Tag Archives: Romance

Trading Christmas Review

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It’s time for one of those films about house swapping and I’ve never been crazy about the idea. I just don’t trust people at all so I feel like the instant I do one of these, I would lose some things. Things would mysteriously disappear and I would never see them again. That’s a really scary prospect so I would just be too emotional to go along with it. For the people who Air B&B they’re probably thinking I’m crazy though. It is what it is.

The dual main characters are Emily and Charles here. For Emily, she was looking forward to spending Christmas with Heather but her ungrateful daughter has decided to go on a date with Jason instead and will be spending the holidays with him. Emily figures that she can fly over to surprise Heather and dashes over only to find out that Heather snuck away to another state without telling her. Not a very nice thing to do here and now what is Emily supposed to do with herself. She’s alone at Christmas?? The horror of it all. That’s when she bumps into Ray, a good friend of the guy she is borrowing the apartment from and a fast romance starts.

From the 3 plots this is probably the one where you are the most sympathetic to the lead. Emily is just trying to spend quality time with her daughter and the whole surprise visit seems like a fun idea. What are the odds Heather would just switch states right? It’s also rough to lose traditions so suddenly and without warning like this. It’s just tough and that’s why you can’t really buy into the romance here because it seems like Ray caught her at a very vulnerable time. Additionally the 180 to Emily suddenly not being interested in traditions and such was pretty rough. It was all so sudden and I guess in the end it’s like nobody wins.

Ray is nice enough but again the romance is all just so fast and contrived. He should have stayed in his lane and not made a pass at someone who is just renting the apartment for a few days. In theory once she left he would never see her again unless they got really serious about each other really quickly which doesn’t seem like such a good idea. You don’t really know the other person at that point.

Then we have the plot with Heather and Jason which is the weakest one. The whole time it seemed to be building up to a choice of regret where Jason just wasn’t a great guy and they were going to break up as she realized that traditions are good. He lets his friends crash in on their date and kept making the worst decisions possible. He wasn’t even interested in watching her old wonderful place movie. Well eventually they head back and it turns out that he’s a decent dude but the whole plot felt like a bit of a wash. It just didn’t have much of a purpose here. I’d say Heather had a purpose, but not so much Jason except to be a red herring here.

Finally we have the plot with Charles and Faith which was easily the most entertaining. So Charles is an author who writes a ton of books and he is trying to have a quiet place to focus. So that kind of works and he has a spot now except that Faith shows up because she was actually trying to surprise Emily which didn’t work out. The problem is that she terrifies Charles so he runs around crying the whole time about how she is distracting him and being a big baby about the whole thing.

There’s a lot of banter here throughout as a result and Faith really does good on her end like with keeping the neighbors out and even making food. I was on her side the whole time because Charles was often panicking about nothing and was also way too defensive about his books. The guy could stand to learn how to accept some constructive criticism. He eventually does but the plot takes a bit longer than it should have. Once again you have a hard time seeing just why the romance would start here. Maybe if Charles had been a bit nicer from the start there could have been a chance.

Of course then there would be less witty banter so I suppose I would miss that part. Charles just thinks too highly of himself and generalizes everyone which Faith calls him out on. At least now his next books will end up being better. The movie did a good job of balancing these 3 films the whole time. It felt like there was way more of a story here than I would have expected otherwise. The movie isn’t even that long and yet it paces everything well so it gets full kudos for that. You don’t feel like any plot got the short end of the stick.

Heather’s certainly has the least amount of screentime but that makes sense because it’s not like her house was one of the ones that was swapped. At most you could say that with more screentime they could have set things up a bit better to establish that she was trying to have it both ways a bit too much with ditching traditions while still following others and that would help her realize that she really wasn’t nice to her mother at all. A good redemption arc would be nice since she was so petty the whole time.

Overall, Trading Christmas definitely doesn’t change my mind on why I wouldn’t want to ever trade houses/apartments even just for a week or so. I would have real security issues but naturally it does make for a very good movie plot. This movie is charming and fun throughout the whole adventure with good writing and pacing the whole time. Often times you can expect maybe 2 main plots at most but 3 in this Christmas adventure was really taking things to the next level and I was really impressed to see it. The bar was set high here without a doubt. If you’re up for a fun Christmas title then you definitely won’t want to miss out on this.

Overall 7/10

Fallen Angel Review

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It’s time for one of those really dramatic Christmas titles. This time around I can safely say that the romance is super weak though to the point of taking a star away. It just doesn’t make sense and it takes so long for the two leads to really get to the same page that the credits start rolling as they make up. Ehhhhh it’s one of those cases where they should have stayed as friends.

The movie introduces us to Terry who had a rough time growing up since his father was super busy and never really had a lot of time for him. Terry had a lot of resentment about this and swore not to make the same mistake when he grew up. That’s not quite how it went though as he is now working in a big company without much downtime and hasn’t even met a girl yet. Well, he is called down to his old home to shut the place down since his father died but his dad had already promised the place to a lady named Katherine who was renting out the place to show her daughter Olivia.

It might be tough going back down memory lane but Terry is ready for this. Then he finds out that Katherine is actually the little girl who visited the place a long time ago when her father struck someone with a car who died and then he wandered off into the forest and died shortly afterwards. The whole thing was so long ago and tragic that she just doesn’t remember and when Terry finds out that her father is still alive, he forbids Terry from mentioning this. Terry is keeping a whole lot of secrets now and then he falls for Katherine. Can he keep up this relationship in the midst of all these secrets?

The obvious answer here should be no. Also, since he is renting out the house I would imagine that having a relationship with a client is a really bad idea. Not really something you should be doing if you have a clear head on your shoulders. Katherine gets really upset at him later on for this and it’s for really good reason. I don’t see how you could keep on going after this because it’s such a big deal. The fact that she was here before isn’t as big a deal to be honest but the dead father thing is massive.

