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Lifetime, Active Entertainment,

Jana Kramer, Wes Brown, Faith Ford, Trace Masters

Holly Logan (Jana Kramer) is home for Christmas to her little town home in Gulfport, Mississippi. She’s a well known photographer and looking for a job with a premier magazine. She volunteers to assist in bringing back the town tradition of a holiday light show for the first time in five years since a terrible hurricane nearly destroyed the town. But she regrets her decision soon after when she finds out that the festival is being run by her High School sweetheart, Mike (Wes Brown) who completely broke her heart. But her mom, Caroline (Faith Ford) and Mr. Kriss (Barry Bostwick) who plays Santa for the festival put their heads together to try to turn Holly around and make her see how important home and family really is.

This Lifetime movie is very well put together. It is nice to see Lifetime getting back into the game. They were really on top of the Christmas Movie game a few years back, but seemed to have backed off a bit in recent years. Lifetime only does a few new films each season, but typically they are very good quality. This one is one is no exception. The story is simple, and straight forward, but it really touches the heart. A southern Christmas is a very special. Living in Southern California, I’ve learned to get used to warm weather Christmases, and it’s not as bad as I expected. This is a beautiful town filled with beautiful people, and a very touching experience. I really enjoyed the people and the story and was very happy while watching this film. It was very well acted, and quite moving. I enjoyed this movie.

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Sodona Entertainment Inc.,

Wes Brown, Amélie Eve, Benita Ha, Marci T. House, P. Lynn Johnson, Marissa Miller, Chelsey Reist, Tiera Skovbye, Jim Thorburn, Jill Wagner

Hannah (Jill Wagner) is a food company executive who is sent to the tiny town of Cookie Jar, home of Aunt Sally’s Cookie Company. Aunt Sally has passed on and left the company to Jake (Wes Brown) who is running the company, but very short on cash. Aunt Sally’s Cookies are really wonderful, and this big corporation wants to save the company by purchasing it, and moving the operation to Buffalo. But an easy bailout turns into a problem when Jake insists the company must stay in Cookie Jar.

This 2016 Hallmark Premier Christmas Movie is certainly a recycled story. This is a big corporation coming to in to save (takeover) (destroy) (close) the small town local business that is the only source of income in the town. But the grinchy person who hates Christmas learns to love the town and the holidays, and most likely (as in this film) falls in love with a local person. This is the same story, but it’s a new one, and has a number of things going for it. Jill Wagner is not overly sugary and sappy, and is actually very good in this role. Her costar, Wes Brown is also very good in his role. The townsfolk are really likeable and so it is a holiday romance from our Hallmark friends, and we get what we want. It was certainly a good enough film and quite entertaining. I think this was a decent gift for this Christmas, and it’s a good movie to catch as it makes the rounds on Hallmark Christmas 2016.

Here is the home page for this Hallmark 2016 Christmas Film.

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Lava Box Entertainment Group, Noble Productions Ltd

Brett Moses, Ryan Hurst, Dominique Swain, Michael Parks, Lee Ann Womack, James Parks, Ron Canada, Wes Brown, Tracy Byrd, James Bobinger

Jimmy Wayne Collins (Brett Moses) is a country star with a career on the rocks. He decides to head bck home to Texas to nurse his dying father, Pete (Michael Parks, and ends up learning a lot about himself and the ties he left behind in his youth. He’s got lots of burned bridges to try to repair as he learns that there’s more to life than fortune and fame and many ways to live an honorable life.

First and foremost, this is a western. But it is much deeper and darker than most. Jimmy has been carrying a secret for many, many years which is eating him alive. When his Dad is really sick, he feels an obligation to take care of him, but neither he, nor his dad, enjoy each other’s company. But he still tries to do what it right. It is clear he is deeply depressed. The secret he is hiding is too much to bear. Plus the stress of being a one hit wonder is pretty tough. This is a well acted morality play of right and wrong. Will Jimmy be able to right the wrong he did years ago and make things right? It’s a deep movie, but pretty good.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog