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


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Silly me, I thought the ending of the Greek movie would be realistic & the couple would realize how many differences they had & the young lady would go back to Boston with her Mother, sadder but wiser.  The actor & actress did not have much chemistry, imho....  But, I did enjoy the beautiful scenery, the restaurants, costumes, etc

 

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I haven't watched the wedding season movies so far, but I was on Hallmark's website and Christmas in July is up with a schedule. At the end of July, Taylor Cole has a new movie, not Christmas themed, and I always enjoy her. The movie is called Aloha Heart. The male lead is a new one to Hallmark.

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Love's Greek to Me was probably about the worst Hallmark movie I can remember watching (and sadly that's saying something). Yes, the scenery was gorgeous but the main couple was unhealthy and disturbingly problematic in numerous ways, and the movie itself was completely oblivious to that which made it all so much worse for me. They had too many differences, and while neither of them were in the wrong per se it was painfully obvious that they simply wanted vastly different things out of life and realistically wouldn't be able to make it work without huge sacrifices. Marina Sirtis' character wasn't even the most troubling part for me since she did (eventually) learn from her mistakes and become more considerate of others' wishes. (Also, how can anyone hate Counselor Troi?)

What really bothered me the most (and MMV on this) was the increasing pattern of questionable behavior from the male lead (whose name I've forgotten and don't care enough to look up). While I can get they were going for a guy torn between two cultures, what I saw was a man who showed more and more red flags of an abuser the longer they were in Greece. When she did something he didn't like or approve of, he became cold and distant, or emotionally manipulative by shaming or guilt-tripping her. He found fault with her every decision and action, he'd drop bombshells like "I'm tired of waiting for you to get over your crippling emotional abandonment issues, we should break up" and then walk away before she could say anything or continue the conversation in a rational adult manner. All this while she was isolated away from her own support system - her family, friends, job, her entire life - and had no one to turn to other than his family. In the end she basically gave up on most of her own decisions to defer to him. That they did get married was frankly troubling.

Am I reading way too much into this? Undoubtedly. But hey, Hallmark puts this shit out there and sometimes my brain just can't un-see it. *shrug*

I was excited to see ads for the upcoming movie with Indian characters (I'm a big Bollywood fan) until I noticed that the female lead is very obviously a white woman. 🙄 What, they couldn't find one actress of Indian descent in all of Vancouver? Sheesh.

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44 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I was excited to see ads for the upcoming movie with Indian characters (I'm a big Bollywood fan) until I noticed that the female lead is very obviously a white woman. 🙄 What, they couldn't find one actress of Indian descent in all of Vancouver? Sheesh.

Is the actress who is a white woman playing the character as an Indian woman? That I do not agree with but.....if the character is supposed to be a white woman, than what is wrong with I white actress playing her?

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1 hour ago, Maelstrom said:

What really bothered me the most (and MMV on this) was the increasing pattern of questionable behavior from the male lead (whose name I've forgotten and don't care enough to look up). While I can get they were going for a guy torn between two cultures, what I saw was a man who showed more and more red flags of an abuser the longer they were in Greece. When she did something he didn't like or approve of, he became cold and distant, or emotionally manipulative by shaming or guilt-tripping her. He found fault with her every decision and action, he'd drop bombshells like "I'm tired of waiting for you to get over your crippling emotional abandonment issues, we should break up" and then walk away before she could say anything or continue the conversation in a rational adult manner. All this while she was isolated away from her own support system - her family, friends, job, her entire life - and had no one to turn to other than his family. In the end she basically gave up on most of her own decisions to defer to him. That they did get married was frankly troubling.

I first noticed this when he found out that the possibility had come up of her taking over her colleague's position on the dig and she had found out a couple days ago and hadn't said anything to him. At that point it had been a casual convo between the two women in the midst of a whole lot of other stuff going on, but he was very hurt that she hadn't shared this with him IMMEDIATELY.

Yeah, that was a bit off.

