Hallmark Movies ❤️ comfort & joy

[PrincessShmoo]

I loved Five Star Christmas! It's one of my favorites for this year.

I had to turn in off about 1/2 way in. I just couldn't stand the bad acting they were doing in trying to be other people. That is the character's bad acting, not the actors portraying the "real" people. Does that make sense? That and the frantic "OH. MY. GOD." feeling everyone had when they are scrambling around trying to be those other people.

Spoiler

I did figure out early on that Jake was the travel reviewer.

 

[Imzadi]

I had to turn in off about 1/2 way in. I just couldn't stand the bad acting they were doing in trying to be other people. That is the character's bad acting, not the actors portraying the "real" people. Does that make sense? That and the frantic "OH. MY. GOD." feeling everyone had when they are scrambling around trying to be those other people.

Spoiler

I did figure out early on that Jake was the travel reviewer.

To me, it worked because ALL the actors committed to that kind of acting and it became an over the top, farcical style movie. It was obvious that the actors were having a blast playing it and we were along for the ride.

It DIDN'T work, IMO, in Holiday Date, which also had a character playing someone else, as only Matt Cohen, the lead actor, acted that way, and everyone else was playing their hearts out being very realistic. That movie was gruelingly bad to me. I felt for the lead actress as this was her first lead role in a Hallmark movie. And instead of being one of the favorites, I think it will be shunted quickly to the movies they show late at night to fill in those time slots.

As for the spoiler:

Spoiler: Spoiler about the spoiler

As soon as the male lead showed up, yes, it was obvious he wasn't the travel writer. Hallmark is simplistic in that way. If this was a full feature film, I suspect they would have had 3 male guests, all major stars, and one would have to guess which one is the one the lead actress goes for, and is he the travel writer, as all the parts would be fleshed out much better. As in, is the travel writer George Clooney or Brad Pitt?

 

[RamblingMad]

Christmas Chronicles Part Two on Netflix is good. I'd say it's better than the original.

A foreign language Christmas show hit Netflix that might be worth checking out if you're good with subtitles.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We just finished Christmas by Starlight. It was cute and I enjoy the leads together (they've been in at least one other movie together). I don't think it's as high rated for me as it presently is on IMDb (7.8 on there) but it's still a good one. I noticed that that conversations seemed to flow at a more natural pace most of the time and that made the movie flow well.

 

[Imzadi]

The ION Channel starts their Sunday (only) Christmas movies today.

Edited: ION has added next Saturday to their schedule. Maybe it will be each Saturday until Christmas.

My favorite ION movie from a few years ago is their version of A Cinderella Christmas. It's on at 11 am ET.
It re-airs on 12/6 at 11 pm ET.

 

[PollyannaMom]

The ION Channel starts their Sunday (only) Christmas movies today.

My favorite ION movie from a few years ago is their version of A Cinderella Christmas. It's on at 11 am ET.
It re-airs on 12/6 at 11 am ET.

Thanks! I just set that to record, as well as one called Christmas Mail.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I watched The Christmas Doctor this morning, and really liked it! I figured out the “secret” pretty early (they were fairly liberal with the hints, and I knew from this thread to watch for something) - but that didn't detract from the enjoyment for me.

 

[Imzadi]

The ION Channel starts their Sunday (only) Christmas movies today.

My favorite ION movie from a few years ago is their version of A Cinderella Christmas. It's on at 11 am ET.
It re-airs on 12/6 at 11 pm ET.

I forgot to mention:

ION has 4 original Christmas movies premiering at 7pm ET on Sundays.

The first one is tonight.

It's called A Royal Engagement.

It re-airs on Saturday, 12/5.

ION has added next Saturday to their schedule. Maybe it will be each Saturday until Christmas.

 

[Imzadi]

Third post about ION.

Add an extra minute to the end of recording ION movies, the same as for Lifetime. I recall when I record stuff on that channel, the last several seconds gets cut off.

 

[skeeter31]

Watched Christmas Waltz today. Very good. Had low expectations of this one as the commercials made it look kind of slow and disappointing, but it was really well done.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Finished watching Northern Lights of Christmas. Loved the town like most Hallmark movies seemed so friendly and idyllic. Would freeze their though! I thought it took Zoey forever to accept what her heart already knew that Aurora was home. I enjoyed some of the supporting town characters perhaps more than the main characters.

