That's All, Folks!

As you might have noticed, I haven’t posted any Christmas movie reviews since Saturday. I was hoping to get the other fourteen movies on my list reviewed by the end of 2021 but, alas, it is not going to happen. That doesn’t mean these movies will never get reviewed though. Let me unveil my lofty plans for 2022!

While posting daily movie reviews is very exhausting, it does keep me on my toes posting-wise. And I really would like to post more than two or three months every year. So I am going to attempt to post something every single day in 2022. Now, I won’t be posting movie reviews every day. I may not even be posting reviews every day. However, I will be posting something. This also gives you a chance to help out with the blog!

If you have a topic that you would like me to talk about, you can leave a comment on any of my posts or send me an email through my contact page. And, seriously, it can be anything. Do you have a favorite movie that you would like me to review? Let me know. Is there an album that you adore that you would love to let other people know about? Send it on over. Is there a topic that you would like to know more about or a craft that you aren’t sure how to complete? I will try my best to give you all of the knowledge I have.

I will be taking the rest of this week off and I will begin the new year with my traditional Best and Worst Christmas movie lists. The movies that I have not watched this season will be sprinkled throughout the year until we reach the 2022 Christmas season. I hope to make my blog as entertaining and informative as it has been these past three months. (Moreso, I hope that I can find 365 interesting things to talk about!)

Well, wish me luck!

Mistletoe In Montana | 2021 Christmas Movies

Montana in December means you can go outside in a turtleneck and a shoulder-wrap sweater, right? The average temperature for Montana in December is in the mid-30s (Fahrenheit). That might be a little chilly for a light sweater.

Mark (Duane Henry) is a single father to two children. He brings them to Paradise Ranch, run by Merry (Melissa Joan Hart), for Christmas break. None of them expected this to be the best Christmas of all of their lives.

What to say about Mistletoe In Montana? It is pretty bad. Not so much for the story and the acting, although they aren’t great. But moreso for the absolute unbelievability of everything that happens. For those of you that are terrible at US geography, Montana is one of the northernmost states in the continental United States. It gets very cold there and it stays very cold for a long time. Thanks to Lifetime movie magic, there are few times that any of the characters are wearing non-cowboy hats or gloves. They could have easily placed this movie in a number of other states but they picked Montana. While the state is very pretty, all of these people would have had some sort of frostbite at some point.

But let’s overlook the fact that the writers didn’t even attempt to make any of the weather based in reality. Instead, let’s look at what a terrible businesswoman Merry is. She frequently has guests staying at the ranch for a “ranch experience.” She straight up allows Mark to do things that would hurt either himself or her horses. More than once he tries to mount a horse improperly. Once he even sprains an ankle! Her insurance rates must be through the roof. I get that Mark is supposed to be egotistical at first but it is her job as the ranch owner to put her foot down and not allow anyone to do anything that would cause injury.

As for the romance aspect? Merry and Mark make zero sense together. Jasper (Sam Marra), one of the ranch hands, literally falls head over heels in love with Mark’s nanny, Debbie (Harley Bronwyn), the minute he sees her. That would be fine if it was the main plot of the story but it barely makes a sub-plot. We only get a few scenes of them spending time together in order to make them a feasible couple. It’s almost like the writers forgot that these are supposed to be romantic Christmas movies.

I would say skip Mistletoe In Montana. There isn’t really anything good here, unless you want to look at horses. Though we don’t get to see a lot of the horses either. Just forget about it altogether.

Christmas By Chance | 2021 Christmas Movies

Big surprise! The leading lady of Christmas By Chance is named…..Chance. I’m not sure it can get more cringey than this.

Chance (Winny Clarke) owns a gift shop slated to close soon. She gets hired by William (Jacob Blair) to create the most romantic Christmas week for his girlfriend, Leyla (Celeste Desjardins), ending in a proposal. Will Chance be able to pull it off or will William’s proposal be ruined?

It is really sad that the worst part of Christmas By Chance is actually Chance. She is so painfully clueless about everything that I have no idea how she has been able to run a business for this long nor do I understand why anyone would hire her to plan anything. Despite the fact that she is fairly young (we don’t get age ranges on the characters), she knows nothing about the internet or social media. She literally relies on her young employee, Becky (Celine Tsai), to handle all of her online presence. That part is fine. Hiring someone to handle the online stuff while you handle your actual business is a normal thing. However, Chance doesn’t understand how to post things online and, when she is trying to research things that Leyla likes, she misunderstands all of Leyla’s social media posts. I know there are people that don’t spend a lot of time online but they still aren’t quite as clueless as Chance.

