Christmas movie review: Christmas Belle

Christmas Belle is from ION Television and stars Haylie Duff (who will show up later this season in another movie) as Belle. Belle works with her dad appraising estates and antiques and has been given an assignment at some estate with a really grumpy guy who I think has lost his fiance/wife (I think?) and is still healing so he hates the world. He gives Belle a really hard time at first and complains when she isn't working fast enough and has no patience for her process or her questions. At one point, he really blows up at her and she quits. His caretaker/family member (I think?) demands he apologizes and then because she accepts his apology and comes back to work, he's instantly a different person and they start to fall for each other. He agrees to host the town's Christmas Dance at his estate and she starts to wonder what it would be like to stay there and be with him. Meanwhile, this high school boyfriend of hers is still in the picture trying to woo her and she makes it clear she is NOT interested, time and time again. When he shows up at the Christmas Dance, she once again tells him she's not interested but he tells the estate owner that she is so he gets all mad and blows up and kicks her out. Eventually everything is resolved and they all live happily ever after. I guess.

The problem with this one - or I should say problems - is that they are trying to make it a love triangle even though Belle has told the high school boyfriend over and over that she's not interested. So why can't he take a hint? And, I had a really hard time believing that this complete jerk just instantly turns into a nice guy... and, in fact, he doesn't because when faced with some competition for Belle's affection, he immediately turns right back into a total jerk and kicks her out of the dance without even listening to what she has to say. It's tough to get invested in a love triangle or even a romance when none of the parties involved are interesting or sympathetic.

Rating: C-

Christmas movie review: Snow Bride

Snow Bride is one of Hallmark Channel's twelve new movies of 2013 and it's your basic holiday-themed romance. Our main character, Greta, is a Los Angeles-based gossip columnist who is always trying to break the next big story. When it gets out that one of the Tannenhill sons (I think they are called the West Coast Kennedys in the movie, so a famous political family) has bought an engagement ring, Greta makes it her mission to find out which son bought it. She takes off to their holiday getaway in the mountains and gets her car stuck in the snow. To warm up as she heads out on foot, she puts on her friend's wedding dress, which is conveniently in her car, and slides down a hill and is knocked unconscious. One of the Tannenhill sons - Ben - finds her and takes her into his cottage and ends up inviting her to stay the weekend when he finds out his brother is now dating Ben's ex-girlfriend and bringing her for the holidays. Ben calls her "Snow Bride" because of the condition she was in when he found her. Having no idea who Greta really is, Ben asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend and she is more than eager to accept. Of course, as the holidays get closer, Greta finds that she is falling for Ben and really likes his family. And vice versa. Then, of course, someone finds out who Greta really is and she's banished and it's up to her to get her man back and prove she isn't all about the story.

Yes, it's very formulaic but I still found it charming and the actors had some chemistry so it's one of the better holiday romances of this year.

Rating: B+/A-

Christmas movie review: A Country Christmas Story

A Country Christmas Story features Dolly Parton, but she's just a bit player. Not that you would glean that from any advertising for the movie where she's all over everything. In actuality, Dolly plays herself who is sponsoring a contest for the best child in country music, or something like that, and she only shows up for like the last 20 minutes basically. Our main character, Grace, who comes from a broken home, has decided to learn music and put all her pain into songwriting and guitar-playing. Her mom is not happy because the dad who abandoned the family was a musician so she hates music, or something like that. There's a bunch of drama that I should have had more interest in but for some reason, I didn't. Grace moves out. The dad comes back but doesn't visit Grace. The mom eventually comes around. There are money issues. Grace is selected for the contest. The dad shows up after all. Everyone makes up and hugs and lives happily ever after, it seems.

Over all, I guess the gist of the movie is that music heals families. Maybe? I'm giving it a 'B' rating which is my score for the average Christmas movie because it didn't really hold my interest. As you can probably tell.

Rating; B

Christmas movie review: Catch a Christmas Star

Catch a Christmas Star is a 2013 film on the Hallmark Channel that stars Shannon Elizabeth as a famous pop singer that falls for her old high school sweetheart, a widower with two kids, during the holidays.

It's your straightforward romantic film with obstacles that get in the way of true love (her label wants her to date someone famous, she is still hung up on how he hurt her when they first broke up, he's still trying to get used to the fact that he might be in love again after his wife died) but everyone presumably lives happily ever after in the end. To be honest, none of the obstacles seem to be that much to overcome.

This is another film that is only peripherally a Christmas story by happening to take place around the holidays while Shannon's pop star character is releasing a Christmas album. But, I guess when Hallmark is adding a dozen new films over these last six weeks of the year, you can't have them all be pure spirit-of-Christmas types. But the two leads were fine and Shannon even apparently does her own singing and while I don't think she is going to be offered a record contract anytime soon, she did a passable job. I'm giving it a "B" because that's where I put the average Christmas films.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: Holidaze

Holidaze was ABC Family's second new movie of the season and it stars Jennie Garth and Cameron Mathison (in the last of his three 2013 Christmas films). It's a story that we've all seen before - in fact, there is at least one like this every year at Christmas. Jennie plays a corporate bigwig who lives in Chicago and opens up new locations of the big bad giant retail store (called Save Now here) in small towns all across the country. Her next assignment right before Christmas is to get the citizens of her small town hometown on board for a Save Now. Of course, not everyone in her small town is happy with Save Now, including her mother (who owns a small town coffee shop) and her ex-boyfriend (who owns a bed-and-breakfast right on the land that Save Now wants). Cameron plays the ex-boyfriend, of course.

One day, Jennie's character falls down the stairs and hits her head and when she wakes up, she's no longer a corporate bigwig. Instead, she operates the small town coffee shop and is married to Cameron's character. Of course she is upset at first and tries to get her old life back but it doesn't take long for her to adapt into this alternate life and uses the knowledge she has (she still maintains her corporate bigwig information) to keep Save Now at bay. When she eventually hits her head again and wakes up back as the corporate bigwig, of course she's upset and has changed and does what she can to prevent Save Now from coming into her small town.

Like I said, it's nothing we haven't seen before but it's a so-so version of it. Certainly not the best but also not the worst.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: Christmas Bounty

Christmas Bounty debuted on ABC Family this year and I wasn't expecting much from it considering one of its stars is Mike "The Miz" Mizanin from The Real World and WWE fame. And I was right, it was worse than I expected, although I have to say that The Miz wasn't actually as bad as I expected.

The plot of the movie is that a young woman who has a history of being a bounty hunter - it's her family business - has given it up and moved to Manhattan and started a new life with a new fiance but somehow gets dragged into one last bounty. Her fiance follows her back home to New Jersey and finds out her secret. Meanwhile, she has to work with The Miz again, her ex-boyfriend who still loves her. There's nothing wrong with the general plotline although the movie is only peripherally a Christmas movie in that it takes place around Christmas but there are no traditional Christmas themes throughout. It's just so poorly written. And acted. And features awful action sequences. I guess it's supposed to be campy and tongue-in-cheek goofy but it's just too too much. Do not watch! But, like I said, I didn't mind The Miz too much. His role was the strong silent type, for the most part.

Rating: D

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Spirit

The Christmas Spirit stars Nicolette Sheridan and is new for the Hallmark Channel this year. It's the story of a reporter who has moved back to the small town where she grew up and gets involved when a big box store wants to come to town right before Christmas. On her way to meeting with the leader of the big corporate takeover to discuss some facts she's uncovered, she gets in a car accident - with Mr. Corporate Jerk - and ends up in a coma. He ends up in a coma, too. Except, while everyone else thinks they are in a coma, it turns out that their spirits are awake and moving around town, doing good deeds. Both are also trying to further their own agendas a little while they do the good deeds. During their time as spirits, they get to know each other and fall in love. Not to spoil it, but everyone - and everything - lives happily ever after, of course.

It's cute and has one of my favorite Christmas elements - magic!

Rating: B+

Christmas movie review: Matchmaker Santa

Matchmaker Santa debuted last year on Hallmark Channel and stars Lacey Chabert as a young girl who made a wish one Christmas to find true love, just like her parents. Fast-forward to present day when she's all grown up and dating someone who is so consumed with work that he sends his assistant to have dates with her instead. Yes, his assistant is a cute guy. Lacey's character is oblivious about what is right in front of her until a run-in with "Santa" who arranges about one million accidents and speed bumps to keep her away from the boyfriend and realize she's falling for the assistant. Don't worry, Santa set up things so that the boyfriend reconnects with an old girlfriend, too, so we don't feel sorry for the poor guy getting dumped by Lacey. Everyone lives happily ever after, I suppose.

Overall, I thought this one was lame. I'm all for someone finding their true love on Christmas Eve but Santa just manufactured events a bit too much for my liking and the whole relationship with this assistant guy seemed way too forced. Blahville.

Rating: C

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Ornament

So, this one has Cameron Mathison in it also(!), making it the second one with him this year... not to mention that I saw a commercial for yet another one - also starring Jennie Garth - so he is apparently the go-to Christmas movie guy this year. Not that I'm complaining. He definitely has his charms.

In The Christmas Ornament, Kellie Martin stars as Kathy, a recent widow who runs a bicycling shop. The shop isn't doing too well but it had been her husband's dream so she is continuing to run it. When her friend drags her to a Christmas tree lot, she strikes up a friendship with the lot owner, Tim (Cameron's character), over running retail establishments. The friend notices them enjoying each other's company (flirting, she calls it) and later sends Tim to Kathy's house with a tree and they continue to find things in common. As the movie goes on, they slowly start to fall for each other. Of course there are some obstacles (mostly the fact that Kathy is a recent widow and is still living in her husband's shadow) but it's a very sweet tale with believable twists and Cameron and Kellie are cute together. I like the Christmas-as-a-time-for-rebirth stories. This ranks as my favorite one this year so far.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: A Very Merry Mix-Up

