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

[MerBearHou]

45 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

I thought 3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost was kind of cute. It's nice when they try something different. Typical last-minute crisis, but the ending was pretty sweet.

Agreed.  I enjoyed it and appreciated the unique story.  Loved that beautiful old home.  Julie and Chris are so good together.  

[voiceover]

I surprised myself by *almost tearing up at the end.  Julie really got me in that last scene!

Nothing original in the idea of a ghost needing to reconcile something in its earthly existence in order to move on.  But for some reason, I always find it touching.

[Irlandesa]

I was emotional as well because they really built up that friendship even more than the romantic relationship so it was sad that they were splitting. 

The real estate part of it was kind of silly, though.  That's a huge house so I'm sure there are more than three bedrooms.  And they kept referring to it as a teardown but both the inside and outside were exquisite.  Yes, I'm sure there would be buyers who'd plan to tear down the amazing home but it wouldn't be an automatic assumption for most people. 

[EyewatchTV211]

3 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

The real estate part of it was kind of silly, though.  That's a huge house so I'm sure there are more than three bedrooms.  And they kept referring to it as a teardown but both the inside and outside were exquisite.  Yes, I'm sure there would be buyers who'd plan to tear down the amazing home but it wouldn't be an automatic assumption for most people. 

Also, the agent would have looked at the entire home. She shouldn't have been surprised by Ruby's personal spot or the basement having the old furniture. 

[MerBearHou]

If that mansion is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home, they must be really large bedrooms and bathrooms!

Edited October 8, 2023 by MerBearHou

[coffeebean]

5 hours ago, voiceover said:

I surprised myself by *almost tearing up at the end.  Julie really got me in that last scene!

Nothing original in the idea of a ghost needing to reconcile something in its earthly existence in order to move on.  But for some reason, I always find it touching.

Hallmark's Ghosts of Christmas Always is a great movie. Watch for it this Christmas season.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20193354/

The leading actor reminds me of a young Jack Lemmon.

Edited October 8, 2023 by coffeebean

[chitowngirl]

I enjoy the movies where The Big Romance isn’t front and center. We KNOW that’s going to happen.

[Trini]

7 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

I enjoy the movies where The Big Romance isn’t front and center. We KNOW that’s going to happen.

Speaking of, I know some of the Christmas movies have been announced already; anyone have an idea of what will be this year's 'Three Wise Men and a Baby' ?

[Nacos for Rufus]

On 10/7/2023 at 7:17 PM, tracyscott76 said:

I thought 3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost was kind of cute. It's nice when they try something different. Typical last-minute crisis, but the ending was pretty sweet.

I thought it was surprisingly good! I would watch it again, which is something I can’t say about most of their movies. The only thing that irked me was the scene with the dad at the end. He was a grade A jerk throughout. No way did he pull that heartwarming 180 at the end.

[Irlandesa]

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Field Day.  The premise sounded kind of dumb--PTO moms put on a field day for their kids at school--but the final product was quite good.  It had legit humor. And while the romance was pretty good (humor, decent chem), I loved the focus on making new friends. 

[memememe76]

The three women had terrific chemistry, and was the best part of the movie. I thought this was gonna be like a trilogy of movies with each focusing on one mom, kinda like Wedding Veil (which were awful) and Love Club(the Sydney one is one of my faves). When they lost the bake-off and were supposed to volunteer for the other days, I thought the other two movies would involve different days like Homecoming Day (Instagram Mom tries too hard to make her daughter become Homecoming Queen) and Prom Day (Lawyer Mom has to juggle work with preparing for prom). 

[coffeebean]

Well, here it is, the morning of October 20th, I turn on the Hallmark channel and I don't see Reba. There is a Lacey Chabert Christmas movie in Ireland on. Did this movie kick off Countdown to Christmas at 6am Eastern?

Edited October 20, 2023 by coffeebean

[Orcinus orca]

2 hours ago, coffeebean said:

Did this movie kick off Countdown to Christmas at 6am Eastern?

Apparently.  There is nothing but endless Christmas according to my TV Guide.  And on BOTH the Hallmark channels I get.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Orcinus orca

[Clawdette]

The Christmas Note with Jamie-Lynn Sigler aired on Friday at 6 AM Eastern to kick off the season.