Unfortunately, since Chance is so unbearably annoying, the rest of the movie suffers. Characters like Becky, the social media guru, deserved way more screen time. She is adorable. Maybe she can get her own show where she teaches naive people about social media. The same goes for Ryan (Sharjil Rasool), William’s assistant. I know there is in insinuation that Becky and Ryan get together but I want a movie where the two of them go into business together teaching the old fogeys how to live their lives in the 2020s.

Needless to say, I don’t think you should watch Christmas By Chance. It was painful to watch. I wish there was a way I could unwatch it. Does anyone know a way?

The Enchanted Christmas Cake | 2021 Christmas Movies

My least favorite Christmas movies are the ones where everything could be solved if someone just asked a question. Why are people so averse to talking, especially to family members?

After her grandmother passed, Gwen (Erica Durance) took over her bakery. Unfortunately, the secret ingredient on her grandmother’s recipe for the Enchanted Christmas Cake was torn. As she struggles to figure out the missing piece, a celebrity chef comes to town to film a Christmas special. Gwen is pressured by the show’s producer, Gavin (Robin Dunne), to appear on the show to talk about the cake. Will Gwen be able to perfect her grandmother’s cake or will Christmas be ruined?

There are two big conflicts in The Enchanted Christmas Cake. One is figuring out the missing ingredient but the other is whether Gwen should give out the recipe once it’s completed. Both of these could have been solved if Gwen simply asked her grandfather. She seems to be pretty close to him so I have no idea why she never thought to ask him in the first place. If I was in her position, I would have immediately asked him if he knew what the ingredient was when I saw the rip on the recipe. If he didn’t know, my second question would have been if anyone else had the recipe. Of course, then the movie would have been over before it ever began.

Looking past the stupidity of the plot, the rest of the movie wasn’t too bad. Both Durance and Dunne are decent actors. Though I think the shining star here is Kyana Teresa as Gwen’s friend, Becky. She is a delight in every scene she is in.

The Enchanted Christmas Cake is worth watching if you can look over the gaping plot hole. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of bakery-themed Christmas movies this year. So, if bakery movies are your thing, this may be your best bet for 2021.

Ghosts of Christmas Past | 2021 Christmas Movies

With the title Ghosts of Christmas Past, you would think it would be a take on The Christmas Carol. While this one is similar to Boyfriends of Christmas Past from earlier this movie season, it is not a new take on the Dickens classic.

Ellie (Annie Clark) has a bad habit of ghosting the men she meets on dating apps. When she talks to a fortune teller at the company holiday party, Ellie is told that she must make amends with the men she ghosted before Christmas Day or she will be doomed to never find true love. With the help of her co-worker, Charlie (Dan Jeannotte), Ellie tries to track down the long list of men before time runs out!

After watching so many Christmas movies, I have learned not to trust the titles. Someone somewhere thinks they are being punny but they aren’t. Instead of being about The Ghost of Christmas Past, which is what everyone will think, this is simply about a woman who stops answering messages from men for no reason. It’s not like the men were being creepy or overstepped their bounds. Those would be perfectly valid reasons to abruptly end a conversation. No, she stopped messaging because she didn’t like a guy’s side part or he thought he was obsessed with his mother when he brought her up in conversation once. Ellie definitely has some issues and no one will talk to her about them.

In addition to apologizing to these men, Ellie and Charlie must also make a Christmas-themed video game at the last minute. I understand that writers want to have this big Christmas deadline for characters so there will be some sort of pressure on them to get something finished. However, no one makes a video game in a few weeks. Maybe this would be a game for next season but definitely not this year. So I don’t know why they would have a big Christmas deadline on this. It’s just an excuse to throw Ellie and Charlie together. Especially since we barely see them working on the game.

Ghost of Christmas Past isn’t terrible but it’s not good either. Almost all of the men are completely fine with Ellie ghosting them. I think there’s only two men that bore any sort of ill will toward her. I get it, it’s a Christmas movie so they aren’t going to have the men cursing her out or calling her names. However, this is Lifetime. This is the channel that puts out the scandalous movies about women being stalked and murdered. Throw in a few men that call her a raging bitch. It’s OK.