I get why it would be hard to show up out of nowhere after so long but the Dad should have appeared and if not, Terry should have still mentioned this. If he wasn’t interested in Katherine romantically then sure he could have decided not to say anything but I would say that by this point it was definitely his obligation. It’s just too serious and personal not to say anything. Then the fact that Terry was about to dash off and everything until at the last second turning around…not his best moment.

As for Katherine, I thought she was okay but also moving too fast on everything. I feel like I would definitely cancel my appointment at the hut if the guy in charge died. I don’t know the new owner enough to trust him so why take the risk? That would be a full refund and I’d just check out another spot. She also got really emotional by the end and I get that the betrayal was rough but it still felt like she could have handled things a little better.

The hospital subplot about the father leaving gifts every year to try and make things better was nice though. There was a common element here about the father of both main characters caring a lot but having a hard time showing it. For Terry it was too late since he died but at least for Katherine she will be able to mend the relationship now and get the family going again. So definitely a happier ending there but again it could have worked better without the romance here.

I gotta give the film credit for trying to give us a true life or death moment in the film though. At one point Terry has to go into the water in order to rescue the boat and we get the serious music as the water rages on. Katherine’s daughter Olivia is blind so she has to try and keep her daughter safe while saving Terry and getting the boat going. It was maybe trying a bit too hard on the film’s part to really get the blood pumping and all but it was a scene I wasn’t really expecting so I give it some credit for that.

Even the whole “Father faking his death” angle was a pretty solid mystery on the film’s part. You may figure it out by the time of the reveal but maybe not, I thought the movie showed good restraint in keeping it from being too obvious. Naturally I will say that faking your death is almost never a good idea and this is another example of that. It may be really hard to show yourself but you’ve really got to take that leap and just get it over with. Once you have a family, it’s selfish to just ditch them like that. Feel free to fake your own death if you’re on your own but otherwise it’s definitely a no go.

Overall, Fallen Angel is a good movie but it needed a little something more to the plot to really make it memorable. Maybe more supporting characters or something back with Terry’s plot like the company calling for him back. That could have added some drama on him being in a rush to get back. The film isn’t super long or anything but even then it felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of story for the film to get through. It’s a good title but doesn’t hold up with most of the other Christmas titles. Check it out if you want some solid drama though.

Overall 6/10

A Season for Miracles Review

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It’s time for one of those Christmas stories that has a wholesome ending but things get rocky for the characters at first. It’s a pretty fun film and it held my attention the whole time. The romance angle may be a bit on the weak side but when you’ve got a quality story at the ready then you can often get past such things. This film also isn’t afraid to tap into the supernatural angle a bit.

The film starts off by showing us that Emilie’s sister has taken another massive L and is being arrested again for drug issues. Emilie prepares to take care of her two nephews as usual but child custody agents show up and demand the kids. They can’t confirm that they can keep the two together either so Emilie decides to flee with them. She shows up to a small town where she is mistaken as the daughter of a rich lady who owns a mansion. Emilie feels uneasy about continuing the deception but the nephews are tired of moving so she stays for a while. The police captain Nathan quickly falls in love with her but also suspects that she isn’t telling him something. What will win out, his mind…or his heart?

Now Emilie isn’t a career criminal like her sister but she definitely does tend to mess up a bit here which is how Nathan gets so suspicious in the first place. When they’re looking through the attic she quickly starts to panic and says she doesn’t want to look at anything. Then not letting her kids buy any food at the market or enrolling them into school. She should at least do these things as a good cover before moving out. If anything she would have probably raised no suspicions had she done this and everything would have been set. Instead, she set off the alarms here.

I’d also say she should have forced the issue and taken her kids out sooner. That would have made more sense because without some supernatural intervention she was doomed here. It wouldn’t be easy to always be living on the run but in theory she just needs to evade the cops one or two more times in different states and they would eventually give up. It would be very difficult to track her down in such a non digital age. The nephews would be upset at first but in a few years they would understand.

While Emilie does have a hard time staying undercover, she is a good character through and through. Part of why she has such a difficult time is because this stuff is not second nature to her. She’s not used to breaking the law or anything like that and is just going this far to protect her family. So I’ve definitely got no issues with her as a character and I also agree with her move of running away because the custody agents clearly didn’t have the kids’ best interests at heart. Yeah they’re just doing their jobs but that’s not really much of a consolation for the kids.

Meanwhile Nathan is a solid character. He had his suspicions and kept at it until he got his answer. He would have solved things much quicker if not for Emilie’s guardian angel watching out for her. You could argue that Nathan overreacted a bit once he finds out the truth and I would agree with that. It’s a rough deception but the circumstances are immediately understandable even if it took him a little while to get to that point. The romance feels a bit rushed and hard to buy as a result but compared to some of the other big Christmas romances it holds up well enough.

As for the guardian angel, she was a nice enough character. She was constantly helping out in small ways and flexing her powers like when she would appear and disappear just to mess with everyone. Without her Emilie would have been doomed so she deserves the MVP role. Perhaps she could have solved the situation a bit easier but I imagine she wanted to eventually get things out in the open so that the humans could solve things themselves. That does make a lot of sense.

The film also squeezes in a courtroom scene which was a really nice touch. I can’t say I was expecting that and while it may not have been particularly long, it got the situation across well. Mix that in with a solid climax and we’re all set. Not every character gets a happy ending as Emilie’s sister is still in jail but it does seem like she wasn’t about to turn over a new leaf. In this case she was too far gone with the drugs but maybe in a sequel she could make a comeback. I’ll at least give her credits for not betraying her kids or sister when the cops tried to interrogate her. I mean it wasn’t much of an interrogation but she confirmed that she wouldn’t play ball.

Overall, A Season for Miracles is a pretty fun film. It’s got a good story and the characters are fun. I would also say that the supporting cast was better than expected. I liked the neighbors and the lawyer in training also did a good job in helping her out. It was nice to see the whole community side with the heroine even after only knowing her for a little while. Shows what a tightknit community they had there and everybody was just generally pleasant. That’s one thing I always appreciate about these Christmas titles which is that the communities are really strong and wholesome. Helps maintain that really friendly atmosphere. Mix in the usual good writing and pacing and I definitely have no complaints with the film and would recommend checking it out. At most the kids might annoy you a bit but that’ll happen in any film where they are present.

