Ed's Review Dot Com

FROSCH Entertainment, Bluegrass Films, DreamWorks,

Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Courtney B. Vance, Rob Corddry, Abbey Lee, Sam Richardson, Jamie Chung, Randall Park, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Karan Soni, Kate McKinnon, Jennifer Aniston

Clay (T.J.Miller) and Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Anniston) haave inherited their father’s server company, but Carol is acting CEO while Clay is managing their Dad’s flagship store. Carol, though, is very uptight and the complete opposite of Clay. Carol tells them that all spending is frozen and the annual Office Christmas Party has been cancelled and 20% of his staff has to be laid off. Clay’s response is that he’s on the verge of booking a multi-million dollar sale, and Carol agrees that if he pulls that off, the layoffs will be cancelled. But when Clay with his super IT employees Josh (Jason Bateman) and Tracey (Olivia Munn) visit the potential customer he doesn’t seem willing to sign with them. So Clay decides to throw the biggest, craziest, most insane Christmas party in history.

This is a really fun movie that is similar in many ways to a lot of the typical comedy of this genre. It’s got one disaster after another, and is a bit raunchy. There are a ton of other characters which have their own backstory that makes it interesting. A lot of the jokes are based on the tech industry, so I am sure I enjoyed a lot more than my wife and her sister who accompanied me. I thought there was a lot of good humor here. The movie was fast paced, and filled with good performances. And it’s an in theater Christmas themed movie. I really enjoyed it, and thought it was well worth watching. Not since Harold and Kumar’s Christmas has there been a quality, really funny, Christmas theatrical film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Hallmark Channel,

Emilie Ullerup, Sharon Lawrence, Kristoffer Polaha

Jenny Miller (Emilie Ullerup) is a dedicated nurse in the NICU (NeoNatal Intensive Care Unit) where the prematurely born babies go for extreme care when they are just born too soon. The leader of the team is Supervisor Alice (Sharon Lawrence) who is beloved not only by the nurses but also by the hundreds and hundreds of grown up “angels” and their parents that they took care of, and all of the nurses in the NICU are dedicated to the little lives that they protect. But the hospital is running out of money, and a new CFO has been hired Matt Crawford (Kristoffer Polaha) to cut the budget and he has a sharp pen. Slashing the budget for all non-essential spending, like the nurses Christmas party is not enough, so seven top supervisors are being forced to early retirement which includes Alice. Unfortunately Jenny bumped into the handsome new guy before she knew what his role was, and so she was attracted to the guy before she found out he was a nasty snake. The nurses decide to turn their party into a farewell for Alice, but though Matt keeps offering his help, Jenny wants nothing to do with him.

This Hallmark 2016 premier is a heart-warming tale of life in the ICU for preemies. There are a few back stories of babies and their families that are helped, which gives us a good feel for the kind of people who do so much for this little precarious lives. The teamwork is remarkable and it does go to show what a really good boss can do for their team. But it also shows that there are hired number crunchers who come in seeing people only as data, and it shows how different it is when you get to know the lives of the people you are destroying. Matt does an excellent job portraying the guy who can’t understand why he’s the bad guy when he’s only doing his job to save the hospital. Emilie plays a caring nurse and the chemistry between these ill fated romantics is done very well. The only complaint I could really have is the ending which is really Saccharine, but it is a Christmas movie after all. This Hallmark premier is a good one, and has a bit of a different story to it, and the background of the NICU which I’m unfortunately well acquainted with makes this a very entertaining film.

Here is the web page for this Hallmark Christmas film.

JoBro Productions & Film Finance, Myriad Pictures,

Bailee Madison, French Stewart, Kolton Stewart, Luke Bilyk, Scott Thompson, Naomi Snieckus, Sara Waisglass, Jennifer Robertson, Arnold Pinnock, Darrin Baker, Sabryn Rock, Sandy Jobin-Bevans, Natalie Ganzhorn, Ethan Pugiotto, Darren Eisnor

Holiday Joy is the story of a young lady named Joy (Bailee Madison), who is frustrated with life. She has two brothers and is being cared for by her single Dad who is very timid and not a very good father. Joy is very shy, but really nuts over the cute boy in class, and talks endlessly to her best friend who lives next door and has tons of money and great parents. Joy is really jealous of that life. But when she is injured in an accident, she magically wakes up to find that she’s now lives next door and is a volleyball legend in high school and very popular. The boy she had a crush on is madly in love with her and can’t let her out of his sight. Everything looks perfect, but as Joy is soon to find, the new life has its cost too, and things are not exactly how she dreamed it would be.