[coffeebean]

3 hours ago, Clawdette said:

The Christmas Note with Jamie-Lynn Sigler aired on Friday at 6 AM Eastern to kick off the season.

Funny......that is not the movie I saw on that day and hour. It was the Lacey Chabert movie that takes place in Ireland. I didn't turn on the TV until just past 7am but the movie had started just over an hour ago.

Edited October 21, 2023 by coffeebean

[Daff]

2 hours ago, coffeebean said:

Funny......that is not the movie I saw on that day and hour. It was the Lacey Chabert movie that takes place in Ireland. I didn't turn on the TV until just past 7am but the movie had started just over an hour ago.

Either movie (“Note” or Chabert’s) might have aired on “Movies&Mysteries” rather than HM channel, as there was a mystery element to both plots.

[Artsda]

I enjoyed movie #1 for Countdown to Christmas. 

The family was fun, enjoyed the hockey storyline with adults and kids and chemistry was good with Kim and Kevin.  

[Orcinus orca]

Where Are You Christmas wasn't bad.  A shameless ripoff of Pleasantville but something different for a change.  Zero chemistry between the leads, though.  

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Artsda said:

I enjoyed movie #1 for Countdown to Christmas. 

The family was fun, enjoyed the hockey storyline with adults and kids and chemistry was good with Kim and Kevin.  

Same for me. Nothing amazing but it was cute. I got the feeling it was developed as a  fall sports movie that got Christmas-ified In anticipation of the strike. 

1 hour ago, Orcinus orca said:

Where Are You Christmas wasn't bad.  A shameless ripoff of Pleasantville but something different for a change.

Wait, really? A Christmas movie version of Pleasantville is my wish list movie. I was hoping for one of the streamers but I’ll have to make sure I check that out. 

[Laura Holt]

We get our Hallmark Christmas  movies on the W (women's) channel and thanks to the heads up here I checked and they are starting their Christmas countdown on Nov. 1.  I've already got a few on record.  I couldn't tell offhand if any of the ones I didn't recognize are actually new but so far they are repeating some of my favourites from last year so that makes me happy.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Laura Holt

[coffeebean]

On 10/21/2023 at 7:22 AM, Daff said:

Either movie (“Note” or Chabert’s) might have aired on “Movies&Mysteries” rather than HM channel, as there was a mystery element to both plots.

I keep my bedroom TV tuned to the Hallmark Channel, not the mysteries channel. It was the Lacey Chaber movie that I saw. At this point, it really doesn't matter which movie kicked off the Christmas season. I'm passed that.

I did have a Peppermint hot chocolate today to celebrate the kick off of the Hallmark Countdown to Christmas.

2 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

We get our Hallmark Christmas  movies on the W (women's) channel and thanks to the heads up here I checked and they are starting their Christmas countdown on Nov. 1.  I've already got a few on record.  I couldn't tell offhand if any of the ones I didn't recognize are actually new but so far they are repeating some of my favourites from last year so that makes me happy.

Hallmark debuts their brand new movies in the evening, usually at 8:00PM on a Saturday.

[voiceover]

Just found out where I pinged Julie Warner (Where Are You Christmas?heroine’s mom) from: she played Nip/Tuck’s Sean’s great love, Megan, who had a very sad end.

I liked a lot of this — even got a little weepy in the final 30 — but that internal logic of how people were supposed to “change back”, even though it was explained, didn’t feel consistent.  Really bothered me.

[Bronx Babe]

Where Are You, Christmas?

190 mentions of the word "Christmas", 90 more than Christmas With The Darlings.

I came out of my "hiatus" for this??  Amateurly acted, silly story line (rip-offs from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and GROUNDHOG DAY) with the usual synthetic, untouched-by-human hands alien creepiness.  

[KaveDweller]

19 hours ago, Dani said:

Wait, really? A Christmas movie version of Pleasantville is my wish list movie. I was hoping for one of the streamers but I’ll have to make sure I check that out. 

The only thing that was like Pleasantville was that people were in black and white and turned to color by the end. They weren't in a Christmas move.

