Christmas movie review: 2009 Wrap-Up

Well, it's been another season of Christmas movie reviews and below is the wrap-up of all the ratings I gave. I actually have two more movies back home on my Tivo that I might still watch but probably not. With the ones below, I've done 64 Christmas movie reviews since 2006. That's a lot of Christmas movies! I wonder if my ratings have been consistent from year to year...

A+
Christmas in Canaan

A
A Christmas Visitor

A-
Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle
The Ultimate Gift
The Christmas Hope

B+
Surviving Christmas
12 Men of Christmas
Fallen Angel

B
The National Tree
A Diva's Christmas Carol
The Three Gifts
Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe
Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe

B-
A Golden Christmas

C
Christmas Town

C-
Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Hope

Rating: A-

New this year on Lifetime, I thought The Christmas Hope was pretty good. It stars Madeleine Stowe and James Remar as a couple who have grown apart after their son's death of two years ago. They are talking about divorcing until they become foster parents to a little girl who loses her single mom just a few days before Christmas. The little girl helps the couple get closer again and helps them both get over their son a little bit. Meanwhile, other small miracles are at work to help them get over their son, too. It's a sweet story of overcoming Christmas pain and renewal and it made me cry, which is always a good thing. It was pretty predictable, but most Christmas movies are. The only reason I rated it an A- and not an A is that The Christmas Visitor, which I watched earlier this month, has most of the same themes and I thought it was slightly better. But this one was still good. I've loved Madeleine Stowe for years and James Remar I only knew from Sex & the City (he was Samantha's older successful businessman boyfriend) but both did a good job. As did Ian Ziering, who had only a small role.

Christmas movie review: Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe

Rating: B

This one was difficult to rate. Saint Maybe is originally from 1998 and always airs this time of year but I'm not sure I'd really call it a Christmas movie. We just happen to check up on the characters around Christmas a few times. Jeffrey Nordling and Mary Louise Parker star as a couple who meet and marry quickly and then seem to immediately have some problems. At least Jeffrey's brother, Ian, thinks so and babysits a lot. After one particular time of babysitting that Ian was not happy about, he says some things to his brother that cause him to drive into a tree. And die. Yes, depressing. Not too long after that, Mary Louise Parker's widow character overdoses and dies, too. Yes, I swear, the first part of the movie had people dying left and right. Well, Mary Louise had two kids from a previous relationship plus a baby that may or may not have been Jeffrey's and now suddenly, the three kids are orphans. Ian feels increasingly guilty and after consulting with a pastor, decides to drop out of school and help raise the children. Which seems to go swimmingly as we then check in with the family like 20 years later and Ian has turned into this near-saint of a person who has basically put his life on hold for these children. Out of nowhere, the kids decide they need to marry him off and just as out of nowhere, they hire a person to come in and organize their house and Ian falls in love with her and they plan to marry. So it wraps up happily ever after. It's semi-interesting in that it shows how one or two events can totally alter the course of one's life but the story just skipped too much in between for my liking. I don't even really understand the title, except that the one daughter says this in passing about Ian right near the end of the film. I'm guessing the book on which it was based tells a much more complete story and I might be interested in reading that someday but, as far as the movie is concerned, it's not really something I have any desire to see again.

Hmm, an interesting sidenote... I looked up the actor who played Ian because he really is the main character and his name is Tom McCarthy. While he's done some acting, he also seems to be a writer and director. He wrote the story of Up, as well as wrote and directed The Visitor and The Station Agent, all three of which are really good and unique stories. So color me impressed.

Christmas movie review: Fallen Angel

Rating: B+

I feel like I'm being harder on movies this year but I'll give Fallen Angel, from 2003, a B+. I think this one originally aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie but since then, it's aired regularly on The Hallmark Channel around Christmas. It stars Gary Sinise and Joely Richardson, which automatically moves it up slightly on the rating scale, as two people who knew each other when they were very young children and reconnect like 30 years later after a traumatic event in their childhood caused both children to move away from the small town where they'd been living. Gary's character returns after his father dies and although he had separated himself from his father, he finds out a little of what made him tick once he returns to sort out his affairs. Similarly, Joely's character decides to visit the small town after all these years, but doesn't even remember that she'd been there before, and meets up with Gary's character. The two of them learn about themselves and their fathers and overall, it's a story of forgiveness and learning, I guess. It's definitely well-acted but I do feel that some of the back story is needlessly convoluted. Plus, Gary's character seems to be all about reconciling Joely's character with her father but doesn't seem all that regretful that he never got to reconcile with his own father. I guess his actions show regret, but I'm not entirely convinced. It's definitely one of those "open your heart and learn a lesson around Christmastime" kind of stories.

