Hallmark Movies: Small Town Royalty Magically Celebrating Rekindled Love! - General Discussion

[Shanna Marie]

Thanks to whoever recommended Fir Crazy a few weeks ago. I DVRd due to that recommendation and watched tonight, and it's one of the more fun Hallmark movies. I was absolutely stunned by the fact that the heroine didn't end up moving back to the tree farm with the usual "small-town/farm life is superior" message. I liked the cast, and they used enough either stock photography or second unit to really make it feel like it was set in New York. No fake snow, but it still seemed to be winter. The one quibble was the fake drama at the very end when we're apparently supposed to feel like it's a massive tragedy that the guy has other plans on Christmas Eve, like she's lost her entire chance at happiness. It was almost like they had five more minutes to kill in the movie after everything else was wrapped up, so they threw that in.

I was surprised to hear that Miss Christmas turned out to be pretty good. I noped out of that one about fifteen minutes into it. I just couldn't buy that so many people cared that the public Christmas tree was perfect, to the point that the person responsible for choosing it got fan mail, and the final straw for me was that we were apparently supposed to think this guy was a jerk (who would see the error of his ways, of course) because he wasn't willing to donate a tree that was in his lawn and probably took decades to grow.

Something I found myself thinking during Fir Crazy: a lot of these movies are billed as romantic comedies, but the humor usually consists of a woman wearing footwear inappropriate to the situation. It seems that a lot of these movies include a "comic" scene in which a woman teeters around in stilettos in the country or while having to do physical labor.

[KLovestoShop]

Being born and raised in Toledo, I chuckled when they showed the skyline of Cleveland in Christmas Train.  Reminded me of the movie Major League that was supposed to be about the Cleveland Indians, but the entire movie was shot at the Milwaukee Brewers stadium.   Even all the outdoor street scenes were Mikwaukee. 

I would love to ask Lacey if she feels silly when they wrote her character in A Royal Christmas as such a bumbling fool.  I mean really, just because she’s a commoner doesn’t mean she calls a Queen Mrs, drinks out of a finger bowl and leaves her clothes strewn all over her Gold Room.  And don’t get me started on how she and her boyfriend were making faces and such at the Guards.  The production value for this movie was also pretty low. The ballroom was tiny, for a 110 room castle, and the Christmas decorations in the castle were beyond tacky with the cheap gold tinsel. 

[AnnaRose]

3 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

Being born and raised in Toledo, I chuckled when they showed the skyline of Cleveland in Christmas Train.  Reminded me of the movie Major League that was supposed to be about the Cleveland Indians, but the entire movie was shot at the Milwaukee Brewers stadium.   Even all the outdoor street scenes were Mikwaukee.

I just rewatched The Christmas Train before deleting it, and I finally saw what y'all were talking about regarding the Toledo/Cleveland mix up.  I think I fast-forwarded past it the first time I watched.  Yep, that was definitely Cleveland.  They really should just change the text from Toledo to Cleveland in those few frames.  Such a careless mistake.

[ButterQueen]

On 12/7/2017 at 0:01 PM, AnnaRose said:

Do you remember what was happening in that scene?  I don't recall seeing the Cleveland night skyline.  (They were in Chicago when they crashed the wedding reception, right?)  I will probably watch again before I delete The Christmas Train from my DVR.

I watched it last night and enjoyed it, probably largely because I enjoy train travel, although I've never traveled on Amtrak in the US.  (I would like to in the future if the times and stations work out.)

My only complaint was about Joan Cusack.  Her constant weird facial expressions were a huge distraction every time she was on screen.  I couldn't tell what thoughts or feelings she was trying to convey through her 'acting'. (Overacting?)  Her face just seemed oddly spastic to me.  Was she always like that in her movies?  Is constantly screwing up her mouth and making strange faces shorthand for "Look how quirky I am!"?

Joan Cusak looked horrible in The Christmas Train.  I liked it ok, but Joan's facial expressions were so over the top.  I was very disappointed in the ending.  So, was Joan's character not an actress?  Her situation seemed to be real with her son surprising her at the station.

Lacey Chabert's character is always the same in every movie.

Edited December 9, 2017 by ButterQueen

[AnnaRose]

2 hours ago, ButterQueen said:

Joan Cusak looked horrible in The Christmas Train.  I liked it ok, but Joan's facial expressions were so over the top.  I was very disappointed in the ending.  So, was Joan's character not an actress?  Her situation seemed to be real with her son surprising her at the station.

I believe Joan's character was not an actor - she was legitimately some sort of law enforcement.  (I forget the exact term she used. Some kind of Marshall maybe?)

6 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

I would love to ask Lacey if she feels silly when they wrote her character in A Royal Christmas as such a bumbling fool.  I mean really, just because she’s a commoner doesn’t mean she calls a Queen Mrs, drinks out of a finger bowl and leaves her clothes strewn all over her Gold Room.  And don’t get me started on how she and her boyfriend were making faces and such at the Guards.  The production value for this movie was also pretty low. The ballroom was tiny, for a 110 room castle, and the Christmas decorations in the castle were beyond tacky with the cheap gold tinsel. 

I just watched Royal Christmas and I agree with you about Lacey's character, it was a bit much. The small ballroom and the Christmas decorations didn't bother me though.  I think it all looked more castle-like than I was expecting for a low budget movie.  The cast was good and overall it was a pleasant, feel-good romantic fairy tale.