1 hour ago, luvthepros said:

Is the actress who is a white woman playing the character as an Indian woman? That I do not agree with but.....if the character is supposed to be a white woman, than what is wrong with I white actress playing her?

1 hour ago, twoods said:

The lead falls in love with an Indian Matchmaker’s son, so I don’t think both leads need to be Indian for the storyline to work. The guy is freaking hot (I couldn’t stop staring at him in Never Have I Ever) so I’m excited for that one.

You know, I just assumed the character was supposed to be Indian but that is a very valid point. D'oh! What's that old saying about when you assume... Anyway, I rescind my outrage, at least until we get a full preview and know for sure whether the character is supposed to be white or Indian.

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(edited)

Love's Greek To Me had some great scenery and it was kinda fun to watch Deanna Troi turn into Lwaxana Troi (TNG fans know what I mean)  At least she didn't refer to her daughter as "Little One."

The mentions of the myth of Psyche felt like it was written by someone who hadn't read the myth of Psyche (which also had its fair share of abuse) but this movie could have been interesting if it was Hallmark's take on the Labors of Psyche.

But it always kind of gets me when Hallmark movies hit on much deeper themes and don't know what to do with them.  Here we dealt with the difficulties of immigrants who must give up aspects of their identity to assimilate into the dominant culture.  As well as the alienation of modern American life with the social atomization (did our female lead have any other personal connections other than her mother and her archaeologist friend who she had admitted to not having seen for like three years?) and the loss of cultural traditions.  Not to mention the culture shock of suddenly being thrown into the deep end of Greek life.  Our couple did have some rather serious communication problems, although in defense of both of them, some of these deep issues they would have had trouble conceptualizing let alone talking about.

But as is usually the case with Hallmark, they just ignore these deep issues and keep going, like a lost hiker in the woods who determinedly trudges in the same direction, regardless of whether or not it's the best course of action.  So that when we get to the Obligatory Hallmark Misunderstanding (when the fiance finds out about the job offer) it made him look pretty bad, or even abusive as @Maelstrom pointed out.  However it ultimately doesn't matter, because we have a wedding to get to, so by Hera, we're going to see these two hitched!

Edited by Lugal
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2 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Love's Greek to Me was probably about the worst Hallmark movie I can remember watching (and sadly that's saying something). Yes, the scenery was gorgeous but the main couple was unhealthy and disturbingly problematic in numerous ways, and the movie itself was completely oblivious to that which made it all so much worse for me. They had too many differences, and while neither of them were in the wrong per se it was painfully obvious that they simply wanted vastly different things out of life and realistically wouldn't be able to make it work without huge sacrifices. Marina Sirtis' character wasn't even the most troubling part for me since she did (eventually) learn from her mistakes and become more considerate of others' wishes. (Also, how can anyone hate Counselor Troi?)

What really bothered me the most (and MMV on this) was the increasing pattern of questionable behavior from the male lead (whose name I've forgotten and don't care enough to look up). While I can get they were going for a guy torn between two cultures, what I saw was a man who showed more and more red flags of an abuser the longer they were in Greece. When she did something he didn't like or approve of, he became cold and distant, or emotionally manipulative by shaming or guilt-tripping her. He found fault with her every decision and action, he'd drop bombshells like "I'm tired of waiting for you to get over your crippling emotional abandonment issues, we should break up" and then walk away before she could say anything or continue the conversation in a rational adult manner. All this while she was isolated away from her own support system - her family, friends, job, her entire life - and had no one to turn to other than his family. In the end she basically gave up on most of her own decisions to defer to him. That they did get married was frankly troubling.

Am I reading way too much into this? Undoubtedly. But hey, Hallmark puts this shit out there and sometimes my brain just can't un-see it. *shrug*

Worse Hallmark movie than the one about the big city girl moving to a small town? Or the one about the big city guy moving to a small town? It's funny but Marina was really blitzing this one up on social media and so is some other fb pages which I checked the comments and alot of ppl were praising the movie. LOL

The male character's name was Mihalis (or in English Mike). Abusive? Maybe. I found him to be truly a major mama's boy.  Are you seeing too much in it? Probably not. Most of these Hallmark relationship are either mildly abusive or just outright relationships that should not be.  Was shocked he was ok with a non Orthodox wedding at the hotel.  I was under the impression that a religious wedding was an absolute must for him. 