Overall 7/10

Lucky Christmas Review

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Lucky Christmas is one of those really wholesome movies that is definitely fun to watch and has pretty good writing. The only weakness is the romance as a whole and at this point it’s probably safe to say that this isn’t super surprising. That’s just how it goes sometimes. I’d say the movie still succeeds despite this, the humor is on point and the plot is interesting. It’s also the kind of scenario you could picture happening in real life.

The movie starts with Holly buying her lottery ticket as always and at this point it’s really just a habit. She doesn’t actually think she’s going to win or anything like that. So she goes about her day and doesn’t properly lock up her ticket in a safe or anything like that. She just leaves it in her car. Meanwhile Mike and his irresponsible friend are hanging out and Mike gets super drunk so his friend drives him home. The friend isn’t the smartest guy in the batch so he ends up stealing a nearby car to drive Mike home and that happens to be Holly’s. So he finds the winning lottery ticket and figures he could be rich but of course the ticket is in Holly’s name. Is there a way to trick her into giving up some of the money? Meanwhile Mike wants to make things right and give her back the ticket but he isn’t sure how to do that without looking suspicious. In the meantime he may as well romance her up a bit.

Right away you can see how we’re rooting against Mike and his friend. Mike does take a whole lot of the blame here since he should have come clean right from the jump. There were many opportunities to give the ticket back if he was being serious about this like sneaking it into her house, leaving it in an envelope addressed to her, etc. He just made excuse after excuse and then it’s doubly bad since he is trying to have a relationship with her as well. That means the whole thing is deceitful from the jump and so the romance really shouldn’t hold. Surely being betrayed on such a personal level would completely doom any chances of being together right?

Well, in a fair and just world that would certainly be the case but unfortunately it’s just not so simple in this film. Holly ultimately doesn’t mind and after a fight they’re back together but it’s ultra cheesy so the romance plot is the part that you will have to endure if you are to still enjoy the movie. It just doesn’t make any sense at all and neither does Mike’s still being friends with the guy. You can have an acquaintance who is annoying like if you work with them or something but a close friend who is this bad just shouldn’t be in your circles. It makes you look bad as well.

Just look at the first scene of the film where Mike’s friend causes them to burn down a house. Mike is also to blame since he wasn’t exactly stopping things and when the boss gets mad, Mike has the audacity to actually be defensive about the whole situation. That was another moment where I couldn’t be on his side. Not only could people have been seriously hurt but the whole thing was meaningless. There was no point to his actions and so he comes off as being completely immature which I would say is fully accurate here. He is not a mature person in the slightest and should have gotten told off along with his friend.

As for Holly, aside from being way too forgiving she is a decent character. I understand not paying attention to every lottery ticket after a while as you probably just start to assume that you will lose by default. I’d make the case that then you shouldn’t be wasting the money to buy tickets though. Even though most are only a dollar or so, it really adds up over time. Imagine putting that towards stocks or something instead. That would be a much better use of your time without a doubt.

Now this is a comedy so you don’t want to go too hard on the characters but I do think that at least Mike’s friend should have faced some jail time in the end. He stole a car, stole the lotto ticket, then he also handled Holly’s things carelessly like when he tosses all of her stuff into the ground without a second thought. He just didn’t seem like a good person at all especially with how insistent he was on keeping the money. You feel like he needed to learn some kind of lesson even after things worked out. It all felt a little too easy in the grand scheme of things.

Ah well, obviously this is more of a feel good movie and so things are looked at through an optimistic lens. It’s not a bad thing per say but it can be a bit annoying. On the plus side, the writing and pacing as pretty good as you’d expect for a film like this. It does maintain a cheery atmosphere and it’s always fun to daydream about winning the lottery. The vibes are good all the way through and I don’t really have any other complaints with the film. Now the ending is quite hilarious though and not in the way the film thought it would be.

The characters have until midnight in order to cash in the ticket so they dash over to the place but then when the clock hits 11:59, they decide to start making out instead of going into the store. Rookie mistake!!! I was dying inside because I knew they didn’t make it in time and so the money went to waste. You could argue that it’s probably the most tragic ending to a film that you will ever see in your life.

Overall, Lucky Christmas is a pretty good film. I will always remember it for the ending because no matter what the writers may say afterwards, it’s clear that the heroes were too late. They fumbled the bag right up until the end and there was no way out of their predicament. The movie may not have always been realistic but it was definitely a fun ride and so I would recommend this title. Who wouldn’t want to have a lucky Christmas right? 2025 may just be starting up now but it’s never too late to watch a good Christmas flick.

Overall 7/10

A California Christmas Review

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It’s time for one of those romance films that is so filled with twists, betrayals, and general drama that you know the romance could never work. There would just be no chance of building trust or anything like that…right? Well that is what holds the film back at least because every romance scene just doesn’t work here. California was not ready for Christmas.

The movie starts off with introducing us to the mega wealthy Joseph who is incredibly immature and irresponsible because everything has been handed to him on a silver platter. Well, his mother says that it’s time for him to use his select talents in their next global operation. The company wants to take over a piece of property that belongs to a lady named Callie. She refuses to give up the land so Joseph is told to go over there and seduce her. He realizes that this won’t be so easy if he shows up as a rich guy so he impersonates the ranch-hand named Manny and shows up to work for his first day. He quickly gets close to Callie but can he accomplish his mission of getting her to sell before he is exposed?

Now this is all one huge deception so naturally we can’t root for Joseph here. The whole time he is manipulating her after all so the romance is under false pretenses. He also has numerous opportunities to come clean about this and chooses not to. So at the end of the day he only has himself to blame here for what comes next. There’s no way he should be rewarded with a proper romance by the end of it. Too many bridges were burned here.