[twoods]

That Royal movie has been one of the better royalty themed movies in the past few years, but it was because of all the cast besides Lacey. She was definitely the worst part of the movie, and her character was so annoying and whiny. He was too good for her.

[KLovestoShop]

9 hours ago, twoods said:

That Royal movie has been one of the better royalty themed movies in the past few years, but it was because of all the cast besides Lacey. She was definitely the worst part of the movie, and her character was so annoying and whiny. He was too good for her.

You know, you're really totally right.  Overall, it was a good movie, and I loved the side stories like the young wait staff and the Baroness who adopted the orphan.  But Lacey's character was annoying.  

[Callasin]

On 11/27/2017 at 4:19 PM, VartanFan said:

How about....um...is her name Taylor?  She was in the diner movie with Andrew Walker, the ice sculpting one, and the art/art curator??? I"m too lazy to look her up.  

 

ETA - I know this is like asking the sun not to shine - but I'd appreciate at least a little cursory research on the dialog.  In Finding Santa, they're listening to a weather/traffic report and they talk about how 95 is closed from Hartford to Boston.  95 doesn't go through Hartford or anywhere near Worcester....if they were stuck in Worcester (and the C is silent), they would have been on 84 to 90 (Mass Pike). 

I live in Worcester and called my husband in to see this part.  We got a good laugh out of it.

[Atlanta]

On 12/1/2017 at 7:30 AM, Dejana said:

She has a history with Hallmark, too, so they could make a whole day of it if they wanted: a mix of princess movies and Meghan's old movies leading up to the premiere of the Harry/Meghan movie. Lifetime did a William & Kate movie so if there are dueling takes on the story, it'll be fun to compare.

What Hallmark stuff has she been in?

[Dejana]

21 minutes ago, Atlanta said:

What Hallmark stuff has she been in?

Dater's Handbook and When Sparks Fly 

[twoods]

I recommend Dater's Handbook. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Meghan and the lead, and it was pretty funny. When Sparks Fly was okay.

[In2You]

Does anyone have Hallmark's 3rd channel that was launched a couple months ago Hallmark Drama?

[AnnaRose]

On 11/29/2017 at 10:53 PM, JasmineFlower said:

...I'm Not Ready for Christmas is kind of a Liar, Liar but at Christmas with a female lead. So not the same kind of a magical component as Naughty or Nice, but something else is at work getting her to constantly tell the truth...

I ended up recording it again to see if it got any better, and it did.  I watched the whole thing and it was okay - not one of my favorites though.  (I've mostly just been watching the best of the best Hallmark Christmas movies though, so my standards might be a little higher because of that.)

I also watched A Very Merry Mix-Up which also stars Alicia Witt, and I liked that movie a lot more.  She had very nice chemistry with the romantic lead, and I loved the whole 'wrong' family (especially the mom/Penny.)  They were so awesome and that entire part of the movie was like a big Christmas hug. 

I also thought Alicia was overall softer and more appealing in A Very Merry Mix-Up compared to I'm Not Ready for Christmas, and the mistaken identity thing was more believable than I expected.

The only movie I watched that I really didn't like very much was A Bride for Christmas, but I basically should have know I wouldn't care for it just due to the premise.  Even though the leads had nice chemistry, I couldn't get past the wager part of it.  What kind of crap person makes a bet that he can get some girl he hasn't even met yet to say yes to a marriage proposal? 

And they know each other for about two weeks and she proposes... and at the end they rush the wedding.  (I'm not even sure if it's supposed to have been three weeks by then.) 

And her mom/family act like it's the worst thing imaginable for her to not be married, which offends me as a single person. 

Here we have a young woman who found it impossible to say no to public proposals even though she didn't want to marry the three previous guys... so what does her family do?  They get a minister and all of her family and friends at their home on Christmas so they can surprise her with a proposal in front of everyone... and an insta-wedding that's all ready to go before she can back out... and this with the guy who she just recently found out had made a bet a few weeks earlier that he could get some girl to say yes to a proposal by Christmas.  Thanks Mom and Dad - way to look out for your daughter!  {{rolls eyes}}

I was so annoyed by the end of that movie.

Edited December 10, 2017 by AnnaRose
Typo: very is not spelled veru

[twoods]

I think you nailed why I didn't like Bride for Christmas. The wager was weird, and a big side eye to the lead having three engagements. I liked her sister a lot better.

Fingers crossed that Christmas Cottage is decent. I've liked both leads in prior movies, but it seems like another generic holiday movie. 

So far another annoying, uptight lead who has the nice and easygoing ex boyfriend fall in love with her again despite her being crazy. How disappointing.

Edited December 10, 2017 by twoods

[Irlandesa]

5 minutes ago, twoods said:

Fingers crossed that Christmas Cottage is decent. I've liked both leads in prior movies, but it seems like another generic holiday movie. 

I would've liked the movie more if the ex didn't go really hard on how wrong she was for focusing on work as much as she did or how awful it was that she was decorating a Christmas tree in all white.  After that horrible beginning, it got better and was rather enjoyable.  Then again, I was baking and the movie didn't serve as my only source of entertainment.

[twoods]

Thank you. I was hoping it would get better and was giving it another thirty minutes. Good to know that the annoying lead tones it down.

