8-Bit Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

It’s time for HBO Max to throw themselves into the Christmas movie ring with 8-Bit Christmas. Can HBO even compete with the Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix Christmas juggernauts?

Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) wants a cell phone for Christmas. Her father, Jake (Neil Patrick Harris), decides to regale her with the story of how he received his beloved Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980s. The story doesn’t go quite the way Annie thinks it will.

I have seen people comparing this movie to A Christmas Story or Jingle All The Way. I can see the similarities that people are noticing but they aren’t really good comparisons. A Christmas Story is entirely told in flashback, like 8-Bit Christmas, but we never see Ralphie as an adult and it’s also a series of smaller stories within the big story of Ralphie trying to get a Red Ranger BB gun for Christmas. Jingle All The Way is the story of a father trying to get his kid the hot toy of the season. The parents in 8-Bit Christmas refuse to buy Jake the Nintendo he so desperately wants. Sure, both the Nintendo and the Turbo-Man action figure were “hot” toys for their respective eras but that is the only real comparison there.

Personally, I really enjoyed 8-Bit Christmas. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor - I did grow up in the 80s so this story pretty much hits me in my childhood. But it was also just fun. Winslow Fegley as young Jake is so emotive. It’s difficult to not feel disappointed when he’s disappointed or smile when he’s having fun with his friends. And he’s not the only one. All of the kid actors were really good. The only one I had difficulty connecting with was Jake’s younger sister, Lizzy (Bellaluna Resnick), which I think was intentional since Jake is the storyteller.

I don’t know that I would watch 8-Bit Christmas every year but I think I will show it to my daughter. It is some good family entertainment. Just keep in mind that it won’t end the way you think it will!

Baking Spirits Bright | 20201 Christmas Movies

A movie about how awesome fruitcake is. We’re really going there? OK, Lifetime. You’re the one that said it.

Varma Fruitcakes is a family-owned company that makes fruitcake. When her parents hire an outside marketing company for their holiday marketing, Mira (Rekha Sharma) is concerned that it will make the company look bad. Will her traditional values be reflected in Brady’s (Dion Johnstone) marketing campaign or will the company go bankrupt?

Let’s start with the truth here. Fruitcake is disgusting. No amount of marketing will make anyone under the age of 60 want to buy it. Your company should really branch out into other baked items.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Baking Spirits Bright. I hate this movie a lot. And the reason I hate this movie is Mira. This entire movie is based on Mira not wanting to do anything to update the family company. She wants everything to stay just like it was when she was a young child. I’m sorry but, if you want your company to succeed, you have to change with the times. You can’t grow if you want to stay exactly the same.

I’m also annoyed at the two marketing campaigns we are shown. Brady gives us a retro campaign. Fine. He gave into Mira’s irrational fears and came up with a fairly cute campaign. However, we also see a social media campaign from Brady’s junior co-worker, Finn (Riun Garner). This campaign seems solely based on giving some sample products to YouTubers and letting them do whatever they want. That isn’t how a social media campaign works. Companies give the influencers an idea of what they are looking for and the company vets the videos before they go live. No one is sitting there chewing on their fingernails as they watch the videos to see what is said. And why in the world would Finn pick a “Dare channel” to market the product? That is the only influencer we see in the campaign. It was a very stupid decision.

There is seriously nothing redeeming about Baking Spirits Bright. Stay far away from this one. I’m sure there will be plenty of baking-related movies to take its place. This one, and its fruitcake, belong in the trash.

A Kiss Before Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

A Kiss Before Christmas has a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life feel to it. But is it good enough to become a new Christmas classic?

Like most people, Ethan (James Denton) wishes he had more money. Life would be perfect if he didn’t have to worry about paying for a new radiator for the car or college for kids, right? When Santa (John B. Lowe) grants him a Christmas wish, Ethan gets to see what his life would have been if he had made a different decision in the past. Realizing his mistake, can Ethan figure out how to get his wife Joyce (Teri Hatcher) and kids back?