Christmas movie review: Santa Baby 2

Rating: B

I was a big fan of the first Santa Baby movie, if you recall, back in 2006 when I first started writing my Christmas reviews. This year they made a sequel, Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe, and I was not as impressed. Jenny McCarthy was as enjoyable as before and Dean McDermott played her boyfriend and did a fine job. Unfortunately, neither even seemed to be in the movie all that much. The main character was a villainess ex-elf who tried to manipulate the elves into doing what she wanted and to sabotage Santa and Jenny's character. I found her really grating to the point that I was annoyed whenever she was on the screen. Which was a lot. I really would have liked to see more Jenny & Dean and wish they would have come up with a different storyline. Or at least a different actress.

Christmas movie review: Christmas in Canaan

Rating: A+

Christmas in Canaan was by far the best of the new crop this year. It aired on Hallmark and tells the story of a young white boy and young black boy who became friends in 1964. It starts off with the two boys fighting on a school bus when the black boy knows the capital of New York and the white boy feels stupid. When the white boy's dad worries that his son is turning into a bigot, he decides the best way to punish his son is to force him to spend time with the other boy and hope they become friends. Genius plan, for sure. Of course, it doesn't work at first but eventually the two boys form a lifelong friendship and that story is played out for the rest of the movie, through deaths and hardships and ultimately, success. It's not your traditional Christmas movie because much of it takes place outside the holiday season but it's a great story of growth and learning and sharing. It's really touching and incredibly well-acted. I was really impressed by Billy Ray Cyrus, who plays the dad. I just assumed he wasn't a good actor but I guess I've never seen him do so before.

Christmas movie review: The Three Gifts

Rating: B

The Three Gifts was totally predictable. It wasn't bad but I'm not particularly eager to watch it year after year, either. Dean Cain stars as the nephew of a woman who runs an orphanage and she seems to think it would be a good idea for him and his wife (who cannot have children of their own) to watch over three orphan boys for a week or so before Christmas. These boys are called the Holy Terrors, too, so they are a little on the difficult side. When one of the boys overhears Dean and his wife talking about the possibility of actually adopting one of the boys, they go crazy acting good in hopes of being the one who is adopted. Misunderstandings abound in this movie and then everyone lives happily ever after, of course.

Christmas movie review: A Diva's Christmas Carol

Rating: B

A Diva's Christmas Carol originally aired on VH-1 nearly ten years ago, but I somehow think I've missed it all these years so I thought I'd add it to my backlog. Of course, it's the same old story from Dickens we all know by heart. This time, it's told from the point of view of a diva pop singer, played by Vanessa Williams, who wants to have a concert on Christmas, much to the chagrin of all of her employees. It's your standard story and has nothing particularly original, although Kathy Griffin is the Ghost of Christmas Past and I'm a huge fan of hers. And, of course Vanessa Williams rocks in just about everything she does. This was basically her current Ugly Betty character years before that show started.

Christmas movie review: The Ultimate Gift

Rating: A-

I might be giving The Ultimate Gift a higher rating than it deserves because I've seen so many bad ones lately but I did mostly enjoy it. This one is from 2006 but I hadn't seen it yet and features James Garner as a really rich family patriarch who passes away and decides to give his grandson, instead of money, a series of gifts intended to make him a better person. Of course, the spoiled rotten grandson is not happy at first but eventually learns how great the gifts really are and totally changes into a better person. It's a little hokey when he ends up in a South American jail (or whatever it is) but I'll forgive it because Abigail Breslin does a fantastic job appearing as a dying girl that the guy meets when he's sleeping on a bench in the park. Overall, it's somewhat predictable but it's also touching.

Christmas holiday 2009

Yesterday was Christmas with my parents and it was a good day. I got some clothes, a Nintendo Wii and a portable external hard drive, which will be great for my laptop.

Today, my brother and his family came over. My niece and nephew got a lot of presents (of course!) and I think really enjoyed themselves. Ben's playing with a robot on the left. On the right, Mia seemed to have more interest in my dad's cane than she had in any of her presents. But that's okay, she's only 15 months.

Christmas movie review: Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage

Rating: C-

Wow, I could not get into Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage at all. I watched this over the course of three nights and kept falling asleep. I WANTED to like it because it pulled in some relatively good, or at least well-known, actors (Marcia Gay Harden, Jared Padalecki, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burgi, Ed Asner, Chris Elliott all come to mind) but wow, was it boring. It's apparently based on true events in the life of the painter Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light whose work is pretty recognizable even if you don't know his name. Basically, this story takes place in the 1970s and deals with young Tom and his brother trying to raise money so their mom can stay living in this cottage. He gets a job painting a town mural and meanwhile, his artistic mentor is in some sort of depressed funk that Tom's trying to get him out of... I honestly don't even know what the deal was with his mentor. And that's only half of what I didn't get. There was some kind of drama with Tom's dad, who is no longer married to his mom. There were a ton of small town folk stories, way too many to keep track of. It really was kind of a mess. Do not waste your time.

Christmas movie review: Christmas Town

Rating: C

Christmas Town also aired on ION this year. It was below average, mostly because the acting was subpar. A workaholic real estate agent mom decides to take her dad up on an invitation to spend Christmas with him in some idyllic town. It turns out this town is like Santa's southern headquarters or something, although no one really comes out and says that, even when asked. I guess I get the secrecy of something like that but, on the other hand, they also make a big deal throughout the movie on how hidden away this place is. The mother and son were invited, after all. Anyway, combining the woman's son trying to figure out the big secret and the woman trying to get the message of Christmas slammed down her throat, not to mention the bad acting, I found it all a bit much. Yawn.

Christmas movie review: A Golden Christmas

Rating: B-

A Golden Christmas was one of a couple of Christmas movies airing on the ION Network, which I'd never really heard of before doing a Tivo Wishlist search on "Christmas." Nonetheless, it wasn't a bad movie. It was average, so for a Christmas movie, that equates to a "B-"ish. It tells the story of a woman who secretly intends to buy her parents' house from them at Christmas but when she arrives for the holidays finds that someone else has already bought it. So, she tries to sabotage his sale. All the while, it turns out that this woman and the actual buyer met as pre-teens and both have idealized their meeting to the point that they both want to live on the property where they had met as youngsters because they feel that the property is magical. But of course neither realizes who the other is and instead of reuniting, they fight and bicker all movie long. Until the end, when it all changes and they live happily ever after, of course.

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Visitor

Rating: A

A Christmas Visitor is from 2002 but I'd never seen it so I decided to add to my archive. I'm glad I did. It was a good movie. It stars William Devane and Meredith Baxter-Birney as a couple who have not celebrated Christmas since their son passed away in the Gulf War ten years ago. When their daughter (who apparently lived most of her life not celebrating Christmas) has a cancer scare, the Dad decides to start celebrating the holiday again. The small town where they live are pleasantly shocked - it's apparently common knowledge that this family has boycotted the holiday all these years. The Dad runs into a stranger who claims to have been in the Gulf War, too, from the same company as his son, and they hit it off and Dad takes him home and he helps all of the family members by claiming that he knew the son, because the Dad asks him to lie. Anyway, it's got some mysticism, as well as Christmas cheer and redemption or reconciliation. Plus, it's well acted. You really can't ask for more in a Christmas movie, in my opinion.

Christmas movie review: Mrs. Miracle

Rating: A-

Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle is, as you'd expect, based on a book by Debbie Macomber. I'm not sure how true it is to the book but the storyline of the movie is that there is a single dad (played by James Van der Beek from Dawson's Creek) with two terrorizing twin sons who cannot find a nanny to save their lives until Mrs. Miracle shows up and not only gets the boys to behave but also fixes Dad's life by finding him a new girlfriend.

The nanny's name is really Mrs. Merkle but the kids mistakenly call her Mrs. Miracle and it sticks. Plus, it's fitting since Mrs. Miracle has some sort of magic power that she uses to put people in the right place at the right time and kind of manipulate them, all for their own good, of course. The female love interest takes over directing the children's play and meets their dad and they tentatively start a new relationship. The dad improves his relationship with his children, which had been struggling. The female lead improves her strained relationship with her sister, and we're led to believe they all live happily ever after.

It's a sweet story (although not original in the slightest) and acted well. A touch of magic is there, which is important in any true Christmas movie, and it actually could be an annual franchise with Mrs. Miracle stepping in to save different families every year.

Snow Day!

I just got a call from my boss that the office is closed tomorrow!! Yay! In case you haven't heard, the nation's capitol was hit with a major snowstorm this weekend. It started Friday night around 9pm and pretty much snowed for like 18 straight hours, I guess. The total accumulation in my neighborhood seems to be about 12-14 inches, I'd guess. Today was bright and sunny but since DC isn't used to this type of weather, the road clearing has taken a long time. The major highways and roads were cleared quickly but my street was finally cleared at about 3pm today. And the driveway into my garage still hasn't been cleared, and neither has the side street I can see out my window.

On top of the uncleared streets, public transportation is nearly non-existent. They are only running the Metro underground, so that eliminates maybe about 40% of all stops. Only a few buses were running today.

Anyway, I'm excited to not have to work, but I did have a lot of things I wanted to get done before I left and now I'm not sure how my Tuesday is going to look. I'm heading home on Tuesday and wanted to work just a few hours. Now it seems like it might be more like 4-6 hours. I also have some errands that I have to run tomorrow so I'll hit the roads, but it's great to be able to have all day to do it.