Edited because I checked out as soon as the cliche plot of boyfriend making a surprise appearance came on. I ended up watching the last half of Nine Lives of Christmas since it was on (still love it after the 7th time) and then part of 12 Gifts of Christmas with Katrina Law. This movie was better the second time around, but maybe because there have been so many Hallmark duds lately that  12 Gifts was much better in comparison.

Edited December 10, 2017 by twoods

[methodwriter85]

I wonder if Hallmark has considered pairing up Andrew Walker with Candace Cameron Bure yet. He seems pretty much the male favorite lead, and she's pretty much the female lead. I don't know if they'd work together, which is probably why it hasn't happened. (I would love to see him do another movie with Arielle Kebbel.) I would be kind of down for Candace to try and get John Brotherton cast as a her hunky Everyman in whatever next holiday movie she's doing. She has pretty good chemistry with him on Fuller House.

Hmm. I do wonder how Andrew Walker would do with Lacy Chabert. That might be a better fit.

Andrew Walker actually did this interview with a blogger and very, very enthusiastic fan. They go on quite a bit about how he and Nikki Deloach basically did back-to-back movies. They probably could carry a t.v. series, if Hallmark likes him and Nikki that much they cast them in back-to-back movies.

I really like Trevor Donovan, so I watched his newest Christmas movie where he's a celeb helping his sister plan her wedding while falling in love with her wedding planner. I don't know though- the female lead left me cold for some reason.

Edited December 10, 2017 by methodwriter85

[Jaded]

6 hours ago, In2You said:

Does anyone have Hallmark's 3rd channel that was launched a couple months ago Hallmark Drama?

I don't and haven't come across anyone online who does. I've put in random zip codes from bigger cities in different states in their channel finder to see if I could find anywhere that had it and haven't found anywhere yet. Here's their schedule if anyone else is interested too. Right now they seem to show older Hallmark movies and marathons of Touched By An Angel, Little House on the Prairie, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and 7th Heaven. Seeing some of the older and better movies listed on the new channels website made me feel kinda sad and frustrated comparing them to what we're "treated" to now. 

[LegallyRed2]

Christmas in Evergreen -- Oy...Ashley Williams smiled throughout the entire movie. Just a big giant Joker smile. The daughter annoyed the cr*p out of me - the premise was ridiculous - no daughter of that age is going to be that gung ho on Christmas exactly one year after her mother died (or be so willing to accept a mother figure in her life.) Holly Robinson Peete's 'anxiety attack' went away the minute that guy walked into the room and the two people just realizing they are wearing the same Christmas sweater only AFTER they sat down at the table warranted huge laughs from the husband. Plus...the helicopter landing cracked me up --- of course they flew the ex in on a helicopter. It was all way in left field and didn't work for me like some of the other left fielders did. Meh.

[JasmineFlower]

13 hours ago, In2You said:

Does anyone have Hallmark's 3rd channel that was launched a couple months ago Hallmark Drama?

I dug around closer to when the channel launched and found that it is only available in 5 million households right now. And not that Hallmark bothered to say anything at all after getting hundreds of "where is this channel available" questions on their Facebook page, but it's very clear this is a soft launch of the channel and that they only put it out to a few smaller cable providers. So no sizable providers with names you recognize have the channel yet. Hallmark seems to be targeting significantly more adoption of the channel by the end of the first quarter of 2018. So, starting even in January, hopefully more people will start finding this among their channel lineup.

[MissyPoo]

13 hours ago, twoods said:

I recommend Dater's Handbook. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Meghan and the lead, and it was pretty funny. When Sparks Fly was okay.

I so agree on Dater's Handbook. The diner disaster date kills me every time. Good movie. On the other hand, when Sparks Fly bugged me for so many reasons.

 

8 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I really like Trevor Donovan, so I watched his newest Christmas movie where he's a celeb helping his sister plan her wedding while falling in love with her wedding planner. I don't know though- the female lead left me cold for some reason.

 

Agreed. I wanted to like it, but the lead chickie has that crazy Lifetime look for like the whole movie. Even the Mr. noticed it in passing when I was first watching it. Now he calls the movie Axe Murderer For Christmas. It's sad how I can't unsee that now and how much it fits.

[ButterQueen]

I do not like Alicia Witt in any movie she stars in.

I want them to show Comfort & Joy this season.  I did enjoy the copycat Family For Christmas with Lacey Chabert.  

[methodwriter85]

17 minutes ago, MissyPoo said:

Agreed. I wanted to like it, but the lead chickie has that crazy Lifetime look for like the whole movie. Even the Mr. noticed it in passing when I was first watching it. Now he calls the movie Axe Murderer For Christmas. It's sad how I can't unsee that now and how much it fits.

Nailed it. The female lead looked exactly like she should have an evil bitch trying to steal the content husband of the Lifetime movie heroine, and coming up with increasingly crazy schemes to do it.

 

8 minutes ago, ButterQueen said:

I want them to show Comfort & Joy this season.  I did enjoy the copycat Family For Christmas with Lacey Chabert.  

Comfort and Joy might be getting too old. It came out 14 years ago. Lifetime doesn't seem to play any of their Christmas movies from the 80's or 90's, so it might be starting to cut out the stuff from the early 2000's now, too.

Daphne Zuniga did one with a similar premise 7 years ago called A Family Thanksgiving, where she wakes up married with kids to super-hot DILF Dan Payne leading up to Thanksgiving.  Although in this one, the kids and the husband aren't really perfect, so she sets up goals for them to meet until they are. But in the process, she learns about how she can be a better person, too. Also, Cher shows up as the Spirit of Thanksgiving.