When I first read the summary of A Very Merry Mix-Up (new this year on the Hallmark Channel), I thought it was going to be ridiculously contrived and I'd spend the entire movie rolling my eyes, but I was wrong! It's about an engaged gal who goes home to visit her fiance's family for Christmas and ends up at the wrong house and finds out that she likes the person at the wrong house more than she likes her fiance, and yes, it's a little silly but they actually do a good job of making you believe that the mistake was an innocent one with circumstances just taking over. So, I was happy about that. And, it's very sweet and who doesn't love a sweet love story that takes place during Christmas, the time of miracles.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: Window Wonderland

Window Wonderland is new on the Hallmark Channel this year and stars Chyler Leigh, from Grey's Anatomy. Chyler plans Sloan (and yes, it took me some time to get over the fact that her name was the same as her Grey's true love), who is an assistant window decorator at a department store looking for a big break to become head decorator. She takes her job very seriously but has to compete with a guy who is more goofy and light-hearted. Although Sloan has a rich boyfriend (played by Cameron Mathison), he doesn't understand her passion for her job and wants to buy her the promotion, so she gradually gets closer to her co-worker, who (surprise!) turns out to be much different than she imagined.

Overall, the film used a unique way to tie in the Christmas element with the holiday window decorating and I did appreciate that but it was just so-so in terms of romance and story. I found the budding romance between the two decorators kind of boring and charmless and there were way too many side stories that I didn't care about and weren't fully developed (for instance, that Sloan was hiding her poor upbringing from everyone). Plus, it was missing one element I love in Christmas movies - magic!

Rating: B-

Christmas move review: Christmas in Conway

Christmas in Conway was this year's entry from the Hallmark Hall of Fame series, which airs on ABC. As such, it gets a higher level of actors and stars Andy Garcia, Mary-Louise Parker and Mandy Moore. In this one, Mary-Louise Parker and Andy Garcia play a married couple. Mary-Louise's character is dying of cancer and Andy's brought her home from the hospital to die in the comfort of their home and celebrate one last Christmas. Mandy Moore plays the live-in nurse who comes to take care of Mary-Louise's character.

While talking about their past, Mary-Louise fondly reminisces about a ferris wheel ride they had shared in the past and Andy gets it in his mind to recreate that one last time before she passes away. So, he launches into an effort to find a ferris wheel and, in fact, gets one from a junkyard and begins to build it in the backyard. This causes all sorts of problems from the neighbors and the police chief and the handyman he hires who once stole from him. The handyman who, of course, is also getting closer to Mandy's character. Despite the pressure and difficulties, it will be no spoiler to find out that things work out and Mary-Louise is able to go on one last ferris wheel ride.

Overall, it's a very touching story that takes place around Christmastime. People get over their differences to work together in the spirit of love and Christmas. I enjoyed it. After its initial airing on ABC, it will air on the Hallmark Channel during the rest of December.

Rating: A-

Bad driving

It is not a shock to me in the least that in Allstate's new report on the locations across the country where the best drivers are, guess where DC ranks? Last. Meaning they have the worst drivers in the country. In fact, four of the worst 10 spots are Washington, DC, Baltimore, Alexandria, VA and Arlington, VA. No kidding. People are horrible drivers here, just horrible. Some of my biggest pet peeves are that people NEVER use their turn signals and they drive right down the middle of the road, even though they are two-way roads, and don't even move to the correct side of the road when another car comes. It drives me crazy.

Traveling Gingerbread Man

On behalf of my niece, my sister-in-law sent me a gingerbread man made of paper who was "visiting" and I was supposed to take pictures of him and show what he did while he was with me. I guess this is in the tradition of Flat Stanley.

Well, obviously, living in Washington, DC, gave me a million options but I decided to stick with Arlington since that is where I spend 99% of my time. So, here are the pictures I took of Gingey... at the Iwo Jima Memorial, at Arlington Cemetery, at the Netherlands Carillon, looking over the river to the DC landmarks and then, amazingly, as I was walking past the gate to Fort Myer to go back to my car, s Santa appeared out of nowhere and said he saw me taking pictures and wondered if I wanted to have one with him too.

Seriously, it was crazy. But the pictures are kinda cute. It's a little tough to take a picture with my phone and hold a gingerbread man at the same time.

Nationals Game

A couple friends and I went to the Nationals-Giants game the other night and it was 1924 night with the teams (and other personnel) wearing uniforms from that year plus tickets and food that sold for the same price as the 1924 World Series. It was all in commemoration of the last time a Washington baseball team won the World Series, in 1924, when they beat the then New York Giants. As such, the now San Francisco Giants wore uniforms that said "New York" on them. Overall, all the extra touches to make it seem historical were pretty cool. And it was a good game, with the Nats coming from behind to win at the bottom of the ninth. Nevermind that my friends talked me into leaving at the bottom of the eighth. Below is a highlight reel made to look 1920ish and here is a link to some more pictures and information. While a good price in today's market, I still find it hard to believe that tickets at the 1924 World Series sold for $6.60 though. That seems high for 90 years ago.

Something always goes wrong...

