Single All The Way | 2021 Christmas Movies

Single All The Way has been making a big splash around social media lately. It’s not the first Christmas movie with a gay romance as the main story but it is getting a lot of talk right now. With stars like Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Najimy, and Barry Bostwick, I have high hopes.

Peter (Michael Urie) is always “the single one” at the family Christmas gathering. When he finds out that his current boyfriend, Tim (Steve Lund), is actually married to a woman and has children, he is understandably upset. He asks his roommate/best friend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to go home with him to New Hampshire to pretend to be his boyfriend. Nick agrees to go with him…but not fake a romantic relationship. If Peter’s family has any say in the matter, it won’t be a fake relationship anyway.

I loved Single All The Way so much. Peter and Nick had the right amount of awkwardness when they each wanted their relationship to go further but were afraid to talk about it. James (Luke Macfarlane), the blind date that Peter’s mother Carole (Kathy Najimy) arranges for him, has the perfect amount of likeability that makes you want him to date Peter. While everyone is perfect in their roles, not every character is perfect. Aunt Sandy (Jennifer Coolidge) is completely oblivious to how blasphemous her Christmas pageant is. She brings the right amount of wackiness to the movie to keep it from being stale.

It is looking like Netflix is the place to be for Christmas movies. Definitely head over and watch Single All The Way. Then watch it again for the hilarious antics of Jennifer Coolidge. And one more time for Kathy Najimy’s mom-attempting-to-be-woke. They all deserve it.

A Christmas Village Romance | 2021 Christmas Movies

Of course, after I trash Lifetime movies, they actually release something cute. Let’s talk about A Christmas Village Romance.

Diana (Jeni Ross) writes historical romance books. For Christmas, she visits the pioneer village of Maple Creek, which is also the setting for her stories. When she arrives, she finds out that tourism is down. Without the revenue, the village may have to close. Diana rallies her fans to help save the village, though the new local blacksmith, Carter (Jake Epstein), isn’t sure her plan will work.

While I think this movie is adorable, the plot is like molasses. It takes forever for anything to happen. I actually fell asleep for a short bit and had to rewind to see what I missed. Amazingly, I didn’t miss much. I could have easily kept the movie running and I still would have understood what was going on.

On the plus side, Ross and Epstein have an interesting on-screen chemistry. Their characters spend a lot of time arguing but they never seem like they are actually fighting. They always seem like they are sort of play-fighting, which is a change of pace for Lifetime romance characters.

Sadly, there isn’t a lot for me to say about A Christmas Village Romance. It is cute so it’s not a complete waste of time to watch but, at the same time, it is so slow. I’m not sure who would be the target audience for it. Maybe people that read romance books? But there isn’t a lot of romance happening. I’d say turn it on. If it doesn’t satisfy you after a half hour, go find something else to do.

Match Made In Mistletoe | 2021 Christmas Movies

When movies change their titles, it makes it very difficult for me to look up the names of the actors in the cast. For example, Lifetime’s Match Made In Mistletoe was originally titled Christmas In Washington. I understand why the producers or whoever may want to change the title of a movie. It just makes my work a little more difficult.

Emily (Natalie Lisinska) is an interior designer tasked with decorating the Belmarian embassy for their annual Christmas charity ball. However, Magnus (Damon Runyan), the new ambassador, doesn’t want the embassy to be overly Christmassy. Will Emily’s holiday cheer melt Magnus’s frozen heart?

I have always given Hallmark movies a hard time. In reality, I think it’s Lifetime that has the awful Christmas movies. Hallmark has emotional cheese but Lifetime is just bad. I’m pretty sure it’s the Lifetime movies that break my brain.

Anyway, let’s talk about Match Made In Mistletoe. The acting is awful. Everyone in the embassy talks like stereotypical “rich people” or “high class” people. It’s annoying. Emily’s mom, Amanda (Kathleen Laskey), talks like a stereotypical mom. She’s either chastising everyone or it’s like she’s talking to a child who is up past their bedtime. And Emily? She has so little confidence in herself that you can feel it in everything she says or does. It’s difficult to listen to any of them talk.