Should you watch it? I’m not going to give it a raving recommendation but I don’t really see any reason not to watch it. There isn’t a lot that goes on, which could make it boring for you, and the ending is rather predictable. But if you have nothing else to watch, this would suffice.

Maps and Mistletoe | 2021 Christmas Movies

Movies like Maps and Mistletoe make me think that there is no way real people have jobs like this. I know that cartographers exist. I mean, that is how we have actual maps. But they make the job feel very fake.

Cartographer Emilia (Humberly González) is tasked with making an interactive map of the North Pole for her company’s website. In order to make it more educational, her boss teams her up with world explorer, Drew (Ronnie Rowe). With her strict scheduling and his laid-back approach, will the two of them be able to get the map finished before Christmas?

I think I know why Maps and Mistletoes makes me think Emilia’s job is fake. When she’s making a map of New Zealand for her nephew, she is doing everything. The amazing artwork, the actual latitude and longitude of the map, the facts about each location. I don’t believe that one person could do all of that. At least not at the scale that she made the map. This whole project makes her seem a little too perfect. Well, except for the fact that she seems to know nothing about the North Pole.

As for Drew…I know that they are trying to make him seem like a fearless explorer. However, he’s doing dumb things for a small town. He’s laying in the middle of the street (I’m assuming without a spotter since people were calling the cops on him) and climbing buildings. I’m all for getting into weird positions in order to get the best photography shot but maybe you should figure out what you should and shouldn’t do in a small town. Or at least get yourself a spotter that can alert you when danger is nearby or if the police are coming. You know, basic safety stuff.

I don’t know that I would say Maps and Mistletoe is worth watching. Like most movies this year, there isn’t a lot of substance there. No one gets a big epiphany and the romantic leads have terrible chemistry. It is yet another “turn on for background noise” movie. I’m getting very tired of those.

The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls | 2021 Christmas Movies

Last year, Hallmark gave us an amazingly good movie called The Christmas House. They followed it up this year with the sequel, The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls. As a general rule, sequels suck. Let’s see if this one lived up to last year’s greatness.

Now that Mike (Robert Buckley) owns The Christmas House, that makes him the King of Christmas, right? Not if his brother, Brandon (Jonathan Bennett), has anything to say about it. The brothers take part in a TV competition show to find out who has the best Christmas House. Hopefully they don’t destroy everything in the meantime.

Hallmark did it! Deck Those Halls is just as good as last year’s iteration. They did up the emotional stakes a little bit by adding Andi’s (Ana Ayora) ex-husband - and Noah’s (Mattia Castrillo) dad - into the mix. Mike wants to propose to Andi so he feels the need to be fatherly and bond with Noah but Zane (Matthew James Dowden) keeps showing up at the worst moments. Not only does this expand on Mike’s character, it also adds to the stress of being a television star competing on a television show with his brother. He feels the need to be the absolute best.

On the other side, Brandon has his own issues. Now that he has kids with his husband, Jake (Brad Harder), he feels like he has to provide the best Christmas for his family. (Even though the kids are still babies.) Plus he feels like he is missing out on important moments in the kids’ lives since Jake can work from home and be with the more while he has to go to his bakery every day. Plus he has the stress of being the older brother to a handsome television star that everyone loves.

I love that Hallmark added depth to these characters. Usually, we get cardboard cutout characters that have one thing in life…usually their job…and everything else has to get shoved aside or they have to quit their current life in order to “have it all.” These people have full lives with work and family. Sure, there are complications but that is what happens in real life. Giving the characters all of this makes them feel more real. I think that is why this series is so successful.

If you couldn’t tell, I absolutely think you should watch Deck Those Halls. As a matter of fact, you should watch The Christmas House then immediately follow it up with this one. Then tell everyone you know to watch it too. We need Hallmark to know that we want them to continue to make these good movies and stop making the terrible stuff.

Blending Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

I am so confused about who the target audience for Blending Christmas was. We have The Brady Bunch kids, one of the dads from My Two Dads, one of the aunts from Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and the aunt from Family Matters. It was a gathering of stars from sitcoms from the 70s through the 90s. Very strange.

