Ed's Review Dot Com

Feu Productions,

Anna Hutchison, Marcus Rosner, Anita Brown, Bruce Dawson, Jerry Trimble, Benjamin Charles Watson, Jaeda Lily Miller, Rachel Hayward, Mark McConchie, John Wardlow, Gemma Martini, Cole Andriuk, Daniel Bacon, Nelson Wong, Kirsten Lea

Tom Norris (Marcus Rosner) is a noted Olympic hockey player with an ex-wife, Mary Hamilton (Anita Brown) who was America’s Sweetheart when she was an Olympic figure skater, and a young daughter Sadie (Jaeda Lily Miller) who adores both of them. Mary has written a book on marriage and is on a book tour trying to sell the book, and she wants Tom to come back home and pretend to be getting back together for the sake of book sales. The problem is that Tom is in a relationship with a charming firefighter named Jenny (Anna Hutchison) and playing happy husband and wife is not acceptable to either Tom or Jenny. But Mary has money and power and is ready to use Sadie as a weapon to force him to do her will.

The title of this film “Firehouse Christmas” is misleading. This is a rich, complex film with a lot of things going on in many levels. The firehouse connection is really slim. I kind of expected a lonely firefighter with a dog falling in love with a lonely lady who has a thing for firemen. What a surprise and a delight this story was. There are plenty of back stories. There is a lot of complications as things go hysterically awry. There a quite a few problems going on at once, and together they are a rather funny. It’s also quite touching on many levels. The characters are very well played and it’s a good strip. Special kudos to Jaeda Lily Miller who is wonderfully sassy and charming at the same time in her role. She’s wonderful. If you get a chance to see this film, it’s well worth the time spent. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Here is the ION TV web page for this 2016 premier movie.

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Lucasfilm, Allison Shearmur Productions, Black Hangar Studios,

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker

Jyn (Felicity Jones) lives with her parents, farming and mostly hiding out. But Jyn’s Father is a scientist and is recruited by force by the Empire to work on a new project of Lord Vader (James Earl Jones), a death star with the power to destroy a planet. When her father is abducted and her mother is killed, Jyn hides out until she is rescued by rebel fighter Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). As time passes, the death star nears completion, but a plan is hatched to steal the plans and get them to the rebel alliance so that they will know how to destroy the death star. This is the story that fits in between Chapters Three and Chapter Four and tells the background information of what happened before the first Star Wars movie back in 1977.

This Star Wars movie was made for the fans. Perhaps this film wouldn’t be as powerful to someone who did not know the characters. There are no long lasting characters, and it is a fill in film, not part of the main story, but it does fill in some very useful information that makes things a lot easier to understand, and reveals some of the mysteries that are missing between these two films. This was very entertaining film and it was quite a lot of fun. It’s a long movie, but went by so fast. There is a lot of really good action scenes, lots of suspense, and lots of throwbacks to the main films. Felicity Jones isn’t the strongest lead in a Star Wars movie, but in my opinion she was good enough. I think she played her role that she was given. Much like Luke Skywalker she did not ask to be a hero. She was a simple girl who was put into this situation because of who her father was. She has some supporters who have interesting stories too. This is not intended to be as great as the other films, and my personal opinion is that it was better than the “horrible three” Chapters one, two, and three. You just have to set your expectations a little bit lower as it’s not a part of the main series, as I’ve said before, but it’s a wonderful addition to the wealth of the story. This is not one to miss.

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Goliath Film and Media Holdings,

Tammin Sursok, Brent Bailey, Lindsey McKeon, Abigail Klein, John Brotherton, Meagan Holder, Chris Salvatore, Bryce Durfee, Julia Parker, Jessa Settle, Matthew P McManus, Rebekah Kochan, Dawn McCoy, Katherine McKalip, Donna Rusch

Livvy Beal (Tammin Sursok) is a party planner. A year ago she met Carter Bolton (Brent Bailey) who is an executive who hired her for his firm’s Christmas party last year. They have been dating for a year, and she expects he’s about to propose to her when he instead dumps her just before Christmas. Livvy does a bit of detective work and finds 2 other former girlfriends of Carter and sets out to meet them. When the find that his modus operandi is to date a girl for a year and then dump them for the next one, but furthermore that he finds the new one before he lets the old one, and that he has a new one now, so they determine to get revenge. They put their heads together to try to destroy the party this year, and try to destroy Carter at the same time.

