Ed's Review Dot Com

Leif Films,

Jesse Metcalfe, Fiona Gubelmann

Eric Redford (Jesse metcalfe) is a well known author of books about the bachelor lifestyle. His aunt contacts him just before Christmas to let him know that his niece and nephew are on their way for a short visit as their parents are out of the country and his Aunt is suffering from the flu and can’t take care of them. The kids are a handful, and way out of his wheelhouse, and things look bleak as the days stretch on and he is not ready or willing to Christmas up his life. Fortunately, two doors down, April Stewart (Fiona Gubelmann) lives who is a huge fan of Christmas and falls for the children and agrees to help him out. As the days go on, Eric begins to enjoy the excitement that the holidays brings. As the kids grown on him he finds that he is also interested to look closer at April as well, though she is not a fan of the nature of his writing. When the family all show up on Christmas, things all come to a head, and all the secrets and misunderstandings come to light.

Another new film for this Christmas with a fun cast, and another Scrooge like transformation. But unlike others, it’s not an 180 degree turn that is far beyond inevitability. Jesse Metcalfe does a really good job playing a real life character who is not a cardboard cutout but expresses real emotions, and Fiona is bubbly and charming as a lover of the holidays, but also has a very serious side to her that makes her seem much more real life than many of these types of characters. No one here is one sided, and that’s a very good thing. The depth of the characters is what adds so much to this film, and that is one major reason why I enjoyed it more than most. I think they did a really good job handling the subject and it was quite a refreshing holiday film in my opinion. Good job, this one is pretty good.

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Hallmark Movies & Mysteries,

Maggie Lawson, Brennan Elliott, Art Hindle, Tracey Hoyt, Mercedes de la Zerda, Mika Amonsen, Sherry Miller, Sabryn Rock, David Tompa, Erin Agostino, Bea Santos, Joy Tanner, Murray Furrow, Marie Dame, Mélanie St-Pierre

Charlotte Lacy (Maggie Lawson) is a struggling actress. She scores a part in the the local theater groups performance of “A Christmas Carol” and is really enjoying it. As she builds a close relationship with the director, Julian Walker (Brennan Elliott) things look like things are going to be great, when they learn that the theater is about to lose it’s lease and the theater is going to have to close. This spawns the ideas of how they can save the theater. What they need is a Christmas Miracle.

This is a very average Holiday film. Nothing is particularly earth shattering, but it’s a nice little movie. Maggie Lawson is very well equipped to pull off this film and is very lovely and quite talented. The chemistry between the two is memorable. On a holiday cheer scale, it’s pretty well up there. When the announcement is made that “The Christmas Carol” will be their last performance, the movie gets serious as they band together to try to save the old theater. This is just what a Christmas movie is supposed to be like, so if you aren’t burned out with Holiday cheer, this is a good middle ground Christmas movie. It’s not overly sappy and sentimental, nor does it try to twist and turn you head around to figure out what’s up. It’s just a straight forward holiday film that you can just relax and enjoy.

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Muse Entertainment Enterprises,

Rachel Skarsten, Trevor Donovan, Emily Tennant, Blair Penner, Crystal Lowe, Keith MacKechnie, Michele Scarabelli, Judith Maxie, Darla Fay

Madeline Krug (Rachel Skarsten) is a bridal consultant in a small town. Ginger Blake (Emily Tennant) is a home town girl who is planning a holiday wedding in her home town, and Madeline is her wedding planner. But Ginger’s brother is along to protect and help his sister, and Johnny Blake (Trevor Donovan) is a huge Hollywood star and very well off. His suggestions and plans seem opposite of everything Madeline and Ginger have in mind, but not only does he grow on Madeline very quickly, but he learns to rethink his star life, and appreciate the small town.

