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

[CrazyInAlabama]

I loved the Jane Doe mysteries, the plots were actually substantial, and I virtually never guessed who the real villain was.   I really liked all of the actors in the series too. 

[Kemper]

Reading the opinions on the previous Mystery Movies (the Dick Van Dyke ones, Jane Doe, McBride, Kelly Martin) - I cannot help but think they were a lot less cookie-cutter than the current ones, romance was not stressed all that much, and maybe the acting was better or more seasoned.  I enjoyed all of them and usually re-watch when they are on if I am around.  I guess times and demographics have changed.

I know I am in the minority, but I enjoy the Perry Mason movies.  However, the channel is kind of running them into the ground; which leads me to think that maybe their rights to them are expiring.  

[Kohola3]

On 4/1/2019 at 11:28 PM, In2You said:

Do people sit down and watch these with their kids? Because the kids in my family would be bored.  Hallmark did have some family movies when they did that partnership with Walmart years ago that were more appealing to the younger set and had different plots from these bland romances.

I can't imagine any kids interested in this dreck.  Same story told over and over.

[Kemper]

You know, Hallmark is riding high right now; their formula works and they do not hesitate to pull the plug on a successful series when scandal shows its ugly (but entertaining) face.  However.

They have a wonderful opportunity with the Mystery Movies to build something other than predictable stories, actors and plots.  I am not knocking all of the same-story-romances and sometimes bland and predictable actors/actresses.  They certainly fill a void these days.  But I can't help but think that at some point this type of programming will reach a saturation point; that is also true of the early season start of the Christmas movies; months of 24/7 programming.

Don't get me wrong - I like the channel; I watch most of the mysteries and a few of the romance ones.  

[MerBearHou]

My Hallmark habits:  I lean heavily toward all the mystery series and within those, I have my favorites (we all do).  I rarely watch the romance movies -- it's totally dependent on the leads and I am very quick to change the channel if the leads are ditzy, bland or the story is one I've seen before.  I don't watch any royalty themed movies, though if royalty is totally peripheral like Love, Romance and Chocolate, I might watch solely because of Will Kemp and the Bruges setting.  I watch Christmas movies ONLY near Christmas.  It just feels wrong to me to milk the Christmas holiday all-year-long, but that's just me. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by MerBearHou

[LuvMyShows]

On 4/2/2019 at 5:16 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

Jane doe, mystery woman, and McBride were the first mystery series movies... all of them were a llittle darker and less perky.

On 4/3/2019 at 12:36 AM, Kitty Redstone said:

The Mystery Woman ones always had a weird tension to them and I never knew whether that was intentional or not.  The Hailey Dean mysteries have it, too, so maybe it's Kelli Martin.

Interesting to see Hailey Dean and Mystery Woman in with the older/darker.  Since I am relatively new to the world of Hallmark Mysteries, I didn't know anything about older vs newer shows since they are all new to me.  I just finished watching the Hailey Dean series and absolutely they were dark, so I wondered if I was maybe losing my mind, since I had just commented on McBride being dark.  But it seems like this is a known/real thing, so, whew!  I did not get that same dark feel with Mystery Woman, except sporadically in certain scenes, but not overall as with McBride and Hailey Dean.  I have yet to see Jane Doe, but can't wait to give it a try!

[kirinan]

Oy. They're doing 40 Christmas movies this year. I still have 2018 Christmas movies on my DVR I haven't had a chance to watch yet. And just think, there are all the other channels' movies, too.

Edited April 5, 2019 by kirinan

[Kohola3]

Royal Hearts is the worst, most embarrassing movie of all time.

That is all.

[Mittengirl]

Was that the James Brolin one that was just on tonight (Thursday)?  Good lord, that was horrible!

Brolin’s character was every rural hayseed stereotype rolled in to one person.  Not to mention he looked way too old to be Kelly’s father. 

The daughter ending up with the regular Joe rather than the royal dude - who didn’t see that coming? 

