Movie Review: Holiday Mismatch, where moms are the real focus

7 stars. Enjoyed it.

Recent retiree Barbara (Beth Broderick) joins the town’s Christmas Committee to keep herself busy, but immediately clashes with Kath (Caroline Rhea). Barbara is stiff, on time and a wiz in a spreadsheet. Kath is a free spirit, and a bit nutty, but also full of Christmas joy. They both just so happen to have young, single children. The moms use an app for parents to match their kids (terrifying). Yes, the kids match on the app and quickly in real life.

This movie really focuses on two relationships, but in a unique way. In a shared A/B story, the mom’s relationship from enemies to friends, and the kid’s story from “fake dating” to actually dating take nearly equal screen time.

The chemistry between Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea is wonderful, obviously from their years of working together as aunts on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. They couldn’t have found better actors to take on these roles. Very authentic ribbing and timing.

Our romantic leads are Shane (Jon McLaren) and Lauren (Maxine Denis). They are great together and could have held the full focus of the story with more material.

My major nitpick is the fake dating. After Shane and Lauren go on a real date together, they decide to flip the script and fake date to get their parents to stop setting them up with people (which we never see happen by the way). There is no logical (or Christmas Magical) reason to make this decision. Just date, you hot people! That’s the way to go. The parents would have stopped meddling if you were really dating, and you definitely liked each other, so do that.

It’s refreshing to see Lauren working hard as a co-owner of her architecture firm and trying to get a project done. So often in Hallmark, we’d see her trying to get a promotion from a male CEO, or ice queen boss over Christmas. They also give a realistic reason why the building work needs to get done by the end of the year—building code changes on Jan. 1. I don’t know if it exactly works like that, but I applaud the effort.

Goofy notes

• Only one “witch” reference in the whole movie. I expected more.

• “Tying a dead plant to a car” is an interesting way to describe taking a Christmas Tree home.

• I need more of the Christmas rat. This seemed so whacky, and it worked because Shane was really all of us in that situation.

• Shane’s theater has a full kitchen behind the seating area, and they don’t shut off the lights during a performance. Hmm, I wonder why they are struggling.

• When you do karaoke for “Jingle Bells” you probably don’t need to stare quite so intently at the words on the screen.

• Trolly caroling isn’t a thing. Is it? Let’s get in a wooden bench trolly and hold fake sheet music and sing so nobody else can hear us.

• Why are we always Christmas caroling? Singing did not need to happen this much.

Cast kudos: This is a slam dunk-- Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea.

Alternative titles: Full Sabotage Christmas; Meddling Moms Christmas; UnMatched for Christmas

Originally aired on Hallmark Nov. 3; watch Nov. 7.

Movie Review: Our Holiday Story - thank goodness for the B story!

Six stars. Solid. Could be better

When you already know the ending of the A story, the movie needs to do a good job of showcasing the journey, since the destination is already set. Our Holiday Story brings us on this journey, but the stakes are low and does only a passable job at entertaining along the way. 

The A story is the retelling of how Dave (Warren Christie) and Nell (Nikki DeLoach) met 8 years earlier. When we first meet them they are together, married and parents. They are asked to retell this mild tale by the boyfriend of Dave’s daughter, who missed a train, forcing her boyfriend to meet the dad and step mom alone. 

If the story focused on their nearly decade old romance alone, we’d be in for a snoozefest, but never fear, the B story is here! Johanna (Sydney Scotia) and the aforementioned boyfriend Chris (Gavin Langelo) are having trouble (sorta) expressing their very strong and lasting love for eachother, because you know . . . when you really love someone in that mutual way, the real trouble is saying it . . . right?

Throw in a job title of comptroller, a Christmas festival, lots of talk of fruit cake and ugly sweaters, missed trains, dead phone batteries, and missed opportunities– oh, and constantly lying and you have the makings of a low stakes, albeit sweet movie. 

Cast Kudos: 9 stars for Sydney Scotia. She plays 16 and 24 (I think), well and differently. She’s just a joy to watch in this movie because she’s so happy with a great smile, but then things go south and you can feel that too. 

Alternative titles: A Christmas of Missed Chances; How a Comptroller stole Christmas; Meet the Christmas Parents. 

Originally aired Nov. 2 on Hallmark. Watched Nov.

2024 Christmas Movie Rating System

Each holiday movie will receive a rating by stars.

Movie Review: A Carol for Two. Final song, can’t save it

5 stars. Nope. Background noise only.

A final singing number, which is quite catchy and fun, was not enough to save this Broadway dud from getting cancelled from my theater list. Our leads, Violette (Ginna Claire Mason) and Alex (Jordan Litz) work at as singing servers in New York. They have dreams of making it big on Broadway and we’re supposed to be rooting for them.