Meanwhile Manny ends up being a super annoying character as he is quick to blackmail Joseph and Leo. The guy gets spoiled right away and is basically another antagonist by the end of the film. They probably should have just kidnapped him early on or something instead of having him order them around. It’s the kind of subplot that makes everyone look bad. Leo at least seemed rather decent the whole time but since he is going along with the plan I can’t really give him any kudos either.

Then we have Callie who may not be the most practical character in keeping a land that is generating a loss every day but at least she is staying true to her convictions. Never thinking to sell her wine wasn’t a great look either. I’d say her main flaw is just being too forgiving. Even if you put the whole Joseph thing aside, we have the childhood friend who makes several rather aggressive advances on her. He tries to force them into being a thing and has to be physically separated by Joseph. Callie doesn’t take this nearly as hard as she should have and continues to treat him normally. If someone pulls that kind of stunt, drunk or not then you have to cut ties completely. That should have been it for that guy.

So when you’ve got a romance film where the main romance is this doomed, it is going to affect the whole film. It means all of their scenes together will make you cringe because you see just how underhanded and deceptive they are. Additionally it’s all moving way too fast. Joseph just moved there and he works for Callie so there are a ton of conflicts of interest here. Perhaps he’s trying to get close to her in order to get easier shifts or not work as hard. That is something that should come up right away and Callie should be putting a lot of distance for a long while before letting him in.

I could go on, but you get the idea here. This is a textbook example of howe to write a bad romance. I was actually rooting for the mother here because she showed up and within minutes had way better results than Joseph. She showed why selling the land would be a good idea and even made a very generous offer. This wasn’t a case of corporate being evil except for the initial plan but trying to make money without being unfair about it. I’d have taken the deal in a heartbeat because again, the whole land was working on a net loss.

Before Joseph came over, Callie had to work on the whole farm by herself in addition to taking care of her sick mother. It was not practical and then Callie had to work a night job? There’s absolutely no way there are enough hours in the day for her to pull this off even if her mother was healthy. Things would only get worse and worse over time so yeah sometimes you do have to forget the sentimental value and just be prepared to move out of a place. It’s not fun or anything but it’s just the reality of the situation.

Overall, This film was really held back by the main pairing. A romance film needs to at least try and make a case for why it works. You could maybe have a solid rebound romance that I still take shots at but doesn’t tank the film. This isn’t one of those cases because the whole thing feels fake. We already know that Joseph is constantly moving on so it’s hard to see this one lasting even after they get married. The movie has its share of fun but the banter disappears early on as they get together and so then all that’s left is the weak romance which isn’t a good idea. The film absolutely needed to keep the dynamic aggressive between the characters for a while longer and instead of him trying to seduce her, it could be about sabotaging the farm or constantly giving reasons to sell it. That would have absolutely made for a more engaging film. Definitely skip this one in favor of another Christmas title that is a little more wholesome.

Overall 4/10

Looks like Christmas Review

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It’s time for a Christmas battle as two parents and their ideologies clash. I like it when the two main characters are going up against each other like this because it often makes for really good banter. At the same time it will also usually mean that the romance will end up being rather cheesy. It just doesn’t make sense to get together with someone that you’ve been fighting with right? Well that’s the dilemma that this film has to deal with.

The film starts off with Terry and his daughter moving yet again and so it’s time for her to make friends. She isn’t thrilled about this so Terry decides to be a good sport and try being more involved with the school this time. So he joins the board and plans to help with the Christmas ceremony. Apparently it’s been a massive succeed every year and so Terry decides that they should switch things up. He announces that a new approach is in order which really rubs the lead of the festivities, Carol, the wrong way. She will have to stop this.

Now that clearly wasn’t the film’s intent but it’s definitely how I took it. Carol is a hardcore traditionalist who likes doing things the old way. If she has a system then that will absolutely remain as the system for many years to come. She is well loved by the whole community though and we are told numerous times that everyone loves the Christmas party. So it’s not a negative and a lot of this is exposition. Terry only knows on a very basic level that she is loved and likes her traditions.

So when he shows up at the meeting and immediately says that they should try something new, it makes no real sense. The film should have had someone tell him that the party was boring or the kids didn’t like it. That would have given him reason to blow it all up but instead he comes off like he’s picking a fight. Then the principal is also on board with it right away which is a bit iffy. You’d think he wouldn’t want to risk anything here and making Terry the co-chair with Carol was a bold move.

You could say he was just trying to help Terry fit in but I would say that it was all a bit much. Carol was mainly a jerk to Terry for the rest of the movie and clearly in the wrong in most instances but at least you can say that Terry started the fight. Terry does well with the ideas and participating though. I don’t really have any issues with him as a character. There is a dilemma in the film later on where his daughter gets mad at him for not being around more but the way I see it, there wasn’t much more he could do. He was really trying his best and that should be good enough. Terry is under a lot of pressure in a rather high stress environment after all.

The film stacks the deck a bit here as he is also in charge of shutting down the library that Carol is fighting for. He comes through with a pretty good solution at least but once again it brings you to the main challenge which is why Carol would fall for him at all. There’s just too much bad blood for most of the film in order for this to work out. So like most Hallmark films you do have to get past the romance but then the rest of the film is really solid.

As expected, the kids are the weak links here. The daughter comes off as rather annoying with how she blames her father for everything. He does make promises too easily which is something she could call him out for but otherwise she made the whole thing too dramatic. Carol’s son was more reasonable although his study group was rather bad. They clearly weren’t focused much at all and it seems like the kind of place to go if you don’t mind dropping a few points on your next exam. Otherwise there isn’t much reason to go through with it all.

I spoke a lot about Terry but not so much on Carol so lets get to her. For starters I would say she is a solid character. While she is an antagonist for most of the film with Terry, we do see that she is kind to everybody else and has long been known as an upstanding individual. Generally speaking if you have someone like this, then I will still consider them to be a good character. If she had an attitude with everybody then it would be different but that was not the case.

When there is just friction with one person you can cut a whole lot of slack for her. If anything I think it would have been nice to have seen some more support for her from different townsfolk. Maybe have the principal and a few others find out about Terry’s big library mission and defend her or call him out. I’m thinking the film wanted to be careful about totally burning any bridges or making thing too personal but I do think it would have been nice for her to have had some characters in her corner. Instead she was practically gaslit at times into thinking she was the problem. There’s one scene where Terry buys her a Christmas tree and I totally get why she would be upset there. That’s the kind of thing you want to do on your own and she was completely in the right about getting rid of it. At least that’s how I see it.

Overall, Looks like Christmas is a pretty good film. The banter and conflict for most of the film definitely helped to elevate it. I always find that it makes the film a lot more energetic and this title was certainly no exception. It goes by quickly and the film is able to solve the dilemmas without it being too cheesy. The Christmas party also looked pretty fun so that was nice. The romance tends to be a bit more on the eye rolling side but hey that’s just how it goes sometimes. I would definitely recommend checking this film out. It’s a good film for the Christmas season.

Overall 7/10

One Christmas Eve Review

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It’s time for one of those classic Hallmark films and this one definitely gets intense as someone even pulls out a gun. I wasn’t expecting that so it really showed that this would be a different experience. It makes for a fun title and has a good amount of humor in it. The romance may not hold its own as well as some of the others but the story still keeps it all afloat.

The film starts off with Reggie finishing up a tough shift at work only to find that someone left a puppy outside. He can’t leave it alone but doesn’t really want to spend the effort and time of taking care of it. So he aims to leave it outside the door of a random person but he trips on the ice and breaks his leg. The lady named Nell showed up and helps him but now she’s stuck with the dog and taking care of this guy. She takes him to the hospital but then one of her kids falls in a trap and gets injured. Could it be that the dog is somehow causing them all bad luck?

You could say that the whole film is basically a long string of bad luck after bad luck for all of the characters. They just can’t escape it and gradually the group gets larger as this also includes a night watchmen/security guy who gets in trouble as well. All they want is to enjoy a nice Christmas but the goal gets farther and farther away. This even includes a house burning down so the characters really go through a whole lot here. The film does a good job of keeping the bad things funny without it ever getting too mean spirited though.

This is a happy/wholesome Christmas film first and foremost though. That said, it is also why there would really be no shot at a romance here. After the crazy day that Nell had and how it’s basically 90% Cesar’s fault you don’t really forget that. Nell’s a solid heroine though as she always tries to do the right thing and didn’t just ditch Cesar immediately. She was definitely verrrrry reluctant for a while there but ultimately did things with a good nature.

Her kids were a little more on the annoying side since they didn’t contribute much. The daughter was really bad at singing and didn’t seem to be making much of an effort to improve her skills. The son was busy falling into holes and getting into trouble which didn’t help anybody. Cesar is a character who has his whole character arc and everything but ultimately I wouldn’t say he was a great character. You have to wonder if he really changed or if he’s just nicer now since he likes Nell but otherwise is the same person on the inside. The whole thing with leaving the dog on the front porch like that is super hard to get away from.

I’d say Reggie was easily the most entertaining character. He always had a good one liner for the occasion and he’s a quick study. He went from just knowing a few lines in Spanish to knowing quite a bit during the latter part of the film. The guy also handled being held at gunpoint rather well compared to the rest of the characters who would have probably been panicking a whole lot. The movie did a super good job with the music and atmosphere for that moment too. You could feel the danger.

Then we have Dr. Chen who is another solid character. He was ready to support the heroes as needed even while the nurse was trying to rush them out. He had a lot more common sense and wasn’t just going to be pushed around. It’s always good to have a friendly face out there because otherwise the heroes were really going to be on their own. The film tries to have the nurse suddenly be a little more friendly during the climax but it definitely didn’t work out so well. It was too little too late as they say.

Because the characters are always moving it also makes the plot feel pretty expansive. It already had more main characters than the average film so it was nice to see them all pal up and everything. A film like this is only as good as its writing o fortunately the film didn’t falter there. You could tell that most of the characters were still good people and so that was the same as usual except they just weren’t immune from the bad luck. Like we had a moment where a guy comes over to help tow their car and naturally it goes terribly. Usually that would have instantly been the solution but not here.

I like the idea of a dog that brings bad luck as well. It makes you face a difficult dilemma because the dog himself is quite innocent but it’s not a super comforting thought because you are going to be experiencing the bad luck either way. I was glad that the characters don’t take it out on the dog either. Reggie for example is quick to defend the dog when the nurse tells him to take it outside. He wasn’t about to obey that order and that’s a good thing because it would have absolutely tanked his character!

Overall, One Christmas Eve is a pretty fun film. It doesn’t feel quite as much like most other Hallmark movies since there is so much travelling and running around instead of staying in one place but it still has the right vibes. You’ll have a good time watching the movie which is the most important part as well. The writing is solid and the pacing is good so there aren’t really any issues. If you’re up for a film about how a bunch of strangers all band together to support each other during the holidays, then this is the title for you!

Overall 7/10

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Review

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Parents generally have a lot of criteria when it comes to their kids’ marriage and want to make sure that no mistakes are happening. This is part of why there used to be arranged marriages in a ton of places so the parents could select the right person themselves. Fortunately a good deal of the world doesn’t do that anymore but it doesn’t mean that the silent judging doesn’t continue. This is a solid film involving such tensions.

The movie starts off with Joanna and her boyfriend John getting ready to meet her parents. John is a distinguished doctor with dozens of accolades so you may think this will be easy but there’s one thing that the parents are about to be shocked by. He’s black! While a mixed race couple is not such a startling thing now (To most people at least) it was definitely much bigger back then. Joanna and John want her parents’ blessings tonight too because then they’re going out of there and will be married in short order. It’s all so sudden and her parents aren’t really sure how to react.

Part of the fun in watching the film nowadays is how the racial thing isn’t a big deal…but every other bombshell is. This relationship has so many red flags that if it were made nowadays I would think that’s the gag. Like the main characters are worried about the skin while the parents are worried about everything else. Seriously this thing sounds crazy so I’m going to go over all of them. You ready for this? For starters there is a 14 year age gap. He’s 37 and she’s 23. You guys already know my 10 year rule. 10 years is the maximum age gap where I think things can be okay and after that you’re in troubling territory.

