Hallmark Mysteries: Mysterious Small Town Hijinks Ensue - General Discussion

[Maelstrom]

I didn’t realize there’s another Curious Caterer movie so soon after the last one - for anyone else who also missed it, it’s re-airing Sunday afternoon.

[LuvMyShows]

On 10/8/2024 at 2:27 PM, mostlylurking said:

 Just started Sprinkle of Deceit.  I like Ali Sweeney so let’s see how this goes…

I just watched it. As others have said before, the women in the family just act so immature and giggly when they're together, and it's not appealing. I think the producers or someone drastically overestimate the appeal of Hannah's mother. Hannah and Chad had waaaay more chemistry than Hannah's sister and the cop. 

[david gideon]

Curious Caterer sure had some short segments. I think one was actually under 8 minutes between commercial breaks. The storyline reminded me of a 'Mystery Woman' movie where a singing group that was big years earlier are going to have a big reunion and one of them gets murdered. Pretty sure I've seen the electrocution angle used more than once to kill off a musician when he grabbed the mike..

[Badsamaritan]

On 10/11/2024 at 11:12 PM, LuvMyShows said:

Just watched Curious Caterer: Forbidden Fruit. For whatever reason, it just didn't captivate me like the others in the franchise have. I don't really have any complaints...it was just kinda meh. And I don't like Goldie's hair shorter and darker.

Agreed. Nikki DeLoach has a bit of a five-head so for me, I like her much better with bangs. 

I didn't feel like Goldie and Tom worked together as much in this movie as they had in past movies so that may have been what was missing for me. I'm wondering if they're setting up Olive to have her own spinoff movie eventually, with her picking up her mom's investigation tactics. And she's getting older so it's not super weird a kid would think about following a potential suspect. If there's another movie, I could see Olive becoming the one in jeopardy now that Marla has had her turn as a shield to a murderer lol. 

[Daff]

On 9/22/2024 at 2:41 PM, Maelstrom said:

Sad to say I was disappointed in the Cases of Mystery Lane sequel. I think the mystery could have been a pretty good one but IMO the zany hijinks were annoying and distracting and undercut the seriousness of the original murder mystery (Rockvale Killer). I've always enjoyed Paul Campbell but this time I think they gave him too much leeway with the silliness and it didn't work for me at all. (Probably didn't help that I had a mouse problem of my own this summer, and a few cheap humane traps from Amazon and a bit of peanut butter took care of them no problem, so all of his over the top schemes just grated). PC and Aimee Garcia work well together, and clearly both have great comedic chops, but the tone just didn't work for a murder mystery IMO.

It appears that they want this series to be zany and ott, almost slapstick. These two are portrayed as dysfunctional children whose relationship seems to work. The whole mouse thing was a throwback to the game which appeared under everyone’s tree in the ‘60s. You played the board game maybe a time or two, then started using the parts to make up new, invented contraptions. They deserve each other.

Edited October 20 by Daff

[chitowngirl]

So I’m guessing we are in Hallmark All Christmas 24/7 until the end of the year mode? 🙄

[Maelstrom]

Chitowngirl, the Christmas Invasion started Friday (the 18th of October! 🙄)

[Badsamaritan]

I enjoyed Five Gold Rings. I like Holland Rodan and I kept trying to think where I'd seen Nolan Gerard Funk before, and he was on Castle, S1.E3 Hedgefund Homeboys. He played the killer and was really creepy. I thought he did better in the quiet moments between him and Holland and was a little stiffer in scenes with more people. Before I figured out where I'd seen him before, I kept thinking that he was a better actor than what he was fully giving here, and I was right. He did a good job in the close moments. I liked the storyline and it was something different. HM went to all the trouble to rebrand this channel as 'mystery' so they really need to step up with actual mysteries in their movies. 

[MerBearHou]

@Badsamaritan I'm so glad to hear this.  I really enjoy Holland as well so I'll watch this one when it re-airs.

[Badsamaritan]

@MerBearHou The next airing will be this Sunday at 6pm ET. I am planning to watch again, I missed some stuff cuz I was trying to scrounge up something to eat lol. 

[Badsamaritan]

I've tried to watch My Sweet Austrian Holiday a couple times and unfortunately not even Will Kemp could keep me tuned in. Since both were already in a similar movie - Love, Romance & Chocolate with Lacey as the lead - where they played friends, I didn't see any chemistry between Will and Brittany Bristow except the friend kind. And I like Brittany, I'm just not sure she has that certain something that makes her a great lead. 