It was like they didn’t even try.

Edited April 5, 2019 by Mittengirl

[Stats Queen]

On 3/13/2019 at 3:20 PM, illini1959 said:

I don't think it rains that much in GA....They probably film in BC but not being familiar with

It rains a lot here in Georgia. We also get more sunshine than Vancouver, but man to we get rain. We had so much rain in the last few months that we had a creek running down the hill behind our house and a waterfall on the retaining wall. We average 39 inches of rain a year.

[VartanFan]

Quote

Jordan Bridges, her costar, is the son of Beau Bridges. It was hot news around here while the filming was done. The local news stations covered it quite a bit.

How did I not know this?!  I saw every episode of Rizzolie and Isles!

Quote

RWas that the James Brolin one that was just on tonight (Thursday)?  Good lord, that was horrible!

I never watch these over again but I remember how awful this was for me. I loved the male lead (because I loved him in E’s The Royals) but I just keep thinking “is this how it ends for you, Brolin?” Ha!

[LegalParrot81]

51 minutes ago, VartanFan said:

How did I not know this?!  I saw every episode of Rizzolie and Isles!

I never watch these over again but I remember how awful this was for me. I loved the male lead (because I loved him in E’s The Royals) but I just keep thinking “is this how it ends for you, Brolin?” Ha!

He also directed the schlock.  Luckily, he found his way to Life in Pieces and hopefully has put Hallmark in his rearview mirror.

[LuvMyShows]

6 hours ago, VartanFan said:

How did I not know this?!  I saw every episode of Rizzolie and Isles!

Me too, and me neither...color me shocked!

[twoods]

I’m liking True Love Blossoms so far because I enjoy the actors and their chemistry, but his girlfriend is really annoying. The garden is so pretty though!

[Irlandesa]

The leads in True Love Blossoms were good together.  I liked the girlfriend character because they used her in a way I don't remember using the significant other before in that she's the one who got him to consider Sarah Rue's character's position. And minimalizing him out of her life was funny---a joke I saw coming but still funny.

This movie wasn't as good as Love To The Rescue but it was much better than last week.  But oy, the last segment "misunderstanding" really knocked this movie down a few pegs in my book.  When she falsely thought he hadn't found a way to save the garden, she was ridiculously angry at him like she betrayed her.  That went against their previous scenes where she trusted him that he'd try to find a solution to the garden while realizing he might not pull it off.  And then she wouldn't even let him get a word in edgewise. 

Finally, when he asked her to take one final walk with him, it was daytime, but by the time they reached the top of his office building, it was dusk/dark. WTH? 

I found the ads to next weeek's movie to be interesting in that they're advertising critical reviews. I don't remember them ever doing that before.

[AnnaRose]

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

The leads in True Love Blossoms were good together.  I liked the girlfriend character because they used her in a way I don't remember using the significant other before in that she's the one who got him to consider Sarah Rue's character's position. And minimalizing him out of her life was funny---a joke I saw coming but still funny.

This movie wasn't as good as Love To The Rescue but it was much better than last week.  But oy, the last segment "misunderstanding" really knocked this movie down a few pegs in my book.  When she falsely thought he hadn't found a way to save the garden, she was ridiculously angry at him like she betrayed her.  That went against their previous scenes where she trusted him that he'd try to find a solution to the garden while realizing he might not pull it off.  And then she wouldn't even let him get a word in edgewise. 

Finally, when he asked her to take one final walk with him, it was daytime, but by the time they reached the top of his office building, it was dusk/dark. WTH? 

I found the ads to next weeek's movie to be interesting in that they're advertising critical reviews. I don't remember them ever doing that before.

Your post accurately sums up my feelings about True Love Blooms, Irlandesa - especially the bolded part!  Sara Rue's character's reaction at the end of the movie was annoying, particularly when she wouldn't let Jordan Bridges' character speak. The rest of it was generally enjoyable though, mostly because I really like the leads.  Much better than last week, but yes, not nearly as good as Love to the Rescue.