I'll be moving soon!

After looking at nearly 20 different one-bedroom apartments in Arlington over the last month, I finally found a place to call home and all the paperwork went through today! Hooray! I'm really looking forward to having a place all to myself, especially after all the drama my a-hole roommate has caused while moving out (maybe another post). I get the keys to the new place on Saturday but won't be fully moving in until probably the second weekend in January. It's great to have so much lead time where I can go into the place and take some measurements and decide what I might need. I might be able to get some furnishings and decorations at after-Christmas sales. The best part is that I don't have to pay rent until February 1.

My new place is a little smaller than some of the others I looked at, but I'm confident it will be big enough for me. I'll be about 5 blocks from work so my plan is to walk to work, which is fantastic. It's got built-in bookshelves, which, silly as it sounds, is something I have always wanted in my home. It's got decent closet space and a full-size washer and dryer within the unit, which actually is quite rare for Arlington. It's a little more than I wanted to spend but I think the perks make it worth it. With the month of free rent, my total rent cost over the year goes down considerably so I can't really complain.

Christmas movie review: 12 Men of Christmas

Rating: B+


12 Men of Christmas was difficult to grade. On the one hand, this brand new movie airing on Lifetime this year, stars Kristin Chenowith, of whom I'm a fan. It's a romantic comedy, which you can't go wrong with. Josh Hopkins is the male lead and he's definitely cute. It's a fish-out-of-water story, which is always enjoyable. But it's barely a Christmas story. It starts and ends around Christmas but beyond that it has little to do with Christmas. And the love story seems to happen out of nowhere. The twosome fight all movie long and then he professes his love for her... I wasn't really buying it. Overall, I guess the good outweighs the bad so I give it a B+, by the skin of its teeth.

Christmas movie review: The National Tree

Rating: B

Debuting this year on the Hallmark Channel, this was a little different type of story for a Christmas movie, so I definitely give it props for that but I'm only giving it an "average" grade (B is average for a Christmas movie) because I thought some of the writing and casting was problematic. The National Tree tells the story of a tree from Oregon that has been chosen to be "The National Tree" in Washington, DC, in front of the White House. Some kind of contest was held and this tree was chosen. The tree belongs to Andrew McCarthy's character and his teenage son, who have a very strained relationship. This tree was planted when the son was born and Andrew's character sort of cares more for the tree than his own son. They decide to personally take the tree to Washington, DC, and embark on a 3,000-mile road trip, during which they of course get closer and also find love. And, of course, there is some major drama at the end, too, but everything gets resolved. It was an okay story but I found the teenage son pretty grating. Plus, seriously? They got word like 4 days before the tree lighting that their tree was picked. That seems highly unlikely. There was just too much hokeyness - and not in a magical way - for me to grade it any higher.

Christmas movie review: Surviving Christmas

Rating: B+

Although it came out in 2004, I had never seen Surviving Christmas starring Ben Affleck and Christina Applegate. So I grabbed the DVD from the library and watched it over Thanksgiving break. I know it got panned when it was released but I actually enjoyed it. Ben's character is a multi-millionaire now but had a pretty crappy childhood and basically ignored Christmas every year. Now, he decides he wants to buy a dream Christmas for himself, so he shows up on the doorstep of a family and offers them a lot of money to become his for the week. Of course, the family is having major problems - marital strife, cut-off-from-the-world teenage son, for instance - and needs the money so they are willing. Ben's character is eager to create a fantastic holiday and whenever the family is hesitant to participate in one of his activities, he just throws more money at them. He's met with strong resistance from Christina's character, who shows up late to the party and doesn't understand why her family agreed to this. Of course, by the end of the movie, the family seems to have reconciled and be better for the experience, while Ben and Christina's characters fall in love. Sure, it's a little hokey but it does have some funny moments. Plus, all the actors do a good job and it's light fare that is great around the holidays.

December Goings-On

So, in case you hadn't noticed, I haven't found the time to write lately. I've been SWAMPED with work, social events, apartment-hunting and who knows what else. It's leading up to Christmas and as has been my tradition, I love to watch and then write reviews of Christmas movies. Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to watch many so far this year. I do plan on doing that but we'll see if I can find time.

Apartment-hunting has been a pain. Everything is way more expensive than advertised and I just cannot justify spending the ridiculous rent amounts that you find here in DC. I really do want a place of my own but I might just end up trying to find a roommate for the time being and look again at one bedroom apartments in a few months or even potentially buy something. I have three appointments tomorrow and maybe a few more for Saturday so all is not lost yet.