Finally! An actual good movie on the Hallmark Channel! And I’m going to chalk it up to the talented cast they managed to get together. James Denton is heart-breaking as Ethan - a man who wants to give his family everything they deserve but he has trouble balancing his attempts to climb the corporate ladder with a satisfying, loving home life. Teri Hatcher tugs at your heart strings at Joyce - who tries to convince her husband that the family needs him to be present more than they need to be wealthy. And Rod Wilson, as the evil corporate businessman Sean, makes you hate every fiber of his being. If these were lesser actors, the script could have easily come off as cheesy or overly mushy.

I honestly don’t want to give too much away here. Though, to be honest, this isn’t a movie with a lot of twists and turns in the plots. You should be able to predict what will happen. But it’s not the uniqueness of the plot that makes it good. It’s the way it was brought to life.

So, yes, go watch A Kiss Before Christmas. I’m not convinced it will be a new annual classic but it definitely is worth watching a couple of times.

You Make It Feel Like Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

I wonder if this year’s theme in Christmas movies is non-romantic love. Or at least movies where the romantic love is secondary to another plot line. It is an interesting change.

You Make It Feel Like Christmas was originally titled A Christmas Mission. Aaron (Michael Xavier) returns home from active duty to find that his ex-girlfriend and childhood friend, Emma (Mary Antonini), isn’t coming home for Christmas. He takes it upon himself to travel into the city to convince her to spend the holiday with her father, Tom (Alex Poch-Goldin). However, Emma’s shop has caught the eye of the famous design guru Kate Marguiles (Stephanie Sy). Kate insists that they host a holiday charity art sale on Christmas Eve, not leaving Emma time to spend with her family.

As I said in the intro, the romantic relationship between Emma and Aaron isn’t really the main relationship here. It’s the broken father-daughter relationship between Emma and Tom. Unfortunately, most of the conversations with get with these two are Facetime-like video calls where they call to ask specific questions and avoid any real conversation. While their conflict could have been fixed with a conversation or, even better, therapy, they are the reason that Aaron comes back into the picture.

So let’s talk about Aaron. He is the most hands-off suitor I have seen in any of the Hallmark/Lifetime movies. Sure, they have known each other for years but he’s trying to convince her to come home. Why is his angle “I will help. Let me know what you need done - taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom, whatever.”? And why does he try to rekindle the relationship by starting out with a blatant lie? Instead of pretending he didn’t know she was in the city, he should have just said “I came to see you.” It would have been simple and honest and she probably would have appreciated that more.

The best relationship in You Make It Feel Like Christmas, which we barely get to see, is between Emma’s best friend and shop co-owner Liz (Nadine Pinette) and Aaron’s cousin Sarah (Solange Sookram). They have the sly over-the-shoulder glances at each other and the “I’m interested” subtext in the few conversations they have. I think they would have been much more interesting than either of the main relationships. Too bad they get pushed way to the back of all of the plot lines.

While I appreciate the father-daughter relationship being the main story here, the movie itself is pretty boring. A lot of time is spent watching Emma do nothing as she tries to figure out what kind of wreath to make for the art sale. All of the relationship-building scenes are just as boring. Feel free to turn this on while you’re doing chores or something but don’t dedicate too much time to it. It is not worth it.

A Christmas Together With You | 2021 Christmas Movies

A Christmas Together With You could have easily been a non-Christmas movie. I actually think that this was written as a regular Hallmark romantic movie but then someone somewhere decided they needed another Christmas flick so they added some Christmas stuff to this one. And that is OK.

Megan (Laura Vandervoort) runs a small café in town. Frank (Harry Lennix), one of her regular customers, tells her about his long lost high school sweetheart. Since neither of them have holiday plans, Megan decides that they are going to track down Frank’s sweetheart, Claire (Liza Huget), so he can profess his love to her.

If you tune into the Hallmark Christmas movies to be inundated with Christmas decor and festivities, you aren’t going to find them here. Sure, there’s a Christmas tree getting decorated and there is one scene where they go caroling but that is pretty much it. A Christmas Together With You focuses more on the search for Claire than it does Christmas. As someone who isn’t a giant fan of Christmas, I’m glad they toned down the holiday cheer for this one.