I fast-forwarded through the commercial but caught a sound bite about critics and it seemed to be for next week's movie, which intrigued me, but not enough to go back and check out the commercial... so I'm glad you mentioned it.  That is strange.  I'm hoping it is another gem like Love to the Rescue.

[Kohola3]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I found the ads to next weeek's movie to be interesting in that they're advertising critical reviews.

"Critics say" doesn't mean squat.  Who are the critics? Are they credible?  Or just some focus group of Hallmark romance lovers? 

I can't imagine the critic from the Washington Post or the LA Times giving an opinion on the generic, formulaic Hallmark stuff.

[kirinan]

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

"Critics say" doesn't mean squat.  Who are the critics? Are they credible?  Or just some focus group of Hallmark romance lovers? 

I can't imagine the critic from the Washington Post or the LA Times giving an opinion on the generic, formulaic Hallmark stuff.

Well, you're right in that it's not WaPo or the Times, but I would never expect that. However, Entertainment Tonight, Parade, and US Weekly aren't exactly Hallmark Hausfraus or some unknown blogger in his or her basement cranking out reviews. I guess they've gotta start somewhere. 

On another topic, I enjoyed True Love Blooms for the most part. Way better than last week's movie, if not exactly to the level of Love to the Rescue or Flip That Romance. But much closer than I expected. Irlandesa and AnnaRose captured my "like" and "WTF?" moments, so I'll just say that the find of the movie for me was Jordan Bridges. I realized I have seen him before, on the show Gone with Danny Pino and Chris Noth, as an unscrupulous news photographer. But he was much more appealing in this movie. He definitely has his share of the Bridges family charisma.

Edited April 7, 2019 by kirinan

[LuvMyShows]

Finally watched Mystery 101.  I really like Jill Wagner, but I can do without Kristoffer Polaha.  I knew I had seen him somewhere before, and I finally realized that it was in Atlas Shrugged Part 3, playing the role of John Galt (if you know Atlas Shrugged, then that name means something to you).  Did anyone else see that movie?  No?  Just me?

Also got to see the first two Chronicles Mystery movies.  To me the supposedly handsome male lead looks a lot like the supposedly dorky assistant guy...just a few tweaks here and there on their faces/heads.

Picky point from the second one, The Wrong Man.  There had been a big deal made about a sweatshirt size L that was found near where the victim's body was recovered, since the victim was a size S.  Just before the end, they figured out whose sweatshirt it was (and the killer's identity, Betsy).  At the end, when Allison Sweeney was confronting Betsy and sort of narrating the murder circumstances, Allison remarked about the sweatshirt, and said that after killing the victim, Betsy left the sweatshirt there for some reason or other (I forget exactly why).  And then Allison said how convenient it was that the victim had left clothes in her car, so Betsy was able to put on those clean clothes.  But...they had just made a point about Betsy wearing a size L, and now they're saying she was able to fit into the victim's size S.  

[AnnaRose]

3 hours ago, kirinan said:

Well, you're right in that it's not WaPo or the Times, but I would never expect that. However, Entertainment Tonight, Parade, and US Weekly aren't exactly Hallmark Hausfraus or some unknown blogger in his or her basement cranking out reviews. I guess they've gotta start somewhere. 

On another topic, I enjoyed True Love Blooms for the most part. Way better than last week's movie, if not exactly to the level of Love to the Rescue or Flip That Romance. But much closer than I expected. Irlandesa and AnnaRose captured my "like" and "WTF?" moments, so I'll just say that the find of the movie for me was Jordan Bridges. I realized I have seen him before, on the show Gone with Danny Pino and Chris Noth, as an unscrupulous news photographer. But he was much more appealing in this movie. He definitely has his share of the Bridges family charisma.