I'm sorry I've been such a bad poster this year. I have about ten posts from the last few months that are half-started or almost finished that I should just go ahead and post. I can't even seem to make it through a whole post anymore. So, you readers (if I have still have any readers) might see some old things showing up and wonder where they came from. At work today, I was telling a co-worker how frustrating it is that we have so little free time in our lives after you put time in at work, commuting to/from work and sleeping. Add to that the time it takes to run errands or do things like paying bills, etc... that are essential but not fun and you literally are down to like zero minutes of free time. Anyway, today was one of those days where I had errands to run after work but amazingly, I found myself at home by 7pm even after running three errands (I get off of work at 6pm so you know that I made good time). However, my feelings of being overjoyed at how quickly I was able to do my errands were quickly usurped by my realizing something was wrong with my cable. I suddenly was only getting about a dozen channels, not the hundreds that I am supposed to get. WTF? So I called Comcast and proceeded to wait on hold for 59 minutes before they picked up and then it took another 30 minutes before they figured out the problem and fixed it. So much for all that extra time I had in my day. Bummer. As it turns out, the problem was that my year of promotionally priced cable had been up in June and even though they put me on another year of a promotion and I'd already paid two months of it, they apparently did not program that into their computers so when their system finally caught up, it thought I no longer had cable and stopped conveying the signal. The woman I talked to had to re-program me as a subscriber and voila, all those channels were back. The good (and sneaky) part of the process is that while I did not use to have cable in my bedroom, whatever she did has given me cable in my bedroom for free. Or well, I think it's free. So now, ha ha, I can lay in bed watching TV for all those hours of free time I don't have.

Electricity returns

Woo hoo! My power is back on after being off for almost exactly 24 hours. Not sure if you all heard but a crazy storm came by last night around 10:30pm, with winds of up to 80 mph and now there are like a million people in the DC area without power. It was such a crazy, quick, out-of-nowhere storm that seriously was gone in like 15 minutes but left all this destruction. Most maddening to me was that the people across the street didn't lose power and the people the next block over didn't lose power either. But my block did. And we're in the midst of a horrible heat wave so it's like 100 degrees, temperatures that make air conditioning essential. So after the power went out, I immediately knew it wasn't going to be coming back on soon. There was a tree right next to my building that had lost huge branches so even though those hadn't knocked down the power lines, I knew trees somewhere had surely done some damage. I tried to get some sleep and opened all my windows. There was a bit of a breeze, thankfully, but so many people were out and about inspecting the damage that I heard voices and noises all night. I finally got up and had some breakfast but by like 11am, I could tell the apartment was going to be too hot so I decided to leave and spend the entire day in air conditioning. Of course, I wasn't sure who did have power. I started at the local library and they did have power... and also had hundreds of people there already in every spare inch of space. On my way into the library, though, several of us got stuck in the elevator. That sucked. Luckily, we got out within 5 minutes. Since the library had power, I wondered if my work building had power since they are on the same street. I thought I could sit there, use the internet to discover what else was open and charge my phone at the same time. Success! While there I did some investigating and bought a movie ticket to see Ted at a theater that still had power and was able to sit in a cold theater for two hours. And hit up some retail shops that had power. And got some food at a grocery store that hadn't lost power. By the time I got home that night, it was about 9 and I decided to watch a DVD on my laptop. I hadn't even gotten all the way through the movie when the power came back on. Hooray! Some people apparently won't have power for a whole week, though, so I'm very lucky.

SNL Goodbye

This closing bit last night on Saturday Night Live was such a sweet goodbye to Kristen Wiig, who was reportedly leaving after this season. Guess that's an affirmative. I don't remember anyone ever getting their own goodbye segment before - of course, as much of an avid viewer as I am, I don't remember all 37 years of episodes. In fact, Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis are supposedly leaving also and got no acknowledgement. Jason looked really somber at the end, though. But who are we kidding? Kristen has by far been the biggest star of the show in the last few years. She's in nearly every skit every week. She will be missed.

Cool site: Fictional Characters Birthday Calendar

I came across this web site, which has compiled a birthday calendar for fictional characters, and it's pretty cool. It has the birthdays, by month, of famous fictional people from books, from TV shows and from movies. I can't even imagine the work required to create this. Turns out I share a birthday with Patrick Trueman, from EastEnders, whoever that is. Too bad it wasn't someone a little more exciting. I hope each of you readers have better luck! (via)

Movie review: The Lucky One

I had a free screening pass to The Lucky One, which is based on a Nicholas Sparks book and I would say it's a lot like one would expect for a Nicholas Sparks book... some romance, some tragedy, some destiny and a cute boy. I am quite the admirer of Zac Efron and he's fine in the role as an ex-Marine who is struggling to get back into society but can't seem to manage so he tracks down the girl in a picture he found in Afghanistan, a picture that saved his life. While it's a fine enough story and everyone did an okay acting job, I didn't really buy into the chemistry of the two main characters as much as I wanted to. There's a lot of satisfaction that comes from a nice girl getting away from a jerky man and into the arms of the sweet guy watching from the sidelines, which is the basic premise here. However, the actress (Taylor Schilling) just looks so much older than him and while there's nothing wrong with an age difference, it just seems extra noticeable here. I think she is supposed to be older because she has like a 8-year-old boy, but it was just distracting. Not to mention that Taylor Schilling bears a strong resemblance to Teri Polo, in my opinion. I kept wondering if they were related. On top of all that, her ex-husband (who's now a bad cop) is supposed to be like her high school boyfriend, yet HE looks like he's about 10 years older than her. Which, after checking IMDB, I'm not far off. So, the casting is questionable but it isn't a bad movie. My recommendation is to rent it.