On the romance side of things, the movie mostly revolves around Frank and Claire. We do get a little romance from Megan and Steve (Niall Matter) but they aren’t the main couple in the movie. They honestly don’t interact all that much so I’m not really sure why they fell in love. Unless Megan just likes his dog a lot. I’m not sure they would even know each other’s names if it wasn’t for the dog.

The down side of this movie is the inaccuracies in the script. Frank shows us a black and white photo of him and Claire from high school. While we couldn’t see her full outfit, it looked like the two of them were dressed rather formally. He was in a tie and jacket and she seemed to be wearing a nicer dress. Then Frank claims this is 1971. I’m not sure the photo is time-period appropriate. It looked like it was more 1950s than 1970s. Also, Megan talks about going to culinary school but we don’t see her make anything more difficult than a green bean casserole. (Please note: you can get the recipe for a green bean casserole off of the back of a can of green beans.) She talks about wanting to own a restaurant but we don’t actually see her having any of those skills. Yes, she cooks a dinner for 30 people. That does not make one a chef.

With all of that in mind, I’m not sure A Christmas Together With You is worth watching. I mean, I would watch it because I’m a fan of Niall Matter. I don’t think there’s another reason to watch it unless you are into slow-burning storylines. Because this one does run slow.

Five More Minutes | 2021 Christmas Movies

Whoever thought they should make movies based on songs, they were wrong. Very, very wrong.

Five More Minutes is based on a Scotty McCreery song. After the death of her grandfather, Clara (Nikki DeLoach) comes home to help her mother, Bonnie (Sherry Miller), run the family candy store. Clara, having troubles both professionally and romantically, wishes she could spend more time with her late grandfather in order to work through her issues. When Jay (Alexander Jones), the seasonal store helper, finds her grandfather’s journal, Clara finds the answers she needs in her grandfather’s past life.

I think this may be the worst movie on the Hallmark schedule this year. While the plot works well, the script is so stupidly schmaltzy that it is ridiculous. This is another one of those movies where almost all of the male characters are in the military and all of the female characters have spent their lives waiting for their military men to come home. I don’t have a problem with movies about the military per se. However, most of them make the characters so idealistic about the military that the audience can’t really suspend enough belief to get into the story.

The writers could have easily saved this movie if they left the grandfather as the only military character. This could have been a sweet story of what would have been and that could have pointed Clara in the right direction in her life. There was no reason for Logan (David Haydn-Jones), the love interest, to be a military man. It literally had no impact on the story. So leave him as the old high school sweetheart that Clara doesn’t want to fall in love with again. And stop making everyone so emotional. They can have feelings without having to smother the entire town with them.

Do I have to say it? Don’t watch Five More Minutes. It’s a terrible movie. Pick any of the movies out of the “Just OK” bucket to watch instead. You’ll thank me.

Nantucket Noel | 2021 Christmas Movies

To be honest, I was expecting the female lead to be named Noelle. Thankfully, naming Nantucket Noel after the location’s Christmas festival was a better decision.

Christina (Sarah Power) owns a toy store on the wharf of Nantucket Island. Oscar Bittlesman (Bruce Dawson) has purchased the property to develop in memory of his late wife. When Oscar’s son, Andy (Trevor Donovan), and granddaughter, Wink (Payton Lepinski), arrive for the holidays, Christina’s world is turned upside down. The wharf is where her mother first opened the toy store but the building is falling apart. Falling in love with Andy doesn’t make her disagreement with Oscar any easier. Will she be forced to give up her mother’s legacy?