On top of that, everyone makes a BIG GIANT deal out of everything. Did someone take a picture of Magnus and Emily together? Well, he’s definitely going to get fired for even talking to her. Don’t want the embassy to be overly decorated? Sorry, you can’t have one poinsettia plant in your office. And I still don’t know what Big Dan (John Cleland), the “bad guy,” has against Emily. He just hates her with his entire being for seemingly no reason.

Ugh. Whatever. Don’t watch Match Made In Mistletoe. I’m starting to think that maybe no one should watch any Lifetime movies ever.

Saying Yes To Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

We really need these Christmas movies to stop normalizing toxic work environments. I think the boss in Saying Yes To Christmas is the worst one so far. Let me tell you about it.

June (Erika Prevost) works for a publishing company as a junior editor. Her boss, Shannon (Sabrina Grdevich), wants her to go home for Christmas - only so she can try to convince a writer, Sally Wells (Catherine De Seve), to sign with them. While June is trying to focus on getting all of her work done, a childhood friend, Blake (Romaine Waite), accidentally wishes that June said yes to Christmas. As a result, June can only say yes to any Christmas offering put in front of her. Can she still nab that promotion at work while agreeing to all of these holiday events?

There are plenty of toxic work environments in real life. We don’t need to see them in all of our Christmas movies. In Saying Yes To Christmas, Shannon not only forces June to harass this poor writer into signing with them in the weeks leading up to Christmas, she also forces June to do the work of a personal assistant. June isn’t her personal assistant! June feels like she has to do things like handwriting Shannon’s Christmas cards in order to move up the corporate ladder. I understand that this is a very real thing in the real world. But this is supposed to be a fantasy world. Why does Shannon have to call June every day to make harsh demands? Why does she have to make any harsh demands? June’s conflict is already set up and it has nothing to do with her workload. June wants to put out more inclusive children’s books, which Shannon and the company are unwilling to do. THAT should be the focus.

Trying to look past the awful work environment, the rest of the movie is decent. For once, the plot isn’t overdone. Sure, this is a similar plot to Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar but the Christmas twist makes it interesting. June doesn’t have to say yes to everything. It’s only things related to Christmas. I do wish they made some of the requests a little more outrageous but that’s OK. It is the Lifetime channel, after all. We can’t get too crazy up in here.

I recommend watching this movie, if you are able to look past Shannon’s brash character. It would be nice if there was a way to mute one character in a television show. We could get rid of all the toxic characters in one fell swoop. So many Christmas movies would be so much better that way.

Miracle in Motor City | 2021 Christmas Movies

Describe a plot badly: A couple harasses an old man to work for them for free on Christmas Eve. I mean, that is the basic gist of Miracle in Motor City.

Amber (Tia Mowry-Hardrict) has taken over planning her church’s Christmas pageant. In order to make the pageant special, she promises that Smokey Robinson (himself) will perform. Except that Smokey doesn’t know about it. Amber teams up with her ex-boyfriend, Eddie (Mark Taylor), to convince Smokey to appear.

There are two sides to this movie: The creepy “Let’s call everyone who has ever known Smokey Robinson to get them to get him to come to the pageant.” Then there is the sweeter “Amber takes care of a foster child, Lily (Markeda McKay).” I really wish they focused more on the foster child situation than the Smokey Robinson stalking.

The writers could have done so much more with this story. Make the main story Lily coming to live with Amber and how Amber’s life has changed since she’s taken on caring for a child. Show Amber teaching Lily how to love Motown music as much as she does. Then, if you really need to have Smokey Robinson in your movie, have Smokey find out about this orphan girl learning how to love Motown so he shows up at the Christmas pageant and surprises everyone with his rendition of “Silent Night.” First, it’s a more intriguing story and the audience learns a bit about Motown. Second, it would put the “Miracle” in Miracle in Motor City. Because the story as it is has no miracles.

