Ed's Review Dot Com

Hybrid,

Mayim Bialik, Ryan McPartlin, Reginald VelJohnson, Jo Marie Payton, Brian Doyle-Murray, Trilby Glover, Roxana Ortega, Candice Azzara, Rob Mathes, Sean
Carol Mack, Gib Gerard

Stephanie Michelle Hunt (Mayim Bialik) is all set for Christmas. Mom and Dad want her to come home for the holidays but Stephanie is ready to move in with her boyfriend and take the next step in their relationship. She has already turned in the keys for her apartment when he suddenly breaks up with her. She’s devastated and decides at the last minute to go home after all. She runs into a guy, Michael Nolan (Ryan McParlin), who she instantly judges as rich and arrogant and extremely annoying. While she drags herself back to Coach, Michael settles in to First Class. But when an elderly man, Noel Nichels (Brian Doyle-Murray) is having a hard time, Michael gives up his seat only to find himself sitting next to Stephanie. The two manage to annoy each other until the pilot announces that they are headed into a violent storm and must land immediately in Montana. They end up stuck in Montana and sleeping in the airport. When the same kindly gentleman give Stephanie a secret spot that he knows that would have a room, but tells her the story about how Michael gave up his seat for him, she decides to invite Michael with her. But they arrive in the small town that is obsessed with Christmas in a lodge that comes off a Christmas card, the learn that there is only one room left in the hotel and the will have to share. Michael is anxious to head home where he’s planning to propose to his girlfriend, but his endless enthusiasm for love clashes strongly with Stephanie’s disgust at being dumped.

This is perhaps the first Christmas movie I have seen with Mayim Bialik. I wasn’t sure how she’d handle this kind of role, but I guess he experience with Sheldon Cooper on How I Met Your Mother gave her the needed training. She was really excellent in this role. The trouble she has accepting her first impression of Michael was very hard to get over. Later on she has to deal with the fact that he’s in love with someone else and her reluctance to butt in is very well played. Michael, on the other hand, plays his innocence in love and his astute business sense very well too. The owners of the hotel are fantastic characters, and Brian Doyle-Murray certainly is hiding some secrets he’s not letting us into to. All in all the scenery is absolutely stunning as is this heavenly place on Earth. This is a really nice story, very well told and certainly one I have enjoyed more than most of the new Christmas stories. This one is really heartwarming and is an adventure all the way through. I highly recommend this movie as one of the best of the season.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday December 15, 2015

• Fantastic Four
• He Named Me Malala
• Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
• Slow Learners
• Ted 2
• Time Out of Mind

Johnson Production Group, Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions,

Eloise Mumford, Michael Stahl-David, Christopher Lloyd, William Shatner

Linsdsay Rogers (Eloise Mumford) is a teacher. She submitted her thesis for her doctorate in Psychology for publishing. It’s Christmas and he boyfriend has asked her to a special dinner at the nicest place in town. But on the way to the restaurant, the phone rings, and she is offered a chance to take an associate professor position at Yale with possible tenure. This is her biggest dream, and she is so anxious to to share the new with Jason (Michael Stahl-David), her boyfriend. What she doesn’t know is that he has planned a special evening, having the restaurant all to themselves for a special meal, and he proposes to her. She is unable to say yes, and is faced with a heartbreaking choice. Move to Connecticut and make her dream come true or accept Jason. They have a very awkward scene, and ends up crying in the park when a coachman (William Shatner) shows up with a horse and carriage and offers her a ride, three years into the future, to see what could happen based upon her choice.

This Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Just in Time for Christmas is a very heart wrenching tale of life and love. This is a really good romance. The time travel stuff is handled really well. This is filled with remarkable characters and is a very well spun story. It’s one of those fork in the road type films with the mysterious coachman takes her to see what her life would be if she made one choice. These are really interesting looks at how one decision might change the rest of your life. The main characters are very well chosen, and perform their parts really well. It’s hard to play all the confusion you would face if suddenly everything changed around you, but it’s well handled as the is the return to the point of the major choice. Christopher Lloyd plays Lindsay’s Grandfather, and he is a major part of the movie which is good for us, as he is very good, as usual. He portrays the common sense in the film and is really good in this. All in all, I really enjoyed this film and was very happy that Hallmark brought this to us this year. As a “Hall of Fame” production, it has a bit more budget, a little extra care, and is an excellent Christmas story. This is one I would suggest you catch for sure this season.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Village Roadshow Pictures, Cott Productions, Enelmar Productions, A.I.E.,

Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, Jordi Mollà

Author Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) travels far to the home of Tom Nickerson (Ben Whishaw) who is a recluse, a drunkard, and a man who despises talking about things, but mostly not a word about The Essex. Melville is planning his new novel, Moby Dick, and is trying to find out the true story of a legend of The Essex, one of New England’s most famous whaling ships that was destroyed and the crew in lifeboats spending nearly 3 months trying to get back to the coast of South America. The official story was that it ran aground, but the legend persisted. Tom Nickerson was a young teenager on his first voyage and was the last living survivor of the Essex. The Nickersons are in deep financial trouble and Melville offers everything he has for the story. Tom begins the true story of what happened to the Essex and a confrontation with the monstrous white whale that destroyed the ship and caused a very horrible ordeal of shipwreck. Told in flashback we learn about unprepared Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Wlaker) who was on his first voyage due to his long lineage in the whaling families. Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) was born the son of a farmer, and has spent his life as a sailor who was promised the Captain position but was forced by the families to take the first mate role instead. It’s Owen’s experience and wisdom of the sea that saves the few survivors after a horrendous ordeal that only was survived by a handful of sailors including Tom Nickerson.

I do not know the factual story of Herman Melville’s visit to Tom Nickerson, but I have read “In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick which was published 15 years ago. This was a spectacular book. Basically, based on as much truth as possible, this book tells the true story of an amazing whale that took down one of the best fitted whaling ships of the time. The fact that Herman Melville used the true story of this disaster as the basis for his fantastic novel Moby Dick is true. This is an amazing story, and the trouble endured by the sailor set adrift in the middle of the Pacific where there are often no winds, 3000 miles from the coast of South America, is truly horrible. The sailors had to make some hard decisions to manage to survive at all, and this, back in the 19th Century (the Essex sunk in 1820) certainly was troubling to the religious tone of the day and caused a great deal of concern. Ron Howard and his usual gang produced this epic film, and though it had a smaller than expected week in the box office, everyone waiting for Star Wars next week certainly had an effect on the gross. I really hope the traffic will pick up as soon as the Star Wars circus is over, as this is a very, very well done film. This film is showing in 3-D and IMAX, but I watched it on a regular screen and it was very stunning. The cinematography was excellent, and it is an amazingly true story that is, in this case, better than fiction. I have always had the yearning for the life of a sailor as it looks very romantic, but after seeing the realism of what life was like on a whaling ship in 1820 I did not think this through. There are a number of scenes like the infamous Nantucket sleigh ride when the rowboats take off when a whale is harpooned and takes the men for quite a ride, the work of cutting up and boiling down a captured whale, and the horror on the little lifeboats that will haunt you for quite a while. These are stunning and extremely well filmed and full of detail. Chris Hemsworth does a spectacular job as Owen Chase, and all in all the script is fabulous, the actors are great, the presentation is about perfect, and it a whale of a tale. Do yourself a favor and see this one in the theater. This is a spectacular movie!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Lifetime,

Meredith Hagner, Travis Milne, Dylan Archambault, Catherine Barroll, Anthony Bolognese, Dave Collette, Bernard Cuffling, Dolores Drake, Cherilynn Fulbright, Dee Jay Jackson, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Elfina Luk, Mark McConchie, Nicole Oliver, Sheri Rabold, Michael Teigen

Gwen (Meredith Hagner) is a personal shopper. Her latest client is Charlie (Travis Milne) a high strung work-a-holic who threw himself into his work when his wife died. He’s raising a young son who is missing his father. Gwen is a energetic spirit and full of Christmas cheer. But when she meets Charlie’s son, she realizes how little time he spends with his son, and she steps in to try to reconnect the two. She sees Charlie as the man he used to be before the terrible tragedy that he has never been able to shake.

This Lifetime presentation for 2015. It’s a charmingly sweet story. Gwen and her sister are really good together. Anthony Bolognese as Charlie’s son Owen is really good for such a little guy. He does a really good job. All in all this is an enjoyable little Christmas tale.

Here is the home page for this Lifetime film.