This has the main trappings of a Christmas movie. A small town Christmas, lots of holiday sights and sounds, and almost smells. Wouldn’t it be great if finally developed a TV with the ability to send smells over the wire? I’d be watching the movies all year long! The guy who plays the movie star, Johnny, is really star here. There’s some complications and twists, and lots of good feelings, and though it’s not a standout Christmas movie, it’s well done and has all you need to enjoy a couple hours. There’s some humor, mostly brought by Trevor (as Johnny) who just can’t understand a small town Christmas. All in all, it’s a good outing, and some fresh faces and a rather fair Christmas Movie. This is one to watch.

The Hallmark Channel, Kaufman/Plager Productions,

Merritt Patterson, Steve Lund, Brittney Wilson, Victor Zinck Jr., Carey Feehan, P. Lynn Johnson, Laurie Paton

The family legend was that anyone who spends the night in the Christmas Cottage will fall in love forever. Lacey Quinn (Merritt Patterson) doesn’t believe in the magic of the holidays, nor does she believe in true love forever, but she agrees to fulfill her job of Maid of Honor for her best friend Ava (Brittney Wilson) who is getting married and will spend her honeymoon at the lodge as is their family’s custom. But when the bride to be’s brother Ean (Steve Lund) arrives to help her with the decoration, outside a blizzard roars, and inside the beautiful holiday setting cause romance to bloom.(

The Christmas Cottage was another Hallmark Channel premier that did not resonate with me. I’m not sure if the movie was as week as it appeared, or if the real problem was that I wasn’t feeling well, and was about to get sick which put a damper on my attention span or what, but I just didn’t catch on to it. The story just didn’t end up going anywhere for me. I found myself rather bored throughout, and it never really picked up. I didn’t really get the connection, and though the cabin setting was pretty and all that, there was just no chemistry. The movie just dragged on until it was over, and I thought, How am I going to review this? Maybe I will have time at the end of the season to give this another chance, but for now, I really don’t have much to say. It just bored me. This one just didn’t cut it for me.

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Olive Bridge Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television,

Brenda Song, Andrew Bachelor, Jason Biggs, Elizabeth Bowen, Natalie Charles, Andy Favreau, Natalie Jantzi, Ricky Mabe

Allison Pyke (Brenda Song) was a young wife who died too soon. She doesn’t have enough good deeds to make it to heaven, but not to worry. In the old days, angels would be sent back to Earth with a task to complete. “Clarence, head down and help out old George Bailey see that his life really did make a difference”. That sort of thing. But now, heaven has really cool technology and an “Angel App” that tracks points with a goal to reach before you’re allowed to cross over. Allison has made a wonderful start winning 50,000 points on one big miracle, but since then, things have gotten really tough. Now it’s been 9 years or so, and every time she does something bad, points are taken away. There are rules, and Allison likes to do things her own way most of the time, and grinding out the points is taking a very, very long time, but when she bumps into her husband, who is still in love with her too, she nearly throws it all away to try to reconnect with him. If it were not for the help of Jason Biggs (Jason Biggs) she would be in really big trouble.

A little bit of warning about this “Freeform” original premier Christmas film. (Freeform is the former ABC Family which does their 25 days of Christmas every year). The warning is that this movie starts out really strange, and it really look like, after the first 20 minutes, that this movie is really going to stink. I had made up my mind that it’s not going to work and was all ready to rip this up in a severe review, when something changed. Somewhere along the line, it started to click, and it ended up being a really good movie after all. I caught up with the strangeness of the story, and started to overlook the crazy gimmicks of having a Uber-like app where opportunities pop up from time to time, and you have an option to accept it or not in real time. Instead I really started enjoying the characters and the depth that they portrayed, and Brenda Song really carried this movie very well. She truly portrayed a wide range of emotions and she progressed, and leaned some important lessons. There are a few side tracks along the way, all of which really add to the enjoyment of the story. By the time I got half way through this, I found I was not wanting it to end. Now I’m a senior citizen, and that is definitely not the audience that they are looking for, nor is FreeForm really a channel I watch very much, but if an old fart like me enjoyed the film, I’m sure younger folks will find it right up their alley. I suspect that young folks are really going to enjoy this movie, and for the rest of us, it wasn’t bad at all and well worth the time watching it.

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