Hallmark Movies ❤️ comfort & joy

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Just a notation it looks like UP bought a lot of their movies, old movies too and they bought some prior ION movies...you guys remember ION had pretty poor quality movies and it looks like after the 2022 holiday season ION stopped doing holiday movies.

All to say don't expect high quality from them this year, not trying to be debbie downer but it's possible you've already seen or talked about many of 2024's UP's selection since this thread has started back in 2020 because of them purchasing so many old stuff. I know we've for sure mentioned some of these Ion movies in the past.

Country Roads Christmas is from 2022 and has been at my library system for years now.

Christmas in Rockwell is from 2022 and has been at my library system for years now.

A Very English Christmas is from 2023, 12 Dares of Christmas is from 2023 and available at my local library

I'm not positive if A Christmas Thief is the same as Ion's 2021 The Christmas Thief (5.7/10 on IMDb) The descriptions are pretty similar but it could be a newer movie. Same for A Holiday Hideout looks like it might be Ion's 2021 A Christmas Witness (5.4/10 on IMDb) but would want the actors and actresses names for verification.

The following movies are from for sure ION's network and aired during the 2022 Christmas season
The Case of the Christmas Diamond (5.3/10 on IMDb)
Dognapped: Hound for the Holidays (4.5/10 on IMDb)
A Prince and Pauper Christmas (5.5/10 on IMDB)
The Search for Secret Santa (5.6/10 on IMDB)

 

[Imzadi]

Just a notation it looks like UP bought a lot of their movies, old movies too and they bought some prior ION movies...you guys remember ION had pretty poor quality movies and it looks like after the 2022 holiday season ION stopped doing holiday movies.

All to say don't expect high quality from them this year, not trying to be debbie downer but it's possible you've already seen or talked about many of 2024's UP's selection since this thread has started back in 2020 because of them purchasing so many old stuff.

Thanks for the heads up. I wondered how UPtv has so many Christmas movies this year.

I'm not positive if A Christmas Thief is the same as Ion's 2021 The Christmas Thief (5.7/10 on IMDb) The descriptions are pretty similar but it could be a newer movie. Same for A Holiday Hideout looks like it might be Ion's 2021 A Christmas Witness (5.4/10 on IMDb) but would want the actors and actresses names for verification.

Ugh! I remember watching these on ION. That was the last year I posted their movies to this thread as the movies were so bad.

 

[Imzadi]

Have any of you done a free trial of FRNDLY TV? I came across it last night and it looked interesting. The only thing I don't like about it is a credit card is required even for the free trial. I don't care for that but understand why it's done. Thanks, friends and Happy Friday.

The Frndly TV app is a very good app. It gets raved about by dozens of people in the various Hallmark Movies online groups. For 6.99 one gets all three Hallmark Channels plus Great American Family, Lifetime TV and UPtv. It's worth paying the extra $1 for the "Classic" tier and then one gets the DVR service and can watch the movies you've recorded at a later time, instead of having to watch them live. Sometime after Christmas one can cancel their membership, so you've only subscribed for a couple months.

https://try.frndlytv.com/

 

[elgerber]

The Frndly TV app is a very good app. It gets raved about in the by dozens of people in the various Hallmark movies online groups. For 6.99 one gets all three Hallmark Channels plus Great American Family, Lifetime TV and UPtv. It's worth paying the extra $1 for the "Classic" tier and then one gets the DVR service and can watch the movies you've recorded at a later time, instead of having to watch them live. Sometime after Christmas one can cancel their membership, so you've only subscribed for a couple months.

https://try.frndlytv.com/

I didn't do a trial, but I did pay for it until YouTubeTV picked up Hallmark. It is a great app, I completely agree. I had the dvr. I loved it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks for the heads up. I wondered how UPtv has so many Christmas movies this year.




Ugh! I remember watching these on ION. That was the last year I posted their movies to this thread as the movies were so bad.