32 minutes ago, Lugal said:

Love's Greek To Me had some great scenery and it was kinda fun to watch Deanna Troi turn into Lwaxana Troi (TNG fans know what I mean)  At least she didn't refer to her daughter as "Little One."

Totally a missed opportunity IMHO.

If I had to say 1 nice thing about the movie (besides the scenery)  - i have to say that at least the non Greeks who were acting to be Greek got the accent down.  I still am peeved at Russell Crowe's butchering the Greek accent as Zeus in the last Thor movie.  He sounded like Mario from Super Mario bro.  

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8 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

Treat Williams was killed in a motorcycle accident.  

This is actually really getting to me. I haven't seen him in that much, but I followed him on twitter. He posts so regularly and seems so nice. It was just a real shock to have just read several posts from him one minute and then that's it. 

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1 hour ago, greekmom said:

Worse Hallmark movie than the one about the big city girl moving to a small town? Or the one about the big city guy moving to a small town?

For me it was even worse than the one with Jen Lilley and her Cedar Syrup farm, and that one in Australia where the lady inherited a restaurant or something and everyone in it was a blithering idiot except for the dog.

It's possible I watch too many of these things, lol.

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5 hours ago, luvthepros said:

Is the actress who is a white woman playing the character as an Indian woman? That I do not agree with but.....if the character is supposed to be a white woman, than what is wrong with I white actress playing her?

 

4 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

You know, I just assumed the character was supposed to be Indian but that is a very valid point. D'oh! What's that old saying about when you assume... Anyway, I rescind my outrage, at least until we get a full preview and know for sure whether the character is supposed to be white or Indian.

The actress in that upcoming movie played the character of Clara on When Calls the Heart. The actress herself is white so hopefully, they won’t have her playing an Asian Indian character!

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11 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

You know, I just assumed the character was supposed to be Indian but that is a very valid point. D'oh! What's that old saying about when you assume... Anyway, I rescind my outrage, at least until we get a full preview and know for sure whether the character is supposed to be white or Indian.

Sounds reasonable.

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16 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

For me it was even worse than the one with Jen Lilley and her Cedar Syrup farm, and that one in Australia where the lady inherited a restaurant or something and everyone in it was a blithering idiot except for the dog.

It's possible I watch too many of these things, lol.

I didn't watch, Love's Greek to Me so I can't say how bad it was. The worst Hallmark movie I've seen was years ago with AnnaLynne McCord and she and the male lead had no chemistry. I think it was about a parade. I've skipped a lot of the movies that had negative reviews. I should have skipped that one!

On 6/14/2023 at 7:38 PM, EyewatchTV211 said:

This is actually really getting to me. I haven't seen him in that much, but I followed him on twitter. He posts so regularly and seems so nice. It was just a real shock to have just read several posts from him one minute and then that's it. 

I feel the same. I follow him on Instagram (probably the same feed that was on Twitter), and it was so sudden and so sad. 

I didn't watch the Hallmark series he was on but loved him from Everwood & enjoyed him in the few Hallmark movies he did - especially The Christmas House(s).  

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14 hours ago, GeorgiaRai said:

I didn't watch the Hallmark series he was on but loved him from Everwood & enjoyed him in the few Hallmark movies he did - especially The Christmas House(s).  

Which reminds me, I saw somewhere that they're running The Christmas House tonight at 8 p.m. ET as a tribute. One of my all-time favorite movies, and I loved Treat Williams in it. He was, IMO, the best of the Hallmark movie dads.  

