Holiday movies fill our hearts with joy. Between Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas, It's a Wonderful Lifetime (or Fa La La La Lifetime, if you prefer) and ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas, there are so many movies and so little time.
To help you, our friends, we have sacrificed by watching as many of these movies as possible and will give you our two cent review. Hopefully this will help you know what you do or do not want to watch.
Holly, blessed with an amazing singing voice, is all set to audition for
the newly vacated spot in a legendary local Christmas group which was
founded by her late mother years ago. Shocked and upset when the slot
goes to the barely talented best friend of the group's leader, Marci,
Holly sets out to create her own musical group, The Mistle-Tones. After
challenging their rivals to a sing-off on Christmas Eve, Holly finds
herself on a journey to the real meaning of Christmas with some new
friends and a new love thrown in for good measure.
Our Two Cents:
Ok. How do I say this... I loved it! This movie totally embraces that it's both a cheesy Christmas movie AND a musical, and it holds nothing back. The music does not disappoint and yes the soundtrack IS available on iTunes. Check it out and enjoy!
After pulling off a risky but fabulous party, party-planner Evelyn Wright (Haylie Duff) celebrates at her best friend's New York City bar and club. A friendly conversation with a handsome stranger (Chris Carmack) leads her down a path that will change her life.
As a reward for her job well done, she is awarded a big last minute client--none other than last night's handsome stranger. Unfortunately this new client's party is scheduled for Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, meaning Eve will have to cancel her holiday plans with her boyfriend Darren (Stephen Colletti).
The morning of her trip, Eve misses her alarm and has to rush to LaGuardia Airport in order to make her flight. The movie splits showing two story lines, one where Eve makes her flight to Los Angeles, and the other where she misses it.
As her two stories go into very different directions, will we find that if some thing is meant to be, it will find a way to be?
Our Two Cents:
There are many movies that while watching them, Marisa and I feel like if the writers had just consulted us, the movie could have been really good, rather than just ok. This is one of those movies. A holiday version of Sliding Doors? So much potential! This movie didn't quite live up to it, but you know we'll watch it every year anyway!
Mark Nagle is the proprietor of a small town's local
coffee shop but his number one priority is his six-year-old niece,
Holly, whose mother has passed away, leaving him as her caregiver. When Mark returns to his hometown with Holly, his oldest brother allows them to stay along with their youngest brother. Holly hasn’t spoken a word since her
mother died, and the three men try relentlessly to get her to speak. His brothers start to worry Mark may be in over his head as Holly's guardian.
Maggie Conway’s had it with big-city living, especially after her
husband-to-be leaves her at the altar. She opens a toy store in Mark's town dedicated to expanding
kids’ imaginations and it's enchantment goes to work on Holly. And just maybe Mark is a little enchanted as well!
Our Two Cents:
This one started out looking like just an another TV Christmas movie. But the magic in this movie starts to unveil itself. Mark and his brothers have a great dynamic together. Add cute little Holly and you have holiday magic.
Ratings:
Storyline/Writing ★★★★★ • Acting ★★★★★ • Chemistry ★★★★★ • Overall ★★★★★
Links: IMDB • Official Site
Trailer:
Have you seen Christmas with Holly? Tell us what you thought of it!
Jack (Andrew McCarthy) is an executive in a financial brokerage firm
trying to impress the firm’s president, Drew Clayton (Chris Gillett), in
hopes of a promotion. However, Jack is dating the fabulously rich and
elegant Demi Clayton (Stephanie Mills), who happens to be Drew’s
daughter. Although Demi’s mother Clarisse (Jane Moffat) doesn’t
necessarily approve of Jack and would prefer her daughter to date a man
within their social circle, Jack still plans on proposing. Trying to
create the perfect proposal, Jack signs up for dance lessons in
preparation for his proposal to Demi at her father’s lavish annual
Christmas Dance. But when sparks start to fly between Jack and his dance
instructor, Christine (Michelle Nolden), Jack will have to make some
important decisions before it is too late.