I did really like the movie though. Lyndsay Fonseca is very good at characters thrown into crazy mystical Christmas situations.

[BuckeyeLou]

"Where are you Christmas?" definately had overtones of "It's a Wonderful Life"...the young lady(Abby?) finally realized what life would have been like if her Town never had Christmas.  The actor & actress portraying her parents were good and the concept of the 'black&white" was something different. 

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

The only thing that was like Pleasantville was that people were in black and white and turned to color by the end. They weren't in a Christmas move.

The whole thing with the tension between people the people in black and white and the people in color was straight out of Pleasantville. There was too much It’s a Wonderful Life in it for it to be exactly what I wanted but I still really enjoyed it. 

The romance plot did not work for me. They had zero chemistry. 

56 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

Lyndsay Fonseca is very good at characters thrown into crazy mystical Christmas situations.

She really is. 

[Orcinus orca]

11 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The only thing that was like Pleasantville was that people were in black and white and turned to color by the end.

The point of Pleasantville was people turning color when they came to a realization or learned emotion.  People in Where Are You Christmas changed color when they remembered the "joy of Christmas".  Same concept albeit a sappy one.

12 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

190 mentions of the word "Christmas", 90 more than Christmas With The Darlings.

Was this a Christmas movie?  It was hard to tell. /s

[GeorgiaRai]

The reference to watching a marathan of the hundreds of New Year's movies released every year (that began showing in June) made me lol both times I watched Where Are You, Christmas? over the weekend.  

[Bronx Babe]

6 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

The point of Pleasantville was people turning color when they came to a realization or learned emotion.  People in Where Are You Christmas changed color when they remembered the "joy of Christmas".  Same concept albeit a sappy one.

Was this a Christmas movie?  It was hard to tell. /s

Oh it was a Christmas movie alright -- they never let you forget it what with literally every other sentence out of the actor's mouths was the word "Christmas".  I have said this before ad nauseum and will continue to say it -- Hallmark movies are such manipulative, synthetic productions formulated, it seems to me, in some other-wordly laboratory.  Very, very unsettling and disturbing to me but apparently to no one else!  But I can't be the only one who feels this way!

[Orcinus orca]

44 minutes ago, Bronx Babe said:

Oh it was a Christmas movie alright -- they never let you forget it what with literally every other sentence out of the actor's mouths was the word "Christmas".

Trust me, my eyes were rolling out of my head every time it was said. I was being sarcastic.

And I totally agree that these movies couldn't possibly be any worse. It's like they have 20 tropes, put them in a bag and draw 5 or 6 to be forced into every movie.  People talk about AI being the demise of writers but I have to wonder if AI couldn't do a better job than these Hallmark hacks.

[DanaMB]

19 hours ago, BuckeyeLou said:

"Where are you Christmas?" definately had overtones of "It's a Wonderful Life"...the young lady(Abby?) finally realized what life would have been like if her Town never had Christmas.  The actor & actress portraying her parents were good and the concept of the 'black&white" was something different. 

I really enjoyed it. Yeah, they said Christmas way too much, but since Christmas disappears, I get it. 

[KLovestoShop]

I really didn’t like Under the Christmas Sky. The story was boring and implausible. The young woman was a world renowned astrophysicist?  I don’t think so.  And she had no chemistry with Ryan Paevey   His worst Hallmark movie. 

[Ele]

2 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

I really didn’t like Under the Christmas Sky. The story was boring and implausible. The young woman was a world renowned astrophysicist?  I don’t think so.  And she had no chemistry with Ryan Paevey   His worst Hallmark movie. 

Agreed! Plus, the set looked cheap. Promising plot turned into a boring movie where the leads didn’t have enough chemistry. The misunderstanding between them also seemed forced. 

[KaveDweller]

13 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

The point of Pleasantville was people turning color when they came to a realization or learned emotion.  People in Where Are You Christmas changed color when they remembered the "joy of Christmas".  Same concept albeit a sappy one.

Was this a Christmas movie?  It was hard to tell. /s

Yes, the turning into color part was similar. But when I hear the idea of a Pleasantville Christmas movie, I think of someone getting sucked into a Christmas movie and either loving it or finding it super annoying.

