Hallmark Christmas Movies (+ other channels) ❤️ comfort & joy

[Imzadi]

Second movie to pass on, in my opinion:

I also watched "If I Only Had Christmas". In spite of my dislike of Candace Cameron Bure. While it was a "cute" concept I found the not-so-thinly-veiled Wizard of Oz dialogue distracting, and her playing yet another "oh, my, what am I going to do?" type character just rubs me the wrong way.

Yes, the bolded gets to me too, when she plays these types of characters. The TV channel description calls her "perky." A character describes her as having "charisma." The male lead remarks about her innocence about a big city, coming from Kansas.

I think Candace read all those descriptions and defaulted her her usual playing young, naive, which translates to not too bright. Like she's DJ Tanner all over again. She's 44. She not young and naive anymore. She needs to act her age. And Hallmark should give the younger roles to actual younger actresses.

One of the few movies I really like by Candace is Switched For Christmas. She plays twins her age. They get into an argument talking about how hard their lives are, how much they know, and how much they each accomplish in a day. One is a mother of teens. The other a high, powered executive. Candace doesn't play young and dumb in this one.

The other two that I like with her are also where she plays smart and capable. The first is where Alan Thicke plays her father, and she is a strong, capable executive, going to evaluate the lodge she is tasked to change over for their company. The other is when she plays a doctor in Alaska.

 

[Imzadi]

On a better note, I watched Christmas on the Menu and thought it was decent.

I liked USS Christmas. I'm a sucker for the military films.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The male lead remarks about her innocence about a big city, coming from Kansas.

Well given I'm from KS and live here....them fighting words

To be fair most of KS is a lot different than KC and the Wichita metro (and Topeka)...but still if she's from KC in the movie (the description says KC publicist) what a weird trope to go with considering what the KC metro is like.

My mom (who lives about 25mins from me in our metro) said she watched it and she wasn't blown away but she liked it. We haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[skeeter31]

After watching most of the new Hallmark and Hallmark Movies and Mystery’s movies this year, I’d put my Top 5 as:
1. A Timeless Christmas (Great story and acting, plus funny)
2. Christmas by Starlight (love the pairing of these 2. I hope they continue to write and star in movies each year)
3. The Christmas House (Felt like a break from the Hallmark formula and liked the multiple storylines instead of just an A story)
4. Five Star Christmas (Another good, funny movie)
5. Christmas Waltz (Strong showing by Lacey this year)

Honorable Mentions to:
Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas (Excellent story, liked the mystery of it)
Love, Lights, and Hanukkah (another different feel story-wise but a good movie)

My worst of the year would be:
1. A Christmas Carousel (Really didn't expect this to be a royal movie. So sick of them).
2. If I Only Had Christmas (Candace doesn’t disappoint in her horrible acting)
3. On the 12th Date of Christmas (I really like Tyler Hynes, but it’s like he phoned this one in)

Overall a very solid year for Hallmark. We don’t watch the Lifetime movies, so I can’t comment on them. Hallmark is pretty much on 24/7 in this household, with the occasional Freeform or AMC thrown on if a certain movie is on during this season. Not a lot of disappointment from Hallmark this year, and I didn’t have high hopes with most being filmed post-COVID, but you’d never know it watching these in future years. We only caught 2 mask oops’s in movies, one in Nashville Country Christmas, her cab driver has a mask on, and one in the Christmas in Evergreen where someone in a crowd scene has a mask on, notices the camera, and quickly whips the mask off and stuffs it in her pocket.

 

[RangerPooh]

Yesterday I watched one from a few years back, A Christmas Note. Where one of the main characters learns she has a sibling that age never knew about. Really enjoyed it.

Noticed a few characters in this one as well as others I’ve watched this week are in the Netflix series Virgin River.

 

[skeeter31]

Yesterday I watched one from a few years back, A Christmas Note. Where one of the main characters learns she has a sibling that age never knew about. Really enjoyed it.

Noticed a few characters in this one as well as others I’ve watched this week are in the Netflix series Virgin River.

Oh yeah, most of the Virgin River cast are Hall-stars lol. Seems like anything that films mainly in Canada is chock full of Hallmark actors.

 

[AustinTink]

Just watched Cross Country Christmas. I liked seeing a different actress than the usual suspects. I remember the lead from a 90's teen romcom. It was a pretty decent movie overall.

 

[skeeter31]

Just watched Cross Country Christmas. I liked seeing a different actress than the usual suspects. I remember the lead from a 90's teen romcom. It was a pretty decent movie overall.

Rachel Leigh Cook though has done quite a lot of Hallmark movies. Not exactly a new face.

 

[elgerber]

Yesterday I watched one from a few years back, A Christmas Note. Where one of the main characters learns she has a sibling that age never knew about. Really enjoyed it.