I never watched Everwood, but I did watch the last two seasons of Chesapeake Shores, after Robert Buckley joined the show. I'll admit, I didn't think the show itself was all that great, but Treat Williams raised it to a whole other level—like he did everything he acted in. And this wasn't Hallmark-related, but I remember seeing him in an episode of Law and Order SVU (the first SVU ep I ever saw, in fact), where he played a former football player who was suffering from brain issues due to his years in football. I cried my eyes out, he did such a beautiful job with that character.

Just a fantastic actor, and I'm so sorry we won't be able to see him in future projects. So I'll watch The Christmas House tonight and think of the joy he gave us over the years. 

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On 6/15/2023 at 1:02 PM, Ele said:

For me it was even worse than the one with Jen Lilley and her Cedar Syrup farm, and that one in Australia where the lady inherited a restaurant or something and everyone in it was a blithering idiot except for the dog

and

On 6/15/2023 at 1:02 PM, Ele said:

The worst Hallmark movie I've seen was years ago with AnnaLynne McCord and she and the male lead had no chemistry.

So, I agree that the AnnaLynne McCord (why do I know her from a website that always called her Drunkface McCord?) movie and the Jenn Lilley syrup farm movie were both pretty awful (though every Jen Lilley is awful from my point of view.)  Question:  in your opinion, what is the worst Hallmark movie you've ever watched?  Whether it was the actor/actress, premise, worst chemistry, stupidest misunderstanding.  I have been thinking about this since I read @Ele's comment yesterday, and it's really hard to pick one.  Usually, I turn away if I don't like it and for the last few months, I don't even turn it on unless I like the leads.  I even tried Googling 'worst Hallmark movies' but I've never heard of most of them.  It does seem, however, that I don't like a lot of their 'favourites.'  For the purposes of starting this conversation, I will say my least favourite movie that I really wanted to like was Christmas Getaway.  It hurts my heart to say that about a movie starring my Hallmark boyfriend, Travis Van Winkle, but I can't get past the unlikeable female lead, and the stupidest overreaction to a stupid misunderstanding I have ever seen.  I am quite willing to admit there are other worse movies out there, but I may have blocked them from my memory.

 

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I saw the preview for Make Me a Match and @Maelstrom from all indicators the female protagonist is a white character being portrayed by a white actress. Looks like it’s going to be cute film!Shallow bus her makeup looks so nice. Perfect blush color for her. So long as all of the Indian actors are lit properly I’m down!!(it’s a pet peeve of mine when melanated actors aren’t LIT properly next to white actors on film). 
 

I enjoyed The Wedding Contract, it was low stakes, predictable but warm. I give it a B because it was about a Jewish family and set in Chicago, something tells me Make Me a Match will be funnier. 
 

Related, I observed they said “sha-BAAT” with a hard T, I’ve always heard it pronounced “shaboos”,(I am not Jewish so I am not pretending to have a wealth of knowledge) and I wondered if there was a difference based on Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish ancestry/language customs and this guy on YouTube said there is. 

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On 6/16/2023 at 11:59 AM, kirinan said:

but Treat Williams raised it to a whole other level—like he did everything he acted in.

Another movie that’s sometimes shown on Hallmark (although I’m not sure the network made it) is the one with TW (the husband) and wife taking in a group of mischievous boys. Harbor something (Safe Harbor, Harbor House????). Talk about patience (and caring).

18 minutes ago, Orcinus orca said:

The Wedding Contract was totally predictable and bland but tolerable. Not sure how accurate the Jewish parts were but I did like hearing about various customs.

There were no STAKES. We knew they were going to get married, even the mothers weren’t that antagonistic towards each other (just had different personalities). Jake and Becca worked with what they had, I love them both so I’m bias.  

I thought the movie was ok.  I watched the whole thing, which is not something I can say about many Hallmarks this year.  My only issue, and I know it's a me problem, is that Jake Epstein looks like a poor man's Mark Ruffalo, and I very strongly dislike (hate seems a bit much for someone I don't know)  Mark Ruffalo.

