Ed's Review Dot Com

Ardent Producations, Legacy Filmworks, Viacom Productions

John Dye, Kathy Ireland, Mary Donnelly-Haskell, Wayne Thomas Yorke, Lloyb Berry, Arturo Gil, Ashley Brown, Matthew Walker, Ken Camroux, James Kirk, Kirsten Prout

This sequel to Once Upon a Christmas continues right where the first one ends.  Kristen is concerned because she has no memory of who she is, or how she got to the Morgan’s, and Rudolfa is still upset that Santa would not let her take over.  In fact, for all her naughtiness, she was required to do a lot of chores.  But she has a plan for revenge.  Sell of the North Pole, piece by piece, secretly. Her plan is to turn the secret Santa Workshop of the North Pole into a casino.   So she turns to TV commercials to pull off the plan.  Will little sister Kirsten and the two children be able to stop Rudolfa before her evil plan is realized and before Christmas is lost forever?  Well that depends on whether Kristen can get her memory back.

A clever sequel to the original story that was really needed.  It ended abruptly and we didn’t know what happened to her after the awful events at the ending of the first film, so we really needed a sequel.  We aren’t disappointed in this respect.  We needed some answers.  This film isn’t quite as good as the first, but close.  But the continuation of the story makes this a good sequel  The kids have grown a year, and most everyone is back form the first, so if you see the first, be sure to catch this one too and see what happened to Kristen after the fire.

ABC Family

Lorraine Bracco, Ron Canada, Luciana Carro, Josh Cooke, Ennis Esmer, Erin Karpluk, Matt Keeslar, James Kot, Christina Milian, Jason Schombing, Kailin See, Christine Willes

Snowglobe premiered on ABC Family in 2007 and was an instant hit.   Angela (Milian) is a single lady with a large family in the food business.  They run a deli, and Angela works very hard there, but she loves Christmas.  Her family doesn’t share her love of the holidays though, and they’re very loud and her mother is always setting her up with someone.  Things seem out of control and she just wants some peace and quiet.   Suddenly a Christmas snowglobe arrives in the mail, and Angela is transported to the perfect Christmas inside the globe.  She finds a way to get out of the snowglobe by following a path through the edge of the woods, and can return every time she winds the snowglobe.

She thinks she’s found the perfect Christmas, but problems just get worse until it comes to a crashing climax.

Snowglobe is a clever little story that is well acted and has a fine story that what we think we want is often not really what we want.   It’s about striving for something you want so badly only to find out that you’ve put yourself in the wrong place after all.

Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions

Carla Gugino, Kathy Baker, David Conrad, Laura Dern, Patty Duke, Lynn Redgrave, Mary Fogarty, Faith Prince

A Season For Miracles is a wonderful holiday story and one I hate to miss year after year.  Berry Thompson (Laura Dern) is a mom in prison and a real screw up.  Her sister  Emilie Thompson (Carla Gugino) is taking care of her sister’s two little children.  Family Services wants the kids in foster care, but Emilie and Berry agree that the kids need to be together and with the best one to take care of her, Emilie.   So off they go, hiding from the cops.  Suddenly they need to find something to eat, and being that it’s nearly Christmas, they find a little town called “Bethlehem” just off the freeway.  There at the diner, they meet an angel who gives them the way to an abandoned house waiting for the owners niece to claim, but she’s never returned.  So planning to stay only the night, things happen and they can’t leave, so they  move into the life of someone else.  Lies upon lies until eventually it all comes crashing down.  But new friends all over town come to their aid, and Lynn Redgrave plays the wonderful judge who gets to decide what happens to all of them.

It’s a lovely Christmas story and one that’s well worth searching for.

Ardent Productions, Legacy Filmworks, Lincoln Field Productions

John Dye, Kathy Ireland, Mary Donnelly-Haskell, Liz Torres, Robin Avery, Penny Blake, Rachelle Carson, Douglas Campbell, Andre Carthen, Michael Gilden, James Kirk, Kirsten Prout

This is a sweet little Christmas story about Santa who is ready to give up on Christmas.  The people of earth just don’t have the Christmas spirit anymore.  Santa has two daughters, Rudolfa (named after the reindeer, of course)  Now Kristen (Kathy Ireland) is good and Rudolfa (Mary Donnelly-Haskell) is naughty.  But Rudolfa’s older and feels like she deserves to take over for Daddy.  But her plans for the future of Christmas is pretty ugly.  Kristen makes a deal if she can get one family to change and have the Christmas spirit again, Santa won’t give up the holiday.

This is a pretty decent little Christmas story (followed by a sequel called Twice Upon a Christmas which continues exactly where the first left off) has a a family that lost their mother (This seems to be a common thread in Christmas movies) and lost hope.  Dad, as usual, throws himself into his work and the kids chase away nanny after nanny.  But Kristen shows up and takes things into her hands.  What follows is a lot of trouble.   But in the end, Kristin has to make a decision that will change everything.   Will she be able to change the life of the Morgan’s forever, and foil her sisters plan to change Christmas into “Christmas Fools Day?”

This is such a heartwarming story and one I would definitely recommend.

Cosgrove/Meurer Productions, Voice Pictures

Tom Everett Scott, Wallace Shawn, Verne Troyer, Alanna Ubach, Deanna Milligan, Richard Kline, Larry Miller, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Dan Joffre

Maybe I’m being too hard on this mess, but here goes.  This is the story of Allan Karroll.  Allen was humiliated by his girlfriend in front of thousands of people one Christmas and since then has hated Christmas.  Since his job is writing sentimental greeting cards, this doesn’t fare too well.   Then one night he’s visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley (related to Bob Marley) and Jacob is in bad shape, mon.  He’s at the wrong house.  He’s supposed to be haunting the neighbor, Zeb Rosecog (Wallace Shawn).   But since he’s in the wrong house, he starts the whole thing rolling and the ghosts keep arriving on schedule at the wrong house.  Allen follows along to bail them out, and learns a lot about his issues, and a lot more about Rosecog’s issues.  Then, after being impressed to change his life he figures he better deliver the message to a very unwilling Rosecog.

This is a comedy version of The Christmas Carol and though there are some really funny scenes, mostly it struck me as silly.  If you want a slap stick version of Scrooge with a pot smoking Marley, mon, and a bunch of scatterbrained ghosts (not far from Beetlejuice style) then that’s what this is.  It tries to get some heart in the end, but it’s too little too late.  And besides,  playing around with A Christmas Carol is kind of sacrilege isn’t it?

I didn’t really care for it, and won’t waste two hours on this again, but if you’re a grinch and want to see the anti-Christmas Carol, then you might get a kick out this.