Chesler/Perlmutter Productions
Lindy Booth, Paul McGillion, Derek McGrath, Barbara Gordon, Teresa Pavlinek
Carrie Bishop (Lindy Booth) is a successful event planner in New York City, but her life changes in a few seconds when she is involved in a terrible car accident. Carrie is unconscious but when she wakes, she is beside an older man, Henry (Derek McGrath) at a park bench in Central Park. Henry is her spirit guide who is there to help her cross over to the other side. But first she must complete a final task before she can go. She is assigned to guide a single dad, Scott Walker (Paul McGillion) who has lost all hope because his business, a restaurant, is failing. Carrie becomes a guide and a guardian angel to them while they try to work out their problems. But Carrie doesn’t have much time. She has until midnight on Christmas Eve to save him and then her time is up.
Well, again, another poor person who is in a car accident at Christmas. This is a really dangerous time in Christmas movies. This new for 2011 film is a remake of a half dozen other films with the same story. The characters are not real great, and the story is kind of flat. The biggest thing it has going for it is that it’s new this year, so you haven’t seen it before, at least. It’s a standard TV Christmas story with little that is memorable. The little girl is probably the best actor in the film. The ending is really strange. There is a “twist” in the end that may make you feel like you’ve been ripped off big time. Just don’t kick the TV screen. Basically, this film is watchable, but barely. There’s so much better stuff this year, that I just can’t recommend this one.
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Brownie Films
Julia Duffy, David Ogden Stiers, Kirby Heyborne, Blake Bashoff, Kelly Stables, Lauren Storm, Michelle Page, Joey Lawrence, Larisa Oleynik
Mom and Dad married seven years before, but the blended family has never gotten together in the same house at the same time. They just don’t get along. But this year they all come home for Christmas to set off World War III. One of the girls shows up with a new boyfriend who happens to be the ex of her sister. Then Mom announces that the family is to appear on a “Family Christmas” segment on her TV show which everyone screws up royally. Finally, one of the family members has a deep dark secret that threatens to blow the lid off the whole holiday. This is a Christmas family comedy about a big family who doesn’t like each other very much.
This film is on TV this Christmas once again. It’s a decent family drama centered around the holidays. They all do a pretty decent job of being hysterically funny one moment and deadly serious the next. It has a lot of heart and is a lot of fun at the same time. Everyone has to learn how to compromise to fit into this dysfunctional family, and it’s fun to watch them figure it all out. One of the best lines, when Mom says to her son, “You need to get some counseling” and he responds, “So do you”. They all need all the help they can get. This is a simple film, not too intense, and nice change of pace for a littler known film for the holidays. I enjoyed it.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
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Atmospheric Pictures, Moody Independent
Elisabeth Rohm, Laura Breckenridge, Brendan Fehr, Jerrika Hinton, Laura Spencer, Mark Joy, Mark DeAngelis
Wendy Walton (Laura Breckenridge) is the best set designer in Boston, but in order to get noticed, she quits her job at the local theater company and takes a job as an assistant to Priscilla Hall (Elisabeth Rohm), the best known interior designer in the city. Wendy, who’s working all hours of the day and night to keep Priscilla off her back, is trapped one night in an elevator where she shares a kiss with a very handsome stranger. Later Wendy learns that the man is actually Priscilla’s fiance Adam (Brendan Fehr), and to make it worse, he doesn’t recognize her. When Priscilla assigns Wendy to plan and decorate her engagement party at Adam’s house, she ends up falling for him, but is afraid to tell him that she’s the girl from the elevator.
This is a very good romantic comedy set in a Christmas scene. It’s one of the better made-for-TV films I’ve seen. Ladies are going to love it, as it all the great parts of a romantic comedy. It’s got the usual elements, scheming, planning, manipulating, etc. It seems that by hook or by crook Priscilla is going to get what she wants, and she’s not afraid to step on anyone to get it. It’s very well done for what it is, and it delivers enough punch to make it worth tracking down. It’s on ION television this year.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
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Canaan Films
Gina Holden, Billy rfay Cyrus, Liam James, Carolyn Adair, Jacob Blair, Matt Ward, Malcolm Stewart, Marsha Regis, Jaishon Fisher, Simon Chin
In the “sequel” to Christmas in Canaan, Bobber (Liam James) is in need of extensive orthopedic surgery and months and months of physical therapy to recover from being hit by a car. Rodney Freeman (Matt Ward) the young black man who Daniel (Billy Ray Cyrus) took into his home and raised as his own son (in the previous movie) has now become a famous and very successful writer and offers to fly the Daniel and Bobber to California for treatment for Bobber. While in San Francisco, Daniel meets and falls for Briony Adair (Gina Holden), the doctor who is treating Bobber on the road to recovery. Bobber invites Briony home for Christmas, but a terrible mishap causes Daniel to force Briony to leave. Things go downhill for the family until Daniel swallows his pride and reaches out to make up.
The original story was about an incident where Daniels son gets involved in a bit of trouble with an African-American kid and the punishment was that they live one week at each other’s house to learn to be more tolerant. In this film, they are grown and facing different problems. This is a simple story, down home and small town. This is a brand new film for this year (2011) and a nice follow up to the original story. It continues to teach about forgiveness and tolerance. The story is plain, but it’s a nice relaxing Christmas tale. Nothing to get really excited about here, but it is a fairly decent story of good family values. If you’re familiar with the other one, then this is a good follow-up to the first movie.
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Saban International, Von Zerneck Sertner Films
Kristin Davis, Reed Diamond, Danelle Brett, Tim Meadows, Cedric Smith, Alexa Gilmour
Andrew (Reed Diamond) married his childhood sweetheart Beth (Kristin Davis) 10 years ago. Since then he has become a powerful literary agent, but forgetting all the things he loved about Beth. Their relationship has deteriorated until they finally have a big spat. Beth runs out, and is struck by a car and killed. Lionel (Tim Meadows) is an angel who appears to Andrew and offers him a precious gift, the ability to live over the last 3 days with Beth, giving him a chance to change how he treated her. But after the three days, she will still die, and nothing he can do can change that unless he finds the perfect gift for her. But though he is able to find out how much she means to him, he can’t seem to get the right gift. Now with only a few hours to live, he’s desperate to find the lat present that will tempt fate and allow her to life.
This is a very intense and touching romantic Christmas Story. It is designed to make you think. The futility of Andrew trying to find the perfect Christmas gift is tragic, and as time slips away, there seems to be nothing he can do to change it. It’s not perfect, and it’s a bit sappy, but it is a really great story, even though the ending is a bit abrupt and may shock a little bit, at least we learn not to take one another for granted. We’re all running against the clock, and if we want to change ourselves, we never know how much time we have left. This is a touching story, and one that’s very worthwhile to review and to think about. I really enjoyed watching this film.
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