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-