Bailee Madison has grown up a bit and is quite the young lady. You may remember her as the young Snow White in the TV show Once Upon a Time, or from many other projects that’s she’s done. She is a really good actress, and has been for years, but this is the first time I’ve seen her in a more grown up role. She’s able to handle the coming of age drama pretty well. This is kind of a “Freaky Friday” movie, and that makes sense as it’s a FreeForm TV movie. FreeForm is the weird new name that ABC Family (formerly Fox Family) is using these days, and is a Disney station. They do the 25 Days of Christmas thing every year in December, and though it’s mostly known for reruns of the classic TV Christmas shows and movies that Disney owns or has rights to, but this is an original movie. It was different in that Joy didn’t change places with someone else, she just changed it up and became a daughter in a new family with a new home address. The film is really mostly for teens and near teens, and is well suited to them with some of the more childish stuff that goes on. Some of the jokes and gags are pretty juvenile for adults and older teens, but it is a Christmas movie and was entertaining just the same. Not sure how many times it will be replayed, but it’s worth watching as it’s a clever story that teaches the lesson of appreciating what you have.

If you have Cable or Dish service, you can use this link to watch on-line at freeform.go.com.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

UPTV Network, Johnson Production Group,

Leah Cudmore, Niall Matter, Lochlyn Munro, Lisa Whelchel, Michael Tiegen, Gracyn Shinyei

Claire (Leah Cudmore) is a professional figure skater who finished Second last season due to an injury, but has her heart set on first place in the golds. But her Achilles tendon is causing her a lot of pain, so her coach sends her to a rehabilitation clinic where she can recover quickly. While she’s there, she keeps running into the local storekeeper, handyman, and former professional hockey play (Niall Matter) and the two hit it off very well. He has a little girl who is a big fan of Claire and as her Mother (Lisa Welchel) and her coach show up to help her, Claire’s Mom tries to slow her down, and the coach is intense on getting her back on the ice and into training. As time passes Claire starts to look closely at her life, and her dream of the gold, and has to determine what is most important to her in the long run.

This is a new 2016 Premier Christmas movie from UP TV. UP has a reputation for bringing uplifting films and this is one of those. Claire is a bit spoiled, but part of it is her intense desire to please her Father. The little girl is the key to opening Claire up to a better way of life. There is a lot of good stuff going on here. The small town in the mountain setting is very nice. The Christmas setting if really beautiful, and there’s a bit of really good figure skating here too. Not a total skating movie, but there’s enough of it to keep it interesting. I enjoyed this movie and thought it was very well done.

Click here for the UPTV web page for this movie.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Hybrid LLC,

Abigail Hawk, Chevy Chase, David O’Donnell, Howard Hesseman, Zack Ward, Gerald Webb, Ben Giroux, Meredith Thomas, Mary-Kate O’Connell

Riley Thomas (Abigail Hawk) is an up-and-comer at her retail conglomerate, but her boss, Preston Bullock (Chevy Chase) sends her to Vermont to close down one of their subsidiaries OutWear, just a few days before Christmas. But things change as she begins to get to know the employees, especially the manager Wyatt Davis (David O’Donnell) who is very handsome and good looking, and Nick Harper (Howard Hesseman) who is the former owner of the company. As she learns the importance of the small company to the life of the town, and gets closely involved with Wyatt, it’s becoming harder and harder to do the task she was sent up there to perform.

Another in a slew of Christmas movies based on the little company supports the whole town and they have a long history in a sweet town that is full of the holiday spirit, but when the evil parent company sends the boy/girl to shut them down, the person falls in love with the little town and tries to find a way to fix it. Yeah I admit there are decades full of these stories. But this one has a couple extras that make it unique. First is Chevy Chase who plays the evil company boss who wants to shut them down and turn a profit on selling the scraps. Chevy is a special kind of actor who is able to spit out the one liners without any effort and with no reaction which is hysterical. He also has sarcastic wit that resonates with me quite a bit. Chevy has a small role, but has some really funny moments. Then there’s another guy who’s much the same in the kind of humor he has, and that’s Howard Hesseman. You’ll remember him from WKRP in Cincinnati, and he is also a pleasure to watch. His performance in “Crazy for Christmas” has been shown year after year after year on TV. In this film, he is the guy who started the little company years ago and who pops back in to try to save his original vision. He also adds a lot of fun to the movie. All in all it is very entertaining and much better that I ever expected it to be. The leads in the cast are pretty good, and hold the film together and keep it moving. It’s a nice little film and well worth adding to your watch list.

Here is the ION Television web page for this film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog