Ed's Review Dot Com

Shavick Entertainment, Saban Entertainment

Mimi Rogers, Rob Stewart, Stella Stevens, Bill Switzer, Marla Maples, Enuka Okuma, Jano Frandsen, Andrew Johnston

Melody Parris (Mimi Rogers) is a perfume saleslady at a department store.  She has a unique skill of identifying the exact perfume to match a person.  No one else has this skill.  When it’s time for a new department head to be chosen, she is passed by for the job.  Her boyfriend is a boring guy who will never commit, they have been dating forever.  Melody thinks her life is in a rut.  She makes an impossible Christmas List of what she wants for Christmas thinking it’s just a silly pastime, but her friend throws it into Santa’s mailbox at the store.  Suddenly the list of wishes start coming true, but nothing comes true in the way she expected.   Melody is in for a wild ride!

A little boy comes into the store to buy the exact perfume for his mom.  Mom has passed away, but he wants to perfume to remind him of her.  But he doesn’t have enough money to buy it, so Melody loans him the money on an IOU.   Melody’s Mom has come down to visit too and Natalie (Stella Stevens) just seems to want to put her down and complain about her lousy boyfriend.   Every time she hears bells, another wish on the list comes true.

This is a cute and family friendly Christmas Tale.  The way the wishes come true is very clever, and it’s fun to watch how each item on the list comes true in a different way than you would expect.  But the relationships between the characters and the chemistry they have make it a very enjoyable Christmas movie.  I have seen this one a number of times, but it still is amusing watching the wishes come true!  This one is a joy each year.

ACH, Medien Capital Treuhand, Regent Entertainment

Connie Sellecca, Corbin Bernsen, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Eric Jacobs, Sonny Carl Davis, Tony Larimer, David Millbern, Shauna Thompson, Joan Mullaney, JJ Neward, Paul Kiernan

Justin (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) is a little boy with who witnesses his best friend’s parents pronounce that they are getting divorced over Thanksgiving Dinner.  Then afterward, trouble brews in their house.  Mom and Dad are fighting over their financial situation and Justin witnesses this.  Little does he know that they quickly get over it, and makeup.   Dad finds the old Santa costume in the garage and dresses up to come in an apologize for his bad behavior.  Troubled over the arguing, Justin hears the “Ho Ho Ho” coming from the living room and founds his mom in a smooch with old Santa.  Naturally he assumes Santa is trying to replace his Dad, and when Dad gets a job out of town with a huge bonus if completed by Christmas,  he leaves.  Justin then decides the only way to make Santa stay away from his house is to be as naughty as possible.  It seems that from this point on, everything goes from bad to worse as every event seems to convince him that his Mom is really having an affair with Jolly Old Saint Nick.

This is a pretty cute little Christmas movie with a lot of humor in it.  It’ reminds me of Dennis the Menace where the little boy is not really bad, but just a victim of circumstances, and everything he tries to do just makes the situation worse.  It’s cute how kids (and adults) can overhear part of a conversation and completely jump to the wrong conclusion.  Once this jump is made, everything seems to get worse and cement the conclusion in the first place.   But when Dad suddenly comes home to a well booby trapped house, it gets really funny!  Maybe a little too slapstick for some tastes, but it is funny.

Note to parents:  For little kids, the parents do tell the kid that it’s been Daddy all along, but after Mom and Dad we unable to find the toy that Justin wants, the real Santa does show up and bring it, and of course the parents miss it, but Justin still believes.  So it doesn’t spoil the whole Santa thing after all.

Lifetime, TF1 International, Nomadic Pictures

Jami Gertz, Dylan Walsh, Aaron Pearl, Julia Maxxwell, Brooklynn Proulx, Alex Arsenalt, Judith Buchan, Joe Norman Show

Based on true events, but not a true story, this is a story of endurance.  In Idaho in the mountains, a husband and wife are separated and with 3 kids, Christmas is not easy.  But they decide to make the best of the situation and take a snowmobile trip before the holidays.   They end up lost and unable to find their way.   They decide the best way to go is down to the creek, but this doesn’t work.  So they build a shelter and stay overnight.  Then they start back up to where they started to a ridge, but end up in the wrong area completely.  All in all they spend night after night out in below zero temperatures.  Meanwhile the whole town turns out to find them, but a sudden storm hides all the tracks and they are unable to find them.  Finally grandma decides to call off the search because it’s just too risky with all the snow and dangers of avalanche.

