Christmas in the City (2013)

Christmas in the City (2013)

Director:

Marita Grabiak

Starring:

Ashley Williams

Ashanti

Jon Prescott

Plot:

With the threat of having to close her father’s candy store, Wendy and her six-year-old daughter Grace travel to the big city in hopes of making extra holiday cash to save their family store. When she’s offered a job in the toy department of Wolman’s, the city’s biggest department store, Wendy can’t wait! Her excitement doesn’t last long when the store’s new corporate fixer, Teanna, progressively destroys the Christmas spirit throughout the store, replacing Santa with hunky male underwear models surrounded by elfin “babes.” What no one is aware of is that Teanna has in fact sacked the real Santa. Wendy reaches out to the old man, but it seems even he is giving up hope. With her daughter losing faith in the holiday, Wendy realizes the true meaning of Christmas needs to return to Wolman’s before it is too late.

Review:

Wendy, Ashley Williams, is about as good girl as you can get. She’s doing everything she can to keep her parents business open including heading to the big bad city to work in retail which apparently will save a small business. I thought the department store was actually pretty cool, they did Christmas bonuses for everyone and had daycare free for employees and shoppers. Honestly, that right there is a Christmas miracle.

Tom, Jon Prescott, was as handsome as you want in your Christmas movies, he could also sing and play the piano. That combined with a family business makes him the perfect Christmas male lead. The only thing he was missing was a royal title.

Wendy had a daughter that was completely unbelievable, there is no child that cute and perfect. They also kept showing flashes of her mother looking distraught while working with an accountant which was supposed to show how dire the situation was, but I thought that could have been better done through phone calls.

Wendy and Tom worked well together, though, like usual their romance progressed superfast. However, things didn’t end with a proposal, more like a promise of actual dates.

The movie was cute, but I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I think, and I know this is hard to believe, but I think I’m all sweet Christmas movied out. There was a lot of implied religious overtones, even though there was lots of Santa, and that didn’t help either.

3/5

 

Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Director:

Ernie Barbarash

Starring:

Eliza Taylor

Jake Lacy

Andie MacDowell

Plot:

Before ambitious heiress Ellen Langford can inherit her father’s gift business, she must deliver a special Christmas card to her dad’s former partner in Snow Falls, the hometown she never knew. When a snowstorm strands her at the town inn, she’s forced to work for her keep, and in the process, finds romance and discovers the true gift of Christmas.

Review:

Christmas Inheritance started off with Ellie, Eliza Taylor, performing a cartwheel and flashing her underwear to everyone. Not exactly a glowing start. It wasn’t necessarily downhill from there, but it definitely didn’t improve.

The acting and premise were both great for a Christmas movie but the writing was pretty bad. The dialog specifically was very groan worthy. I was really disappointed because the production value was clearly more than most Christmas movies, but they really dropped the ball with relationship development.

Ellie is a good person, but she’s been spoiled. She’s given a task to prove to her father that she’s capable, it’s silly and doesn’t really prove anything and if all you had to do was deliver a letter to become CEO everyone would be doing it, but this is a Christmas movie turn off your brain.

What bothers me is the “romance” that was supposed to develop. There was no chemistry between the two leads. I did appreciate the fact that she stopped him from kissing her since she was engaged and the fiancé didn’t seem that bad just from first impressions. He of course showed up and revealed himself to be a true “city person,” but I don’t fault him for his actions. He was engaged to someone who acted a certain way and then completely changed once exposed to a different world. Whatever, their relationship ended quickly and she ran back to the new guy.

Dead parent, check.

Discovering the true meaning of Christmas, check.

Carolers, check.

Horrible past relationship, check.

Honestly, I was tempted not to give this movie the extra Christmas movie star because it annoyed me so much, but whatever, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood.

3/5

Marry Us For Christmas (2014)

Marry Us For Christmas (2014)

Director:

Drew Powell

Starring:

Malinda Williams

Victoria Rowell

Karon Riley

Plot:

In the sequel to the popular UP Original Movie Marry Me For Christmas, it’s a year after Marci and Blair declared their love for each other and decided to tie the knot. But as the big day approaches, Marci is so consumed with work that she hasn’t had time to plan her wedding. To make matters worse, she may have to team up with former assistant/fake fiancé Adam to win a project she’s been vying for – a little tidbit she hasn’t shared with Blair. But Blair, as it turns out, has a secret of his own. Thanks to years of doing pro bono work for financially-strapped clients, he quickly is running out of cash and might have to accept an offer to work for his longtime nemesis, Marci’s manipulative cousin Preston. Meanwhile, Marci’s mother Stephanie is making some rather bold moves of her own with her sexy salsa teacher, Antonio, who’s more than a little smitten with her – and about 20 years her junior. Will there be a wedding for Christmas? Better yet – whose wedding will it be?

Review:

This one was not as good as the first, but then I expect a dip with sequels, especially made for TV ones. The only really glaring mistake was that in the last movie she said she worked in Chicago but in this one it was New York. Everything else, character wise, and history wise was the same.

The big issue in this movie was a lack of communication. It’s one of my least favorite tropes because literally all the problems in the story can be solved if the two main characters talk to each other. It’s lazy writing. At least we had the mother’s side plot dating a younger man. That was interesting and unexpected, too bad it ended in the predictable manner.

I was kind of annoyed with the depiction of women and the male female relationship. However, I did like that the Uncle didn’t tell Blair what to do, just pointed out his options. The aunt did the same thing with Marcie which I liked.

Even with the dip in quality I’m interested to see how this is going to develop and I’m going to watch the next one.

3/5

Marry Me For Christmas (2013)

Marry Me For Christmas (2013)

Director:

Roger Melvin

Starring:

Victoria Rowell

Malinda Williams

Karon Riley

Plot:

To appease her family during the holidays, a single woman pretends to be engaged to her employee.

Review:

I like that this movie has sequels, more of these types should. It’s very family focused and a bit light on the romance. The tried and true trope of pretend engagement, is always a favorite though this one didn’t play out very realistically. There was not much affection between the two, though, they tried to imply that it was supposed to develop because the guy was trying to take her business. What’s awesome, though, is that they embraced that and the family realized what was going on.

Painfully sung Christmas carols, check. Oh my goodness, I had to mute it, it hurt so bad. It was intentional so don’t feel bad.

Overbearing family that means well and are all pretty nice, check.

Overheard conversations, check.

Multiple marriage proposals, check.

4/5

El Camino Christmas (2017)

El Camino Christmas (2017)

Netflix Original

Director:

David E. Talbert

Starring:

Vincent D’Onofrio

Tim Allen

Jessica Alba

Plot:

The project, scripted by Melfi and writer Chris Wehner, is about a young man (Grimes) who seeks out a father he has never met and, through no fault of his own, ends up barricaded in a liquor store with five other people on Christmas Eve. The story takes place in the fictitious town of El Camino, NV.

Review:

Giant cluster fuck the movie. Everything that can go wrong basically does but it’s not funny in the slightest. So if that’s what you want this holiday season, a shootout in a gas station liquor store, involving incompetent cops, and a whole lot of booze then this is the movie for you.

It was depressing.

Tim Allen seemed to be phoning it in, though everyone else was pretty good. Vincent D’Onofrio did a bit of overacting, well maybe not, his character was a fucking asshole and a drunk so who knows. Ending was not very satisfying, though, I appreciated the epilogue. It was not a happy Christmas movie.

2/5