Certainly not an awful Christmas film, this 2016 premier from UP TV is a familiar story. It brings back memories of the movie The First Wives Club, and a certain other revengeful lady Cameron Diaz played as well in The Other Woman. Still, this is a Christmas film and so fits well with the seasonal theme. The problem is that the “new romance” in the story happens so fast, and isn’t really believable, and the entire script is a bit shallow. The whole revenge thing really just scratches the surface. It feels like it was put together to beat a deadline, and a bit more time on the script would have helped perhaps. There is some romance and some humor and lots of Christmas content.

Here is the UP TV web page for this film that includes a trailer.

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Mainstay Productions,

Edward Herrmann, Nancy Stafford, Bailee Michelle Johnson, Savanna Kylie Lewis, Juliette Lyde, Bruce Newbold, Yolanda Wood, Ethan Hunt, Sydney Peebler, Emily Hallows, Anne Burton, Grace Hallows, Ethan Lyde, Elizabeth Hales, Madalynn Wight

Christmas Oranges is a tale of Rose (Bailee Johnson) who was left as a tiny baby at an orphanage run by Mrs. Hartley (Nancy Stafford). As Rose grows up she brings hope and love to everyone, and she is especially fond of Mrs Hartley, but when the influenza outbreak falls upon their town, Mrs. Hartley is gone, and no one wants to adopt the older children, so they were shipped to different orphanages around the country. Rose ends up under the care of Mr. Crampton (Edward Herrmann) who is a very lonely and cross old man who is very strict and punishes the children severely. Mr. Crampton’s brother, Joe (Bruce Newbold) has a tradition of bringing the children each an orange on Christmas morning which is all that Mr. Crampton will allow. But there is an air of mystery about that Rose tries to resolve that may free Mr. Crampton from his sorrow and woes.

This is an excellent tale, and old story by Linda Bethers, that is retold in this film. It’s a stunning family Christmas movie that is perfect for all ages. It’s touching and very warm, very much like the book that Rose loves and cherishes the most which is a major part of the story. The acting is super, and the camera work is excellent. This is certainly a movie to watch with your kids, and one that I don’t think anyone can find fault with. I saw it on TBN, but it is not a “religious” film by any means, and no religious tenets are thrown at you, other than obeying the rules and being kind to one another. The children in this film do an excellent job and are great characters in their own right, and bring a lot to the story, but Bailee Johnson is awesome in the role of Rose, and I think she can out “Shirley Temple” Shirley Temple as a lovable child in this movie. Your heart will go out to her and the troubles she has to endure, but she keeps a great heart and shows she has a few flaws too along with her good temperament. This is one Christmas movie I recommend to everyone, and the first 5 star film I’ve reviewed this season. It’s a few years old, and I’m not sure how I missed it, but it’s a wonderful movie.

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Front Street Pictures,

Anne Heche, Dylan Neal, Farryn VanHumbeck, Sean Michael Kyer, Samantha Ferris, Michael Teigen, Darien Provost, Julia Benson

Terry (Dylan Neal) is a widower raising a teen age daughter in a new town where he’s working on developing a new hotel. Their life has been hard because he is constantly moving from one project to another, so he’s hoping to get a big promotion and move to a permanent home in California. Carol (Anne Heche) is a single Mom whose husband left her a couple years ago. She’s struggling to raise her son, but has thrown herself into the PTA and involvement in the annual Christmas Pageant at school. The two accidentally bump into each other and in a series of mishaps, things just get worse and worse. They truly are opposite on everything until they start to realize that maybe they really need each other more than they realized.

This is a touching Christmas tale featuring an overworked Dad who wants to do better, but his job keeps pulling him away, and a woman who has learned to throw herself into helping everyone else to hide her pain. Anne Heche is a talented actress, but something seemed a little bit off in this role as it wasn’t a perfect fit for her. Dylan Neal did a very good job in his role, and I think he was a better fit. The story is very well told, and though the setting is not utterly beautiful and Christmassy as many of these films are, this one is a bit more realistically dark and damp December-like. It fits the story. Other really good performances include the school Principal who tries to keep Carol and Terry from killing each other, and Carol’s best friend who gives her a lot of advice and support for what she needs. But the two kids who play Carol and Terry’s kids are really good as well. There is a lot of heartwarming lessons and morals here to learn from in the way we have to live in now, and learn to appreciate what you have and what is really important. So many times we get sidetracked on future goals and miss the important things happening around us. We also have to learn to take chances sometimes and not hide from our problems. This was a good film and Hallmark did a good job with this one.

Here is the Hallmark web page for this film.

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