Archive for Christmas

** The Christmas Cottage

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.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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** Angry Angel

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.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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** Holiday Road Trip

Daro Film Distribution, Hybrid, Monogram Pictures (II),

Ashley Scott, Patrick Muldoon, Kip Pardue, George Hamilton, Shelley Long, Jerry Lacy, Essence Atkins, Mo Gaffney, Donna Pescow, Christopher Rich, Susan Olsen, Wink Martindale, Mindy Cohn


Pat (Patrick Muldoon) is a young man, son of the owner of a major pet supply manufacturer and being groomed to take over the company some day. Pat is an overgrown child though and doesn’t seem to take anything seriously. Maya (Ashley Scott) is about as opposite as possible, and is loyal and hardworking to the company, and pretty much despises Pat. Company sales are sagging, and the company mascot, a highly recognized Jack Russel Terrier is invited to be Grand Marshall of the Beverly Hills Christmas Parade, owner Max (George Hamilton) decides to send his son Pat on a cross country road trip to Los Angeles so that their mascot Scoots can have photo opportunities with fans all across the country. Maya is asked to come along to keep eyes on both Pat and Scoots and to make sure they make it to Los Angeles in time for the parade. The company’s future hangs in the balance. But it seems unlikely that these strange travelers are going to kill each other before they cross the Mississippi.

This is a mediocre film that falls somewhat flat. There’s just not enough fun in this movie to grab and hold your interest. Pat Muldoon is really annoying as the man-child who is supposed to be quite the ladies man, but it doesn’t work, and I was not really impressed with Ashley’s performance either. although I do feel like it might be the script that is at fault rather than either of the lead actors. They can only perform the lines they are given. George Hamilton phones it in once again, and the dog, even though cute enough, doesn’t have anything to do but stand around. He could have been a stuffed dog for that matter. All in all, I just really didn’t get into this movie and thought it was badly executed all around.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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** Christmas at Holly Lodge

Crown Media Productions,

Benjamin Arcé, Arpad Balogh, Robyn Bradley, Jordan Bridges, Dave Collette


Sophie (Allison Sweeny) inherited the mountain lodge from her parents. It is nestled in a great deal of land surrounded by beautiful snowy mountains, and the poeple who come to spend Christmas every year are like family when they arrive year after year for a really special Christmas. World traveler and real estate developer Evan (Jordan Bridges) arrives to see how easily they can take over the property and turn it into a luxury resort. Sophie is behind in the mortgage and she’s working herself to the bone to try to keep the doors open, but the options are getting slimmer and slimmer, and Evan knows what she needs.

This 2017 premier of Hallmark’s Christmas at Holly Lodge is almost a direct remake of the movie “Let it Snow” starring Candace Cameron Bure and Alan Thicke. The story is amazingly similar. They changed the roles so that it’s a man who arrives to fall in love with Christmas at this festive place, but it’s almost identical. A lot of Christmas films have similar story lines, but that’s not the only problem here. Probably the most damning problem is the rushed ending. It truly looks like whomever was editing this film looked at the clock and said, “Holy crap, we’ve only got 5 minutes left, and we gotta end this!” The rushed tacked on ending is surprising, mostly because of how awfully it was put together. Not cool at all. I never felt decent chemistry between the leads, and all in all it didn’t really seem believable. It is kind of like if Ebeneezer Scrooge had experienced his great redemption at the moment he saw the door knocker with Marley’s face. A little too abrupt, a little too soon, and basically no drama or suspense. It just was a bit too hurried and not a very good story, and though it’s festive enough, this is one that I would skip if it were up to me.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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** Christmas in Angel Falls

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

Rachel Boston, Beau Bridges, Bayley Corman, Paul Greene, Hattie Kragten, Michael James Regan


Gabby Messenger is a guardian angel. She has a bad habit of bending the rules a bit, and has been called down by her boss, Michael de Angeles (Beau Bridges) and given a new assignment. This time she’s guardian angel for the entire town of Angel Falls that has suffered badly and lost it’s Christmas spirit. Things have been hard as many folks have moved away, and those that stayed mostly had to find work out of town, and now spend too much time commuting, and everything has gotten worse and worse. It’s a hard challenge for Gabby to try to help the town, especially without breaking the rules, when the town doesn’t seem to want the help anyway. But Gabby is determined whatever it takes, but little does she know what she is missing in herself that may be the real reason for this assignment.

This is a light romantic comedy that has a lot of characters each with their own stories. There are so many side stories going on that it’s really magic to watch as they try to resolve each individual’s problems one by one. This is a typical Christmas angel story of which there are dozens, mostly pretty well done, and the quality of the acting makes it worthwhile, even though it’s naturally similar to lots of other stories. Still I enjoyed it very much and was able to feel involved with all the stories. I found this movie very worthwhile and very glad I put this one on my watch list. Very enjoyable.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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