I Want One: Magic Showerhead with Color Changing LED

Okay, maybe I don't really have a need for this but it seems pretty cool. Like a disco in your shower. (via)

Changing my Netflix account

I changed my Netflix account for the first time in a long time, getting rid of all mailed movies and sticking only with the streaming movies. You probably heard the big hullabaloo last summer when it was announced that the Netflix pricing structure would change, basically doubling the cost for me. No longer would streaming be included with the rental of DVDs. Well, I paid for both for a couple of months and then got a gift of three months free but now that the gift has run out, I've decided that I do not need both the DVDs and the streaming. I'm a big viewer of new releases and those are rarely available for streaming so I was leaning towards keeping the DVD and giving up the streaming but I can get DVDs at Redbox or the library so the plan is to pay for the streaming only for a few months and knock some movies off my queue and eventually if I find that I'm missing the DVDs, then I can switch to that. I know many people complain that the movies they want to see are never available for streaming but I do manage to have a streaming queue of over 100 movies so I think I can make do for a few months, at least. However, the way Netflix sets up their Web site for streaming only makes me mad. A movie ONLY shows up on the site now if it's streaming. So, if I watch a movie at the theater and want to rate it on Netflix so that it can be used to make suggestions for me, I can't do that. If I search for a movie or an actor, the only things that show up are those available for streaming. That's ridiculous. Primarily it's ridiculous for them in terms of sales because if I was searching for movie after movie and it was coming up on their site that I would have to get a DVD account in order to watch that movie, I might be swayed into getting a DVD account so I could watch some of the movies. They're stupid for not trying to plus-sell in this way. Overall, I am paying a lot less with the streaming only package and I'm glad about that. Time will only tell if I watch any more streaming movies now than I did before. It won't take much to use streaming more than I used to because I probably averaged like 1 steaming movie every two months. I also might write more movie reviews on this site since I can't rate a lot of the movies I'll be watching.

Movie review: Friends with Kids

I know I go to free movie screenings fairly regularly but the ticket I got to see Friends with Kids was kind of extra cool because the writer/director/star of the movie, Jennifer Westfeldt, graced us with her presence afterwards and answered questions from the audience.

Funnily enough, I was very late getting to the movie, which meant there were very few seats available at the screening when I got there so I ended up in the second row. But, since Jennifer was there, it ended up being a great seat because it meant I was two rows away from her!

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie. Jennifer and Adam Scott, from Parks and Recreation, star as two friends who are the last in their group to settle down, get married and have kids. However, after seeing their married friends kind of lose all fun in their life once the kids come, they think the best way around this is to remain friends and have kids that way, without the complications of romance. Of course, the just friends thing doesn't work out exactly the way they expect. Overall, it was a cute film with a lot of funny moments and despite the predictability of the premise (it's a romantic comedy, at its core), I felt the circumstances that took place between the main characters were very believable. And it surprised me how much I liked Adam Scott's performance, because quite frankly he's never done much for me before. I've seen him in several things and while he's fine, I would never have rated him any higher than fine. But he did a good job as the male lead here.

Got it Maid

When I resigned my lease this year, as a thank you for my loyalty, my apartment complex offered me either a free carpet cleaning or a free maid visit. I selected the maid's visit since I feared getting the carpet cleaning would require moving all of my furniture out of the apartment. So today the maid came to visit! Happy Valentine's Day to me! I wasn't entirely sure what the maid was going to do exactly but they definitely dusted, vacuumed, threw out my trash, threw out my recyclables, mopped the floors, cleaned my stove, cleaned the bathtub, sink, and toilet and made my bed. They definitely cleaned more thoroughly than I do; that's for sure. I'm kind of excited at how good it looks and am even thinking I might fork over the money to do it again, depending on the cost. I've seen Groupons, etc... that offer cheap maid service.

Valentine's Day movie reviews: The Vow and This Means War

I found this article very interesting about how Fox Pictures is delaying the release of its movie This Means War because it doesn't want to go up directly against The Vow. I've seen both movies over the last week or so thanks to advance screenings and I can say that it might be a smart move. The Vow is the much better movie.

The Vow is about a married woman who gets in a car accident and wakes up with amnesia, not remembering her husband or the last five years of her life at all. And in those last five years, so much had changed for her. The movie basically tells the story of the husband trying to get her to remember. It's part sad and part sweet and part funny, too. The film does a good job of getting you invested in the couple. And even though Channing Tatum isn't the world's best actor, I thought he did a fine job.

Meanwhile, This Means War is one of those that tries to attract both guys and girls by mixing action with romance. In this movie, two special agents both end up falling for the same girl (played by Reese Witherspoon) so they spend their time using their special agent skills to try to win the girl. In other words, they place microphones and secret cameras in her apartment; they put a GPS on her car; the one shoots the other with a tranquilizer dart to put him to sleep on a date... you can only imagine what else. While I have to say the film is a little original in seeing the spy gear being used against each other, somehow overall the plot of the film is crazy predictable. You can see every move before it happens. Ugh. And putting Chelsea Handler in the film as the best friend that helps Reese make decisions on what guy to choose was an awful decision. She's so grating. Finally, even when Reese finds out what's going on, she actually chooses to be with one of the guys, which I found utterly ridiculous. While it also has some funny and enjoyable scenes, you couldn't care less about either couple here. Thank God I didn't have to pay money for this one.

So, overall, just like Fox expects, if you're going to spend your movie dollars on just one of these films, I recommend you go see The Vow.

Christmas movie review: 2011 wrap-up

It's time to wrap up another season of holiday movie reviews. Besides totaling 100 reviews, this year I watched 21, a record for my six years of reviewing. I think you can thank a really bad cold I got the weekend before Christmas that kept me on the couch for three days straight. I probably watched half of the movies that weekend. I actually have about 15 more still saved on my DVR but I guess they'll have to wait until next year. Or maybe this summer I can do a Christmas in July special edition. I also think I should get started earlier next year and I can probably fit more in. Anyway, as you can see, it's quite the mix of ratings for this year's crop; there were quite a number of good ones.


A
Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas
12 Dates of Christmas
Debbie Macomber's Call Me Mrs. Miracle
A Christmas Kiss
Christmas Magic

A-
12 Wishes of Christmas
Annie Claus is Coming to Town
A Holiday Engagement

B+
Desperately Seeking Santa
Lucky Christmas
The Christmas Pageant

B
Three Wise Women
The Case for Christmas
A Christmas Wish
A Nanny for Christmas

B-
The Heart of Christmas
Battle of the Bulbs

C
A Christmas Wedding Tail
Christmas Mail

C-
Christmas with a Capital C

D
The Perfect Gift

Christmas movie review: Christmas Magic

My final Christmas movie of the year was Christmas Magic. I actually was going to stop with the last one since it's been about ten days since Christmas and, as much as I like Christmas movies, once Christmas is over I'm not usually in the mood to watch them. Regardless, I counted up all the Christmas movie reviews I've done since 2006 and realized I was on number 99. Well, I couldn't leave it at that so welcome to Christmas movie review 100! I cannot believe I've reviewed so many (or that there are even that many to review).

Anyway, I have about 15 still on DVR so I wanted to end the season on a high note and I sure did. Christmas Magic was really good, one of the best I watched this year. Again, not an original story because this tells the story of workaholic Carrie, who gets in a car accident in the beginning of the movie, and then finds herself an angel assigned to help someone still on Earth before she can get into heaven. She has a couple weeks to help a guy, Scott, who runs a small, struggling restaurant in New York City. Not only does she easily help him update his menu and promote his business, but she helps him with babysitting (he's a widower with an 8-year-old girl) and getting over his hatred of Christmas. She knows she's headed to heaven on Christmas Eve so she tries to not get too attached, but of course she starts to fall for him. Meanwhile, she has an angel guide who gives her advice whenever she needs it. I don't necessarily want to spoil it because I definitely recommend watching this but everything works out happily ever after of course, since after all the title of the film is "Christmas Magic." I have no idea who the actors are (Lindy Booth plays Carrie but I've never heard of her before) but they did a good job and took a possibly predictable story of an angel trying to get her wings and made it very watchable and enjoyable.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Pageant

The Christmas Pageant debuted on Hallmark Channel this year, although I noticed on its Web site, it does not say it's a Hallmark Channel Original Movie so I guess someone else made it. Interesting. This one stars Melissa Gilbert as a bitchy, demanding Broadway theater director who gets fired again... but before she's unemployed for too long, her agent gets her a job directing a Christmas pageant in some small upstate town. Because she needs the money and no one from Broadway is going to come running in the immediate future, she takes the job and experiences culture shock. Not only does she have to adjust to small town living, but she has to adjust to a Christmas pageant that has been put on in exactly the same manner for decades. The actors do not want her to change anything. Only one little girl is particularly welcoming to her and it turns out that the little girl is the daughter of an ex-boyfriend who now lives in this small town and actually recommended her for the pageant job. Melissa's character and this ex-boyfriend reconnect; she becomes a much nicer person; the townfolk open up to her unique way of doing things; and everyone has a great Christmas. It's one of those stories about a stingy, cranky person who becomes a better person and finds love thanks to the Christmas spirit. It was pretty cute.

