Ed's Review Dot Com

Automatic TV & Film, Lifetime,

Hilarie Burton, Gabriel Hogan, Tim Matheson, Lola Flanery

It’s nearly Christmas Eve, and Prancer has an injury and is not able to fly with the sleigh. But without a replacement, Christmas may have to be cancelled. So Santa sends John (Gabriel Hogan) to the little town of Buckley Falls to a small reindeer farm that might have a suitable replacement. The owner, Annie (Hilarie Burton) is having trouble with a nasty entrepreneur, Reginald Buckley (Tim Matheston) who wants to buy the farm by hook or by crook to complete his holdings to build a subdivision. But as John bonds with the little girl, Madison (Lola Flannery), her mother is very suspicious. When the elves steal Frankie the reindeer, John is in trouble and things spiral out of control as things get worse and worse and Christmas may be doomed this year.

This is a really cute little Christmas film with a lot of Christmas spirit and surprise. Gabriel Hogan is really good as the gentle animal expert who is shy around people. THe story is charming and the settings are very beautiful. Basically this has all the charm and Christmas sprit that you could ask for. It is from Lifetime, and one of the best of the batch for 2015. I highly recommend this one.

This is the Lifetime Home Page for this film.

Lighthouse Pictures,

Lynda Boyd, Nicola Cavendish, Jessie Fraser, Leah Gibson, Zachary Gulka, Paul Herbert, Dylan Kingwell, Kelsey Marsland-Anderson, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Greg Vaughan, William Vaughan, Gelsy Wong

Gretchen Daniels (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) has moved back home with her young son without her serviceman husband who is deployed overseas. She is sick of moving around and misses her husband, but her son misses his Dad more and writes a note for Santa with only one wish. He wishes Dad could make it home for Christmas. When a man arrives at the house looking for the next door neighbor who isn’t home, he drops the bombshell that he is her neighbor’s estranged Mother’s landlord. He also asks her to tell the neighbor that her mother has died and all her possessions must be out of the host by Friday. When she visits Melissa (Leah Gibson) she befriends her and offers her a hand to go remove her mother’s stuff from the apartment. She finds out the story of why she hasn’t spoken to her Mother in 10 years and didn’t even know she was living in the same town. But when they find a note her mother wrote, she learns that her mother had a child that was adopted before her, and she sets out to find her sibling. But after 20 years or so the trail is cold, but the ladies head out on a quest to find her missing unknown sibling.(

This is a really heavy tear-jerker of a Christmas film with so many coincidences coming true that it gets almost sickening sweet. There are so many plot points that wrap up in the most unbelievable way, that nobody’s life could turn out this perfect. But I guess that is what the ladies love in a holiday romance film. This is truly a girl’s film, and for those who love their stories sweet and sappy and wrapped up with a pink bow and delivered on Christmas Eve, this is one of those films. Guys beware. If you are tricked into spending a couple hours watching this you’ll have different kinds of tears in your eyes too. I found it too sweet for my taste so I wasn’t overwhelmed by the emotions of this buddy film, but I am sure there are people who will love this genre, so don’t let my manly opinion scare you off. It’s a true Christmas mystery story that ends up quite heavenly.

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Two 4 The Money Media,

Katie Findlay, Wyatt Nash, Andrea Brooks, Matt Hamilton, Kazumi Evans, Jaime M. Callica, Alison Araya, Troy Mundle

Molly (Katie Findlay) and Ryan (Wyatt Nash) are new college students in Belmont and meet on the first day and become study buddies. Molly is the daughter of a widower, owner of a huge corporation in Seattle and he has planned her life out for her, but Molly and Ryan are growing closer, but Molly’s father is willing to do everything in his power to destroy their budding relationship. In a side story, The Bridge is bookstore that plays an important role in not only the lives of Molly and Ryan, but many other people as well.