The trouble is the Cyrano de Bergerac storyline where Alex feeds his cousin Brad (Gino Anania) all the info on Violette and somehow almost wins her over with his yule log (don’t ask, it ain’t sexy). As expected, it all comes crashing down.

Not to put too fine a point on this whole thing, but Brad is the worst. We could have had a helpless in love guy in this part, but he’s made to be an absolute fool and a pure annoyance to everyone who knows him. Not loveable, but quite creepy. This character rips a star or two off this movie.

I enjoyed Mason in A Holiday Spectacular (2022, 6 stars) and the under appreciated A Heidelberg Holiday (2023, 7 stars). When she sings the final song, it’s magic, but when she’s made to sing public domain holiday songs, it’s a waste.
Litz too, is better than the material he’s given. Let the man sing! I see leading man for many years to come, if given the right material.

Cast Kudos: Hallmark veteran John B. Lowe in a cameo as the glitzy producer. Love that guy.

Alternate titles: Christmas comes to Broadway. Cast for Christmas. Singing for supper.

Originally aired on Hallmark Nov. 1, 2024. Watched Nov. 2, 2024

Movie review: The 5-Year Christmas Party is worth the wait

7 stars. Enjoyed it.

In the 5-Year Christmas Party, two theater majors spend 5 consecutive Christmases in each other’s lives, acting out the highs and the lows of post-college. Unlike many Hallmark movies where a single act of kindness means forever love, this tale is grounded in the realities of real life. Things like jobs, family and dreams matter to the leads, and guide their decisions on relationships or other commitments. Aside from an ending that leaves a bit too much to the imagination, this is a solid, non-Old School Hallmark movie that I would recommend.

Our lead is Katie Findlay, who plays Alice, who really wants to make it in theater as a director. Our leading man is Jordan Fisher, who plays Max, an aspiring actor. Kudos all around. These two are great together and definitely play different versions of themselves over the course of 5-years. Success or failure is subtle, but they showcase the differences well.  

Credit to writer Zag Hug, a Hallmark vet, who also wrote the Ghosts of Christmas Always (9 stars), which is one of the best Hallmark movies of all time 

Major kudos to production on this one. Clearly on a budget, we re-use the same party house, kitchen, party venue, alley, parking lot and rooftop—and some of the same actors every year. They dress them up a little (emphasis on little) bit differently each time, but it’s reminiscent of a play where moving a chair or changing the lighting signals a different act. Also, the changing of the season montages were great.

This movie is more sincere than fun, which means realistic laughs, love and tears.

Goofy notes

• They really hate catering the law firm Christmas party. I need to know more!

• Forcing people to become carolers is not a real thing and nobody should do that.

•  I think Jordan Fisher must be wearing lifts, right? He’s great, but she’s pretty tall 

• They make a joke about oranges and scurvy. I don’t think it landed, but I applaud the effort.

• I love that they bonded over watching Ashley Williams (Hallmark) movies. Meta!

• I feel like these long gaps between seeing each other could have meant they might find another person to love. If I got ghosted for a year, I would probably not be so happy to see the person who did me dirty.

• What happened between Daniel (Jeff Avenue) and Micah (Olly Atkins)? They were together for years 2-4, then Micah is MIA in year five? Come on Hallmark. You gave us a gay couple and then didn’t stick the landing. Where’d he go?

Cast Kudos: The really, really bad mustache on Jeff Avenue for year 4. Just no.

Alternative titles: The show must go on, for 5-years; Catering my life story; Christmas Party Again; Alice and Max take the long way to love.

 Originally aired on Hallmark Oct. 27; watched Nov. 1.

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Movie Review: The Christmas Charade fooled me, so good on them

Six stars: Solid. Could be better.

Spoilers ahead

When librarian Whitney, accidently slips into a date with an undercover FBI agent who is trying to stop a jewel heist, she learns that she has more to offer than just fire-safety tips to kids at book readings. This caper flick is entertaining, funny and offers some actual emotions amongst the twisty hijinks.  

Rachel Skarsten plays our lead, coupled with Josh (Corey Sevier), playing the exact same tired character he always plays. Sorry, not a fan. Skarsten was the Nanny in The Royal Nanny (2022), which was a dreadful movie where she plays MI5 agent, who has to become a nanny. I guess law enforcement is her typecast?  But she’s very likeable in this one and surprisingly grounded. I’ll continue to watch her movies.

I called the bad guy from the minute we saw him, then turned out to be wrong. So, I love that I was fooled. Nice work there.

Goofy notes section

• They go to a Christmas store, which might as well be Hallmark’s Christmas set decoration department to meet Mrs. Claus who makes jewelry as her side hustle. She needs “a few hours” to make an intricate replica necklace complete with a tracking device. Christmas magic anyone?

• Whitney quotes Die Hard, while crawling through air vents. Then declares it the best Christmas movie ever. A bit on the nose, but I’m here for it.

• The game night scene with the parents brings some actual emotion thanks to slow motion looks at our leading man, even if it is Sevier. Museum flag poles are very strong to hold two full grown adults. Bonus issue here—Josh doesn’t wear any hand protection while sliding down a rope for five or more stories from the rooftop.

• The jewel thief made a curious choice by asking a stranger to help plan the event where she steals multiple artifacts.

Questions remaining

• Was the thief’s hubby in on it, or just a finance guy?

Cast Kudos: The very brief appearance of Jefferson Brown, better known as Colton Landry from The Way Home. He plays an agent of some kind jumping from a roof in a TV movie Whitney watches in the opening of this movie. How is that for foreshadowing?

Alternative Titles: Steal the Heart of Christmas; FBI Blind Date; Stop My Parents are Retired FBI!

Originally aired Oct. 26 on Hallmark; watched Oct. 27.

Movie Review: Operation Nutcracker

Four stars: Not good. Sad face.

When a movie has the word “operation” in the title, it’s usually a sure bet that it will have some sort of detailed, military-style plan at the center of its plot. Not this movie. The operation is “let’s go look for a guy named Dave and keep missing him, because he has our nutcracker.”

In order for a charity ball to make enough money to build a new hospital wing, the nice rich folks are auctioning off an antique nutcracker. Yes, whatever someone will bid on this nutcracker will build an entire hospital in Boston. It’s so fancy in fact that it’s brought to Boston in a plain-Jane carry-on bag on a commercial flight. Oh, yeah, and it’s just wrapped in a towel—not locked case for protection. Oh, and our dopey leading man allows the bag to be checked and loses it. Yeah, this movie plot is not great.

A few things to watch for if you want to give it a go.

• The fake beard on our leading man in the first act of the movie

• The random men (I counted three) who are dancing/swaying alone in the final dance scene

• On the nose mentions of meet-cute and rom-coms

• Why is Ashley Newbrough always single? She seems so nice.

Cast Kudos: Nobody really stands out, but it’s interesting that Patrice Goodman and Darryl Hinds (Dave) both were secondary players in ‘Twas the Date Before Christmas. Which aired on Hallmark the weekend before this nutty movie.

Alternative Titles: What happens when you don’t use luggage tags; Hospital wings don’t cost a thing; Where’s Dave?; How to lose a Nutcracker in 7 days.

Aired: Oct. 25 on Hallmark. Watched Oct. 24.

Movie Review: Scouting for Christmas

Six Stars: Solid. Could be better.

Full disclosure—I was going to skip this one, but I’m glad I didn’t. Scouting for Christmas was a charming non-traditional family story. It didn’t break new ground but was perfectly enjoyable.

Ten-year-old Brooklyn (Audrey Wise Alvarez) is a Sunny Scout and loves baked goods and the guy who bakes them, Sir Bakes-A-Bunch, William (Carlo Marks). Brooklyn’s single mom Angela (Tamera Mowry-Housley), is a busy real estate agent who doesn’t like asking for help. She shows up late to things, which is apparently her worst quality as a human. Other than that, she’s pretty great.

Brooklyn and Angela enlist Sir Bakes-A-Bunch to audition to be the caterer/goodie table guy for the Sunny Scout holiday ball. The relationship building centers around that story line.

We also meet Dakota (James Paladino) who is Brooklyn’s dad, but I’m convinced he is 75% Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper. Look him up, you’ll see it too.

The meanie is Den Mom Elizabeth (Jaycie Dotin). She is easy to root against in all things. She’s judgy and snooty to a “working” mom who can’t possibly be a good mom, work and show up to things on time.

This is set in Washington state. They keep showing images of snowy Seattle. That’s not really a thing. We have other cities here, too. Maybe visit Leavenworth if you need a snowy Washington town. Also, nobody here has ever said “tri-state area,” if anything they would say, “the Northwest” which covers Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Also, we drink coffee (home of Starbucks), not tea.

Funniest line: When Brooklyn is asked what she wants for Christmas, she replies that she wants her dad to come home and her mom to be fun. Brooklyn’s friend replies, “Whoa. That’s deep. I want an electric scooter.”

Cast Kudos: Brooklyn (Audrey Wise Alvarez). She’s a very good child actor who is really the driving force of the whole movie.

Alternative Titles: Those who bake a lot, love a lot; Sunny Scout Ball;  A baker for Christmas; Christmas Matchmaker Meritt Badge

Originally aired on Hallmark Channel: Oct. 20. Watched: Oct. 26