I don’t think this movie is worth watching. Even if you are a Smokey Robinson superfan, he’s not in the movie all that much. The best part of the movie really is Markeda McKay but I’m not sure she’s enough of a reason to sit through this whole thing.

Welcome To The Christmas Family Reunion | 2021 Christmas Movies

It’s called Welcome To The Christmas Family Reunion because their last name is Christmas. Get it? Sigh.

Amy (Michelle Argyris) is an event planner with a terrible boss. When he tries to steal her ideas for the holiday family reunion for an upcoming pop star, Tiffanie Christmas (Asia’h Epperson), Amy quite the company and decides to run the event on her own. As she works closely with Tiffanie’s cousin, Calvin (Alonzo B. Slater), to make sure that everyone in the family would be happy with the event, Amy finds herself falling in love with him. But can she really make everyone happy?

I wanted so much more for this movie. All of the characters felt like some sort of caricature of a rich black family. No one felt sincere. And the entire movie felt like it was a bunch of people just wanting to show off their wealth. The main conflict of the movie is where to have the family reunion. So Amy visits each person’s home so she can see why their house is the “perfect” place to host the party. But no one was showing the actual things you need for a party, like “My kitchen is big enough for the caterers to use as a home base as they serve the food.” or “My back yard can be arranged in a way that everyone can move around comfortably AND we can set up a dance floor!” Instead, it’s more like “Here is my giant koi pond” and “We keeps chickens in this huge coop.” I really don’t think your event planner wants to visit your chickens.

Sadly, I don’t think there is anything particularly redeeming about Welcome To The Christmas Family Reunion. It’s even too boring to just put on in the background. Skip this one. Go watch Merry Liddle Christmas Baby and the rest of the Liddle family movies instead. At least they feel like real people.

A Castle for Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

Ooh! Brooke Shields AND Cary Elwes? This should be a good one!

Sophie (Brooke Shields), a best-selling author, is having a bit of a slump. Her most recent romance story was severely disliked by her fan base. As a result, she goes to Scotland to visit the castle where her grandfather used to work. Duke Myles (Cary Elwes), who lives at the castle, needs to sell the castle in order to settle some debts his father left him. Sophie wants to buy the castle, much to the dismay of Myles.

I think Netflix did right when they cast Shields and Elwes in A Castle for Christmas. The two of them definitely have the acting chops to pull off their respective characters. And they aren’t the only ones. The rest of the cast are completely adorable. Especially the knitting group. I think I could watch an entire series based around Rhona (Eilidh Loan).

Sure, there are some sections of the movie that are a little cringe-worthy. The third act conflict seems to come out absolutely nowhere. I understand why the writers put it there - they needed Sophie and Myles to argue about something so they could have the big romantic reconciliation at the end. But it felt unnecessary and unwarranted.

Despite the few short-comings in the story, I do recommend watching A Castle for Christmas. it may not be an annual classic but it is one of the better movies that has been released this year. Also, there’s this really cute yet reckless dog….

An Unexpected Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

An Unexpected Christmas could describe almost any of the Christmas movies released by Hallmark or Lifetime, right? Something unexpected happens and then, bam!, it’s Christmas. It’s a dumb title. Let’s move on.

Jamie (Tyler Hynes) broke up with Emily (Bethany Joy Lenz) six months ago but he never told his family. The plan was to tell them after they had a nice Christmas together. But the family accidentally runs into Emily at the train station. It turns out that she is in town for a work assignment. Now Emily has to pretend that she is still dating Jamie in order to keep the peace.

While I dislike the title of the movie, An Unexpected Christmas was actually a decent flick. Unlike a lot of lead actors, Lenz and Hynes seem to enjoy being in the same room with each other. It makes their love/hate relationship easier to enjoy. A different set of actors could have royally screwed this up. I’m glad they didn’t.