I loved Jordan Bridges in this Christmas movie from 2011 that I watched last year - Holiday Engagement.  He was very appealing in that one.

[Irlandesa]

8 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

"Critics say" doesn't mean squat.  Who are the critics? Are they credible?  Or just some focus group of Hallmark romance lovers? 

As @kirinan pointed out, they're entertainment outlets.  What is "credible" when it comes to subjective opinions?*  I just thought it was interesting because it's an unusual advertising twist. 

*Recommending it, though, is Andrew Walker & Bethany Joy Lenz who were good together in Snowed-Inn.  And the fact that they apparently played around with the script to make it more comedic.  So I'm crossing my fingers.

[Chippings]

4 hours ago, AnnaRose said:

I loved Jordan Bridges in this Christmas movie from 2011 that I watched last year - Holiday Engagement.  He was very appealing in that one.

I was looking forward to this weekend's movie because I remembered him so well from that 2011 one; in it, he was an under-employed actor whom the girl found dressed in a hotdog suit (?) dancing on a street corner to advertise a restaurant (that's close, but not exact) and she hired him to impersonate a fiance' at a family weekend.  He was in over his head, sort of goofy, and very endearing.

In this one he had the unenviable job of being the up-tight executive type who is loosened up by the more free-spirited girl, and I felt sorry for him going through it.  I can think of two other actors whom I've seen be really adorable in one role as a lighter character and then very disappointing as the uptight one who has to be liberated by the girl (that would be Will Kemp as a Prince who was perked up by Bethany Joy Lenz, and then as the Chocolatier in Brussels, with much more personality -- and Andrew Cooper first in 'Royal Hearts', managing the sheep and cattle, and then as the "grinch king" whom the skater girl has to lighten up.   In all three cases I felt sorry for them trying to bring some life to the up-tight characters, and not having much to work with.

I thought the blonde designer girl friend was an extreme cartoon of the "wrong girl the male lead is with when the story starts".  We've seen a lot of them, but she was written way past the usual standard.

My first discomfort was the first half hour when Sarah Rue (yes? the girl?) was so incredibly perky it was scary.   

Finally, who knew the tomato lady and pepper man senior citizens would find love by the final curtain?  

Bottom line, not loving this one.  Too formulaic and not much fun for such a likable actor.  ymmv   

[doodlebug]

41 minutes ago, Chippings said:

I was looking forward to this weekend's movie because I remembered him so well from that 2011 one; in it, he was an under-employed actor whom the girl found dressed in a hotdog suit (?) dancing on a street corner to advertise a restaurant (that's close, but not exact) and she hired him to impersonate a fiance' at a family weekend.  He was in over his head, sort of goofy, and very endearing.

In this one he had the unenviable job of being the up-tight executive type who is loosened up by the more free-spirited girl, and I felt sorry for him going through it.  I can think of two other actors whom I've seen be really adorable in one role as a lighter character and then very disappointing as the uptight one who has to be liberated by the girl (that would be Will Kemp as a Prince who was perked up by Bethany Joy Lenz, and then as the Chocolatier in Brussels, with much more personality -- and Andrew Cooper first in 'Royal Hearts', managing the sheep and cattle, and then as the "grinch king" whom the skater girl has to lighten up.   In all three cases I felt sorry for them trying to bring some life to the up-tight characters, and not having much to work with.

I thought the blonde designer girl friend was an extreme cartoon of the "wrong girl the male lead is with when the story starts".  We've seen a lot of them, but she was written way past the usual standard.

My first discomfort was the first half hour when Sarah Rue (yes? the girl?) was so incredibly perky it was scary.   

Finally, who knew the tomato lady and pepper man senior citizens would find love by the final curtain?  