Our Two Cents:
Dirty Dancing? Love. Girls Just Want to Have Fun? Love. Step Up movies? Yes, all. Love. Shall We Dance? Love. Dance with Me? Center Stage? Strictly Ballroom? Love! Love! LOVE! A Christmas dance movie?! Yes, please!
Note: This is another one of those movies with two titles, the other being The Christmas Dance. Seriously, Hallmark. Just pick one.
After being fired from her high-powered job, Rebecca heads back home to
see her mom, Shirley, and attend her friends small-town wedding on
Christmas Eve. Initially convinced that the trip is a terrible mistake,
especially her botched romantic conversation with former beau, Chad,
Rebecca soon learns that, indeed, you can go home again, and, again--until you get it right.
Our Two Cents:
Yikes. I mean, I can appreciate a good guilty pleasure like the next girl, but this movie was a chore to get through. The main character's transformation was erratic and made little sense. In fact, the whole plot was erratic and made little sense.
After Jessie Patterson (Arielle Kebbel) calls off her third engagement (at the altar!) she swears off serious relationships. That is, until charming but chronically single Aiden
MacTiernan (Andrew Walker) comes along. Unbeknownst to Jessie, Aiden has
bet his friends that he can convince a woman to marry him by Christmas (which is only four weeks away) and Jessie is the assigned target of his bet. As
Aiden attempts to court Jessie by first hiring her to decorate his
apartment, Jessie looks to her sister, roommate and interior design
company partner, Vivian (Kimberly Sustad) as her closest confidant. To
complicate matters, Jessie is doggedly pursued by her most recent
ex-fiancé, Mike (Sage Brocklebank), who still wants to marry her. When
Aiden finds himself falling for Jessie too, will he call off the bet and
truly pursue her?
Our Two Cents:
Runaway Bride meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days meets Christmas. The movie is way cute. The boy is way cute. Isn't that enough?
In this unusual Christmas romance story, spanning nearly 30 years and set over 14 non-consecutive Christmas Eve evenings, Kat Patton and Sam Reed are best friends whose fathers run a furniture making business in a small Illinois town. Every Christmas Eve, Sam's parents and Kat's widowed father gather with other employees and their families at Elissa Beth's house for their annual Christmas Eve dinner and every year Sam and Kat sit at the children's table. Each year, Kat and Sam grow close, then apart, and closer again as their different careers, views on life, and paths make them different to the changing world. After a five-year absence, Sam realizes that Kat is the one...but he's afraid that the past will get in the way.
Our Two Cents:
Most movies are "good for TV holiday movies", this one is just a plain good movie with no modifier. So many clever moments and great banter between leads. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll fall in love.
Ratings:
Storyline/Writing ★★★★★ • Acting ★★★★★ • Chemistry ★★★★★ • Overall ★★★★★
Links: IMDB • Buy DVD on Amazon • Official Site
Trailer:
Have you seen Love at the Christmas Table? Tell us what you thought of it!
When commitment-phobe Rob Marino (Joey Lawrence) breaks up with his
girlfriend before Thanksgiving, he is criticized by his big Italian
family about his inability to keep a relationship through the holidays.
Wanting to prove them wrong and fulfill his dying grandmother's (Paula
Shaw) wish to see him happy in love, Rob goes online and finds Julie
(Emily Hampshire), another single New Yorker who's meddling Jewish mom
(Marilu Henner), has driven her to seek a temporary boyfriend. Rob and
Julie agree to pose as a couple through the holidays to get their
families off their backs. But things get complicated when Rob's Catholic
clan and Julie's Jewish family get involved. With Christmas coming and
Hanukkah around the corner, they double their efforts to keep the
charade going, only to discover their fake feelings may be a little too
real.
Our Two Cents:
We love this movie, as is apparent by the ratings. Definitely in our top three. This a must-see, and frankly worth owning.
Ratings:
Storyline/Writing ★★★★★ • Acting ★★★★★ • Chemistry ★★★★★ • Overall ★★★★★
Links: IMDB • Buy DVD on Amazon • Official Site
Trailer:
Have you seen Hitched for the Holidays? Tell us what you thought of it!
After she is suddenly fired from her job, Krissy Kringle (Hilarie
Burton) is in no mood for all the misdirected Santa mail she receives
each holiday season to her home on Candy Cane Lane. Even so, one package in particular stands
out: Santa’s “Naughty or Nice” book, which he left behind when visiting a
child. After Krissy realizes that the book is magical and will show her
all the bad deeds of those around her, Krissy sets out to expose
everyone she knows who has been naughty. Eventually, the naughty list
hits too close to home, exposing a truth about her long-time boyfriend,
Lance (Matt Dallas) and causing turmoil with one of her neighbors. With
the help of her mother, Carol (Meredith Baxter) and father Walter
Kringle (Michael Gross), Krissy discovers that the book’s powers also
reveal the nice in people, not just the naughty.
Our Two Cents:
So, this was a just fun movie. We liked the refreshingly different storyline and the supporting cast has some fun characters. While there is a bit of romance on the side, the story really is about Krissy finding her Christmas spirit.
Side Note: Careful doing web searches for this problematically titled movie! Be sure to add Hallmark to the movie title so you don't get the more unsavory search results!
A modern retelling of Louisa Mae
Alcott’s Little Women. Sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March are shocked
to learn that their mother is planning to sell their family home,
Orchard House after she returns with their father who was injured in Afghanistan where he was working as a war correspondent.
Resolute to find a way to keep their house, Jo talks her sisters into helping her to do the necessary repairs themselves. She figures if they can repair it in time, the family can afford to stay under the
same roof.
On top of that, the celebrity that Jo ghost tweets for offers her a big opportunity–ghost writing her biography! As the sisters work to fix the house on a limited income, manage the holidays on their own, and work on their projects and work assignments, they find they may have bitten off more than they can chew and tempers begin to run high.
Meanwhile family friends Teddy Lawrence and John Brooke, who each harbor feelings for Jo and Meg respectively, are challenged by Mr. Lawrence to woo their ladyloves and get a genuine kiss by Christmas. Jo, however, begins to have her eye on Max Baer, her editor, and the teasing between Amy and Teddy may becoming more than just casual flirtation.
What should be a house
full of Christmas cheer has become a hostile home front, and as the
tension in the house reaches a breaking point, the sisters have a
falling out. Now, with the house unfinished and their romantic lives
unresolved, can the March Sisters come together
to save the house–and their family–before Christmas is ruined?
Our Two Cents:
We are of two minds on this one: I like this one, Marisa kind of likes it. It says fairly true to the basic framework of Little Women, it has to take some liberties to modernize the story. I don't love the direction they took with Amy, they made her a little too trampy (for lack of a better word), which makes it a little hard to root for her with Teddy. Beth's character also doesn't make as much sense in this retelling and I think they could have done a little better with it. But overall, I think it's pretty cute and has some pretty witty dialogue.
Love for Christmas is the story of two people who have a long history
of picking the wrong person. Heather is a charming free spirit whose
self absorbed fiancé Roger never seems to hear a word that comes out of
her mouth. Bobby is a naval officer who comes home from serving overseas
looking to start a new chapter in his life. Both Heather and Bobby long
to meet someone who makes them feel like they are at home in this
world, but they are starting to doubt that person exists.
Thanks to two
golden retrievers, Bobby’s spirited 11-year-old niece, Myra, and a fun
filled theater production of A Christmas Carol, these two unlucky and
unlikely people end up falling in love at Christmas. But can they
overcome the issues of their past and present in order to build a future
together? A heartwarming Christmas romance about love, loss, hope… and
how a golden puppy can turn even the most unlikely Scrooge into a true
believer.
Our Two Cents:
A Golden Christmas 3??? As in GOLDEN retriever??? YIKES!! ABORT ABORT ABORT!!! Sorry folks, we have a severe abhorrence for the Christmas dog movies. The trailer was painful enough. Watch at your own risk. We wash our hands of it.
Twenty-eight-year-old
Georgia is convinced the man of her dreams is the one "that got away"
back in high school. Though she's tried dating other men, they just
never seem to compare to her high school flame. When Georgia learns of
her high school reunion a week before Christmas, she's ecstatic to
finally have her chance to win Craig back. But as she gets to relive
high school for a night, she begins to realize it might not be Craig at
all who got away, but Ben, an old friend with whom she'd fallen out of
touch.
Our Two Cents:
This was not good. Georgia was just kind of obnoxious and clueless. NO
ONE seems to have grown up at all in the 10 years since high school.
They are all single. They are all silly and immature—even Georgia, which
is what makes it hardest to like her.
The script just didn’t make a lot of sense. She is supposed to be hung up on her old flame, and while there are plenty (too many) scenes where stares dreamily across the room at him while he doofs around and looks confused, she doesn’t actually do much talking to him. He doesn't even remember her at first. Meanwhile, she repeatedly sneaks away to goof off with her old best friend. In fact, it sounds like that's how it was in high school too—stare dreamily at Craig, hang out with Ben. She just doesn't try very hard to get him back. Mostly she just spends the evening embarrassing herself. Like we said, the script just doesn't make any sense.
But you never know. It may end up being one of your guilty pleasures, so maybe try it out! We have plenty that we watch that we fully realize are awful.
Note: You may find this under the title Christmas Crush on Amazon and Netflix.
As a little girl, Melanie Hogan (Lacey Chabert) wished to find her own
prince charming just like her parents found true love. Now an adult,
Melanie is running her own bakery and dating a handsome but distracted CEO, Justin
(Thad Luckinbill). Things seem perfect when Justin asks Melanie
to spend the holidays together at his beautiful lake house upstate—and
meet his mother. However, Justin's plans seem to have more to do with his career aspirations than his relationship with Melanie. Melanie finds herself spending more time with Justin’s
best friend and loyal assistant, Dean (Adam Mayfield), who just might be
harboring a secret crush on her. When complications arise that throw Melanie and Dean together over the holiday, thanks to a matchmaking Santa and some conspiratorial townsfolk, will the two realize that their true love is in each other?
Our Two Cents:
This one is a pretty cute movie. It has some some not so good moments. Spoiler alert: Melanie's "secret ingrdient" is pure vanilla been extract. Isn't that in like every cookie recipe ever? It's some kind secret because it's "pure" rather imitation? I'm going to assume they meant to make it vanilla bean paste and it just never got fixed in the script. Ok, it really isn't a big deal, but as bakers, this just drives us a little bonkers!
Last thing: this movie probably has one of the more awkward endings we've seen. But it has some cute moments too and they kind of make up for all the other stuff that doesn't work as well.
Ratings:
Storyline/Writing ★★★★★ • Acting ★★★★★ • Chemistry ★★★★★ • Overall ★★★★★
Links: IMDB • Official Site
Trailer:
Have you seen Matchmaker Santa? Tell us what you thought of it!
Chicago native Emily Jones (Autumn Reeser) loves her city, and has
dedicated her career to coordinating its beloved Thanksgiving Day parade
every year. This year, Emily is hoping for a memorable holiday and
anticipating a long-awaited proposal from her long-distance boyfriend
Brian (Ben Cotton). Then, the parade director hires a wealthy
development consultant, Henry Williams (Antonio Cupo), to analyze the
finances of the parade and increase profits.
Immediately writing Henry off as a privileged playboy, Emily
worries he will ruin the joyful spirit of the parade, not knowing how
much it means to the city like she does. As the two are forced to work
together to pull off a successful production, Emily is determined to
show Henry she’s in charge. But when Emily suffers a sudden setback, she
starts to rely on Henry to help her through it, and suddenly realizes
she might be falling for him. As Thanksgiving draws nearer, can Emily
confess her true feelings and end the feud while still putting on the
parade of her dreams?
Our Two Cents:
There is something about Emily's personality that isn't as likable as she should be, but that being said, this movie isn't bad. In fact, it is a bit cute, we gotta admit.
