The Christmas Promise | 2021 Christmas Movies

Is this based on a book? This movie feels like it was based on a book.

Nicole (Torrey DeVitto) lost the love of her life, Alan (Matthew James Dowden), in a snowy car accident. A year later, she is arranging to sell the house and business they owned together. She hires Joe (Dylan Bruce) to finish the renovations on the house so it can be put on the market. With the help of her grandfather (Patrick Duffy), Nicole learns how to deal with her grief.

One of the reasons I asked if this is based on a book is that the title makes no sense. As far as I can tell, there was no promise in The Christmas Promise. It’s even a stretch to say that she’s promising to live her life instead of wallowing in grief. There is just no promising going on here.

Despite the lack of promises, it is a cute movie. It would have been nice to actually see a little more of Nicole’s grief. She will frequently say she is sad but she doesn’t look very sad. They could have easily done a voiceover of sorts where she maybe cries herself to sleep or if she got lost in thought looking at his spot on the bed or something. The way her grief is played works, it just doesn’t work very well.

I did like that Joe backed off when he realized how he was kind of manipulating her emotionally. There’s a section where Nicole is texting a mysterious person who now owns Alan’s phone number. She doesn’t realize that it’s Joe and when Joe realizes that he’s been texting Nicole, he removes himself from the situation. This is probably the one and only time I won’t chide a movie for avoiding a simple conversation. Joe was right - Nicole might have thought he was playing with her emotions.

Promise is going to be a difficult one to recommend. Mostly because it is heavily dependent on death and grief. If something like that isn’t going to make you feel bad, then go ahead and watch this. But if a movie about grief is going to make you feel miserable, skip it. It’s good but not that good.

Christmas in Harmony | 2021 Christmas Movies

I really wish Hallmark (and all of the other channels) would pick better names for their movies. And don’t tell me that Hallmark has no say in the titles. They have renamed movies before. Christmas in Harmony sounds nice until you realize that there was a 2018 Lifetime movie called Christmas Harmony and that the female lead in this movie is named Harmony. This is less the title of a Hallmark movie and more the title of an X-rated film.

Harmony (Ashleigh Murray) was just fired from her job at a music publishing company. When she goes home for Christmas, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Kyle (Luke James). The exes get talked into co-directing the local church choir for the annual Christmas fundraising concert. Harmony’s big name client, Melo D (Michelle Williams), is having trouble getting to their small town to help save the church. Kyle tricks Harmony into singing the big solo herself, giving her the self-confidence she needs to become a singer on her own.

While this is yet another movie that doesn’t really have anything to say, Harmony at least offers some nice music. If anything, the problem with the movie is that there isn’t enough music. With a title like Christmas in Harmony and promo graphics with music notes all over, you should be begging them to stop singing. Instead, the chorus sings a few times, Kyle performs part of a song, Melo D (which is a dumb name) tries a piece of a song, and there’s the finale where Harmony sings a song then everyone sings a song together. That may sound like a lot of music but it’s really not. We see more about the crappy world of music publishing than we do hearing music.

With all of that said, it is a pretty decent movie. Just pretend it’s called something else. Harmony of Christmas would have been better and sounded less pornographic. Or maybe The Harmony in Christmas. Just be sure to leave me a comment with your name for the movie.

The Santa Stakeout | 2021 Christmas Movies

Before I even start talking about The Santa Stakeout, can we address how dirty someone did Tamera Mowry-Housley in this pic? Her face does not look like that. She is a very pretty woman. She does not need to be photoshopped like this.

Tanya (Mowry-Housley) is a police detective that recently moved to Denver. After a string of thefts from high-profile holiday parties, she goes undercover with her new partner, Ryan (Paul Campbell), to catch the crook.

I don’t think that I have seen a police-themed Christmas movie recently. I can understand why it isn’t done more often. There isn’t a lot of police work going on here. As a matter of fact, when the partners go to set up their stakeout house, Tanya begins decorating it for Christmas the minute she sets foot in the door. It makes sense when they are forced to play the parts of a newlywed couple but before that? They were supposed to be hidden. Christmas decorations aren’t exactly what you use when you want to hide.

Stakeout isn’t a particularly interesting movie, to be honest. It felt like Campbell wanted to portray his character like a discount Joel McHale but the snark that is in every McHale character just wasn’t there with Ryan. It just made him look like a jerk.