Liam (Aaron O’Connell) wants to propose to his girlfriend, Emma (Haylie Duff). Her favorite place to spend the holidays, The Hacienda da la Sierra, will be going out of business soon. So Liam invites both of their families to come spend one last holiday with them at the resort. Will Liam be able to propose to Emma with the chaos of both families surrounding them?

I fully admit that I had a very difficult time watching this movie. Instead of seeing the characters, I kept seeing all of the actors’ old roles. Tell me that you can look at Barry Williams, Mike Lookinland, Christopher Knight, and Susan Olson together and not think of The Brady Bunch. They even added Jennifer Elise Cox who played Jan Brady in the Brady Bunch movies from the late 90s. Literally, only Marsha was missing.

The sad part is that the premise of Blending Christmas wasn’t that bad. They could have even doubled down on the Brady references by putting all of the men on Liam’s side of the family and the women on Emma’s. I think the writers didn’t do it because it would have made the families seem uneven. Cox only showed up via Facetime/Zoom calls and Olson was the only other Brady girl there. It also would have made it easier to tell who was in which family. As it is, I kept getting everyone mixed up.

Is it a movie worth watching? Sure, for the nostalgia factor. Unless you are able to divorce the actors from their iconic roles, I can’t see how this would be a good movie to watch for the movie’s sake. All of the good parts get lost in the chaos. I wish that the writers had toned down the craziness of the family to focus a little more on the couple at the center of everything. And I don’t think I say that very often.

Sugar Plum Twist | 2021 Christmas Movies

A movie about dance that actually has dancing in it? Sugar Plum Twist must be some sort of weird Twilight Zone thing.

Natalia (Jamie Gray Hyder) is a professional ballerina who has returned home to Richmond after an injury. She is working with a local ballet company in the hopes of becoming a choreographer. While auditioning dancers for the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the upcoming production of The Nutcracker, Natalia meets Viviana (Laura Rosguer). Vivi specializes in Salsa but dreams of ballet dancing. Together, Natalia and Vivi try to revolutionize the Christmas classic by adding a bit of Latin flare.

As someone familiar with dance and theater, there were some technical issues with Sugar Plum Twist. However, these wouldn’t be noticeable to people who don’t know the inner workings of putting on a production. Even with my background knowledge, the technical issues were small gripes. Nothing that took away from my enjoyment of the movie.

And, yes, I did enjoy the movie. While I’m not sure that all of the actors were, in fact, dancers, Twist was able to make me believe the characters were amazing dancers. I even enjoyed the big Latin dance at the end.

So, should you watch it? I would recommend Twist to anyone who enjoys watching dance. I will note that a lot of the dancing in the movie is Latin so if you are looking for tons of ballet, this isn’t where you will find it. However, the mix of ballet and Latin dancing is interesting and I do think it’s worth a watch even if you only enjoy ballet.

Sister Swap: Christmas In The City | 2021 Christmas Movies

Christmas is almost here but there are still a ton of Christmas movies to watch. This is the time of year when I get beat down by watching so many of these movies but I am going to try my hardest to get as many of these reviewed as possible! So let’s get going with the second half of A Hometown Holiday titled Christmas In The City.

While her sister, Jennifer (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), is in their hometown of Hazelwood, Meg (Ashley Williams) stays in Salt Lake City to help Jennifer’s restaurant prepare for a local Christmas competition. Will Meg’s big ideas help or ruin Jennifer’s restaurant?

A Hometown Holiday was an adorable movie. Christmas In The City has a similar energy but doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor. I think the problem, as usual, stems from the conflicts in each movie. In Hometown, Jennifer had to deal with all of the issues that come up when trying to renovate an old building. In City, everything was pretty much done for Meg. She was only coming up with ideas to make the restaurant more festive. There was only one real issue she had to deal with and it was easily solved. The rest of the movie felt unnecessary.

I understand what Hallmark was going for when they made these two movies. Having two completely different perspectives shown at once. There are multiple times that we see the sisters cross over into the other’s movie. That was so cool and original. However, you can’t have one sister doing something interesting while the other wanders around thinking about what she’s going to do in the future. It would have been a little more interesting if Meg was doing her own thing in Salt Lake City instead of doing something that was already pretty finished.

I do recommend watching A Hometown Holiday. But I would say skip Christmas In The City unless you are very invested in seeing the other side of the story. You won’t lose anything by watching only one of the movies. I really wish the second one was better. It would have been so cool.