This story started out slow and sort of lost me at the beginning. I tried watching it 3 or 4 times and only got through the first 20 minutes or so without setting it aside. Finally I got to watch it through, and I’m glad I did. It is slow getting started, but it’s a really good romance story. The characters are very well cast, and the story does get rolling and turns quite interesting as it rolls along. The very end of this Hallmark film may hold the key to why it seemed so slow developing. This film has a cliff-hanger ending with a short add at the end to next year (2016)’s Karen Kingsbury’s The Bridge 2. So now we’ll get to wait a year to find out how it all turns out, although I bet we all can guess. It’s just a matter of how they get there along the way. All in all, if you are in to classic Harlequin style romances, this is a heavy duty dose of romance, that’s for sure.

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Johnson Production Group, Tim Johnson Productions, Lifetime

Meredith Baxter, Laura Bell Bundy, Tony Cavalero, Emily Delahunty, Michael Gross, Elena Hayward, Jesse Hutch, Gabe Khouth

Connor (Jesse Hutch) is in love with Holly (Laura Bell Bundy) and has decided he wants to propose. He hasn’t yet met Holly’s parents and he wants to ask for Holly’s hand in person. Holly is concerned but agrees to take him up to the North Pole where her Father, Nick (Michael Gross) and Mother Jessica (Merideth Baxter) are Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Jack doesn’t know this, of course, and it’s all a bit of a shock, but when he learns he is destined to be the next Santa Claus, he freaks out and heads home. Jack Frost (Tony Cavalero) is ready to step in though and win Holly’s hand once and for all.

This new Lifetime film for Christmas 2015 is a cute Santa’s daughter looking for love story that is like so many others. Some times it’s Santa’s son, sometimes his daughter. Two classics that come to mind are Steve Gutenberg in “Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus” and Kathy Ireland in “Once/Twice Upon a Christmas.” It’s a really cute little story, and it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it was very enjoyable to watch. Connor is a swell guy, and Jack is a deceiving bastard as he should be. It’s very nice to see Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter back together again (Family Ties). It’s predictable, but still charming and sweet throughout and a great addition to the new batch of holiday films. I really enjoyed watching this film, and I can recommend it as one of the best of the new Lifetime films for this Christmas. Don’t confuse it with another documentary film, Becoming Santa that is the tale of Santa school where mall Santas go to learn their craft. This is a fairy tale of life at the North Pole and a lot of fun, especially if you have some Christmas cookies and some hot chocolate or apple cider and a warm fire. This will get you in the mood for the holidays.

Here is the home page for this Lifetime Christmas motion picture.

Hybrid, Mayor Entertainment,

Katrina Law, Aaron O’Connell, Donna Mills, Melanie Nelson, Alesandra Durham, Jill Adler, Michael Burchard,
Laiya White, Alyssa Buckner, JJ Neward, Matthew Sincell, Koleman Stinger, Enoch Ellis, Joy Haynes

Marc Rehnquist (Aaron O’Connell) is a very busy advertising man who is responsible for the next Christmas ad program for their biggest client. But they rejected all his teams ideas, and he’s under the gun to come up with something now, or lose the client. Then to top things off, not only is he way behind on shopping, but he’s on the hook this year for company gifts for the whole office. Anna Parisi (Katrina Law) is a starving artist, living with her sister but short on cash for the holidays. Between her and her sister they develop a scheme to place an ad as a personal shopper for hire. Marc hires her, and the two set off to fulfill the long list of gifts while sparks begin to fly for both of them.

This is a cute little romantic comedy that is filled with Christmas cheer. Poor Marc is overwhelmed and it seems that Anna comes into his life, and it seems everything move she makes is the wrong thing. She keeps getting Marc deeper in deeper in trouble, and it seems that she knows more than he thinks she does. The story unfolds little by little and as the troubles grow, the two seem closer and closer together. All in all, this is one of the better Hallmark 2015 romance Christmas stories. The actors are fresh, not the ones we’ve seen over and over again, and it’s rather a new topic for a holiday film. There’s a lot going on and it is a really good story. Catch this one on Hallmark.

Here is Hallmark Channel’s home page for this film.

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