[anniebird]

Is this the right place to discuss Mistletoe Murders? I am surprised at how good this show is. Really enjoying it.

[Shelbie]

Me too. I recorded it on a whim because I like Sarah Drew and was very pleasantly surprised by it.

[Badsamaritan]

I liked Christmas Under the Lights. I wish they used both Heather and Marco more. They had great chemistry, all the close talking was sexy. Heather did a good job conveying Emily's conflict, the regrets she had about the way she acted as a teen, her grief and guilt over her mom. I understood why she kept saying she couldn't move back, I've been in a similar situation with not wanting to return to the small town where everybody knows your business. 

And they really need to use Marco more, but with the right leading lady because Marco is smoking hot. My my my, my my my my goodness. I would not have had Emily's willpower, I woulda been all up on that. 🥵😍😋

Edited December 3 by Badsamaritan
Because stars and lights are different

[Rabithed]

8 hours ago, Badsamaritan said:

I liked Christmas Under the Stars. I wish they used both Heather and Marco more. They had great chemistry, all the close talking was sexy. Heather did a good job conveying Emily's conflict, the regrets she had about the way she acted as a teen, her grief and guilt over her mom. I understood why she kept saying she couldn't move back, I've been in a similar situation with not wanting to return to the small town where everybody knows your business. 

And they really need to use Marco more, but with the right leading lady because Marco is smoking hot. My my my, my my my my goodness. I would not have had Emily's willpower, I woulda been all up on that. 🥵😍😋

“Christmas Under The Lights”! Christmas Under the Stars came out in 2019. lol 

I wanted to catch that. I’ll have to watch out for a repeat. Marco is also in the Netflix series Virgin River. 

[Badsamaritan]

On 12/2/2024 at 9:24 PM, Rabithed said:

“Christmas Under The Lights”! Christmas Under the Stars came out in 2019. lol 

I wanted to catch that. I’ll have to watch out for a repeat. Marco is also in the Netflix series Virgin River. 

It's on tonight at 10:01 ET. Imma try to stay awake to see Marco's sexy ass again....

[Ele]

HMM is showing  To All a Goodnight tomorrow night. That was one of the best Christmas movies in 2023. It has Kimberly Sustad and Mark Ghanime.

[Badsamaritan]

On 12/12/2024 at 8:17 PM, Ele said:

HMM is showing  To All a Goodnight tomorrow night. That was one of the best Christmas movies in 2023. It has Kimberly Sustad and Mark Ghanime.

Another fave from last year that I will watch again and again (watched last night) and one I will choose over most of the 2024 offerings. 

And I'll ask again - why isn't Mark Ghanime in more of their movies? He's hot and can act. I loved that whole scene when they were decorating their Good Night trees and Mark brought all those elephant ornaments. When he heard the catch in Kimberley's voice when he asked if she needed help and she said "All that I can get" and immediately went to her, I knew their kiss was gonna be good. It had humor and heart, the stepmom was hilarious in all her reserved glory (great casting there) and we got Bongo Santa. 10/10 all around. 

[Ele]

2 hours ago, Badsamaritan said:

Another fave from last year that I will watch again and again (watched last night) and one I will choose over most of the 2024 offerings. 

And I'll ask again - why isn't Mark Ghanime in more of their movies? He's hot and can act. I loved that whole scene when they were decorating their Good Night trees and Mark brought all those elephant ornaments. When he heard the catch in Kimberley's voice when he asked if she needed help and she said "All that I can get" and immediately went to her, I knew their kiss was gonna be good. It had humor and heart, the stepmom was hilarious in all her reserved glory (great casting there) and we got Bongo Santa. 10/10 all around. 

Those two need to make another movie together. I also think he and Hemmens should make a movie. 

[LuvMyShows]

Given that it's OK to discuss Signed, Sealed, Delivered here, I hope it's OK to post this comment. I saw that there was a new Christmas movie called Five Golden Rings, and the description of the two stars needing to find the owners of five gold rings before Christmas, had my hopes up that it would be in the vein of SSD, where the "mystery" is the focus, and the interpersonal development plot is important but secondary. But I was disappointed, because the amount of sleuthing to figure out the owners of the rings was minimal, and it was a typical Hallmark Christmas interpersonal plot otherwise.  Also, I've never seen Nolan Gerard Funk before, and I found him very uncharismatic/bland and wooden.