Rating: B+

Christmas movie review: A Holiday Engagement

Hallmark Channel Original Movie A Holiday Engagement stars Bonnie Summerville, who I've liked since she was on Friends, so I was kind of excited to watch this. The plot isn't entirely original - woman hires actor to play fiance when she has to go home for the holidays - but it's a great plot for a romantic comedy and this was well-done and enjoyable. In this film, our main character has an overbearing and judgmental mother and when she originally plans to bring her fiance home for the holidays, she really does have a fiance but then he breaks up with her days before she's ready to leave so instead of telling this to her mom (who already thinks she's making up the fiance), she decides to find a new, fake fiance. Over the next several days, naturally, the fiance-for-hire and Bonnie start to get to know each other and start to develop some feelings. Of course. And everyone in her family seems to really like fake fiance. I'm sure it will come as no surprise that there is a happy ending. I'm rating this as an A- basically because the titular holiday is actually Thanksgiving, not Christmas, and because I was a little skeptical about how quickly the romance happened. I mean, it's one thing when someone falls in love quickly but she really should have still been really hung up on the fiance who dumped her. No one gets over someone AND finds someone new so quickly. Still enjoyable, though.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Kiss

A Christmas Kiss aired on ION this year and I enjoyed it. The main character is sort of a scared girl not living her own life but working for this bitchy woman as her assistant and being treated like crap. One night her friends, who work as costumers for a theater company, dress her all up like an angel with a ton of glitter and makeup and she gets stuck in an elevator with a cute guy and they end up sharing a kiss... but no words. She's kind of smitten but then soon finds out that he is her boss's boyfriend. And he doesn't recognize her at all. As she and her boss are assigned to decorate the boyfriend's house for Christmas (he's a very wealthy benefactor), the boss kicks even more into bitch mode because she wants him to propose at this big Christmas party. When she has an accident and hurts her face, she disappears lest he see her as less than perfect and our main character has to take on full decorating responsibilities and of course, this means spending more time with the boyfriend. Which means, she really starts falling for him. But does he start falling for her or is he duped by his bitchy girlfriend? It's not necessarily a unique story but it was a cute romantic comedy and the main character (played by Laura Breckinridge, who could be Shannen Doherty's little sister) was adorable and you couldn't help but root for her. Overall, a sweet film.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: Christmas Mail

Christmas Mail is apparently also sometimes called We've Got Christmas Mail and I did not enjoy it that much. The main action takes place at a post office when a male mail carrier with custody of his niece is asked to keep an eye on a new post office hire who is supposed to answer all letters to Santa. The mail guy's boss thinks she's a plant from the home office, sent to watch over his branch. Of course, as he "watches" her, they start to fall for each other because this is a Christmas romantic comedy. There's a little more to the story, but quite honestly, I was very bored. The problems were: 1.) no one in this movie could really act and 2.) the lead characters had no chemistry and 3.) they made it seem like this letter writer had some sort of magical powers or maybe was related to Santa but if that was the case, then tell us!! They just seemed to think it would be cute to be vague while I found it added to the boringness. Yuck.

Rating: C

Christmas movie review: A Nanny for Christmas

A Nanny for Christmas stars Emmanuelle Vaugier, Dean Cain, Richard Ruccolo, and Cynthia Gibb, although Dean Cain is barely in it at all so that was a bit of a disappointment. Basically, Emmanuelle is at a PR firm and makes a major mistake when presenting a campaign to Dean and loses her job. A friend gets her an interview with Cynthia Gibb, who misunderstands and thinks she's interviewing someone to be her nanny. Emmnanuelle doesn't say anything because she'd rather have any job than have to go to Ohio for the holidays (the horror!) and thinks by getting close to Cynthia, she might someday hire her. Uh huh. Well, of course Cynthia is a total bitch and restrictive mom but Emmanuelle is good with the kids and they start to have fun finally. Meanwhile, Emmanuelle meets one of Cynthia's coworkers and when she's vague and says she "works for Cynthia," he assumes she works for the company and not as Cynthia's nanny so there is another big misunderstanding that you know isn't going to end well once he finds out the truth because of course they start to fall for each other. Overall, it was very predictable in Three's Company-misunderstanding kind of way when you kind of roll your eyes and wonder why she doesn't just SPEAK UP!!!! And it wasn't very Christmas-y either, other than the events took place around Christmas. So it was average. And in Christmas movie reviews, an average means B-ish.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: Lucky Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lucky Christmas is yet another Hallmark Channel original movie that debuted this year. It stars Elizabeth Berkley as Holly, a struggling single mom who dreams of opening her own restaurant one day and who always buys a lottery ticket with the same numbers - which she does indeed buy at the outset of the movie. As she goes to a bar to have a drink with a friend, she accidentally drops her keys in the parking lot and these two guys who are also struggling find the keys and steal the car. Well, really it's just one guy - the other guy is super drunk and has no idea what happened until the next morning and he demands the car gets returned, until they see on the news that the car that they stole had a winning lottery ticket in it. That sort of changes things. They decide the one guy (the one who hadn't stolen the car) would use his charming personality to sort of scope out the situation and get to know Holly before deciding exactly what to do. Of course, before he knows it, he's falling for Holly and she's falling for him and yet they have this big thing hanging over their heads so you know it isn't going to end well when she founds out. To make matters worse, he decides to mail the lottery ticket back anonymously but it gets lost... and it has to be cashed in by Christmas Eve. So there's a lot of drama and a lot of predictability but it was pretty cute. I actually thought the two lead characters had some chemistry and I know Elizabeth Berkley gets a rap as a bad actress thanks to Showgirls, but I think she was fine. I'm debating between giving this an A- or a B+ but I think I'll go with the lower score just because it was very, very predictable. You could see every twist coming. Still, not bad at all.