File another movie into the “Just OK” bin. Mostly everything was fine. However, the movie felt like it needed at least another half hour to really tie up all of the plot points. Instead, it shoves all of the endings into about 15 minutes. (And that is being generous.) I looked at the time when they were wrapping up Oscar’s personal storyline, which felt forced to begin with, and there was only one commercial break left. That meant the only thing that should be left is the Big Kiss. But we still had the toy store location, the Molly’s restaurant location, plus the Big Kiss, and maybe giving Wink’s mom a conclusion to deal with. Well, the locations get one whole line in the script and Wink’s mom is never heard from again after the second act. The girl really went from not wanting to leave her mom’s side to “Hey, we can live here forever. That’s cool.”

If they had taken a little more time wrapping up story lines, I think I would have actually liked the movie. There wasn’t anything particularly bad about it. Too much time was spend with Oscar and Christina bickering. Especially since they just kept saying the same things over and over. They could have easily resolved the bickering and moved that conflict into a series of conflicts. Maybe have Oscar agree to think about not destroying the wharf (ending that fight) but then pointing out to Christina all of the issues with the buildings, creating fresh new conflicts to deal with. Instead we get something akin to a childish argument where neither side will give any leeway. I’m sorry, Oscar. You claim to be a big businessman but there is no way you got as far as you did without having to give in at least a little bit.

Nantucket Noel is a decent watch. I think most people would be able to overlook the small issues in the script. Besides, Payton Lepinski is pretty cute as Wink. Even if Wink is a stupid nickname for a kid.

Dancing Through The Snow | 2021 Christmas Movies

Hey, Lifetime. If you are going to call your movie Dancing Through The Snow, I’m expecting dancing. And I will be very disappointed if there is no dancing.

Michael (Colin Lawrence) is a single dad to daughter, Lily (Bianca Lawrence). When he begins dating Lily’s ballet teacher, Olivia (AnnaLynne McCord), Lily has a difficult time emotionally dealing with her father’s first relationship after her mother’s death.

At it’s core, this movie wants to be about the relationship between a father and daughter after the death of the family matriarch. After all, that is why they cast a real life father and daughter in the roles of Michael and Lily, right? Unfortunately, Dancing Through The Snow doesn’t really connect the way it should. Bianca doesn’t have the acting experience to be able to fully bring Lily to life. As a result, her character is very flat. She acts the same way whether Lily is supposed to be happy or sad or jealous. It makes it difficult for the audience to think she’s nothing more than a brat. And, sadly, the main plot of the movie kinda revolves around her.

My second big problem with the movie is that the title implies there will be dancing. There is a little bit of dancing - a video of Lily and Michael dancing to the Nutcracker Suite goes viral, we see Olivia doing some stretching, and at the very end of the movie, two firefighters do a little bit of dancing with two young girls dressed as ballerinas. Oh, and Michael and Olivia slow-dance in her studio with their outside shoes on. (Hey, networks, take a note - DO NOT WEAR OUTSIDE SHOES ON DANCE FLOORS.) That is the entirety of the dancing in the movie. Hallmark did a much better job last year with Christmas Waltz. Do better, Lifetime.

I went into this movie wanting to like it and it highly disappointed me. You would do better watching last year’s Christmas Waltz on Hallmark or the Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker documentary on Netflix. Leave Dancing Through The Snow off your Christmas list. It is not worth watching.

The Princess Switch 3: Romancing The Star | 2021 Christmas Movies

Guess who’s back. Back again. Yep, it’s Vanessa Hudgens in yet another Princess Switch movie. This one is The Princess Switch 3: Romancing The Star. I’m not sure if the title is supposed to be a play on the 1984 movie Romancing The Stone but if it is, I’m not sure how many people will get the reference.

Queen Margaret (Vanessa Hudgens) and Princess Stacy (also Hudgens) are co-hosting a Christmas charity event. The Vatican agrees to loan them the Star of Peace, a relic that was once carried by Saint Nicholas himself. When the Star of Peace is stolen, the lookalike royals turn to Margaret’s cousin, Fiona (also Hudgens), to help them steal it back.

