Ed's Review Dot Com

Cantinas Entertainment,

Christian Kane, Marley Shelton, Mallory James Mahoney, Ernie Hudson and Ryan McPartlin

Billy (Christian Kane) and Maire (Marley Shelton) Taylor are a couple that have been married for a half dozen years or so. They are having troubles and two very different prayers are sent to heaven. Maire prays that Billy will accept the divorce favorably and Billy prays that somehow Maire will hang on. A little angel Taylor (Mallory James Mahoney) goes AWOL from heaven to answer their prayers but the task is much more difficult that her little mind can fathom as though at first it seems things are going well, old problem resurface and Taylor is called back home before she can complete her self-assigned mission.

This heart-warming movie is very, very sweet, so be forewarned if you’re not a fan of sugar and honey. The copule is not in good shape, and the littlest angel who comes down to experience life as a family is a real charmer. This little girl did suh an excellent job in her role, and is quite an amazing actor. Billy is an artist, and perhaps the creativeness in him causes him to be overly optimistic. As for what Maire wants, I’m not really sure. Perhaps she just wants someone with a little more ambition. They have serious differences and are really not quite ready to make nice just yet. The morals of this story are really simple. Families are forever. Lifetime seems to have given up trying to match Hallmark in the Christmas movie role, and this is the first of the Lifetime movies this year. There seem to be only a couple, and tghough Hallmark has two channels running Christmas movies day and night, the Lifetime Christmas films this year seem few and far between. But this particular one is a really good one, and I give them credit for the quality. Catch this one if you want a real feel good holiday film. The ending is a bit of a shock, and the last 15-20 minutes is really awesome.

Here is the mylifetime.com page for this film.

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Johnson Production Group,

Michelle Morgan, Tim Reid, Stephen Huszar, Roger Dunn, Alison Brooks, Peter Michael Dillon, Krista Morin

Sarah Wright (Michelle Morgan) is a big city attorney who moves back to her childhood home after quitting her job just as she was about to become partner because of some moral value differences with the partners. Her plan is to open her own law office back home. Her neighbor, Dale Landis (Tim Reid) has put up a Christmas Tree on the peak of his roof every year since Sarah was a little girl, and it’s again a town ordinance, so every year Dale spends in Christmas as he refuses to remove it. This year is no exception, but a brand new prosecutor John Keaton (Stephen Huszar) is set on proving Dale is crazy and having him locked up. Judge Conner (Roger Dunn) can’t figure out what to do, so he sets Sarah and John to working together to figure out a solution to the problem when Dale once again refuses to remove the tree, but no one knows why.

This UPTV 2016 Premier is a heartfelt story of an unfriendly and very lonely guy just doing what he does without talking to anyone. No one in town knows why, but he just does his thing. This story has strong family values and good moral lessons and is a rather unique and different type of story. It’s very entertaining and the characters are very good. The story is unraveled slowly and wraps up nicely in the end. We are given little bits and pieces of the story until we’re finally able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. This was a really good film from UP TV and one that I recommend to watch when you can. Very enjoyable.

Here is the UPTV web page for this 2016 premier film.

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Hallmark Channel,

Nikki Deloach, Andrew W. Walker, Paul Essiembre, Stephanie Moroz, John B. Lowe, Jackson Blake, Zoe Fish, Ernie Pitts, Susanna Portnoy, Tom Young, Cindy Williams

Penny (Nikki Deloach) is a frazzled young wife who is working at an Advertising agency. Her husband is a wildlife photographer who travels, and her Sister, Brother-in-law, and their children live with her. She had big plans to be an executive, but her hectic life is squashing her. While waiting in line to let her niece visit Santa, she doesn’t notice the nice old lady behind her when she says “I wish I had never married.” Turns out the lady is a Christmas Angel (Cindy WIlliams) and she grants her wish. Penny wakes up as the advertising exec she always wanted to be while her former husband is nowhere to be seen. Be careful what you wish for, though, as wishes work only one direction.

This Hallmark 2016 premier movie is another “What if I made a different choice in my life?” style movie. There are a dime a dozen. Nikki Deloach was actually very good in this role and very likeable. This is really her movie all the way. This isn’t the most spectacular film of the season, but it’s not too bad. I do like the alternate reality type stuff though, and I have to say I did enjoy this movie. I’m only into early December, and I’m getting all Christmased out with all these films every day, but it’s something I look forward to each year. That’s why I guess I’m on my seventh year of reviewing these. It helps to know a little about what you’re in for when you choose one of these, especially if you schedule won’t allow you to watch all of them. This one is not bad, and well worth enjoying for a little bit of Christmas cheer.

Here is the Hallmark Channel web page for this film.

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Hallmark Channel,

Mary Ashton, Kyle Buchanan, Candace Cameron Bure, Christianna Dupas, Meghan Heffern, Oliver Hudson, Adam Hurtig, Michael Kaplan, Doug Murray, Brooke Nevin, Claire Rankin, Tom Skerritt, Gwynyth Walsh

Nurse Hanna (Candace Cameros Bure) works in a little hospital in a small town. She is spending her first Christmas without her husband in 1946 when he was lost in France in World War II. She is feeling really down, spending Christmas all alone. She finds a stray dog and heads out on a stormy night to return him to his owner, when she gets stuck and takes refuge in a small shed. When she awakens she is in 2016 and has traveled forward in time. Lost and confused, she is picked up the local police, but rather than locking her up, Jake (Oliver Hudson), one of the cops, decides to take her home to his Mother’s home to figure it out. It’s up to him, since no one else trusts her, to help her learn the truth about what happened to her in this Hallmark Christmas Mystery film premiering in 2016

Candace is one of the staples, dare I say the Queen, of Hallmark Christmas movies. I look forward to her entry every year. The last several years they have been very good. This year I was just a tiny bit disappointed. It just didn’t quite resonate the season as much as the others. The time travel thing is very, very well done, and the mystery of who and what and how, is very well done, and don’t get me wrong, this is an excellent film. It’s just that widow Hanna in 2016 is just not as heartwarming as her characters usually are. Oliver Hudson is good as the very nice guy little town policeman, and Jiminy Cricket for Hanna. The setting is very festive, and the small town setting is perfvect for a Christmas Story. This is a winner, and a very strong contender for the best of the 2016 class of Holiday Films. Watch for this one.

Click Here for the Hallmark Channel page for this film.

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MarVista Entertainment, Lifetime, Monarch Home Video,

Jen Lilley, Kati Salowsky, Robert Walsh, Joanna Herrington, Thomas Beaudoin, Bates Wilder

It’s nearly Christmas, and Kate Jordan (Jen Lilley) is sent to Vermont to arrange for the sale of an Inn that was left to a charity, so it needs to be sold as quickly as possible. But when she arrives, she finds that the Inn is closed for 13 days every December due to the understanding that the Inn is haunted. She doesn’t believe it so she lets herself in when she finds out that Daniel (Thomas Beaudoin) has been appearing every December for nearly 100 years in what appears to be a curse. After 13 days he is gone until the next December. Not only is he very handsome, but Kate is really anxious to solve the mystery of why Daniel keeps returning every year, and she wants to find a way to break the spell in this 2015 Lifetime Mystery Christmas Movie.

This is an unusual Christmas mystery, and though it can get a little corny at times, it was still a decent mystery. This pair really want to get to the bottom of the curse that Daniel is caught up in and finally get to the truth. The acting is quite passible for a made for TV movie, and since I really didn’t know the actors very well, it was a pleasure to get to know them. The snowy Vermont location was quite pretty, even though it was filmed in Massachusetts, that’s close enough. Essentially it’s very unique for one of these Christmas movies on TV, and that in itself makes it worthwhile. It’s also easy to find as it’s streaming on Netflix. It’s not that powerful of a story, but it is definitely a head scratcher and is well worth the time spent to see something very different.

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