Ed's Review Dot Com

Darcy’s Gift Productions,

Ali Liebert, Peter Porte, Tina Lifford, Nicole Oliver, Juliana Wimbles, Brandi Alexander, Jennifer Koenig, Mark Milburn, Ricky He

Darcy (Ali Liebert) loves to read. She has the perfect job working in a little bookstore in Manhattan. One day on the way to work on her bicycle, she crashes into a man and a dog, knocking the man, Aiden (Peter Porte) unconscious. She has to take the dog, since there is no one to take care of him, but when she finally visits the man in the hospital she is disturbed to find out that he has amnesia and is not able to remember who he is or where he lives. So Darcy jumps into “mystery” mode and does some detective work to figure out who he is. Meanwhile, the owner of the bookstore is ready to retire after the holiday and will close down or sell the store unless he can find someone to run it for him.

This is a touching story. It reminded me a bit of Sandra Bullock’s film “While You Were Sleeping”. There are so many delightful surprises along the way of finding out what the truth really is. The performances were really good, and I found myself really invested in the characters. There is plenty of story to go around, and it was really enjoyable. The chemistry is strong between the leads and the movie strikes all the notes. This new 2017 Hallmark Christmas film is a winner. Be sure to catch it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

The Hallmark Channel,

Lacey Chabert, Lane Edwards, Lea Coco

Kylie Watson (Lacey Chabert) is a pastry chef, but when her restaurant failed, she took a job with Alex (Lane Edwards) who she is expecting is about to propose to her. She finds out quite bluntly that he’s not feeling it, but when she finds out her entry to the American Gingerebread Competition was accepted and she’s in the finals, she figures that it is the route to her own cake Cafe, But her oven is broken and she doesn’t see any way to finish the competition when she runs into her old flame from culinary school, Nick (Lea Coco), she hatches the idea of borrowing an oven from his restaurant. Naturally her feeling for Nick get in the way.

Lacey Chabert is one of the queens of Christmas movies and Hallmark. She always turns in a nice performance. This is a nice story, that contains some really good actors and a strong story. Usually in these kind of romance stories there is a sweet new guy who sweeps our heroine off her feet, and a nasty creepy fiance that deserves to be dumped. This one is a little different as it’s not quite so black and white. There are a lot of levels to what’s happening here, and it’s not quite so shallow a film as you might expect. The story is pretty good, and though it is one of many similar stories of the girl with the wrong guy who needs to come to realize that, it’s a really decent film. One of the new films for 2017 and one that is well worth watching

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

The Hallmark Channel,

Bonnie Somerville, Brennan Elliott, Madison Brydges, Precious Chong, Richard Waugh, Graham Scott Fleming, Sadie LeBlanc, Andre Richards, Miku Graham, Derek Scott

Maddie Duncan (Bonnie Somerville) is a high powered east coast executive who is afraid to fly. She is invited to her biggest client’s wedding in Colorado, but fortunately is able to get her brother’s classic car to make the drive to Colorado in time. But unfortunately the car breaks down in the little mid-west town of Christmas Valley which is the most Christmas loving town of the century, much to Maddie’s chagrin. But as the problems pile up, she meets a really kind family who work hard to change her disdain for the Holidays.

This is another Hallmark Christmas movie for 2017. This one appeared during their Christmas in July celebration last summer. This is a very derivative, but exceeding sweet Christmas story that has it all. The town is called Christmas Valley as the founder’s last name was Christmas, but the citizens of this little town really embrace the season. This has the semi-gruff marketing executive who doesn’t belive in Christmas with the broken down car, stranded in a town full of Christmas Spirit. It has the Christmas loving Boarding House lady and the eclectic boarders. Most of all there’s the lovely family with a single Dad, Kevin (Brennan Elliott) and his extremely cute daughter who pushes her Dad into finding her a new Mom. Yes, this is the most common Christmas story of all, but it’s very well done with really fabulous acting, and so it’s a nearly perfect holiday film. They are all true to the genre, and it moves along like frosted egg nog and a slice or two of pumpkin pie in front of a crackling fire. Fortunately for us, cars never break down in a dirty smoky city with people who hate the holidays. Of course I guess this would be a horrible movie. Anyway, there’s nothing new here, but it’s still perfectly delightful, so who cares?

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Hallmark Channel, The, Kaufman/Plager Productions,

Julie Benz, Michael Shanks, Kirsten Robek, Toby Levins, Farryn VanHumbeck, Chilton Crane, Steve Makaj, Jay Brazeau, Daryl Shuttleworth

A war widow Amanda (Julie Benz) is still struggling with the loss of her husband two years ago when she meets an injured soldier Master Sergeant Jim Mullins (Michael Shanks) returning from Afghanistan. The town has cut the funding for the museum where Amanda works, The Pinewood Heritage Museum and Community Center, and it looks like it’s going to have to close when Amanda comes up with the idea of holding a fundraising event on December 23rd to raise the money to keep the museum open. Jim is anxious to help, but he notes that Amanda is grieving the loss of her husband while he, himself, is struggling with guilt that he is home and his men are still in Afghanistan. He wants to go back to the field, but cannot under doctors orders. The two help each other get to the root of the issues they have buried inside and help each other learn to live their lives again.

This 2017 premier movie is a war film wrapped around Christmas time, but I did find it very sentimental which made it a little bit unrealistic. The chemistry between the two go from zero to sixty in 5 seconds, and makes it hard to accept. It’s a interesting story, but not the most intriguing of the films I have seen this year. Overly sweet, I found myself getting bored pretty quickly. There are no real conflicts or really hard decisions and things are a bit easy. I’m sure this will resonate with those familiar with life in the service, but for civilians like me, things were a little bit too simplistic and resolved too quickly. I found this to be one of the weaker entries for this year, and an interesting choice to start out my Christmas reviews for this year!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Every year since November of 2010, I have reviewed as many of the Christmas films I am able to find on TV, Cable, Streaming, in the Theater, and anywhere else that I can find them. [Click here for the special page]“>This is the Eighth year and I am at it again!

Starting TODAY I’ll start sending the holiday film reviews, but there is a list of hundreds of Holiday films that have already been reviewed. You’ll see them on the “Ed’s Christmas on TV Project” page, and you can recognize them as the titles will start with two snowflakes “**” in front of the name of the movie. These are films that appear on TV, on cable channels like Hallmark, and Lifetime, and all over the place. Many are available on demand and on Watch Instantly. I hope that if you are a Christmas Movie fan like I am, that this special list helps you find the gems among the clinkers are you enjoy your holiday viewing. Every year lots of new ones are released, and believe it or not, there’s still a few out there that I still haven’t seen. I’ll be scouring the schedule for new ones to add to the hundreds I’ve already done. Hallmark has switched to Christmas Movies already and have several releases from Christmas in July five months ago, so I am going to get started.

Season’s Greetings, everyone.

Ed Goettman