Describe a plot badly: A couple harasses an old man to work for them for free on Christmas Eve. I mean, that is the basic gist of Miracle in Motor City.

Amber (Tia Mowry-Hardrict) has taken over planning her church’s Christmas pageant. In order to make the pageant special, she promises that Smokey Robinson (himself) will perform. Except that Smokey doesn’t know about it. Amber teams up with her ex-boyfriend, Eddie (Mark Taylor), to convince Smokey to appear.

There are two sides to this movie: The creepy “Let’s call everyone who has ever known Smokey Robinson to get them to get him to come to the pageant.” Then there is the sweeter “Amber takes care of a foster child, Lily (Markeda McKay).” I really wish they focused more on the foster child situation than the Smokey Robinson stalking.

The writers could have done so much more with this story. Make the main story Lily coming to live with Amber and how Amber’s life has changed since she’s taken on caring for a child. Show Amber teaching Lily how to love Motown music as much as she does. Then, if you really need to have Smokey Robinson in your movie, have Smokey find out about this orphan girl learning how to love Motown so he shows up at the Christmas pageant and surprises everyone with his rendition of “Silent Night.” First, it’s a more intriguing story and the audience learns a bit about Motown. Second, it would put the “Miracle” in Miracle in Motor City. Because the story as it is has no miracles.

I don’t think this movie is worth watching. Even if you are a Smokey Robinson superfan, he’s not in the movie all that much. The best part of the movie really is Markeda McKay but I’m not sure she’s enough of a reason to sit through this whole thing.

OMG. Another movie with a baker? But this time the baker is a MAN?! What is the world coming to?

So. In A Gingerbread Romance, Tia Mowry-Hardrict plays Taylor, an architect who is given an assignment to participate in a life-sized gingerbread house contest. Taylor gets Adam (Duane Henry), a local baker, to be her partner. Along with his daughter, Brooke (Melody Nosipho Niemann), Adam teaches Taylor the ways of Christmas.

I am going to give the movie props for making the male lead the baker and the female lead the architect. (Yeah, we’ve already seen a female architect this season in A Majestic Christmas. Maybe it’s a new trope.) However, I have one giant problem with Gingerbread. I’m not sure if Mowry-Hardrict is uncomfortable with her mom bod or the director was trying to hide her second pregnancy (I’m not sure when the movie was filmed but she gave birth on May 5, 2018) but she spends the entire movie in either a cardigan, a jacket, or one giant sweater. (Yes, she has one giant sweater she wears without the jacket or cardigan. Everything else is covered up.) It was a little distracting to see everyone else wearing typical winter indoor wear and she has on a trenchcoat. As a matter of fact, it is what ruined the movie for me. It made it feel like there was some sort of judgement toward larger people. Which is annoying because she is absolutely not fat!

The rest of the movie was pretty bland. Taylor kept going on about how she travels so much and how she is an ARCHITECT so, therefore, she knows what she is talking about. And Adam repeatedly talks about how he wants to own his own bakery but the investors wouldn’t back him because he dropped out of culinary school. (I don’t think that’s how it works?) I suppose it’s awesome how Taylor includes Adam’s daughter in the project but it somehow feels contrary to her character. It’s more Tia and less Taylor.

If you are a fan of Tia Mowry-Hardrict, it isn’t a terrible watch. Just don’t expect an epic romance or even a decent story. It’s just meh.