While there is a little switching going on in this movie, it is almost completely focused on Fiona. Both Margaret and Stacy dress up as Fiona for different reasons. Margaret to distract one of Fiona’s old boyfriends while Fiona helps her childhood friend, Peter (Remy Hii), steal back the Star. Stacy to attend Fiona’s hearing to review whether the community service she must complete thanks to her actions in The Princess Switch 2 has been enough or if she needs to serve more.

On one hand, I kinda hate the Fiona character. Not only is she a terrible person but, in this movie, both Margaret and Stacy do a horrible job impersonating her. I’m not sure why anyone believed they were the blonde bombshell. On the other hand, this movie gives Fiona a sad childhood back story. We see why she is how she is, though it didn’t make me feel particularly sympathetic toward her. It seems that Peter was in a similar situation to her and, while he has a bad side too, he is a better person than Fiona.

Where most Christmas movies focus on the romance part of the story, The Princess Switch 3 is more of a heist movie. They spend a lot of time planning the heist and preparing for the heist and then executing the heist. Everything else is a minor sub-plot. It did make for a nice change in the Christmas movie scene. I just wish it didn’t involve Fiona and her two stupid lackeys.

If you have already watched the other two movies in the series, you’re going to watch this one. Even if I tell you not to, I know you will. I wish the movie had a little more depth to it but it is what it is. It’s not a terrible movie. A little annoying maybe, but not too bad. And it does leave a little door open for a fourth movie. I just hope they leave Fiona at home for that one.

A Holiday In Harlem | 2021 Christmas Movies

The commercials for A Holiday In Harlem never made the movie seem particularly interesting. They weren’t wrong.

Jazmin (Olivia Washington) is an executive that helps small businesses grow. When she accidentally causes her grandmother, Mama Belle (Tina Lifford), to get injured, Jazmine has to take over planning the annual holiday festival for the neighborhood. Thankfully, she has her childhood friend, Caleb (Will Adams), to help her.

I wanted to like A Holiday In Harlem. I want Hallmark to have more people of color in starring roles in their Christmas movies. Sadly, this one is just as boring as all of their other movies. And it’s a combination of bad writing, uninspired acting, and a fairly green director to blame.

First, the plot. While the plot is mostly dull, there are a few things that could have been worked on a bit more to bring them to the forefront. There’s a subplot about Jazmine’s parents, who had broken up when she was a child, getting back together without telling her. The script gave us some sly hints that the big reveal was coming up but then it fizzled into nothing. Sure, her parents were holding hands and whatnot but, otherwise, they barely seemed to like each other. It would have been nice to give them a little more to do to show us that they are rekindling an old romance.

In addition, this big holiday festival. All of the events that we were told were going to big, important pieces of the festival, were anything but. I think there were only two outfits shown in the fashion show and the basketball toss was little more than Jazmine yelling into a microphone while kids threw balls around. Spoiler: Everyone gets the same type of gift so I’m not really sure why it mattered if the kids got the basketball into the hoop. It would have been nice to see the kids that did get it in get something extra. That’s the whole point of a game. Maybe every kid gets a gift but if you get a basket, you get a candy cane or something. Either way, the festival wasn’t very festive.

Second, the acting. None of them felt like they actually wanted to be there. This was supposed to be a journey of Jazmine going from not wanting to go home for the holidays to remembering how much she loved her community and family and wanting to celebrate with them. Instead, she seems just as unenthused about being at home at the end as she did in the beginning. And she’s not the only one. Everyone has this underlying boredom in what they are doing. I think everyone would have had a better time sitting at home instead of doing festival stuff.

Finally, the directing. Normally, I don’t harp on the directing a lot. But this one is particularly bad. Too many scenes are people just standing there talking at each other. There should be more movement in the scenes. We don’t even get a stereotypical “walking down the street drinking cocoa together” scenes. The characters all just appear at different functions. No outside establishing shots at all. For all we know, Mama Belle’s house is really really big.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m telling you not to watch A Holiday In Harlem. Unless you are curious whether Denzel Washington’s daughter can act. (She plays Jazmine.) Then maybe give it a watch and wonder why her dad didn’t hire an acting coach for her.