Eh, this is another one of those movies that is fine. Just fine. It’s not boring per se but I found myself playing games on my phone a lot. Everything felt very forced. Even the big romance at the end. There wasn’t anything in the rest of the movie that showed me these two were about to fall in love. There wasn’t a lot that showed me they even liked each other! Sure, they came to an understanding but that isn’t the same as enjoying someone’s company. Give it a watch if you are a fan of Tamera. Otherwise, it’s probably best as background noise as you do chores.

Boyfriends of Christmas Past | 2021 Christmas Movies

Last year, Hallmark gave us the very terrible A Nashville Christmas Carol. This year they gave us another twist with Boyfriends of Christmas Past. I hope this one is better than last year’s.

Lauren (Catherine Haena Kim) and Nate (Raymond Ablack) have been best friends since college. No matter what Lauren has gone through, Nate has been by her side. Unfortunately, Lauren is afraid of long-term commitment. As Nate gets ready to reveal his true feelings to her, Lauren is visited by the memories of three past boyfriends who show her how she pushes away anyone that wants to be close to her. Can she overcome her fears before it is too late?

While Boyfriends does share some similarities with Nashville, this year’s foray into A Christmas Carol does it better. Both movies let go of the ghosts of Christmas Present and Christmas Future to focus on Christmas Past. However, that is entirely the point of Boyfriends. Lauren is blind to the fact that every time a boyfriend wants to move their relationship to the next level, she bails. The boyfriend spirits/memories even keep pointing out how she runs to Nate every time she breaks up with someone and Nate is always there to help her pick up the pieces.

To be honest, my only real gripe about the movie is how Nate has been basically throwing himself at Lauren the entire time they have known each other and he hasn’t given up yet. The movie doesn’t tell us how many years have passed since college. There’s only vague references like “so many years ago” or “after all these years.” I’m pretty sure they have known each other for at least eight years. There were three boyfriends - the first she dated during her junior year of college for at least a year, we do get that much information; the second was after college and asked her to move in with him, so that had to be a couple of years at least; and the third was asking her to marry him, so that had to be another couple of years. Why wouldn’t Nate try to confess his feelings earlier? Why would he stick around for so long pining after her? It’s pretty obvious that he isn’t happy with the current status of their relationship.

Since this is a Hallmark movie, that one issue is pretty small. The characters are fleshed out a little more than most Hallmark movies so it’s easy to overlook. It’s a safe bet that this will be one of the better Hallmark Christmas movies this year. Give it a watch. At the very least, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is always entertaining.

You, Me, and the Christmas Trees | 2021 Christmas Movies

Hallmark begins their Countdown to Christmas with a bit of a sad note. You, Me, and the Christmas Trees is Danica McKellar’s last Hallmark movie for awhile. She has signed a deal with the new GAC Family channel, which runs through 2023. I believe her first GAC Family movie will premiere in January 2022.

Jack (Benjamin Ayres) runs his family’s Christmas tree business. When the needles start falling off the trees within hours of being cut, he turns to famous evergreen arborist Olivia (Danica McKellar). Can she save his trees before the Christmas deadline?

On one hand, this was an interesting take on the Christmas tree romance trope. Usually the tree salesperson (usually a man but not always) is big into the Christmas spirit and deems it necessary to school the romantic interest about “what Christmas is really about.” On the other hand, the movie was still fairly boring. Let me elaborate.

Olivia is a scientist and she does sciency things in the movie. However, science takes time. So there are way too many times where Olivia has to say “Now we wait 10 hours.” or “We can do a test! But it will take two weeks…” I don’t think the traditional Hallmark viewer would want to see the science behind solving tree problems but I think it would be more interesting than watching Olivia and Jack build gingerbread trees or use science to come up with the best Christmas drink.

Even though You, Me, and the Christmas Trees wasn’t the best Christmas movie ever, it was quite watchable. I enjoy watching McKellar on the screen. She didn’t seem to have a ton of on-screen chemistry with Ayres so the movie does rely on her heavily. He’s a bit…bland, to say the least. I don’t think there was ever a point where he actually showed an emotion.

I know there is a group of people that really don’t like Danica McKellar. Those people probably shouldn’t watch this. But if you enjoy her acting, this is for you. Don’t expect a whole lot from the rest of the cast though.