Bottom line, not loving this one.  Too formulaic and not much fun for such a likable actor.  ymmv   

I didn't love it either.  I am all for fantasy and can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but Sarah's character, expecting a multimillion dollar condo development to be cancelled so that she could have free access to continue a community garden because her father started it?  C'mon!  Amongst other things, if she and her father thought it was so important, why didn't they use their own land?  Or, like most other communities. use public land.  When she went to the mayor, I thought maybe something logical would happen like the city would tear down an abandoned house and let her use the lot.   Her character's naivete, thinking that getting a couple dozen signatures on a petition or having a half dozen people picket the project was going to change the developer's mind and get him to turn the land over to her was just dumb, IMO.  I also wondered why, when it looked like the whole garden was about a dozen small raised beds, each about the size of a mini-van, they needed a big lot anyway;  I guess I am too logical for romance.

[LuvMyShows]

Just saw my first Morning Show Mysteries movie, Mortal Mishaps.  I liked it, a lot, in spite of the fact that Rick Fox is wooden and has no chemistry with Holly, the actress playing the new female co-anchor has no presence and always looks like she's acting, and the male co-anchor is too OTT in a bad-acting kind of way.  I guess I liked the chemistry of the restaurant staff and the morning show staff and it made up for the other shortcomings.

[AnnaRose]

1 hour ago, doodlebug said:

I didn't love it either.  I am all for fantasy and can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but Sarah's character, expecting a multimillion dollar condo development to be cancelled so that she could have free access to continue a community garden because her father started it?  C'mon!  Amongst other things, if she and her father thought it was so important, why didn't they use their own land?  Or, like most other communities. use public land.  When she went to the mayor, I thought maybe something logical would happen like the city would tear down an abandoned house and let her use the lot.   Her character's naivete, thinking that getting a couple dozen signatures on a petition or having a half dozen people picket the project was going to change the developer's mind and get him to turn the land over to her was just dumb, IMO.  I also wondered why, when it looked like the whole garden was about a dozen small raised beds, each about the size of a mini-van, they needed a big lot anyway;  I guess I am too logical for romance.

I totally agree with you and found all of that stuff ridiculous.  Even what was planted bugged me.  I felt like community gardens are normally used for people who don't have their own land (or container garden space) to be able to grow edible plants.  I could even see somebody wanting to grow a cutting garden.  But planting azaleas and things like that in a raised plot in a community garden was just silly to me.  

I also didn't like the bickering tomato/pepper people. 

But with everything that bothered me, I still really liked the lead couple... so even though I already deleted it and won't watch it again... I did get some enjoyment out of it... which was a big step up from last week.

[Guest]

The evil developer who wants to destroy the heroines favorite space maybe my least favorite Hallmark movie plot. The misunderstandings are always stupid, the woman are always overly antagonistic and the resolution is glaringly obvious. 

Sara Rue and Jordan Bridges are appealing enough to overcome those problems to make True Love Blooms enjoyable in spite of the flaws. I doubt I would watch it again but I never felt like turning it off. A huge step up from last week. 

Fingers crossed that next weeks movie lives up to the hype. 

[mikeb]

Details about their upcoming "Countdown to Summer" movies

https://deadline.com/2019/04/leah-renee-chris-mcnally-dan-jeannotte-nathan-parsons-among-cast-hallmark-channel-countdown-to-summer-movie-event-1202588907/

I only recognize a couple of the stars, so they appear to be trying to expand beyond usual pool of actors and actresses.

[TVFan17]

I liked Flip That Romance.  Tyler Hynes is a bit edgier than the usual Hallmark leading man, and he is intriguing.

I liked Love to the Rescue.  I did not love it as much as everyone else here did, for some reason, but I enjoyed it and thought that Nikki and Michael were good together.  Michael Rady is growing on me.  I find him to be intriguing too, but in a different way from Tyler Hynes. 

A Brush With Love was a pretty-to-look-at movie -- I liked the flowers, and the setting & scenery.    The story was not as good as I had hoped, but not terrible.   In this particular case, as handsome as Nick Bateman is, I think that they could have found a better match for Arielle Kebbel.    Ideally, she'd be good with Andrew Walker again -- but, as we all know, Hallmark is hanging their hat on this upcoming Andrew-Bethany Joy Lenz movie.

