My second Paramount+ movie is Christmas Casanova. I’m not going to get through all of the Paramount+ Christmas movies before the end of the year. If anyone is interested, maybe I’ll see about doing a Christmas in July or something and revisit the movies I missed. Let me know if you want that!

Elisa (Kalinka Petrie) is a lifestyle story podcaster looking for a story for a Christmas show. Daniyal (Fuad Ahmed) wants to make his childhood friend, Tanya (Samantha Brown), fall in love with him. In exchange for content for her podcast, Elisa agrees to help Daniyal win Tanya from her boyfriend, Cliff (Brendan Morgan).

This is two movies in a row with a lead character wanting to steal someone from their boyfriend. And it’s another childhood friend! These people need to stop being terrible. Be happy that your friend has found someone they enjoy being with and stop trying to be the main character in their life. The movie is fine. Boring but fine. There’s something else I want to talk about: the production company.

Christmas Casanova is produced by Reel One Entertainment. They are not new to the Christmas genre. Just this year they put out Mom’s Christmas Boyfriend, How To Fall In Love By Christmas, Coupled Up For Christmas, Christmas At The Chalet, Merry Magic Christmas, Mistletoe Match, and so many more. While I don’t hate their movies like I do MarVista’s awful films, Reel One’s end up so boring. Either they don’t put nearly enough action into the movie, resulting in the audience wondering why we are watching people do mundane things, or they put too much action into the movies, resulting in the audience losing the point of the plot. Writing a movie isn’t easy. Writing a lot of movies in a rather short period of times is even harder. But it would be nice if production companies would be more thoughtful about what they are putting out. Make it enjoyable. Make us want to watch it again and again.

Rating: The podcast that even the host doesn’t want to be in

Now I remember why Christmas movies drive me crazy every year. It’s rare to get both a good story and good acting. A lot of times we get decent acting with a terrible story. But, sometimes, we are given movies like It Takes A Christmas Village, which has a good story but it is ruined by terrible acting.

Alex (Brooke Nevin) is the mayor of a small town. When road construction threatens the local businesses, she decides to put together a Christmas market to help boost sales. The best location she can find is a closed mill owned by the town recluse, Darcy Hawkins (Corey Sevier). Can Alex convince Darcy to let her rent the space from him?

The mayor-saves-local-business isn’t a rare storyline in Christmas movies. Christmas Village somehow managed to make it feel fresh and new. Maybe it’s the interactions with the shop owners, maybe it’s that we get to see a little more of Alex actually planning the Christmas market, or maybe it’s just because the female lead is the mayor. It doesn’t much matter why it feels like a new story, it just does.

Unfortunately, where the movie falls apart is the acting. Corey Sevier, who also directs Christmas Village, has the charisma of a piece of cardboard. I have watched a couple of Christmas movies with him as the male lead (and the director!) and they have all been awful. While I haven’t seen as many of Nevin’s Christmas movies (most of hers were before I started the Great Christmas Movie Review project), I have seen some of her other works. She isn’t bad but she isn’t memorable either. I think she might have had a chance here if she wasn’t paired with Sevier.

Wait…wait. After a bit of serious Googling, I have found what the problem is. Corey Sevier is married to the scriptwriter, Kate Pragnell. That is how he keeps getting these terrible roles. Well, much like their other joint Christmas venture, Heart of the Holidays, don’t bother to watch this one. Christmas Village isn’t as bad but it’s definitely not worth your time.