, but even for this, it stood out as worse than other decisions. Did they need to fill 3 minutes and this was their solution? It was super strange.

[twoods]

Thanks! After all the negative reviews I deleted without watching it. I think I'm getting burned out and have zero tolerance for bad movies. They are usually deleted after 10 minutes this week (last month I gave it 30). I didn't fully watch a single movie that aired this past weekend. I would rather watch Angry Angel for a second time, or MistleTones for the 10th.

[sistersledge]

I caught most of Love at the Christmas Table on Lifetime the other day. I thought it was pretty good! But I also tend to like most of Danica McKellar’s movies. I liked seeing Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) and Lea Thompson too. 

Edited December 12, 2017 by sistersledge

[JAYJAY1979]

I think I liked Will you merry me from almost a decade ago that starred wendie Malick.  I totally saw myself as the Wendie Malick character, who was cynical about Christmas and making wisecracking jokes.  And the scenes where she and the Christmasholic mom were hilarious.  Even though the main story was about their kids getting married...the mom's stole.the movie for me.  A jewish/Christmas movie in one.

[EyewatchTV211]

7 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

A Royal Christmas Ball on ION wasn't good and I recommend skipping it. But it probably wouldn't be considered as bad as My Christmas Prince (what little I saw of that was very rough) and possibly not worst than Runaway Christmas Bride, which again, was mighty rough and just as ridiculous. I thought the daughter played by Haley Pullos (Molly, GH) and her Emma Stone looking friend were the best parts of the movie, not great mind you, but not that bad either. I also liked Faune Chambers enough in her role, too over the top at times, but in comparison to Tara, no question that Faune helped those scenes along. Tara didn't know this wasn't Sharknado. If you start at the movie, I think it seems like she's going to be okay, because her first scene was her best scene by a mile. She was more natural, her voice wasn't going off the rails, and just barely anything that was overacting or over the top. But that ended quick. Ingo was decent enough with what he had to deal with, but that wasn't much to put it mildly. His security and staff were highly ridiculous and just an annoyance throughout the entire movie.

The weirdest thing to me was there was a montage closer to the end when Tara and Ingo have cleared things up and realize they were duped and he meets his daughter, but before the ball. And swear to you, there is a montage and music playing in the back, but it's of them in the beginning of the movie and looks they shared and it was just a complete WTF? This was not a flashback to their college days when they met or when the daughter was young or anything like that. Not that it would've made a ton of sense to use, but it would've been something. But no, these were just action shots of when they were talking to each other in one place or the other in the first half of the movie and literally nothing special happened to have this. It's like they felt the need to recap the images we'd seen thus far. I'm SO confused on why they thought this was a good idea, though I do understand the whole movie was a bad idea, but even for this, it stood out as worse than other decisions. Did they need to fill 3 minutes and this was their solution? It was super strange.

Agree with all. I was surprised I liked the daughter and her friend, but I actually did.  When she is older, she could have potential in these. Tara Reid was terrible.

[methodwriter85]

On 12/11/2017 at 10:50 PM, JenMD said:

I admit to being a little puzzled over the hoopla surrounding how bad A Christmas Prince is.  We finally watched it last night and were pretty much entertained throughout.  I mean, it's not great drama, but for a cheesy Christmas movie it worked for me.  Loved the location (and I spent much of the movie trying to figure out if any of the interiors were from Hallmark's A Royal Christmas, it looked familiar), liked the actors (I adored the young actress playing the princess, she was quite good, very natural) and I admit they surprised me at the end with what was on the secret page.  Basically, in the pantheon of bad Christmas movies (genuinely bad), this doesn't even rate for me.  I'd watch it again (not every day, perhaps...).

I think it's because 1.) it's on Netflix so people can watch it as much as they want, and 2.) it's on Netflix which doesn't have the reputation of wholesome Christmas movies like Hallmark, so it's unexpected. Ben Lamb (the prince) is having fun with it:

[twoods]

For those that are new to cheesy Christmas movies, I really recommend Recipe for a Perfect Christmas. It aired years ago on Lifetime but is more about a daughter-mother relationship, with the love story being intertwined but not taking over. I watch it at least twice a year and it never gets old. 

I need to find out when Love At the Christmas Table is coming on again. I think that was the beginning of the barrage of Danica's Christmas movies, and was nice to watch. I am this close to buying Christmas in Boston, but hoping the price comes down on Amazon. Why can't Freeform play it instead of Christmas with the Kranks for the billionth time?