Also, I finished A Christmas Prince. My god, that was hilarious in the best kind of way.

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 11/27/2017 at 9:38 PM, Irlandesa said:

Switched for Christmas  I may have fast forwarded through parts of this one.  I don't remember.  I don't have the Candace hate that many here do but if it weren't for the clothing (and not even that at times) I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two sisters.  Their character biographical details may have been different (single mom vs just single) but nothing else about them was.  They should have either cast twins or a soap actress who can play twins in this role.

 

On 11/30/2017 at 10:35 PM, Kaoteek said:

Man, Switched for Christmas really was blander than anything I expected.

 

 

On 12/1/2017 at 5:13 PM, MissyPoo said:

I tried watching Switched for Christmas on premiere day but checked out about 10/20 minutes in. I chalked it up to overload but left it on the dvr. From what little I saw, it felt just as the previews hinted at: CCB didn't have the chops to pull off two distinct personalities. it felt like it was a xerox copy of herself in the scenes. I went back to watch it again recently and even on mute, the Mr noticed the same thing. It was just there and half the time I had no idea who was supposed to be who because they seemed like the same person. But yea, bland pretty much describes it.

It was almost physically painful trying to identify which sister was which even when it should have been completely obvious that Chris was in the city and Kate was in the small town. I know based on the text that Chris made the office party warmer and more inviting than the cold business people would have thought of on their own, and of course she added decorations to Kate's condo, but I was surprised that even when she was alone in the condo it didn't seem that Chris relaxed into her own wardrobe and style (especially since they had established that apparently Chris couldn't fit into Kate's pants). Likewise there didn't seem to be any subtextual markers that Kate relaxed as Kate -- if it wasn't in the text, like her being bad at making eggs and bacon for breakfast and serving the kids smoothies instead, it didn't get reflected. I wish that when the father had come in and called Kate Kate when she was pretending to be Chris that he had actually been able to come up with a characteristic of Kate's that had given her away to him, not just the intuitive "I'm your father" that we got.

I think I liked Chris' love interest (ETA: and the fact that Chris confessed the switch to him as soon as he made a serious move) better than Kate's. But I don't think I ever understood the part of the plot where Kate and Chris had switched in the past on some occasion that related to the same guy who turned out to be Kate's present love interest. It turned out that the reason he had stood her up was because he saw one of them kissing Chris' then-future, now-ex husband, correct? Was it Kate (and if her appointment with Tom was so important, why would she have switched with her sister at that moment), or was it Chris (in which case what was the relevance of the past Tom-related switch that they mentioned while deciding to make this switch)?

Edited December 10, 2017 by SomeTameGazelle

[Kaoteek]

I didn't expect much from The Christmas Cottage (I watched it for Steve Lund, and because the lead didn't ring a bell - only later did I realize that she made absolutely no impression on me during A Royal Winter), and yet, it managed to underwhelm.

My main problem with it is that it just felt like a "let's air this one in July or October" Christmas movie (you know, the bland ones with smaller budgets, basic premises, an untested lead or two, a stock rival and nothing particularly remarkable about them), shot and conceived on auto-pilot, without much effort given to the production values (as in "- hey, they're trapped in a snowstorm, let's not show the storm or the snow, it's too expensive", "- hey, there is obvious artificial snow/foam bubbling and dripping from those trees we shot in close up, you think we should try to hide them, or something ? - Naaaah.", "hey, we don't have enough pine & fir trees wreathes and garlands, I think we should send an intern cut the red cedar hedges outside, it's green, it will work", and so on...)

So, not much worth the time, here, except the likeable leads, and the strangely bubbly bride.

[In2You]

I zoned in and out of boring Christmas Encore.

[anniebird]

On 12/8/2017 at 9:10 PM, ButterQueen said:

Lacey Chabert's character is always the same in every movie.

As is her acting.

[EyewatchTV211]

They are repeating Crown for Christmas, so I left it on while finishing dinner. One little part that amused me was when Allie and Fergus were pulling up to the castle and Allie thinks the line up of servants is there to greet her, and Fergus says, "Tragically, they're not for you." Or something like that. The tragically part amused me. 

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, In2You said:

I zoned in and out of boring Christmas Encore.

I found myself really liking that movie.  I liked the city location and thought Maggie and Brennan had good chemistry. That goes a long way for me when it comes to enjoying movies. 

But the fact that you differ is why I had to smile when I read this post by @Shanna Marie and saw "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."

Here we all are, hoping for the best but ready to snark.  I think we'd consider ourselves discerning viewers and yet there's almost always a difference in opinion about the movies after they air. 

[JAYJAY1979]

6 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

 

 

It was almost physically painful trying to identify which sister was which even when it should have been completely obvious that Chris was in the city and Kate was in the small town. I know based on the text that Chris made the office party warmer and more inviting than the cold business people would have thought of on their own, and of course she added decorations to Kate's condo, but I was surprised that even when she was alone in the condo it didn't seem that Chris relaxed into her own wardrobe and style (especially since they had established that apparently Chris couldn't fit into Kate's pants). Likewise there didn't seem to be any subtextual markers that Kate relaxed as Kate -- if it wasn't in the text, like her being bad at making eggs and bacon for breakfast and serving the kids smoothies instead, it didn't get reflected. I wish that when the father had come in and called Kate Kate when she was pretending to be Chris that he had actually been able to come up with a characteristic of Kate's that had given her away to him, not just the intuitive "I'm your father" that we got.