 

[sasywtch]

I saw a promo for Lacey Chabert's new movie. She's paired up with Will Kemp again, for a second time. But, it appears he plays again, a very stuck up, stuffy guy. In this movie, he teaches her to ballroom dance.

I thought I would have so loved to have seen Aaron Tveit in this role instead. Give Will the stuffy, European prince role that Aaron had a couple weeks ago, as Will just seems to only be able to play stuffy, not very emotionally open roles.

Then I wondered if Will Kemp can even dance? So I Googled him. It turns out he's a very accomplished, professional ballet dancer. He also turned down a lucrative modelling contract with Giorgio Armani, citing he didn't want to be thought to be a model as opposed to an actor.

Then I decided to Google a dance role he did, as his photos show him to be a lot looser than the stuffy roles we've seen him in on Hallmark.

WHOA!!!! WHERE THE HECK IS THIS GUY??? WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A BIT OF HIM IN A HALLMARK ROLE???

I didn't think that he was stuck up and stuffy in the new movie.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I didn't think that he was stuck up and stuffy in the new movie.

Me, either. I rather liked their interaction. Definitely one of my favorites this year.

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.

I also ran across an oldie that I like, "Home By Christmas" from 2006 on a local PBS station.

 

[mandy200587]

Don't forget the ABC holiday singalong is on tonight along with country christmas

 

[skeeter31]

Me, either. I rather liked their interaction. Definitely one of my favorites this year.

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.

I also ran across an oldie that I like, "Home By Christmas" from 2006 on a local PBS station.

Agree on If I Only Had Christmas. We haven’t watched a Candace Cameron Bure movie in a few years as she just grates on us. But we watched this one. It was ok. But definitely over the top with the Oz references.

Also just watched Christmas by Starlight and that was excellent. Up there with a Timeless Christmas for my favorite of the year. Chemistry between Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad was really good (they actually wrote the movie together too). Had a lot of laughs too.

 

[Imzadi]

I didn't think that he was stuck up and stuffy in the new movie.

Good. From the promo, when he was telling Lacey to take the dance lessons by herself instead of giving her a refund, I thought maybe he was playing the same type of character he did when he was the stuffy chocolatier or the reluctant prince in need of a wife, with Bethany Joy Lenz.

 

[Imzadi]

Also just watched Christmas by Starlight and that was excellent. Up there with a Timeless Christmas for my favorite of the year. Chemistry between Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad was really good (they actually wrote the movie together too). Had a lot of laughs too.

In August, for their movie about going to 4 wedding together, during the Zoom interviews that Hallmark does now with the actors during the movies, Paul and Kimberly were actually sitting together for the interview instead of each having a separate Zoom screen.

I wondered if those two were married or dating, and I just didn't know they were a real couple in real life. It turns out they are both married to other people, but were in the same pandemic bubble. They must have been working on rewrites or filming for the Starlight movie.

 

[Imzadi]

Lifetime has an extra new movie to record tonight called The Christmas Listing. If you already missed starting to record it. (It's on now.) You have another chance in 4 hours, at 12:00 am ET.

It also re-airs on Fri, 12/4 at 6pm ET, and on Sun 12/6 at 10:03 pm ET.

 

[Imzadi]

If Lori Loughlin started making Christmas movies again, would you watch them?

Today, it was announced that Felicity Huffman is set to film, as the lead, in a new TV series. ABC doesn't know if it will air the show, but they, at least, for now, are giving her a chance to make a comeback.

IF Felicity is successful in making a comeback, that she's been forgiven as she did the time for her crime, it paves the way for Lori to possibly come back too.

Would you watch Lori's new movies? And/or if Hallmark starts re-airing her old Christmas movies and past seasons of When Calls the Heart, or even adds her character back on, would you watch?

 

[Snowflakey]

My favorite Hallmark Christmas movie is MISS CHRISTMAS and I'm so excited how many times they have aired it this year. If you haven't seen it you need to watch it.!!!