Ed's Review Dot Com

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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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.

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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.