[topanga]

On 12/10/2017 at 8:14 PM, In2You said:

There was no little girl in My Christmas Prince. Granted I was nodding in and out during it but there were no children. You might be getting it confused with the movie on Netflix. This was My Christmas Prince.

 

On 12/11/2017 at 10:50 PM, JenMD said:

I admit to being a little puzzled over the hoopla surrounding how bad A Christmas Prince is.  We finally watched it last night and were pretty much entertained throughout.  I mean, it's not great drama, but for a cheesy Christmas movie it worked for me.  Loved the location (and I spent much of the movie trying to figure out if any of the interiors were from Hallmark's A Royal Christmas, it looked familiar), liked the actors (I adored the young actress playing the princess, she was quite good, very natural) and I admit they surprised me at the end with what was on the secret page.  Basically, in the pantheon of bad Christmas movies (genuinely bad), this doesn't even rate for me.  I'd watch it again (not every day, perhaps...).

LOL. I didn’t realize there was more than one Christmas Prince movie. Thanks for the info. 

[twoods]

You guys were right about Christmas Solo. I like both leads but was not in the mood for bitchy, angsty teen drama. I ffed to the good parts so watched it in under an hour. I did like the nice girl and her two friends.

I liked UP's "12 Days of Giving" better. It was such an uplifting story. Of course the fiancé was a scroogy bitch. How do these nice people in movies always want to marry someone who is rude and mean, but then "see the light" and dump them. The kid was pretty annoying.

Edited December 14, 2017 by twoods

[Spartan Girl]

ABC aired Olaf's Frozen Adventure tonight. I know people hated having it attached to Coco but on its own on TV it was cute enough.

But seriously, Elsa needs to stop blaming herself for her parents screwing up. Take a tip from your song and let it gooooooooooo.

LOL at Olaf telling Anna, "You're a princess, you dont have to settle."

Edited December 15, 2017 by Spartan Girl

[Suzysite]

On 12/11/2017 at 3:41 PM, twoods said:

I'm struggling with Christmas in Mississippi. So far there isn't an annoying significant other, which always brings down a movie. Maybe it will pick up.

Christmas in Mississippi felt like it was about 4 hours long.  I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen.  So boring.

 

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ABC aired Olaf's Frozen Adventure tonight.

I found this surprisingly cute.   I grinned through the whole thing like a 6 year old.

[twoods]

Finally finished A Christmas Prince and it did pick up halfway through, especially with the twist. I ended up liking it, but Rose is so much better on iZombie so she was a bit disappointing. I really liked the sister.

Saw a preview for the new Netflix movie Christmas Inheritance, and I don't mean to be shallow but wish that the lead actor was better looking.  I liked the "other boyfriend" a lot better, but it doesn't look very good.

[In2You]

Christmas Princess  was a nice break from the similar shallow small town girl finds love at Christmas tales. Bonus that it was based on a true story. It's always nice to get a reminder around this time that there's someone always worse off than you to make you really appreciate what you have.  I even got a little teary eyed watching some of those flashbacks.

And was nice to see her seeking counseling to do with her feelings. 

[kirinan]

I just saw my favorite new Christmas movie so far this year, Snowed Inn on Lifetime. It might have just been because Andrew Walker was in it and I really like him, but I enjoyed that one more than I have any of the new movies this season. Yes, I could sit here and pick it apart because it had so many of the elements of the Hallmark Christmas movie drinking game (precocious child, orphaned heroine, jerk boyfriend, Christmas morning deadline, Santa and Mrs. Claus), but what can I say? For some reason, I connected with this one. Monday at 8 p.m. ET they're showing the director's cut, which appears to be 10 minutes longer. And I will be in front of the TV again; that's how much I liked it.

Even though this was on Lifetime, Andrew Walker is fast adding himself to my Hallmark Holy Trinity (Antonio Cupo, Paul Greene, Victor Webster). In fact, after this movie I think I may now have a Hallmark Holy Quaternity. Or maybe I should call it a Cable RomCom Holy Quaternity.

[JAYJAY1979]

I just watched A Christmas Cruise on ION.. holy soap opera alumni!  We have Vivica A Fox, Kristoff St John, Jessica Morris, Rib Hillis, and Jason Cook in this particular movie... but I like that both leads were African America, over 40, and showing that love and finding ones path in life isn't just for the under 30 crowd.  It's interesting that both performers played love interests back in the early 90s on Generations and have reunited as love interests in a holiday tv movie.