[Guest]

I had the same problem with the romance in Under the Christmas Sky that I had with Where Are You Christmas?, the female leads feel 10-15 years younger which is accentuated by the complete lack of chemistry. Which is somewhat funny because Ryan Paevey and Jessica Parker Kennedy are the same age. The styling did not help. 

4 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Yes, the turning into color part was similar. But when I hear the idea of a Pleasantville Christmas movie, I think of someone getting sucked into a Christmas movie and either loving it or finding it super annoying.

My ideal version would have had someone be sucked into a Christmas movie but overall it’s more about using the change from black and white to color to represent challenging beliefs and a fear of change. And I do think Where are you Christmas? was heavily influenced by Pleasantville in that area.

I liked that they touched on characters being ashamed of being in color, afraid of being left behind by loved ones who have had a whole new world open up and trying to restrict what they don’t understand like Pleasantville did. I just wish it had a little more depth and humor but I think Hallmark is too invested in the tropes to do it justice. 

[ShelleySue]

I hate to nitpick (Who am I kidding? I love nitpicking.) but two things bothered me about Where Are You Christmas.

1. Not only did people forget about Christmas, but all traces of it disappeared. The shelves in the attic were empty instead of being lined with Christmas decorations. Addy's diary was blank where she had written about Christmas. So where did she get the Christmas Pageant costume that her friend's mother had made? Wouldn't that have disappeared like every other thing related to Christmas?

2. My hobby is counting how many winter coats people wear. Because Addy was in black and white during most of the movie I couldn't really tell which coats she was wearing.

[coffeebean]

Gee, not one word yet about Checkin' It Twice. I really like the leading lady. I first saw Kim Matula in Ghosts of Christmas Always and liked her then. She is the perfect actress to take over the reigns of the older more mature Hallmark actresses that seem to be aging out of these types of roles. Her leading man seemed way too old (was referred to as Gramps) to still be hopeful for a professional hockey career in the NHL but I do like the actor.

I liked the movie and thought the two leads had great chemistry together. I wasn't counting winter coats, but the leading lady wore the same winter hat through out the movie.

Edited October 24, 2023 by coffeebean

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

Gee, not one word yet about Checkin' It Twice.

There were a couple of posts about it. I thought it was a pretty good. Nothing particularly interesting about the plot but it worked due to the cast. Kim Matula is a natural at this movies. 

[coffeebean]

5 minutes ago, Dani said:

There were a couple of posts about it. I thought it was a pretty good. Nothing particularly interesting about the plot but it worked due to the cast. Kim Matula is a natural at this movies. 

I went back and looked but must have glossed over them. It is so much easier to spot discussion about a movie when the title of the movie is in bold text. Whoever started doing that on this forum, my sincere gratitude to him/her.

Edited October 24, 2023 by coffeebean

[Notabug]

16 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

I really didn’t like Under the Christmas Sky. The story was boring and implausible. The young woman was a world renowned astrophysicist?  I don’t think so.  And she had no chemistry with Ryan Paevey   His worst Hallmark movie. 

I turned it off just past the halfway point, it was boring and, while I can give Hallmark some leeway on this; completely unbelievable.  The lead actress was way too young to have been as accomplished as she supposedly was and it was highly unlikely that NASA would've chosen her for the space station.  The average person selected is in their mid 30's and it takes several years of training to be ready to fly.  The youngest person NASA ever sent into space was 28 and he was sponsored by the Saudi government.  There are plenty of qualified Americans who apply, she wouldn't have made the cut.

It also made no sense that, since she couldn't fly, she was suddenly going to switch careers and work at a science museum/planetarium.  If she was such a brilliant scientist, surely there were better opportunities than that.

That, and no chemistry between the leads and the fact that the child actor bugged me more than they usually do; and I was outta there.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Notabug said:

The lead actress was way too young to have been as accomplished as she supposedly was and it was highly unlikely that NASA would've chosen her for the space station. The lead actress was way too young to have been as accomplished as she supposedly was and it was highly unlikely that NASA would've chosen her for the space station.  The average person selected is in their mid 30's and it takes several years of training to be ready to fly.

You’d never know it by looking at her but the actress is actually 39. 