Noticed a few characters in this one as well as others I’ve watched this week are in the Netflix series Virgin River.

I just watched that movie yesterday, it was pretty good.

 

[Imzadi]

Rachel Leigh Cook though has done quite a lot of Hallmark movies. Not exactly a new face.

I thought she mostly does the year-round, non-Christmas movies? There are two vineyard movies I make a point of skipping as I didn't care for the first one. Hmm, now that I think of it, her co-star was the Hallmark stalker I mentioned a few post back. Maybe it's actually HIM I don't like?

 

[Imzadi]

FYI: Tomorrow nite, Christmas eve, for 24 hrs, from 8pm ET, to 8pm Christmas night, Hallmark & HMM are going to be commercial free during the movies. Every movie will be an uninterrupted 1½ instead of 2 hours.

If there is a favorite movie you want to keep on your DVR, or a new one you haven't watched yet, you may want to re-record the commercial free version.

 

[PollyannaMom]

This morning I watched Candy Cane Christmas (OK, but too many misunderstandings for my higher rating) and Christmas by Starlight (which I enjoyed more). I'm in a weird sleep pattern, so I tend to watch one really early in the morning before anyone else is up, and then one with DH (who is off work this week for the holiday) a little later on. - I picked Starlight to watch together, since I peeked at IMDb and it had the better review number.

 

[Imzadi]

After watching most of the new Hallmark and Hallmark Movies and Mystery’s movies this year, I’d put my Top 5 as:
1. A Timeless Christmas (Great story and acting, plus funny)
2. Christmas by Starlight (love the pairing of these 2. I hope they continue to write and star in movies each year)

I picked Starlight to watch together, since I peeked at IMDb and it had the better review number.

I'm saving up these two movies to watch toward the end. They got great reviews on this thread and the IMDb.com ratings are 7.2 for Timeless and 7.4 for Starlight. I want to finish off my Christmas movie watching with a couple great movies.

Overall a very solid year for Hallmark. We don’t watch the Lifetime movies, so I can’t comment on them.

I tend to watch a Hallmark movie, then two Lifetime movies before another Hallmark movie. This way, if a Lifetime movie is mediocre or exceptionally bad, and I think I never want to see another Christmas movie again, I have the next Hallmark movie to look forward to.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well I figured I'd give an update in 1 post:

Over the last week we've been watching some movies so here's an opinion about those-

Christmas in Vienna: I wanted to like this one more than I actually did especially with the Vienna setting. I think Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott have much better chemistry (they did the All of My Heart movies and presently star together in Crossword Mysteries series). But I do actually like Sarah Drew in this movie.

The Christmas Setup: One of my favorites of this year. This comes from Lifetime and has two male leads. Fran Drescher is in this as the meddling mom. Now if her voice annoys you...it'll probably annoy you in this one lol but I thought she played a realistic meddling mom. And I loved the branching out not only in who the leads are but that they seem very everyday people too. It had predictable parts to it but was still sweet to watch. And a factoid I found out the two male leads have been married to each other since 2016

A Glenbrooke Christmas: I liked that while they made her an heiress she was not the spoiled must have everything this way one. She was community oriented and wanted to use her money and connections for good. I also liked that the grandfather was very supportive and wasn't the "you must follow in line" mean kind of grandfather. Overall I enjoyed it.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah: A good Hanukkah movie and I rated it high enough. I did think Ben Savage was a wee bit too toned down. The lead woman did IMO do a convincing job of reflecting the struggles with finding out things about the family you never knew. I liked how they all embraced her with open arms and she with them.

The Christmas Listing: This is from Lifetime but it's not one they produced and it feels like it so I'm guessing they just added it to beef up their offerings. I watched it without my husband. It was honestly a boring-ish movie until ehh almost 3/4th of the way through. I have a lower tolerance for Lexi Giovagnoli where there's only a few of her movies can I actually stand her. But the last 1/4th of the movie I liked. I still rated it low (a 5/10) because most of the movie was blah. It's easily skippable IMO.

On the 12th Date of Christmas: This was a good movie. Someone mentioned a while back that it seemed Hallmark was taming down the angst and that this one was an example I agree she didn't just run away after thinking the promotion was lost. I loved how they came up with the clues together. It's a cute idea I could see done IRL. I liked how he was vouching for her to get the promotion giving her the credit for coming up with most of the clues.

Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas: This was a good enough addition. I think I need to rewatch it because I felt like I missed a few things here and there. I liked the mystery behind it. I read some reviews on IMDb that kept mentioning this is a movie that might have been better to leave the mystery part unsolved...you know I kinda agree. But maybe next year I'll catch it again and pick up the pieces I feel I missed.

Christmas in Paris: This is from UP from last year's lineup. I watched it without my husband. It's an adaptation from a Harlequin romance novel (which is what UP has been doing lately). It just wasn't very good and I found myself hardly paying attention to it.

