Same Time, Next Christmas (ABC, 2019)- A great title that is indicative of an engaging and definitely fun holiday romance movie. While on annual Christmas vacations to the same Hawaiian resort, a boy and a girl fall in love. They grow up and find themselves in other relationships, in other cities and with conflicting obligations, but they also find themselves back at the resort for family Christmas vacations, year after intermittent year. Can the love of childhood sweethearts grow up? Of course it can! This movie spans decades and locations across the country. All of the side stories add to an overall sense of family, love and dedication. The writing and acting were both top notch. Star power includes Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Brian Greenberg of How to Make It in America. The lead actors I somewhat recognized, but I don't think I've seen them in TV or movies before. I caught this movie when it premiered on live TV, December 5, 9 pm on KABC.
- Cheesy or sentimental: Sentimental
- Production value: High quality ABC production
- Suspension of belief: low
- Trope: Destined-to-Be-Together + Second-Chance-at-Love + Belated Epiphany
- Diversity: A virtual rainbow
- Paranormal: None
- Clownish character: None
- Added to the annual holiday romance movie playlist? Yes.
Christmas In Evergreen: Letters to Santa (Hallmark DVD, 2018)- For Christmas, a retail designer returns to the town and place where she had the most memorable times of her childhood. She puts her skills to work to help stage and sell the former general store, enlisting the help of a handyman who is also equal in his search for a sense of home. This could have been an amazing movie if the writers would have taken a different path and allowed the characters to communicate instead of jumping to conclusions in order to cause unnecessary conflict. There's also the super obvious solutions to problems, such as the main character wanting to own her own store and the store of her childhood memories being up for sale. Hmmm, I wonder what's going to happen in the end of this Hallmark movie? Just focus on the romance and people and stop trying to set up a semi-complex plot. Star power includes Holly Robinson-Peete from 21 Jump Street and weight-loss supplement commercials.
- Cheesy or sentimental: Sentimental with some cheese because of the B-level writing.
- Production value: High quality Hallmark production
- Suspension of belief: Medium. Again, the writing.
- Trope: Returns to hometown
- Diversity: a good amount of color
- Paranormal: None
- Clownish character: None
- Added to the annual holiday romance movie playlist? No.
Holiday Breakup (Amazon, 2016)- This is the story of a couple that met
when their cars and hearts collided at a stop sign in Los Angeles.
They come from different backgrounds – Los Angeles and Orange
County. He's goal-oriented and business-minded... with the pressure
of family expectations. She is free-spirited and passionate... with
commitment phobia. They break up. They get back together. The end.
This is definitely a cheesy movie: Cheesy music, cheesy acting, silly
storyline and silly flashback segments. But I enjoyed it. Its cute
and shot well-enough to make you appreciate good cheese.
- Cheesy or sentimental: Definitely cheesy
- Production value: Medium. They seemed to use actual locations in the LA area, so nothing looked staged. And the actors might as well have been wearing their own clothes and doing their own styling.
- Suspension of belief: Medium. The cheese.
- Trope: Opposites Attract + Fake Relationship + Belated Love Epiphany
- Diversity: They miss the mark. This is Los Angeles and only a few background colorful people make it in the frame.
- Paranormal: None
- Clownish character: The movie opens up with the female lead literally jumping up and down wearing a clown nose. That should say it all.
- Added to the annual holiday romance movie playlist? Maybe!
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are moderated. Even my own.