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22 hours ago, bankerchick said:

My only issue, and I know it's a me problem, is that Jake Epstein looks like a poor man's Mark Ruffalo, and I very strongly dislike (hate seems a bit much for someone I don't know)  Mark Ruffalo.

It's so funny, that was the very first thing I liked about Jake Epstein when I saw him in one of the other Hallmark movies, that he reminded me so much of Mark Ruffalo. As the world's oldest Marvel fangirl, I love him!

I enjoyed this movie. I agree it was kind of low-stakes, but I liked that. It was different from what's been on so far this year. I'm not an observant Jew, but a lot of parts did remind me of my family.

Especially the tension between the two mothers; it perfectly matched the stories I've heard through the years of the interaction between my mom's Jewish mother and my dad's Lutheran mother. My dad, who I get my lack of religiosity (is that a word?) from, told his parents he was going to convert in order to marry my mom, and I guess it went downhill from there. There was eventually an uneasy truce, but they were never warm toward each other.

Edited by kirinan
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I enjoyed The Wedding Contract for one reason.......the two leads seemed like REAL people. They dealt with real problems in a real way, not the usual Hallmark way. I find it difficult to watch Becca since she did what ever it is to her face but she was watchable in this simply because she seemed like a real person. I liked her leading man too.

 

Just now, luvthepros said:

I enjoyed The Wedding Contract for one reason.......the two leads seemed like REAL people. They dealt with real problems in a real way, not the usual Hallmark way. I find it difficult to watch Becca since she did what ever it is to her face but she was watchable in this simply because she seemed like a real person. I liked her leading man too.

 

 

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11 hours ago, Artsda said:

I really enjoyed The Wedding Contract. Everything was just so realistic.  They had a real issue of a job relocation. They didn't break up due to a secret or misunderstanding then reunite. 

It was probably one of my favorites just for being so normal. 

Exactly.

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On 6/18/2023 at 7:44 AM, Orcinus orca said:

The Wedding Contract was totally predictable and bland but tolerable. Not sure how accurate the Jewish parts were but I did like hearing about various customs.

I was frustrated that they had the family seder plate displayed in the kitchen while serving bagels for brunch, because the seder plate is used during Passover when we don't have any leavened bread products in the house. But the focus on the Ketubah was really lovely and I wept like a baby when Jake Epstein's character's mom took his dad's tallit out of her keepsakes box

for the Chuppah. 

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(edited)

I enjoyed Make Me a Match. It was different from the other Hallmark movies and the leads weren’t mean and nasty to each other. They also had nice chemistry and I liked the side characters (friends and parents). It was nice that the leads had decent side stories with their parents. 

Edited by twoods
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8 hours ago, twoods said:

I enjoyed Make Me a Match. It was different from the other Hallmark movies and the leads weren’t mean and nasty to each other. They also had nice chemistry and I liked the side characters (friends and parents). It was nice that the leads had decent side stories with their parents. 

I decided to watch The Perfect Find on Netflix instead of this last night, and although Gabrielle Union is a goddess forever and ever I was SO disappointed in the resolution I was thankful to read this. I’ll have to watch this one after dinner today. 

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I really enjoyed Make Me a Match! I've been a big Bollywood fan for years yet find many Western attempts at Indian movies just miss the mark in so many ways. I saw that the screenwriter was Indian (as well as the music director) and this felt a lot more genuine all around. I really appreciated how central family was to both leads, separately and as a couple, and liked that for the most part both Vivi and Boom acted like mature adults instead of the petty middle-schoolers that seem to populate a lot of Hallmark movies. The only exception was Vivi's reaction to her parents announcing their divorce, it seemed a little over the top to me considering their marriage obviously was not in great shape. But at least she got over it relatively quickly. Like twoods said, there was no Big Misunderstanding which was refreshing, and I too loved how Vivi embraced Indian culture without acting like an idiot or trying to change him to fit into her world. Lots of fun, her wedding sari was gorgeous, and I would happily watch Rushi Kota in more Hallmark movies in the future. Well done, Hallmark.