I enjoyed True Love Blooms.  It had a nice, fresh, bright and cheerful look to it.   It's not an all-time favorite Hallmark movie, but it was so much better than I thought it would be.   Jordan Bridges is also growing on me.    He and Sara Rue were good together, and I absolutely LOVED the adorable tomato-pepper couple.  I laughed out loud at the various comments from them -- which were vaguely suggestive and double entendre-ish for a Hallmark movie ("Her tomatoes are distracting!").  Good job, Hallmark!   I wonder if it was better than some others we see because Sara was directly involved in developing it, and her good friend wrote it.

Although I know that hype is the devil, I am looking forward to Bottled With Love.  I wish it were not being hyped, because that is going to kill it and people will instantly set their expectations too high.  But this has been the one I was most looking forward to since the Spring Fever line-up was revealed.

As for the Countdown to Summer movies -- Emeraude Toubia is a gorgeous Mexican-Lebanese actress and model, and I had never heard of her before she started filming Love in the Sun.   Shawn Christian developed this and is one of the writers on it, so it should be interesting to see if that helps or hurts it.

I am looking forward to Jen Lilley's A Paris Romance movie.  While I have a feeling the story might not be that great, I want to see the pretty Parisian sites (it is also partially being filmed in Bulgaria too).

There is also a plethora of wedding-related movies coming up, starting on Memorial Day with a Ryan Paevey installment called From Friend to Fiance, and then leading into June Weddings, with 5 more wedding movies.   (June Weddings is my least favorite themed Hallmark event.)

Looking beyond June to Summer Nights in July/August, I am eager to see Peter Porte and Italia Ricci in Rome in Love, because... ITALY!!!

Also, the Hallmarkies Podcast tweeted about a Hallmark movie called Our Vacation Home, which is filming in Palm Springs, with Becca Tobin, Ryan Rottman and Tilky Jones -- and I would have to assume it will be a summer movie.  

[memememe76]

I just watched True Love Blooms. I didn't quite get the central conflict, so many condo developments in my city have community gardens. But I enjoy the 2 leads. Also, I am a sucker for the Are Tomatoes a Fruit or Vegetable debates. Vegetables!

[catrice2]

On 4/8/2019 at 12:30 PM, mikeb said:

Details about their upcoming "Countdown to Summer" movies

https://deadline.com/2019/04/leah-renee-chris-mcnally-dan-jeannotte-nathan-parsons-among-cast-hallmark-channel-countdown-to-summer-movie-event-1202588907/

I only recognize a couple of the stars, so they appear to be trying to expand beyond usual pool of actors and actresses.

Yeah, but not into any minority ones!  Same type, different faces. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Yeah, but not into any minority ones!  Same type, different faces. 

Emeraude Toubia is Lebanese-Mexican which hopefully will be incorporated into her character.

Otherwise it is unfortunate that the increased diversity seems to be limited to the higher profile Christmas movies. 

[SusanwatchingTV]

I'm normally a lurker, but I enjoy reading everyone's thoughts so I'll chime in.

I've been out of town, so my TiVo is full of movies to catch up on.  I enjoyed Flip That Romance and Tyler Hynes. He reminds me of Christian Slater.  (I'm old.)

I liked Love to the Rescue.  They were good together, but I find the whole premise of splitting a dog's life between two homes a little weird. Still, I hand-wave a lot of stuff watching Hallmark.

This reminds me that I want to say that yes, the movies are sappy, but I love that.  I get dark everywhere else. There are plenty of movies and TV shows that make you think or take you dark places. I love having a channel with consistent content that makes me smile.  Bring on the sap. lol

A Brush With Love was just okay for me.  I kept wanting the guy to show more emotion or something.  I knew he was really in love with her from the beginning because that would make sense for the story, but honestly, he just didn't show it.  The other problem with that one was the lack of appeal of the stuffy-Brit other man. He was yuck.  No risk of attraction there at all.

