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10 West Studios, Rebel Forge,

Bruce Boxleitner, Antonio Fargas, Kenton Duty, Bridgett Newton, Laura Spencer, Arthur Cartwright

Bruce Dalt (Bruce Boxleitner) is the sportscaster for the local TV station and is known for his overly competitive attitude. Whatever he or the family tries to do, they have to win. His son, Jason (Kenton Duty) is a star on the basketball team, but when his dad loses his cool at a basketball game and goes a little too far, he ends up in court where he’s sentenced to public service in the army. Salvation Army that is. Bruce is forced to ring the bell to collect donations for the Salvation Army. But during the time he spends doing public service, he learns a lot about his attitude and what is driving him and his family to pieces.

This UP channel 2013 Christmas movie is an advertisement for the Salvation Army. This is the most religious of the films I’ve seen this year, although it’s pretty soft sell. The emphasis is on giving to those who need and the story is very sweet. If you are not driven nuts by the religious overtones, then this is a good story. Granted, the acting is a bit stiff and wooden, and it is pretty predictable all the way through, still it was a very enjoyable Christmas film. We get to know the characters and why they act like they do, and it’s a good character study as well as a heartwarming Christmas tale, so it’s a good new addition to the Christmas collection. I recommend this, but warn you again, it’s a proselytizing film, for sure.

[Click here for the UP television channel page for this movie]

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Direct Source Special Productions,

Cast information is not available.

Princess Sydney has lost her loving Grandfather who watched over her and raised her. He was a kind man, and she misses him very much, but she remembers that her Grandfather gave her three gold coins, and he had a tradition of giving the coins each Christmas to someone who really needs help. So to remember her Grandfather, Sydney sets out to find three needy families to pass on the 3 coins.

This film is definitely for the little ones. The animation is Saturday afternoon cartoon style and very flat looking. There is a lot of music, and it’s a one hour cartoon Christmas film. Some kids may be aware of the Princess Sydney series, and be familiar with it, but I am not, so I can’t comment on that. But I can see where this could kill an hour for the little ones, especially little girls who are really into the princess thing. Now that Disney has forgotten that, and now must give us the politically correct girls don’t need boys or parents or princess anymore, this is place little girls who still like the princess dream. It’s not a great movie, and may drive parents crazy, but I’m sure most younger kids will enjoy it.

Johnson Production Group, Maple Island Films,

Hilarie Burton, Matt Dallas, Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter

Krissy Kringle (Hilarie Burton) despises Christmas. She’s expecting a big promotion, but is shocked to be let go, and she can only find a job working as a Christmas wrapper at the local department store which requires that she work with Santa to take pictures of the kids. But when someone named Krissy Kringle moved into the neighborhood, the neighbors changed the name of their street to Candy Cane Lane, complete with a holiday lighting contest every year. Because of her name, the post office delivers a lot of misdirected mail to the real Kris Kringle to her house. She ignores this, but one big package contained a strange Naught or Nice book that Santa left at a child’s house and was mailed back to him. Krissy finds out that the book magically reveals the bad things everyone has done, and she finds out she can use this book to seek revenge on people by finding out their secrets. Soon she learns that the information in the wrong hands turns her into a pretty nasty person herself.

Not to be confused with the film by the same name from 2004 featuring George Lopez, this film is a bit of Christmas fluff that is a lot of fun to watch. It’s not real serious, although there is some drama as we learn that Krissy doesn’t know the secret that it’s actually two books in one, and that it shows the good things as well as the bad. She is so busy seeking revenge, that she misses all the good in the world, so it does carry that message. But it’s all in fun, and it’s mostly pretty light-hearted. All in all it was a lot of fun, and a new angle on how Santa really knows who’s been good and who’s been bad. This is a worthwhile Christmas film to see out.

[Here is the Hallmark Channel page for this film.]

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RSN Productions,

Torrey DeVitto, Callard Harris, Roma Maffia, Matt Felker

Kate (Torrey DeVitto) is a psychiatrist who works in a mental hospital who attends to a man, Nick (Callard Harris) who hits his head on a rock and wakes up thinking he’s Santa Claus. Because she feels she’s responsible for his injury, she takes him in to care for him and bring him back to reality, but he convinces those in the hospital, especially the children, that is really Santa Claus. As Nick brings back Christmas spirit to the halls of the hospital, Kate finds she is really falling for this guy.

This Lifetime Christmas film is a good, “Santa hits his head and everyone thinks he’s crazy” theme. Sometimes Santa forgets who he is, and sometimes, everyone think he’s just a guy, but he knows inside he really is Santa and can’t convince everybody else. Anyway, this is a cute film. There is one clever character that really stands out and makes this film really funny. Kenneth Choi is Jack, who think he’s Jack Nicholson (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and he spices up the film with his Nicholson impression throughout. This was a charming tale with a very cool thin Santa (he’s only been Santa for a few years and hasn’t grown into the part just yet). It has a lot of humor, and a lot of heart, and is a nice Christmas movie. It’s one that is a bit tough to find, because it’s from last year, but somehow I missed it, but is well done. The acting is good, the story is good, and it’s well worth searching for this one!

[This is the Lifetime page for this movie.]

Malinda Williams, Carl Payne, Victoria Rowell, Jason Weaver, Brad James, Karon Riley, Tamara Bass

Jewel (Malinda Williams) is a big advertising agent in the big city, but she’s returning home for Christmas. Mom is sick, and so not to rile her up, Jewel hires one of her employees to travel home with her and pretend to be her fiance. But when she arrives home, Jewel is reunited with her old flame, and the sparks fly. She is forced to look at her life and determine why she is the way she is, and how family is more important than riches and fame.

This is another UP channel 2013 Christmas film. This is an original story that reminded me a lot of the film Soul Food, about an African American family that when they got together had a lot of issues to resolve and work out. Soul Food was a far better movie than this one. I wasn’t surprised to find out that the leading actress of this one was also in the cast of Soul Food. The stories are very similar. This movie just didn’t work for me. It wasn’t bad, it really wasn’t but I just could not get into the story. Maybe, after over a month of watching and rating Christmas movies, I’ve become a bit jaded, but I usually love these kinds of movies. I just didn’t get into this one, because the drama that should have been in this film really didn’t amount to much. Everything was a mistake or a misunderstanding, but very minor in nature. The big ethical questions just didn’t come up. All in all I found my mind wandering through this film, and I just couldn’t keep focused. That, I am sure, also added to my lack of interest in the story. I just didn’t get invested in these people, and it didn’t work for me.

[Here is the page from UP television for this film.]

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