There isn’t a lot that I didn’t like about the movie. Her job was a little annoying but I don’t think any of the Christmas movie script writers put a lot of thought into the jobs of the lead characters. They just want careers that absolutely INSIST that work be done on Christmas Eve or have projects that are so important their bosses call them literally every single day so they KNOW how important the project is and it NEEDS to be finished right now. Yes, there are jobs that have deadlines around Christmas but I don’t think any of them are quite as harsh as they are in the Hallmark/Lifetime movies.

So An Unexpected Christmas isn’t a must-see movie. But, if you are looking for something to waste some time on, it won’t make you hate yourself for watching it. There are some cute parts and there are some cringey parts. That is the life of a Hallmark movie.

The Christmas Contest | 2021 Christmas Movies

It’s finally that time of year! Time for Candace Cameron Bure’s Hallmark Christmas movie! You know you were waiting for this one…The Christmas Contest!

Lara (Candace Cameron Bure) has been unhappy with her life since she broke up with Ben (John Brotherton). When they both sign up for a Christmas-themed contest in order to win money for their respective charities, emotions run wild. Maybe this contest will remind them how much they truly love each other.

For the most part, this is a pretty typical Cameron Bure Hallmark movie. A bit of schmaltz, a bit of family reconciliations, and a bit of former lovers getting back together. But the best part, in my opinion, is when she actually makes fun of Hallmark movie plots. I was dying! It happens pretty early in the movie so it isn’t a scene that would make or break the whole show but it was pretty funny.

As for the rest of it, it’s fine. Cameron Bure and Brotherton also star in Fuller House together. It’s not like Hallmark threw two strangers together on this one. And that has actually been a big part of the marketing for The Christmas Contest. While I’m not sure the characters make a great couple, the two actors have enough chemistry together that their playful banter is fun to watch.

This one will be another tough call. If you’re a big fan of traditional Hallmark movies, this will be right up your alley. If you’re looking for something more, this is more like a movie you’d put on the background while you bake some cookies or something. On the plus side, it is much better than last year’s pile of crap that Cameron Bure starred in.

Christmas In Tahoe | 2021 Christmas Movies

I get that Christmas in Tahoe is, for some reason, based on the 2015 album by Train. But did we really need to cast the lead singer of the band as a secondary character? Executive producer powers in play!

Claire (Laura Osnes) is an event planner at her family’s hotel. However, live acts prefer to go to Reno or Las Vegas over Tahoe. As a result, Claire is trying to get a job at a hotel in Las Vegas booking acts. The big Christmas show at her family’s hotel is her big chance to impress the Las Vegas bigwigs. When her main act is forced to cancel and the rest of the acts cancel with her, Claire and her rock star ex-boyfriend, Ryan (Kyle Selig), have to figure out a new roster of acts to save the show.

Honestly, the movie would have been perfectly fine without Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train. He overemotes everything. When I heard he was going to be in it, I thought that it couldn’t be that bad. After all, there are plenty of singers that also have an acting career. Boy, was I wrong. He ruins every scene that he is in. I wish he could have put his ego aside long enough to cast someone else in the role. If he wanted to be in it that badly, he could have just been one of the “saving” acts. I mean, they did put him in the show (because, duh) but as the character, not as himself.

But speaking of the “saving” acts, one of the acts that Claire wants to book but runs into some trouble is an acapella group similar to Pentatonix. Except that the movie group (I don’t even remember their name) only had three people instead of four and they sounded terrible. Their harmonies were not together and the poor guy in the group was relegated to beat boxer, which he was not good at.

The sad thing is that I actually liked the parts of Christmas in Tahoe that didn’t have cringey acting or awful singing. While Osnes and Selig didn’t have a ton of romantic chemistry, I kinda liked them as the long-time friends that poked fun at each other. I think they would have been better as best friends instead of a romantic couple.

So. Should you watch this? I want to say no but also maybe? If you are a big fan of Train, you might be able to look past Monahan’s terrible acting. But, to be honest, there is too much of him to really save the movie. Go watch One December Night instead.