I enjoyed True Love Blooms, and the male lead was better at showing his feelings.  I could tell immediately he was attracted and intrigued by her.  The girl was pretty, but I didn't like her voice. I had to get used to the little-girl thing she had going on... and it was pretty laughable how tiny that community garden was.  Moving it was the easy solution, but I did wonder how people would access it. I guess they'll have key cards to get up into the buildings?  Usually those type of buildings have security.  But whatever. Hand-wave again.  

I still smiled when they kissed at the end. 🙂

[TVFan17]

Tyler Hynes has found himself (along with Cindy Busby) in the new Wedding March 5 movie! 
 

[catrice2]

On 4/9/2019 at 8:08 PM, Dani said:

Emeraude Toubia is Lebanese-Mexican which hopefully will be incorporated into her character.

Otherwise it is unfortunate that the increased diversity seems to be limited to the higher profile Christmas movies. 

Great! That's progress

[Kohola3]

For the love of all that is holy, spend some money on a dancing coach!  Don't ANY of the actors know how to dance?  I understand the standing-in-one-place-swaying-back-and-forth for the leads because it would be hard to film a conversation.   But those in the background - nobody seems to be able to do any steps and half the time they are not even anywhere near the rhythm of the song.  It's so distracting.

[dcinmb]

On 4/10/2019 at 1:28 PM, TVFan17 said:

Tyler Hynes has found himself (along with Cindy Busby) in the new Wedding March 5 movie! 
 

Ugh. Love Tyler Hynes but can't stand Cindy Busby. IMO, she is by far the least likable Hallmark lead. At first, I thought it was just the character she played on Cedar Cove but I haven't found her remotely appealing in any of her Hallmark movies either.

[In2You]

6 hours ago, dcinmb said:

Ugh. Love Tyler Hynes but can't stand Cindy Busby. IMO, she is by far the least likable Hallmark lead. At first, I thought it was just the character she played on Cedar Cove but I haven't found her remotely appealing in any of her Hallmark movies either.

I've disliked her in everything I've seen her in including that one show on Up Tv.

[MerBearHou]

Thoughts on the Bethany Joy / Andrew movie??

[Kohola3]

1 hour ago, MerBearHou said:

Thoughts on the Bethany Joy / Andrew movie??

Same plot used umpteen times.  Same typical Hallmark ending.  Same cutesy, perky girl.  Same upstanding good guy. Same clothes and hairstyles.  

At least the person of color had some status.  Otherwise same story, different day.

[Chippings]

I pretty much enjoyed it.  They said from the outset (in the promos) that it was a re-telling of the "You've Got Mail", "Little Shop Around the Corner", "She Loves Me" thing -- all of which I've seen a lotta times.  But I thought they changed it up enough to be entertaining.  They even were good enough to omit the scene where She is sitting in the restaurant waiting for Him, and He comes in pretending it's just a coincidence and giving her a hard time.  

I was just happy not to see any cupcakes, any jolly cooking-together scene, or saving her father's treasured xxx business.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, MerBearHou said:

Thoughts on the Bethany Joy / Andrew movie??

I liked it a lot. I do think I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for all the hype. 

Bethany Joy and Andrew could make almost anything work and the story was nothing new but it was still enjoyable. I liked that the conflict wasn’t a simple misunderstanding and that he told her the truth directly. 

Based on the Andrew Walker interview I was expected more humor so that was disappointing. I wonder if some of the changes that they made while filming ended up not being used

[Irlandesa]

I thought the movie got better as it went along.  The beginning started a bit serious but as it got further into the You've Got Mail/Shop Around The Corner of it all, I started getting into it more.

Bethany and Andrew are really good together and I would like to see them more.  I found it better than most of the Hallmark movies but not quite to the heights of Love To The Rescue. And Snowed Inn is still their better entry.