Naturally we all know some age gap romances that worked out well but I would argue the odds of succeeding still plummet. It’s just a really big difference in experience so you’d imagine even hobbies and such would be very different. Some may enjoy that as you get to learn more about the younger generation but it would still be worrisome. I think one of the main issues is you would worry that the girl doesn’t find the guy all that attractive and is in it for the money. Meanwhile the other side would worry that the guy only enjoys her because she is young and will move onto the next one once she is older.

Red flag #2, they have only known each other for 10 days. This is the wild one. So they’re going to be getting married in a week and have only known each other this long? Joanna says they fell in love at first sight and people already know that phrase is a red flag. People don’t often think clearly when they first fall in love and it’s easy to get swept away in the moment. In general while I think dating should be at most for a year, at minimum it should be for 3-4 month. In 10 days you really don’t know anything about the other person. I would argue you know less than nothing because it can all be a mask.

Red flag #3, all this pressure on the parents to decide in a matter of hours. You know that the #1 trap they warn people for scammers is that they try to pressure you into something. The more someone tells you that something is urgent, the more you want to really think about this. Is it possible that you are missing something? I understand the circumstances but honestly it is more than a little unreasonable to expect them to be fine with this. Not the petty reasons that the film goes into but for legitimate ones like Joanna is not thinking straight.

Red flag #4, John has already been married and had a kid. They both died in a tragic accident. Okay so this is another big one, it has been some years since he saw them but he already had a family. By definition this makes the relationship a rebound and is it possible that he is rushing into this because he wants another family? It’s something to consider and it’s a lot of pressure on Joanna to live up to this.

Not all of these are red flags for everyone but they would be red flags for me. Generally I do agree with the sentiment that a relationship is between two people and even if nobody else approves then you go for it. It’s still important to find out why that’s the case though. For example, if your family and friends tell you they think this is a mistake and you trust them, it’s worth discussing. I thought Joanna was quite a bit rude at certain points with just how aggressive she was being. She could come off as immature at times here with how oblivious she was.

I appreciate how she would stick by her man though, I just didn’t always appreciate the way that she did it. Once you are serious about someone, then you do have to be there for their defense at all times. Not everyone will understand why you love that person. Maybe the parents might not think he’s handsome enough, or they will find faults in mannerisms or such. At the end of the day those are things you can’t care about. Once you are confident that you’ve got the right person then you just have to hang on as hard as you can.

Meanwhile for John I thought he was pretty solid here. He may not have been quite as committed as Joanna was and I think it was worth calling out at the end, but on the whole he did good. Naturally the guy wants to leave a good impression and he did so even while he was stressed out about everything. It was certainly a difficult situation and he navigated it well. The guy is certainly well accomplished and even if he had not been, his politeness and well manner of speaking showed him to be a good guy. As the parent that’s all you should really be focused about, how he acts. You will never get to truly know the person, that’s something where you just have to have faith in your kids.

Matt doesn’t look too good for a lot of the film though. Apparently he was really well know as a good social rights activist so it came off as hypocritical to a lot of the characters when he was against this. There’s no 2 ways about it, it was a really bad look for him. You always got to practice what you preach and it sounds like he was very positive in the papers about civil rights and other issues so for him to be so upset here is not cool. If the film focused on it really being about him being worried about what they would come across, then that would be one thing. I would want him to say he fully supports the marriage but is really concerned.

Have the focus be on that so maybe his concern starts getting John concerned and that’s where the problems arise. It would have been a much better look for the father. As it stands, he ultimately looks better by the very end but it is a super long road to get there. You sort of feel like that’s how it is for a lot of people where they say one thing while the issue doesn’t affect them and then they switch gears real quick.

Meanwhile Joanna’s mother Christina is also shocked at first but gets on board quickly enough. While she may have not reacted as positively as they hoped, it’s pretty clear that she just needed a little bit of time to get her feelings around the relationship. I thought they could have been more patient there and again it goes down to this short time table. I don’t see anything wrong with her temporarily not being able to yell out a congratulations or anything like that. Imagine your kids showing up one day with a fiancé and about to be married. Even if it’s a top tier prospect, you’d be wondering why your kid wouldn’t have mentioned this and that would raise a lot of alarm bells. Really a whole lot of the trouble here is because of Joanna. She really should have called and handled things better.

John’s parents show up later on in the film but I wish they could have appeared a bit earlier. By the time they appear, it feels like it is too late to really have them contribute much. They basically mirror Joanna’s parents exactly to the point where they don’t add as much to the film as you would have liked. They almost could have been cut out from the film and it wouldn’t have really changed anything. I was looking forward to the meet up but it’s more low key than you would expect.

The film isn’t super long so it doesn’t have time for some things like this. If it were longer then I think they would have had more to do. We still got a good amount of time to see Tillie being really upset and being mad at John the whole time though. This is something you do tend to see at times though, some people are completely opposed to any mixed race relationship and they tend to try and be the loudest in the room. It was a fun irony to see that the delivery boy and the younger maid were getting along just well though. Sort of like the kids (I guess you would say teens but slowly as I get older and older they’re all just kids to me) don’t really care about the drama. Considering that John and Joanna have only been together for 10 days though, I’m surprised he would tease her about the maid. I get that as a joke when two people are super comfortable with each other but ehhhhhhh that’s a little risky.

Well, it’s their relationship so I suppose I’ll leave that to them. The writing was pretty good here. Even as some of the characters could be annoying with how they handled things, it was mainly realistic. It’s definitely an interesting film and gives you a lot to think about. Eventually the parents have to be ready to give the kids away and often times there can be some issues with that. So it’s good to at least consider the possibility ahead of time.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. This is one that could have actually used a bit more runtime but ultimately still tackles the main points. It doesn’t really have any weaknesses and stays fairly light hearted. It’s dealing with a lot of serious themes and there is drama but the film doesn’t go out of its way to make anything too dreary. It focuses on the awkwardness of everything a whole lot more which is a good approach. After all, it’s awkward for all parties involved for any first meeting, then amplify that by 10 with all of the shock going around. As long as that sounds interesting to you, you’ll definitely enjoy this movie.