[Notabug]

19 minutes ago, Dani said:

You’d never know it by looking at her but the actress is actually 39. 

Wow!  I'm surprised, I took her to be mid-20's.  So, I guess that part of the storyline was ok.  She still would've had more options for a career in astrophysics after she was grounded, though.

[Kemper]

Under the Christmas Sky. Even though the actress is attractive and older than she looks…..she looked like Ryan Ps kid sister. And the upcoming movie with the seals starring the blonde actress (who I like but whose name I can’t remember) and her likely boyfriend. He has a mustache and maybe beard and is what the teen me would have called “cute”. But he looks young enough (to me) that he should be going to Prom or studying for his SATs.

[Dixie Sugarbaker]

I guess I am the oddball but I liked Where Are You Christmas. It was a novel concept for a Hallmark movie, and it wasn’t as hokey as most Hallmark movies. I did think that the leads had chemistry, but to me the best pairing was Jim O ‘Heir and Julie Warner as the parents. Jerry/Garry/Larry Gergich for the win!

[ShelleySue]

14 minutes ago, Kemper said:

He has a mustache and maybe beard and is what the teen me would have called “cute”. But he looks young enough (to me) that he should be going to Prom or studying for his SATs.

I always think that when I see him. The actress is Jessy Schram. She was in Amazing Winter Romance with Marshall Williams. She looks young at 35 (born in 1986) and he's 31 (born in 1989). But he makes her look like a cradle robber. That distracted me so much that I couldn't watch the whole movie.

[Scarlett45]

6 hours ago, ShelleySue said:

I always think that when I see him. The actress is Jessy Schram. She was in Amazing Winter Romance with Marshall Williams. She looks young at 35 (born in 1986) and he's 31 (born in 1989). But he makes her look like a cradle robber. That distracted me so much that I couldn't watch the whole movie.

Wasn’t Jessy in Harvest Moon, the fall movie about the pumpkin farm that ends up producing a great skin care line? (Going to look that up)

Yes she was! I also remember her from Veronica Mars. 
 

I am holding out until after thanksgiving for Christmas films, I love reading your comments here. 

[Shermie]

On 10/23/2023 at 5:45 PM, DanaMB said:

Yeah, they said Christmas way too much, but since Christmas disappears, I get it. 

This made no sense. If nobody knew what Christmas was, why didn’t somebody ask her what Christmas actually was? They just tell her to stop talking about it, but don’t ask what it is.

On 10/24/2023 at 2:21 PM, Dixie Sugarbaker said:

I guess I am the oddball but I liked Where Are You Christmas. It was a novel concept for a Hallmark movie, and it wasn’t as hokey as most Hallmark movies.

I thought it was hokey. Yeah, the Pleasantville-meets-It’s a Wonderful Life concept was original, but that’s all. Same old trope: big city career woman goes to her small home town that’s Christmas crazy and she’s all Scrooge’s about it until she meets a handsome local guy and gets the Christmas spirit.

Saw Julie Warner in the credits and wracked my brain trying to figure out why she seemed familiar. She was Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend in Doc Hollywood! She sure looked a lot older and kind of frumpy in this.

I don’t normally watch these movies, but people rave about them and you can’t get away from the ads. This one intrigued me a bit, so I watched. Aaaaannndd… that’s enough Hallmark Christmas movies for me. Just too shallow and predictable for me.

[twoods]

I have been so out of the Hallmark loop because my current obsession with Korean dramas, but I may check out 3 beds, 2 Baths and One Ghost since you all liked it and I wanted to see how good Julie and Chris are onscreen since they are married (their relationship always makes me smile). And maybe check out the Venice one too?

[Jaded]

I'd love it if this was true. I get the feeling it's a bunch of lip service though. Maybe her "opinions" and the availability are affecting ratings though. The first article mentions the second one.

Great American Family CEO says Candace Cameron Bure doesn't speak for network on LGBTQ views

Great American Family’s TV Rise: CEO Bill Abbott on Candace Cameron Bure Backlash and Why His Network Is ‘For All People’

[Orcinus orca]

Abbott should be a politician.  Way to skirt around issues without answering questions.

GAF will produce only films that meet CCB's standards - straight and White being the only criteria. Period.