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

Same cutesy, perky girl.

I thought she was closer to the uptight trope than perky.

[AnnaRose]

44 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I thought the movie got better as it went along.  The beginning started a bit serious but as it got further into the You've Got Mail/Shop Around The Corner of it all, I started getting into it more.

Bethany and Andrew are really good together and I would like to see them more.  I found it better than most of the Hallmark movies but not quite to the heights of Love To The Rescue. And Snowed Inn is still their better entry.

I thought she was closer to the uptight trope than perky.

Yeah, she was much more uptight here than she was in the last movie I watched of hers, Royal Matchmaker. 

I enjoyed it too but, like you, not as much as Love to the Rescue or Snowed Inn Christmas.

I also thought it got better as it went along, but some of that may have been because...

1 hour ago, Dani said:

I liked it a lot. I do think I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for all the hype.

of the hype.  Especially with the two stars announcing its critical claim immediately before the start of the movie.  That right there predisposes me to view it more critically.  (I always have a more difficult time liking something that I've been told is great, or a classic, and conversely am more apt to enjoy something for which I have low expectations.)

[Irlandesa]

The one thing that tempered the hype for me were the commercials which hinted it might be more serious.  So my expectations were lowered.  They moved away from the maudlin vibe the further into the movie we got too. That helped.

[catrice2]

So the movie wasn't a mystery? 

Had to laugh when I realized they put the Holly Robinson Peete mystery up against Games of Thrones

[Jillybean]

Does anyone else think Bethany was wearing a wig in the movie? Her hair was SO bad.

[KLovestoShop]

When someone upthread said there will be 40 Christmas movies, is that 40 new movies or just a total of 40 movies for the season?  If it's 40 new ones, I just can't see that working.  Nearly every story is the same, and that gets really boring.  

I see they're doing another Pickler Christmas movie around Graceland ands that Priscilla Presley will have a role in it.  Someone wrote that KP's  first Christmas movie was the highest rated one of all the other Christmas movies.  I find that really hard to believe, as I don't know anyone in my group of friends who liked that movie.  

[mikeb]

2 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

When someone upthread said there will be 40 Christmas movies, is that 40 new movies or just a total of 40 movies for the season?  If it's 40 new ones, I just can't see that working.  Nearly every story is the same, and that gets really boring.  

I see they're doing another Pickler Christmas movie around Graceland ands that Priscilla Presley will have a role in it.  Someone wrote that KP's  first Christmas movie was the highest rated one of all the other Christmas movies.  I find that really hard to believe, as I don't know anyone in my group of friends who liked that movie.  

It will be 40 new Christmas movies between main Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies And Mysteries Channel.

Christmas At Graceland was their highest rated 2018 Christmas movie, but only 6th highest all-time.  Candice Cameron Bure's 2014 Christmas Under Wraps is highest rated all-time (overall, she has 4 of the top 5).

Edited April 15, 2019 by mikeb

[Happywatcher]

I have A Summer to Remember (Catherine Bell as a busy doc who takes her daughter to Fiji) on in the background while reading, but keep seeing how awesome the resort looks. 

Internet says it was filmed in Fiji, but I can't find the resort where it was filmed. Does anyone know?

[mikeb]

27 minutes ago, Happywatcher said:

I have A Summer to Remember (Catherine Bell as a busy doc who takes her daughter to Fiji) on in the background while reading, but keep seeing how awesome the resort looks. 

Internet says it was filmed in Fiji, but I can't find the resort where it was filmed. Does anyone know?

Found this article https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018/08/where-a-summer-to-remember-filmed-locations/

which includes

Many different locations were used for the movie, and some scenes were filmed at waterfalls or even in the jungle. We don’t know where every scene was filmed, but we do know that for at least part of the time, Catherine Bell was at the Malolo Island Resort and some of the resort scenes were filmed at the Likuliku Lagoon Resort.