Rating: B+

Christmas movie review: Annie Claus Is Coming to Town

Annie Claus is Coming to Town is yet another Hallmark Channel Original Movie. It tells the story of Annie, Santa's daughter, who comes to Los Angeles on a sort of rumspringa, you know, how Amish teenagers get a period of time to leave home and experience life before deciding if they want to dedicate the rest of their lives to an Amish lifestyle. Well, in this case, Annie is heading to L.A. to experience life outside the North Pole before deciding if she wants to take over Santa's business. Of course, should she decide to stay in L.A., then some lucky assistant of Santa's will take over instead. So, preying on her romantic daydreams of finding 'the one,' the sneaky assistant hires some good-looking actor to woo her so she falls in love and doesn't come back to the North Pole. Meanwhile, she is drawn to a small toy shop that is in serious need of some sprucing up and is conveniently owned by a very cute guy, played by Sam Page. Of course, the drama plays out and everyone lives happily ever after.

I enjoyed this movie primarily because it was an original story. And, I have had a fondness for Sam Page since he was on All My Children years ago. But, I found the lead actress a little grating and the villains just a little too over-the-top so I downgraded the score a bit.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: Debbie Macomber's Call Me Mrs. Miracle

Debbie Macomber's Call Me Mrs. Miracle is a Hallmark Channel original from 2010 and is sort of a sequel to 2009's Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle, which I reviewed back then, because it also features the same Doris Roberts character of Mrs. Merkle, aka Mrs. Miracle, who steps in to manipulate people in a magical way to make their lives better.

This year, Mrs. Merkle gets a job in a toy section of a department store run by the store owner's son. The son has to sell out the toy department but has made the potential mistake of not carrying the "it" toy of the year. She helps him over the course of the movie. Meanwhile, a young boy (who wants that "it" toy) is being cared for by his aunt because his father is serving overseas in the military and when they visit the toy section, their paths cross Mrs. Merkle's, as well as the guy running the toy section. And so starts the delightful meddling from Mrs. Merkle, leading to (surprise!) a romance between the boy's aunt and the toy department guy. Along the way, she also helps the little boy, the department store's owner, that owner's relationship with his son, a co-worker... you get the idea.

Overall, it was a very cute film, a similar theme to the first Mrs. Miracle movie and well-acted and enjoyable. And a welcome break from the run of not-very-good Christmas movies that I've watched lately.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: Christmas with a Capital C

The next movie I watched was called Christmas with a Capital C. It aired on GMC (Gospel Music Channel) so yes, it was religious. Ted McGinley stars as a politician (I can't remember if he's a mayor or city councilman) in a small town in Alaska when someone from the town's past (played by Daniel Baldwin) who moved on to a big city comes back right before the holidays and starts injecting some open-mindedness into the small town. He gets the city up in arms about putting up the nativity scene so, in return, the Christian townsfolk start a crusade for "Christmas," reminding everyone that it starts with a capital 'C' for Christ. Because, you know, tolerance for others' beliefs is unimportant. Apparently, the whole idea for this movie came out of some comic's stand-up act about how ridiculous it is that people substitute "holidays" for "Christmas" nowadays and that comic plays Ted McGinley's brother and he is BEYOND annoying in the film. I didn't even realize who he was until the credits started rolling and then it all became clear. So, I wasn't a fan of this Fox News drivel. The only saving grace in the whole film (and the reason it didn't get the all-time low of D) is Ted McGinley, who I have a fondness for. But a C rating for a Christmas movie is bad.

Rating: C-

Christmas movie review: Battle of the Bulbs

Battle of the Bulbs is another Hallmark Channel Original Movie. I think it debuted last year and stars Daniel Stern, of Home Alone fame. So, in Daniel's character's neighborhood, there is some big contest for the house that is decorated the best for Christmas and Daniel and his family wants to win badly. All is going well until new neighbors move into the neighborhood and instantly put up an amazing lights display. Things only get worse when Daniel and his wife go to meet the neighbors and the husband turns out to be a nemesis from Daniel's childhood. And the war begins, with each trying to outdo the other with the holiday lights. Meanwhile, they have children about the same age who start to date but find it difficult among the warring. Ultimately, the war escalates until the two stubborn men finally come to realize the true meaning of Christmas. It's a little over-the-top and predictable but it's not awful. The pacing of the film is a little lacking, in that the war builds and builds and builds and then is resolved in literally the last 5 minutes.

Rating: B-

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Wedding Tail

A Christmas Wedding Tail aired as a Hallmark Channel Original Movie this year and tells the story of a romance between two people who meet through their dogs. The dogs narrate the action for the audience. It's kind of cute but overall, it was way predictable and the dog narration was kind of annoying and the story was only slightly about Christmas, in that the events took place around Christmas. I think it was an attempt to satisfy both children with the talking dogs and adults with the romance, but neither really worked.

Rating: C