There are some issues with this film, but I think they tried to do their best with it.   The kids are very impressive and do a great job.  The two adults (Jami Gertz and Dylan Walsh) are more like children than the children.  They keep arguing and attacking each other all throughout the film.  You’d think they’d be more interested in getting out of there, but they would rather take pot shots at each other.   The facts of the actual story are tweaked and changed to make it a holiday story of sorts, but the real story is not about the holidays, but survival in the icy weather.  The purpose was to make this a Christmas story and that part is pretty weak anyway.  But the adventure and the suspense is good, and the movie was shot on site in Idaho so the scenery is beautiful.

Jaffe/Braunstein Films, Muse Entertainment Enterprises, WildRice Productions

Christine Baranski, Carly Pope, Bobby Cannavale, Monica Parker, Kristen Hager, Tracy Dawson

JJ Jenner (Carly Pope) is a newbie food critic who dines out a lot and puts it on the tab!  She’s looking for a big break to make a big splash in the industry, when Mother (Christine Baranski) shows up unannounced.  Mother is a bit of a “free spirit” and nothing like her straight laced daughter who is very uptight.  JJ doesn’t do Christmas, but in total disregard to her wishes Mom decorates the house and brings Christmas everywhere.  Meanwhile a young chef who is opening a new restaurant and having lots of trouble getting any attention keeps pestering her to do a review.  But things don’t work out, but he’s relentless.  Alex (Bobby Cannavale) keeps bugging her for a review, so she makes a deal with him.  If he’ll take her mother out, and wine and dine her and take her dancing, it will get her off JJ’s nerves and in return she promises to write a review.  Trouble is, the guy is really nice, good looking, and an excellent cook.  So once JJ falls for him in a big way, how to let her mother down without crushing her completely.

This is a really nice holiday film with a lot of heart.  The romance portion is nice, but the relationship between the free and easy Mom and her uptight daughter is where the meat of the movie is.  The chemistry between the three is awesome, and it’s completely believable.  They way they hurt each other and make up is nice to watch.  Each envies the other but they don’t know it.   This is well worth the effort to seek out as it’s a great little Christmas movie.

Once Upon a Time Productions

Nicole Eggert, Patricia Mayen-Salazar, Bret Anthony, Brett Le Borveua, Stefanie von Pfetten, Kristina Barr, Ernesto Griffith, Kristen Harris, Craig Haas

Paula (Nicole Eggert) is married with children.  Her husband is a good old boy who’s struggling to support his family, but things are going slowly and things are really tight.  Trying to make a Christmas out of what they have is a challenge.  Paula is down in the basement and runs across some old paintings she used to work on, now long discarded and in the corner.  They’re attending a Christmas Party, and there she meets her old boyfriend who is a rich and famous guy who has everything going for him.   She makes a wish that she had chosen him instead.   She falls through the dryer and ends up in the mansion of her ex boyfriend and she finds out she’s gotten her wish and is now married to the rich guy!   It doesn’t take long for her to realize the mistake she made and she wants to go back.  But it’s not that easy to get a second wish!

This is a very derivative movie, but that’s ok.  It’s still fun.  Nicole Eggert was an excellent choice for Paula.  She really has me convinced that she’s tired of her old life and longing for a new one.  Then she is so thrilled with the new life, until she realizes how cold and alone she is and complete stuck in a loveless life.  Not so nice after all.   She does a great job (and the “portal” in the dryer was classic!) of playing the role of the dissatisfied person who gets a strong lesson in how the grass is not always greener!  All in all it’s a well designed and executed Christmas movie and well worth watching.