I'm kinda shocked they did this many old movies and from such a terrible at holiday movies network but it means more recording space won't be used on my DVR I guess so that's a plus.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Also apologies in advance if this has been mentioned beyond the last few pages but if you have Netflix they got multiple Hallmark Christmas movies within the last week or so. I want to say 6,7, or 8 something like that are now viewable on Netflix. They are more recent movies though.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I kind of feel like movie-makers can't win. I hear people complain on other threads about remakes - saying writers need to come up with new stuff. But then here we are, complaining that new stuff is too complicated and not as good as old stuff.

I would love a lot more older movies as well. Happy and healthy November, friends

I agree with both of y'all.

For me I find the vibe and feel to the 2016 and before movies and going back into the 90s and early 2000s is what made me enjoy them more overall. Hallmark was a bit more IRL than today. I think expectations are different now but that also has led to feeling like each movie needs to have enough stuff to keep people's attention and they also interject IRL stuff but with more rose glasses to it. Those then feel tired because the similar plot points are then treated so similarly you might walk away cozy feeling but bored too.

An example I can think of is Our Christmas Journey (2021) primarily about Holly Robinson Peete's character learning to let her autistic son stand on his own. Overall I enjoyed the movie and felt while the subject matter is fresher especially as in recent years that aspect of diversity of showing disabilities has really amped up ,the way they handled it felt too "neat bow" style in the end. And then they had last year's A World Record Christmas which I liked overall but then felt a lot like Our Christmas Journey. While the autism was handled differently with Our Christmas Journey being about letting go of the strict reigns and A World Record Christmas being about achieving a dream despite the disability it still felt like we were not getting a more real raw feeling to the movies and the movies ended up feeling less sincere when put against each other at least to me.

To me that's why they might be struggling in how people feel as the years go on because the movies blur too much together without having enough stand apart. Also the fact that they want soooo many movies each year doesn't help, the quality will suffer the more you have to churn out in such a short time frame.

 

[Imzadi]

And then they had last year's A World Record Christmas which I liked overall but then felt a lot like Our Christmas Journey. While the autism was handled differently with Our Christmas Journey being about letting go of the strict reigns and A World Record Christmas being about achieving a dream despite the disability it still felt like we were not getting a more real raw feeling to the movies and the movies ended up feeling less sincere when put against each other at least to me.

To me that's why they might be struggling in how people feel as the years go on because the movies blur too much together without having enough stand apart.

Yes, I was hesitant to watch My Sweet Austrian Holiday as I thought it was going to be a carbon copy of Love, Romance & Chocolate but without with Lacey Chabert and I'd be feeling the whole time, "Where is Lacey?"

Then PrincessShmoo said it's basically the same storyline as Christmas By Starlight. And it is. Only the family restaurant has been changed to a family chocolate shop and the locale is loosely changed to Austria. But, it is the same exact plot.

Good, if one wants feel good, not weird surprises in one's Christmas movie watching. But, at the same time, it really does leave one hungry for something more, or deeper, or different. (All three if possible.)

And I'd much rather have less movies, yet more quality stories in the movies they do. I'd rather give up the glitz of the fancy sets, lighting, costumes and props for paying for better, more thoughtful stories like the older Hallmark movies everyone is talking about.

Some of the new movies geared toward younger audiences seem a bit different. Although, I'm not really sure I'm interested in some of those. I'm sure Hallmark finds it challenging to find movies to appeal to all their demographics.

 

[Imzadi]

The Hallmark+ Channel on YouTube has uploaded an official free sneak peak of their Episode 1 of their Finding Mr. Christmas series showing only on Hallmark+. They are hoping viewers will watch and then sign up for Hallmark+ to watch the rest of the series.

(Hallmark+ uploaded this, not a private poster who uploaded to YouTube. I know some people don't want to watch those uploads.)

You can alternately copy the link below, paste it into your browser and remove the space between youtube and .com to get the actual link. (The DIS automatically posts the video when, the actual full link is posted for YouTube.)

https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=iKBGZZqLBFc

 

[PollyannaMom]

Also the fact that they want soooo many movies each year doesn't help, the quality will suffer the more you have to churn out in such a short time frame.

That's a good point.