Overall 7/10

Desk Set Review

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It’s time for another classic comedy movie and this is one that has definitely aged pretty well. It’s fun seeing the battle between worker and technology although the machine is definitely set up to fail quite a bit here. It’s a fun movie with a lot of fast paced dialogue and likable characters. At the end of the day it may have less depth than some other titles but works out well enough for me.

The movie starts by introducing us to a mysterious guy named Richard. He’s walking from department to department of a big company and nobody really knows what he is doing here. He spends the most time over by the reference section where he has everybody nervous. The head of the department is Bunny and her team has always done an all star job here. Why should big business have anything to say about it? Well, they are throwing in a machine to replace the humans and get things even more efficient. Can she prove that humans are more than a match for any machine?

It’s the classic dilemma of man vs machine. It’s always a classic debate but at the end of the day you can’t really stall progress. In the short run things will get real disrupted of course but in the long term it just ends up working out. That’s really how these things always go. That being said, you can fight it for a little while and Bunny does bring up a good point that this section is one of the last where you would be able to use a robot. Here’s how the job goes: Someone calls in asking for the answer to a fun fact, then the worker goes and finds the answer.

It’s a very labor intensive section but one that is difficult to automate because the circumstances are different every time. Using a machine for payroll? Sure that makes sense but for something like this in the short term it will only create more work. Particularly since in this movie the characters know all of the answers almost off hand and the few that they don’t are easy to find. For the robot you have to type in the question, then wait for it to print out the response. Additionally you have to make sure that all of the details are right and then input the corrections.

There is no way to stop an answer once it has started and the machine is super fragile. You could say that it was really set up for failure. Now there is a twist about the robot near the end but I would say that the twist doesn’t even make much sense. It may have some slight utility in helping out but the negatives outweigh the positives. For starters it takes up a vast amount of space and it’s quite loud. It would definitely mess up the office atmosphere without a doubt.

As the main character, Bunny does a good job of proving why humans are still needed at this point in time. She does an incredible job of remembering details and locating the answers to things in a cinch. She has so much experience and genius that she could probably have risen to CEO status if she felt the urge to do so. It’s why her coworkers get annoyed when she is being used by Mike the whole time. He doesn’t seem to appreciate her intellect except for when it benefits h8im like in writing papers. He sort of takes her for granted and is always canceling their dates.

You can certainly cut some slack when there is a job that has you on call but the problem is how these occurrences are so regular. Additionally, to be dating for I think they said 8 years and not proposing is crazy. I know some do the whole endless dating routine but to me 1 year is pretty much good enough. By then you should have made up your mind. Ignoring any special circumstances or exceptions, you shouldn’t be dating for longer than that without making things solid.

So Mike’s not very likable but Bunny is a little at fault here for being to patient. I would also say this is what prevents the main romance from being any good because even up to the final scene she seems prepared to go back with Mike and it takes Richard speaking up to prevent her from this. Good on Richard for making his move but I would have liked to have seen more initiative out of Bunny.

Meanwhile Richard doesn’t always look that great here. I know he had orders about not telling anyone why he is here and about the computer but at the same time when you are hanging out with a group for so long, you can’t just suddenly show up with a new computer and expect them to be okay with this. He took way too long to try and explain himself. Some things he could not anticipate like the glitch where everyone thought they got fired but explaining himself more would have helped.

I will say though that the workers didn’t make themselves look great in getting so drunk at the party. If you’re going to do that, you should probably at least have some signs up about how work is paused for the day. I’m guessing there was probably no voicemail back then so there’s nothing you can do about the ringing phones but at least it’s clear this way that everyone is occupied. It seems like otherwise this was a very unofficial kind of thing. I am glad that they all get to have fun though, most Christmas parties don’t tend to get quite so wild at the office.

While Richard didn’t handle some things well, he was a very entertaining character though. I liked that he was actually fairly aggressive with Mike when the guy showed up on the stormy night. Richard may be forgetful but at least he’s more direct than some of the characters and he adds a lot to the humor. A comedy has to be funny after all and he always ensures that it is. I also liked Bunny’s supporting cast. They were all good at their jobs and had developed personalities. While they may not get to do too much in the story, they all felt like real characters as opposed to just being there to fill out the cast.

Overall, Desk Set is a pretty fun film. It all may be dramatized a tad but hey that’s what you’d expect out of a comedy. The romance tends to be on the weaker side and the characters may not always be responsible but you should still have a pretty fun time all the way through. The film’s pacing is pretty good as well so it never dwells on any scene for too long. It may feel like the kind of film that you will quickly forget after watching it but that’s okay. It’s the kind of movie that you have a good time with even if there isn’t much to discuss afterwards.

Overall 7/10

Her Blue Sky Review

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Imagine for a moment that you’re the coolest guy in the room. Everyone has standard black hair but you have cool red hair. Everyone grew old and let themselves get wasted while you are young and immortal. Then you find out the catch..you are stuck in a single room for the rest of your life while you watch a doppelganger of yourself mess up everybody’s lives. This is the tragic drama that unfolds in this movie and it’s a pretty good one that will keep your attention. One characters gets off wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too easily though.

The movie starts with Aoi’s parents getting destroyed so her older sister Akane is forced to take care of the two of them. Akane basically gives everything up including her boyfriend in order to be ready for this task and does a masterful job. The great impact of this sacrifice is not lost on Aoi who blames herself for this. She aims to move to Tokyo as soon as possible so Akane can get her life back and plans to do this through music. Well one day, she bumps into Akane’s old boyfriend Shinno inside of the practice dojo but he hasn’t aged a day. He is stuck in there though and his older self shows up for the town concert but the guy has become a womanizing creep. Should Aoi help the older Shinno get back together with Akane to free the younger self or is this all a big mistake?