I think I liked Chris' love interest (ETA: and the fact that Chris confessed the switch to him as soon as he made a serious move) better than Kate's. But I don't think I ever understood the part of the plot where Kate and Chris had switched in the past on some occasion that related to the same guy who turned out to be Kate's present love interest. It turned out that the reason he had stood her up was because he saw one of them kissing Chris' then-future, now-ex husband, correct? Was it Kate (and if her appointment with Tom was so important, why would she have switched with her sister at that moment), or was it Chris (in which case what was the relevance of the past Tom-related switch that they mentioned while deciding to make this switch)?

If they ever want to do a twin switching movie again... they should hire Anne Heche to play the part since she excelled at playing twins.. and twins that were so different that you could instantly tell who was who.

 

I was watching Ion movies today and I was curious if CCB would be opposed to doing a holiday movie for that channel since she mentioned that most of her movies film outside of California.. and ION holiday movies usually film in California.. and they seem like fairly tame movies that wouldn't make her wince.  Plus, she has a built in following and ION could always use a boost.

[methodwriter85]

2 minutes ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

If they ever want to do a twin switching movie again... they should hire Anne Heche to play the part since she excelled at playing twins.. and twins that were so different that you could instantly tell who was who.

 

I was watching Ion movies today and I was curious if CCB would be opposed to doing a holiday movie for that channel since she mentioned that most of her movies film outside of California.. and ION holiday movies usually film in California.. and they seem like fairly tame movies that wouldn't make her wince.  Plus, she has a built in following and ION could always use a boost.

She can't. Candance Cameron Bure is under a movie contract with Hallmark. It's like a vestige of the old studio system. It's why you don't see Kellie Martin or Lacey Chabert in anything but Hallmark movies now, either.

Ion probably can't afford her, anyway.

I do think there are some free floaters- Marla Solokoff seems to be able to go between Hallmark and Ion, but she doesn't work as much as CCB does.

[In2You]

ION doesn't produce their own movies. Outside companies do and they just buy the rights to distribute them on TV.

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 minute ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

If they ever want to do a twin switching movie again... they should hire Anne Heche to play the part since she excelled at playing twins.. and twins that were so different that you could instantly tell who was who.

I'm an Ellen Wheeler girl myself. :) But the key to playing twins is having the ability to give them different characters and motivations even though they look the same -- and in the switch scenario, being able to play the distinctions between twin A as herself, twin B as herself, plus twin A impersonating twin B and twin B impersonating twin A.  CCB wouldn't even have needed to put on the impersonation layer all the time, since Tom didn't know Chris-as-Chris and City Love Interest (Greg? Gary?) liked the Chris personality more than the Kate personality.

Since all the Marleys (who flourished in the late 80s/early90s) must be at least middle-aged by now, we need to look to a younger generation of actors who can pull this kind of thing off -- Tatiana Maslany obviously left everyone else in the dust with all the characters she had to play in Orphan Black, so maybe it's not too much to hope that there are people coming up who can handle just a single pair of twins.

[Kaoteek]

Didn't hate Christmas Encore, but it was nonetheless a mixed bag as far as i'm concerned.

On one hand I liked the fact that it wasn't your typical little town/Christmas obsessed/romance focused Hallmark tv movie ; I liked the cast, esp. Maggie (which reminds me I haven't watched the Psych special, gotta fix that) ; and overall, it was an okay story in an unusual setting for Hallmark.

And on the other hand, I must admit I just don't really care about Off-Broadway/the theater and the plight of the struggling actress. It's just a world that doesn't appeal to me, especially given the unavoidable limitations and tropes of the Hallmark format. Also, the first half-hour or so felt pretty slow & a tad on the bland side, so... meh.

[Shanna Marie]

Finally catching up on the DVR full of movies, and I kind of liked A Gift to Remember (I think that was the title -- they tend to blur -- the one about the guy with amnesia). Yeah, there's yet another business event being held on Christmas Eve night, but I guess we just have to accept that this comes with the territory in the universe where these movies take place. But the outcome actually surprised me -- no, not the couple getting together, which is kind of a duh, but when they started with the mention of the rival bookstore, I thought they were going to do a You've Got Mail thing and the guy was going to turn out to be from the rival bookstore, who was looking through their windows to spy on them. They'd fall in love, then when they learned who he really was, there would be drama, since his bookstore would be putting hers out of business. And they went in a totally different direction.

As much as they glorify the small towns, the urban settings seem to work best on these budgets because they look less fake. A couple of stock or second unit establishing shots of the real city in winter, then focus on the one or two streets they're shooting on, without the need for the snow blankets and other fake scenery. Just assume the streets and sidewalks have been cleared, put the cast in coats, and you can't tell it was shot in summer. In the small towns, they have to roll out the white blankets on the grass, and then there are the cotton balls stuck in trees that are fully leafed out. I felt the same way about Fir Crazy, where there was nothing in the city setting that threw me out of the illusion that it was winter.

