The Christmas Charade | 2024 Christmas Movies

As usual with Hallmark movies, I have no idea what the title The Christmas Charade means. The channel has tried to cram commercials for it down my throat as I watch other movies but I immediately skip them. Is that going to bite me in the butt?

Josh (Corey Sevier) is an undercover FBI agent working on a string of recent heists. When he learns that the next target is a necklace called The Heart of Christmas, he immediately goes into action to prepare for the Christmas Eve charity ball that will feature the necklace. A female FBI agent was supposed to play his girlfriend but there was a mix-up and Whitney (Rachel Skarsten), a risk-averse elementary school librarian, is forced to team up with him instead.

I’ll admit that I am not the biggest fan of Corey Sevier. I find a lot of his roles to be cheesy or annoying. In this case, his character is already aloof and emotionally unavailable so there isn’t really much to screw up. On the other hand, Rachel Skarsten is pretty good at playing the weird nerdy girl. I would have liked to have seen a little more of rebellion against her parents that started in the beginning but that is on the writer not the actor. (While writing this review, I found out that the writer of the movie is married to Sevier, who also directed it. Things make a lot more sense now.)

The Christmas Charade is fine. The big heist is a little boring. Though I did not see the twist with the identity of the thief. I just wish there was a little more oopmh to the main characters. It definitely would have made it more interesting.

Rating: Maybe don’t jump off the roof.

Christmas Island | 2023 Christmas Movies

When I first saw the commercials for Christmas Island, I thought it sounded very similar to the Broadway musical Come From Away. Except that the plane in Christmas Island was grounded by weather and not a terrorist attack.

Kate (Rachel Skarsten) is a pilot that has been hired by the wealthy Sharpe family to fly them to Switzerland for the holidays. Unfortunately, they run into a major blizzard and are forced to land on a small island in Canada called Christmas Island. Can Kate save her job (and Christmas)?

I have to admit that I enjoyed Christmas Island. But not for the romance. It was for the Sharpe family, especially the kids. I knew the movie was going to Save Christmas for them (it is Hallmark, after all) but I found myself really hoping their parents would come through for them. I would have liked a few more scenes or montages of the family spending more time together but it wasn’t needed to make the movie watchable.

At the end, this movie wanted us to pull for Kate and Oliver (Andrew Walker) to get together. But it didn’t make me actually care if they did. I think they would have been perfectly fine as friends. Alas, Hallmark does not make friends, only romantic partners.

Rating: Me and The Sky

The Royal Nanny | 2022 Christmas Movies

At this point in the Christmas movie season, I usually fast forward through all of the commercials and previews for upcoming movies. What that means is I know literally nothing about new movies before I watch them. I assumed that The Royal Nanny was about a nanny…for a royal family. I wasn’t wrong…

Claire (Rachel Skarsten) is an MI5 agent. When the royal family is threatened, she is tasked with going undercover as the children’s nanny in order to keep them safe.

Yep, that is the entire plot of the movie. And it is absolutely brilliant. There were a couple of cheesy lines, which is to be expected because it’s Hallmark, but otherwise I loved it. For the first time in a long time, I picked the wrong character as the secret bad guy. Granted, once I was proven wrong, I was pretty sure who it was but I was stunned that a Hallmark movie got me! These are supposed to be predictable, aren’t they?

Besides being surprised by the bad guy, The Royal Nanny had so many of the things I love in a movie. It had action, it had comedy, and it had a romance that wasn’t forced from the beginning. And speaking of the romance, the chemistry between Clair and Colin (Dan Jeannotte) was lovely. They were both guarded but became closer the more they realized they could trust each other. It took awhile to blossom and it was wonderful.

Do I think you should watch The Royal Nanny? Of course! Go watch it then come back here and tell me if you guessed the bad guy. I want to know if I was the only one that missed it. I bet I’m not!