There’s a lot going on here and right off the bat you should know that the characters have no idea why the old Shinno has appeared. I’m glad that he doesn’t randomly know either, it helps add some drama on not knowing how to free him. They make the assumption that he has some kind of regret so matchmaking him to Akane makes some sense but it’s also a bit of a leap in logic. Shinnosuke (That’s how I’ll refer to the older one like Aoi does in the movie) is also such a bad guy that you can’t root for them anyway. He would only be making her life a lot worse.

Shinnosuke is really my biggest problem with the movie because he seems like a completely different character. I know some years have passed but for him to have changed this much is absolutely crazy. He has gone against all of his old values and goes out of his way to be a massive jerk. From saying how he thinks girls shouldn’t be in the band, to insulting Akane immediately, there’s no reason to like the guy. I would have liked for him to have been booted out of the band. The film half heartedly tries to massage his flaws in the end but I did not buy it at all. I also thought it was a stretch for Akane to go back to him so quickly. It shouldn’t have even been a tempting proposition for her, I would have expected her to have been completely disillusioned.

So in short, all scenes with Shinnosuke were completely undeserved. He should have been knocked out and the best scene in the film is when Shinno chews him out. It has to be absolutely depressing to meet your future self and find out that you became a total loser. It’s more incentive to make sure you never turn out that way and I’d probably just be in denial that there’s no way I could turn out like that. On some level it would definitely hurt though and Shinno did good to not be crushed.

It’s why Shinno is such a great contrast because he’s easily the best character in the film. He’s in a really sucky situation. Imagine being trapped in a room with nobody to talk to for hours and hours? Yet he never complains or grumbles and is instead always ready to listen to the other characters and support them. He helps Aoi out a whole lot and when he’s put into awkward positions like having someone confess her feelings to him, he handles it about as well as possible. He’s just a good guy and when Akane is in danger he is ready to jump into action. He’s easily the most passionate character in the film and I was really glad that he got some good closure at the end of the film. It really dodged a bullet as it would have been super unsatisfying otherwise.

If you watch the film, Shinno should be the reason why. Then we have Akane who is a good character but I would argue she has some poor judgment. You have to give her a ton of credit for looking after Aoi so well. She made big sacrifices and just kept on looking forward. She never showed Aoi any hint of weakness and was also very practical in learning how to cook and take care of a kid. Her only fault is in what I would call “settling” when it comes to Shinnosuke. It feels like she just wasn’t able to move on and so in the end she is forced to keep on going after this guy but he doesn’t deserve such a good person. I would have even preferred for her to just leave for Tokyo at the end of the film or something. That would have still been better.

If you have to have her go back with Shinnosuke, have him be begging for a while and she gives a non committal answer like she needs to see him turn his life around first. It should be a long and hard road for him to win her back, not her laughing because he can still play a song. Also, that’s not to say she should go with Michinko because that guy was lame. I’m definitely not a fan of his in the slightest. For starters, he wants to win her over but doesn’t seem to be improving his life at all. He wastes a lot of money in attracting a big singer to the town and then he still drinks a lot of beers and gets drunk?

The guy acts rather desperate wanting her to notice him to the point where everyone knows he has a crush on her. That’s just sad and so I would not have wanted him to have been a rebound either. Meanwhile his son seems to have inherited his timidity in not saying anything to Aoi about his crush. Nothing will ever happen if you stay quiet about these things. Better to say something and get rejected hard than to always hang around and hope you get picked eventually. I’ll never really be able to defend a character like that. It just makes you shake your head instead.

There’s one more supporting character in Aoi’s friend Chika but she doesn’t get to do a whole lot. She’s fun enough and it was nice for Aoi to have at least one friend but you could cut her out and not much would really change. Not for Aoi herself, she is a fun lead. Definitely not the nicest one by a long shot but at least she is a bold character. She is pro active and tries to get things going like when she enters the band and proves herself. She talks tough and is rude to those around her but at least she has the skills to back it up.

While I do say you should be loud and make your feelings known generally, she should have probably kept her peace. Not much use in confessing to a ghost who won’t be here for long. Particularly since it’s someone that her sister likes. It’s one of those unspoken rules that you are not supposed to cross. You just gotta bury those feelings so deep that you never find them again. All in all, it was nice to have a lead who was more on the tough side and wasn’t afraid to call everyone out though. She gave the film a lot of personality.

As for the animation, it’s okay but nothing too noteworthy. The film is pale enough where Shinno’s red hair really stick out though. So it’s a nice contrast like how he stands out from all of the other characters who really can’t keep up. This isn’t exactly an action film so there’s not much opportunity for the film to show off otherwise but I can say that it is far from a low budget experience. The animation is still very smooth and I had no issues there throughout. The music is definitely on the weaker side though, I don’t think any of the tracks really landed.

As for the romance itself, I do tend to like dramatic romances. The more characters and triangles you have, the more intense the drama gets. Naturally I’m not rooting for most of the pairings but so long as the film doesn’t let anyone get too far, it works out well. I’ve already said that I don’t support Shinnosuke and Akane in any way, shape or form but Shinno and her would have worked out well. I can’t support Aoi and Shinno because that would be a massive rebound. Machinko and his son are completely out of luck as well. While I may not be rooting for them, the romances were all developed well though and you can get why the characters would fall for each other. Aside from Akane falling for Shinnosuke again, the others made perfect sense. Like Aoi hangs out with Machinko’s son a lot and her bold attitude probably won him over many times. Machinko being desperate for Akane the whole time makes sense as well since they were close, etc. The writing was on point here.

Overall, Her Blue Sky is a pretty good film. The ending is rather rushed and Shinnosuke got way too lucky the whole time but outside of that I didn’t really have any issues. The film’s pacing is good and a lot is happening the whole time. I’d definitely recommend it so long as you enjoy a good drama film. There is no shortage of that here after all so you can really just enjoy how crazy it all gets. Also a good reminder to always be watching yourself to ensure that your future self doesn’t disappoint your past.

Overall 7/10