[sistersledge]

Can we talk about Sharing Christmas? The whole premise annoyed me. I don’t even know where to begin. I’m sorry, but a couple retires from their Christmas Shop a month before Christmas? Wouldn’t they do that after? And it bugged me that the mother (who looked more like a grandmother) was over acting the whole time and the dad was made to be a dummy (but I get it, they were comedy relief I suppose). Also there is no way a small shop tucked away in a mall on the upper west side would A. Exist and B. Somehow manage to stay open for 40 years. Everyone else seemed to understand that businesses come and go and if you don’t change with the times you lose out. I’m sorry people lose businesses but it happens all the time and there’s no way a holiday shop would last that long anyway (especially without a website). Maybe I could buy if it were located in the village but not on the upper west side. The male lead seemed like a dweeb and OF COURSE his millionaire father swoops in at the last second. I was hopIng she would have lost it (like You’ve Got Mail) and learned to move on, open something new, work at the library... but it was not to be. She definitely made it seem like she only liked him if he could save her store. Annoying.

[sacrebleu]

Quote

Comfort and Joy might be getting too old. It came out 14 years ago. Lifetime doesn't seem to play any of their Christmas movies from the 80's or 90's, so it might be starting to cut out the stuff from the early 2000's now, too.

 

that's a shame Comfort and Joy, and that Linda Hamilton Home for Christmas are two of my faves.

[MissyPoo]

16 hours ago, forumfish said:

Halfway watched tonight's Karen Kingsbury's Maggie's Christmas Miracle on HMM -- what is it with the authors who have to have their name attached to the title? Anyway, I don't care for Luke what's-his-name but I like the female lead enough, so I watched a bit. The "twist" at the end was too far-fetched for me. 

 

 

 

I dug this one but I have to admit, my "yayness" sort of died a little when the twist came up. I was kind of hoping it was a completely new beginning for her but then Hallmark "noped!" me. Not sure if it was originally in the book or just the movie version but it got a little cliche at that point. I wouldn't kick it out of bed if it came again though.

 

3 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

I thought they were going to do a You've Got Mail thing and the guy was going to turn out to be from the rival bookstore, who was looking through their windows to spy on them. They'd fall in love, then when they learned who he really was, there would be drama, since his bookstore would be putting hers out of business. And they went in a totally different direction.

*Hallmark movie exec makes notes for next year's lineup.* Hehe. I can still see them doing a version of this to recycle for new movies in the future.

 

2 hours ago, sistersledge said:

Can we talk about Sharing Christmas? The whole premise annoyed me. I don’t even know where to begin. I’m sorry, but a couple retires from their Christmas Shop a month before Christmas? Wouldn’t they do that after? And it bugged me that the mother (who looked more like a grandmother) was over acting the whole time and the dad was made to be a dummy (but I get it, they were comedy relief I suppose). Also there is no way a small shop tucked away in a mall on the upper west side would A. Exist and B. Somehow manage to stay open for 40 years. Everyone else seemed to understand that businesses come and go and if you don’t change with the times you lose out. I’m sorry people lose businesses but it happens all the time and there’s no way a holiday shop would last that long anyway (especially without a website). Maybe I could buy if it were located in the village but not on the upper west side. The male lead seemed like a dweeb and OF COURSE his millionaire father swoops in at the last second. I was hopIng she would have lost it (like You’ve Got Mail) and learned to move on, open something new, work at the library... but it was not to be. She definitely made it seem like she only liked him if he could save her store. Annoying.

4

Yes! This whole movie had me scratching my head and I completely forgot the parts you mentioned (except the grandmother mother part). I was stuck on the whole "I'm here to close your business down" "Cool! Come work in my store!" "Okay!" aspect and the delayed angry to love scenario but they seemed to dive right into it. It started off interesting though before they lost the pot. 

 

I'm debating on watching the Reindeer Lodge one. The two leads are annoying me already for some reason. And Christmas Connection looks like the usual non-Christmas person gets sucked into small-town single dad and kids massive christmas overload movie. (Who am I kidding? I'll probably be sitting there front and center with my cocoa).

I too am bummed over no Comfort & Joy this year. Not even on FYI. :-/ I thought I taped Christmas Wedding but Lifetime must have done a bait and switch on their schedule. Argh.

Edited December 11, 2017 by MissyPoo

[scenicbyway]

3 hours ago, sistersledge said:

Can we talk about Sharing Christmas? The whole premise annoyed me. I don’t even know where to begin. I’m sorry, but a couple retires from their Christmas Shop a month before Christmas? Wouldn’t they do that after? And it bugged me that the mother (who looked more like a grandmother) was over acting the whole time and the dad was made to be a dummy (but I get it, they were comedy relief I suppose). Also there is no way a small shop tucked away in a mall on the upper west side would A. Exist and B. Somehow manage to stay open for 40 years. Everyone else seemed to understand that businesses come and go and if you don’t change with the times you lose out. I’m sorry people lose businesses but it happens all the time and there’s no way a holiday shop would last that long anyway (especially without a website). Maybe I could buy if it were located in the village but not on the upper west side. The male lead seemed like a dweeb and OF COURSE his millionaire father swoops in at the last second. I was hopIng she would have lost it (like You’ve Got Mail) and learned to move on, open something new, work at the library... but it was not to be. She definitely made it seem like she only liked him if he could save her store. Annoying.

I hated this movie!  When I saw the Dad in the first scene or two, I thought, ok, that's the love interest.  THEN we find out he's the dad and married to a much older woman?  That was such and odd pairing.  But seriously, who retires from a Christmas store the month before Christmas?  I lasted long enough for the guy to be assigned to the mall and somehow end up working in her shop, while he was supposed to just hang out at the mall because his firm was closing it in 2 weeks.   What the?