 

[Imzadi]

Merry

Christmas
Everyone!​

Remember: Hallmark & HMM are commercial free until 8pm ET tonight. Every movie will be an uninterrupted 1½ instead of 2 hours.

If there is a favorite new movie you want to keep on your DVR, or a one you haven't watched yet, you may want to re-record the commercial free version.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Took a break from the Hallmark movies for classics over the last couple of days. - DH and I always watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve, and we currently have on the “A Christmas Story” marathon waiting for DS to wake up. (Quite the reversal from when he was little!)

 

[Imzadi]

Lori Loughlin was released from prison today. It was speculated a few weeks back that she might be released on Christmas eve. She ended up doing the full 2 months. Her final two weeks were in isolation as COVID is rampant in that prison. The isolation was a health measure, making sure prisoners are released to the public COVID-free. She still also must serve two years of supervised release, perform 100 hours of community service and pay a fine of $150,000.

Lori's DH is still in prison for several months and was ordered to serve two years of supervised release, perform 250 hours of community service and pay a $250,000 fine.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/us/lori-loughlin-prison-release/index.html

Now comes the countdown to see if the public eventually forgives her and says she did her time and that she is able to come back to When Calls the Heart and other Hallmark projects.

How do you guys feel about this? Will you watch her if she's back on Hallmark?

Too soon to ask?

 

[skeeter31]

Lori Loughlin was released from prison today. It was speculated a few weeks back that she might be released on Christmas eve. She ended up doing the full 2 months. Her final two weeks were in isolation as COVID is rampant in that prison. The isolation was a health measure, making sure prisoners are released to the public COVID-free. She still also must serve two years of supervised release, perform 100 hours of community service and pay a fine of $150,000.

Lori's DH is still in prison for several months and was ordered to serve two years of supervised release, perform 250 hours of community service and pay a $250,000 fine.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/us/lori-loughlin-prison-release/index.html

Now comes the countdown to see if the public eventually forgives her and says she did her time and that she is able to come back to When Calls the Heart and other Hallmark projects.

How do you guys feel about this? Will you watch her if she's back on Hallmark?

Too soon to ask?

I don’t think she’ll be back on Hallmark ever. Hallmark has done way too much to distance themselves completely from her, even never airing the episodes of WCTH prior to her departure. Will she have a comeback somewhere else, definitely,. I could see Netflix or even Lifetime picking her up. But I think her Hallmark career is over forever.

I mean, I’d watch her on WCTH, as long as her 2 adopted kids come back with her on that show. But I just can’t see Hallmark, with their stances on a lot of things, ever welcoming her back.

 

[Imzadi]

So I’m watching Lifetime’s Spotlight on Christmas. It’s cute but I’m disconcerted because Kimberly Sustad is playing “paparazzi.” It’s so weird to see a leading actress barely appearing...I do hope that means she’ll have her own Lifetime movie next Christmas

I watched Spotlight on Christmas. I liked it. I paid more attention to look for Kimberly as you mentioned she was in it. I almost missed her as she really was a blip on the screen near the beginning.

I *think* I may have the answer as to why Kimberly was in it at all. I think she is good friends with the director, Ali Liebert. Ali is mainly an actress. My favorite Hallmark movie of hers is when she plays a person working in a bookstore. She rides a bicycle to work and accidentally mows down the male lead, who ends up with amnesia. They spend the rest of the movie trying to get his memory back, while falling in love.

When Kimberly was starring as the lead in movies years ago, I noticed Ali played the best friend. Then when Ali started getting the starring roles, I noticed Kimberly was cast as her best friend. They've been in a few movies together. So they may have become actual friends in real life.

Ali may have cast Kimberly and it was originally a bigger role. Paying more attention due to your post, I noticed that there was another reporter staked out at the hotel towards the latter half of the movie that could have been a dead ringer for Kimberly. Same hair color and length, and she looked a lot like her. If viewers didn't recognize Kimberly as the paparazzi reporter, they might have thought it was the same actress and the same character.

When Kimberly filmed her scene, it was a crowd scene, with a lot of other paparazzi around. So, it may have been shot pre-COVID. Production may have stopped filming mid-movie, and when they started shooting again, Kimberly may have been busy filming her own Hallmark film at that time, or she wasn't willing to leave her pandemic bubble in which she and fellow actor/writer/producer Paul Campbell were in together, possibly still writing, to do the rest of Ali's film. She would have probably had to quarantine again before going back to her other pandemic bubble, and have lost too much time.

So, Ali re-cast the reporter role at the end with another actress.

 

[PollyannaMom]

This morning, I watched "A Dog Named Christmas" - thanks to whoever recommended that one! It was very good.

And yesterday, I finished typing all my recent ratings into my spreadsheet, plus the names of the movies still in my DVR, so I can just check the boxes as I watch a few more.