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Finally sitting down to watch Make Me a Match via the Peacock app. 
 

Rushi Kota is just so handsome! Between him and the Rock Hudson HBO documentary that dropped yesterday there has been more pretty than my faint heart can take!

Eva Bourne is so pretty as well- her makeup is flawless, the highlight/blush topper she is wearing is eye catching.

Done being shallow now!

 

This one was so cute! And yes, everyone was lit properly (thank god), and I loved the supporting characters, no one was trying to fetishize an inter-racial relationship in 2023, and I bought that the protagonists actually fell for each other and would be reason to get married a year later. 

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(edited)
22 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

Finally sitting down to watch Make Me a Match via the Peacock app. 
 

Rushi Kota is just so handsome! Between him and the Rock Hudson HBO documentary that dropped yesterday there has been more pretty than my faint heart can take!

Eva Bourne is so pretty as well- her makeup is flawless, the highlight/blush topper she is wearing is eye catching.

Done being shallow now!

 

This one was so cute! And yes, everyone was lit properly (thank god), and I loved the supporting characters, no one was trying to fetishize an inter-racial relationship in 2023, and I bought that the protagonists actually fell for each other and would be reason to get married a year later. 

I haven’t watched Make Me a March yet. I need to decide if I want to pay for Peacock app now that it isn’t free. It’s the only way I watch these Hallmark movies. I don’t even watch all of the ones that air, but some are good background noise and enjoyable

Edited by Ele
26 minutes ago, Ele said:

I haven’t watched Make Me a March yet. I need to decide if I want to pay for Peacock app now that it isn’t free. It’s the only way I watch these Hallmark moves. I don’t even watch all of the ones that air, but some are good background noise and enjoyable

I am on my friend’s- I share Disney+ and Hulu with her. The peacock app isn’t great, always glitchy. 

@maggiegil shared the new Christmas movie with Lacey Chabert & Scott Wolf in the holiday movie thread, but I thought Hallmark lovers would enjoy it too. I know Christmas in July is starting, which has never been by jam but I am looking forward to this one. 
 

 

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3 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

I am probably in the minority but I am sick to death of Lacey.  She's such a one-note actor and she's in a blue million Hallmark movies.

I don't know if it's unpopular for this thread but the reason she's in so many movies is because her movies pretty consistently are the most watched movies on the channel.

I like that she uses that clout to do movies located in foreign places.

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(edited)
5 hours ago, norcalgal said:

But is she still trying to make “fetch” happen?  😜🤣

Too bad about your dislike for Lacey Chabert. It's just the opposite for me. I keep her movies on my DVR for weeks at a time and replay them all the time. I don't sit and watch them, just have them on in the house as I'm doing other stuff. I've got my favorites such as Love, Romance and Chocolate and The Christmas Waltz, both with Will Kemp. I also enjoyed their latest movie, The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango.

Edited by luvthepros
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On 6/30/2023 at 5:33 PM, Orcinus orca said:

I am probably in the minority but I am sick to death of Lacey.  She's such a one-note actor and she's in a blue million Hallmark movies.

Sweet Carolina is on right now.  I thought I'd check it out, even though it features Tyler Hynes at the absolute nadir of his hair woes.  I am no fan of Lacey but even I feel a little sorry for her in this movie.  Her character's sister and brother-in-law have died and left Lacey as the guardian of their children but her father is such a miserable dude who belittles Lacey constantly because he doesn't think she can look after the kids.  Even though he is played by Gregory Harrison, a totally hot older guy, I couldn't take the character and turned the movie off.

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Christmas in July is in full swing. I had ‘Tis the Season to be Merry on as background noise. Cook and Van Winkle had good chemistry. There is a scene near the beginning where she sees him shirtless and it’s pretty funny. 
 

I kind of want Rachael Leigh Cook and Joy Lenz to do a movie together since they were popular around the same time when they were younger. 
 

Which other Hallmark actors/actresses who haven’t made a movie together would you like to see?

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