I watched the last 15 minutes of it today, because I needed some kind of redeeming resolution, but it didn't come.   The guy's dad swoops in and buys the building?  Wasn't it already sold to the developer lady?  Maybe he owned the real estate firm?  The love interest gives up his lucrative career to work in a Christmas store permanently with his future in laws and 2 other people?  The place barely had any inventory, how would 6 people survive on selling a couple of ornaments a day in New York?

After turning Sharing Christmas off last night part way through, I did watch Christmas at Holly Lodge.  I felt real sympathy for the main character, especially in the ending finding out what her parents had done.  But I thought the leads needed more on screen time together, in order to establish a romance.

[Guest]

On 12/7/2017 at 7:56 PM, Marsupial said:

 

Crown for Christmas: Yay, I finally watched this and really enjoyed it, it certainly lived up to the rave reviews here. I normally don't love the actress who was in it, but she really grew on me in this story. I ended up very charmed by everyone. Theodora was a delight, the King was just what a king should be, and the little love story with the two people who worked for the King was a sweet 

I watched this today and came back to this thread specifically to talk about how much I loved it.  Was it super predictable? YES. But did I enjoy every second of it? Also a resounding yes. One of the best ones I’ve watched in ages.

[In2You]

Caught a little bit of Alicia Witt's movie while at my aunt's house. White Christmases are rare for NYC so what was with all the extremely fake looking snow? They shouldn't even have shown that scene with the view because the Chrysler Building was obvious green screen.  Even with the stock footage it didn't remotely resemble NYC during Christmastime. The dialog was awful and she does this weird thing with her aw while reciting her lines. Did anyone read the book that it's based off of? I saw mixed reviews on the book. Did they make alot of references to The Mistletoe Promise in the movie?

Edited December 12, 2017 by In2You

[TVFan17]

It's hard to believe there are only about 3 weeks left of Christmas movies, and only a handful of new movie premieres remaining.  Time has zoomed by at lightning speed.

Looking ahead to some of what is coming up in Hallmark Land in the first part of 2018....

 

The January/Winterfest event has some interesting options:

 

--Love on the Slopes - starring Katrina Bowden and Thomas Beaudoin (they are each making their Hallmark debut)

--Frozen in Love - with Rachael Leigh Cook and Niall Matter

--One Winter Weekend (also known as Snowbound) - with Taylor Cole and Jack Turner (who are reuniting after starring together in last year's My Summer Prince)

--The Heart of the Mountain - with Kristy Swanson and Dean Cain

 

The Countdown to Valentine's Day (although I saw something in a Wall Street Journal article to make me think that Hallmark might be renaming the Valentine event to something else in 2018?) is supposedly going to include these movies (these are working titles, which could change):

 

--Room for Romance --with Lacey Chabert and Andrew Walker

--Valentine's Gala -- with Danica McKellar and Cameron Mathison

--Cooking with Love -- with Ali Liebert, Brett Dalton and Kimberley Sustad

--The Wedding March 3:  A Valentine Wedding -- with the same cast from the first 2 Wedding March movies

--*Untitled* (and not yet filmed) movie starring Rachel Boston and Daniel Lissing

 

There are 3 other movies that have been filmed -- supposedly for Hallmark -- but it's unclear if they will premiere during the Valentine/February event, or carry into March, or air at some other time.  They might even end up on the Hallmark Movies Now streaming app if not on one of the main channels.   They are:

--Valentine's Again -- this one stars Nicky Whelan, Greg Vaughan and Marina Sirtis;  it was filmed in Bulgaria one full year ago and was mysteriously removed from the Countdown to Valentine's Day 2017 line-up, even after it was announced by Hallmark.  It has, apparently, been shown in Europe, however.  Now that Nicky is starring in the upcoming Romance at Reindeer Lodge, I wonder if Valentine's Again will finally premiere in America in 2018.

--Family Royal - with Cindy Busby, Andrew Cooper and James Brolin (filmed in Romania several months ago)

--Royal Matchmaker -- with Bethany Joy Lenz and Will Kemp (filmed in Romania in the last few weeks)

 

In January, Holly Robinson Peete's new movie mystery series (Al Roker's project), The Morning Show Murders (co-starring Rick Fox), is premiering on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel, if I am not mistaken.    And in February, Holly's reality series, Meet the Peetes, is premiering on the Hallmark Channel (on the same night When Calls the Heart returns for its next season, which is a curious programming choice).

 

March is a pretty slow month for Hallmark movies on the main/original channel.   It's in between the Valentine event and the Spring Fling event in April.   After 5 straight months of new movie premieres every weekend, it might not be a bad idea for them to take those 2 royal movies and premiere them in March as some sort of "Royal" mini-movie event just to fill in the gap a bit.  Otherwise, they lose a lot of momentum in the transition between Valentine's Day and early April.

 

The next Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, The Beach House, stars Andie MacDowell, Minka Kelly and Chad Michael Murray, and is supposedly premiering in April.

Edited December 12, 2017 by TVFan17
typo

[MissyPoo]

Thanks TVFan17! I'm making a note for the ones I'd like to check out next year. I'm so here for Lacey and Andrew's movie. I'm really curious how that pairing will play out. Also Danica and Cameron Mathison's movie, though I'm not too big a fan of the latter. I look forward to the V-day movies but the Winterfest ones have been hit or miss. I'm not too yay over these, but I'll keep an eye out for the promo vids. I'm also wondering about Holly RP's series being right up against the WCTH series. Hmmm.

Here for Hallmark's attempt to reclaim its leader for tv royal movies next year. Let the games begin.

[TVFan17]

14 hours ago, MissyPoo said:

Thanks TVFan17! I'm making a note for the ones I'd like to check out next year. I'm so here for Lacey and Andrew's movie. I'm really curious how that pairing will play out. Also Danica and Cameron Mathison's movie, though I'm not too big a fan of the latter. I look forward to the V-day movies but the Winterfest ones have been hit or miss. I'm not too yay over these, but I'll keep an eye out for the promo vids. I'm also wondering about Holly RP's series being right up against the WCTH series. Hmmm.

Here for Hallmark's attempt to reclaim its leader for tv royal movies next year. Let the games begin.

No problem!

Unlike the last couple of WInterfest events, this time around they seem to be heavily leaning on a tie-in with the Winter Olympics.  Love on the Slopes is very Winter sports-oriented.   Frozen in Love has a hockey element in it.   The Heart of the Mountain has a big skiing element to it.  So, because of that continuing sports theme, I'm not sure what I will think of them.   I have also felt that the Winterfest movies have been hit or miss in the past.

I would have never really thought to put Lacey and Andrew together in a movie, for some odd reason that I can't even pinpoint, but I have to admit that I am curious about how it will pan out.  

And the Danica-Cameron movie is another situation where I never really thought about those 2 actors paired up together, and yet I am intrigued to see it.  Cameron's last Hallmark movie, At Home in Mitford, got a lot of negative feedback -- largely because people did not like him with Andie MacDowell due to the age difference.  So, at least the Danica-Cameron pairing is more age-appropriate, I guess.

It seems like Hallmark is premiering Holly's reality series either right before or right after WCTH's season premiere.  I am guessing they're trying to lure in some of the WCTH audience and get them to watch her show.   That is an interesting programming choice to me, because I would not typically think "The WCTH audience will just love a reality series!!"    But her movie mystery series will be on the other channel, I think in January, and she'll be paired up with Rick Fox for that one.

 

I keep wondering what they are going to do with those two already-filmed royal movies.     It might be too much 'royal' to premiere them both for a 2-week Valentine event, I think.   But Andrew Cooper, the leading man in Family Royal (or whatever it ends up being called), said quite a while back that his movie with Cindy Busby and James Brolin would premiere in February.  And yet, the Bethany Joy Lenz-Will Kemp movie, Royal Matchmaker, sounds like it would fit into a Valentine event.

So that's what makes me wonder if Hallmark might be hanging on to the 2 royal movies for some sort of mini-movie event with a royal focus, to fill the gaps in between the bigger movie events -- like in either March or May.  Or, they could be planning to air one of them on the Hallmark Channel and one on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.   Or maybe one of them on Hallmark Movies Now, as new content for streaming.

Edited December 12, 2017 by TVFan17

[EyewatchTV211]

10 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

As much as they glorify the small towns, the urban settings seem to work best on these budgets because they look less fake. A couple of stock or second unit establishing shots of the real city in winter, then focus on the one or two streets they're shooting on, without the need for the snow blankets and other fake scenery. Just assume the streets and sidewalks have been cleared, put the cast in coats, and you can't tell it was shot in summer. In the small towns, they have to roll out the white blankets on the grass, and then there are the cotton balls stuck in trees that are fully leafed out. I felt the same way about Fir Crazy, where there was nothing in the city setting that threw me out of the illusion that it was winter.

This is probably why I've never been tempted to visit any of the small towns (yes I know they are made up) while I'm super eager to go to NYC to see the holiday decorations. I've been to NYC plenty in my life, especially while growing up relatively close by in NJ. But we never went during the holidays to avoid the crowds. Maybe this would be a good year to go with overall tourism in the country down. 

[In2You]

37 minutes ago, VMepicgrl said:

This is probably why I've never been tempted to visit any of the small towns (yes I know they are made up) while I'm super eager to go to NYC to see the holiday decorations. I've been to NYC plenty in my life, especially while growing up relatively close by in NJ. But we never went during the holidays to avoid the crowds. Maybe this would be a good year to go with overall tourism in the country down. 

I went last year the first weekend in December and it was packed. The year prior was my first time visiting NY during the holidays and I loved it. I took so many pictures of the shop windows. I visited Macys just for the experience. And we got to explore the market at Bryant Park.

[Qoass]

An interesting critique of the franchise. Full disclosure: I agree completely.

[Kaoteek]

14 hours ago, TVFan17 said:

--Cooking with Love -- with Ali Liebert, Brett Dalton and Kimberley Sustad

I'm in.

[TVFan17]

42 minutes ago, Kaoteek said:

I'm in.

It sounds like it has promise, for sure.   Ali Liebert is also one of the producers on the movie, as well as starring in it.    Cooking with Love is being directed by the same person (Jem Garrard) who directed Christmas at Holly Lodge, and she is new to Hallmark (Holly Lodge was her first Hallmark project).

Edited December 12, 2017 by TVFan17

[JenMD]

I'm sad that two of my perennial Christmas favorites, A Season for Miracles and A Dog Named Christmas are both missing this year.  I even checked the lineup on the new Hallmark Drama channel online (I don't actually get it, just wondering if it had been dispatched over there).  With less than 2 weeks to go I guess I have to finally give in to not seeing them.