Tis The Season To Be Irish | 2024 Christmas Movies

Every year, we get a slate of movies where the female lead (almost never the male lead) goes on a grand Christmas adventure in another country. Frequently, it’s Scotland or Austria, specifically Vienna. Now Hallmark takes us to Ireland with ‘Tis The Season To Be Irish. I hope they don’t turn the Irish characters into some sort of weird leprechaun stereotype or something.

Rose (Fiona Gubelmann) has just purchased a very cheap house in Ireland with plans to renovate and resell it. When she arrives, she finds the house is actually a dilapidated cottage. Sean (Eoin Macken), who sold the cottage to Rose, is also the town historian that she has to get approval from for any repairs. Deciding the cottage requires too much work, Rose decides to make it look nicer in order to sell it to someone else. But will she fall in love with the quaint Irish town nearby?

This is yet another movie that is just OK. Rose is supposedly a very experienced house flipper, yet she does zero research on the Ireland house before demanding the seller, who she does not know, brush off a current offer in order to sell the house to her. Neither of those traits make her likeable in the beginning. Then we’re supposed to feel bad for her when we see the state of the cottage? I think not. Also, I have no idea how she fixed the cottage so quickly. There was a giant list of major repairs needed yet she got them all done before Christmas. Maybe that was her real fairy wish.

As for the rest of the movie, Sean is fairly bland for a leading man. He spent a lot of time complaining about things and, at one point, even rejected a kiss from Rose. I’m not really sure why we were supposed to be rooting for him. Rose had more chemistry with the lamb that kept following her around town. It makes me a little sad because I wanted to enjoy a nice Irish trip. But all we got was some pretty scenery and boring characters.

Rating: My fairy wish is to be anywhere else.

Christmas Under The Northern Lights | 2024 Christmas Movies

When I saw that Great American Family was airing a movie titled Christmas Under The Northern Lights, I wondered if there was more to it than just being about the northern lights. Well, the answer is “not really.” I’m still in November and Great American Family movies are already boring me to death. This may be the last year I watch GAF movies.

Erin (Jill Wagner) needs inspiration for her next book. Her father, Doug (Bruce Boxleitner), suggests they go visit his hometown of Aurora. He has to sell his parents’ house and maybe the Aurora Borealis will give Erin the inspiration she needs.

Yep, this movie is all about Erin chasing the northern lights across a small town with tour guide Trevor (Jesse Hutch). Sure, he takes her on some adventures but there are also adventures that she won’t do and, honestly, this movie is so freaking boring. Instead of a “will they or won’t they” romance story, we get a “will they or won’t they” see the northern lights story. It’s not a good conflict, the CGI for the lights wasn’t all that good, and the story progressed at a snail’s pace. I know that GAF tends to put a lot of their bad movies in November. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted December to arrive so much.

Rating: I felt it in my gut that this would be bad.

Santa Tell Me | 2024 Christmas Movies

I was a little weirded out when Santa Tell Me began with actual children talking about finding their true love. If they were teenagers making a silly Christmas wish, that would be one thing. But the movie jumps TWENTY FIVE years after this scene. So we’re talking about a kid around 7 years old asking Santa for the name of their true love. I find it creepy.

Olivia (Erin Krakow) is an interior designer about to embark on a live televised Christmas special where she redesigns an entire house for the holiday season. Her boss brings in TV show host Chris (Daniel Lissing) to help her. Chris decides to change all of the previous plans so they can redecorate Olivia’s childhood home, which happens to be up for sale. As they work, Olivia finds her old letter to Santa, setting off a number of magical letters from Santa trying to lead Olivia to her true love.

If we leave the children out of the equation, this is a really cute premise for a movie. Olivia is told her true love’s name is Nick so she dates a bunch of guys named Nick. Of course, none of them were the right guy but it does make the movie a little more fun. The twist at the end was predictable but it was also cute. My favorite scene was the very last scene of the movie. It was perfect.

I think my only real complaint about the movie is that the interior designer part was absolutely unnecessary. They were on a rather strict deadline and supposedly they didn’t have the budget for a big staff yet we don’t really see Olivia working. Just going on dates. It make it feel a little unrealistic. But I guess realism isn’t what we look for in Hallmark movies.

Rating: Can they come decorate my house?

Red One | 2024 Christmas Movies

Recently released in theaters, Red One has Dwayne Johnson teaming up with Chris Evans to rescue Santa Claus. The trailers seem pretty cute. Will the movie live up to them?

After a mall trip to Philadelphia to meet some children, Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), code name Red One, gets kidnapped by a mysterious group of people. It’s up to Santa’s head of security, Callum Drift (Johnson), and Jack O’Malley (Evans), a thief with the ability to track anyone anywhere, to rescue him before Christmas can be ruined.

My husband was (loudly) listening to some podcasters talking about the movie this morning. I tried not to listen but I did hear one of the women say she wasn’t impressed by the movie and she wasn’t sure who the target audience was. I think this woman has never met people before because my family found Red One quite enjoyable. There was comedy, there was action, there was some sad moments, and there were some heartwarming moments. Everything you love to see in a family-friendly movie.

While I try not to compare theatrically released movies to Hallmark/Great American Family/Lifetime movies, Red One was originally supposed to be an Amazon Prime release. Taking that into consideration, this very well may be my favorite movie of the year. The cable networks will have a difficult time beating this one.

Rating: J.K. Simmons should be Santa Claus in every movie

Meet Me Next Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Netflix has suckered me into watching yet another Pentatonix Christmas movie. They aren’t the main characters of Meet Me Next Christmas but they are a very large part of the plot. Like, unavoidably large part of the plot.

Layla (Christina Milian) gets stuck in an airport on Christmas Eve, forcing her to miss the annual Pentatonix concert in New York City that she attends with her boyfriend. As she waits in the airport lounge, she meets two men - Teddy (Devale Ellis), who gives her some culinary advice, and James (Kofi Siriboe), who connects with Layla deeply after a long conversation. However, since Layla is currently in a relationship, they decide to not pursue this connection further. Instead, James makes Layla promise that, if her relationship should fail in the next year, she will meet him at the next Christmas Eve Pentatonix concert to see if there is more between them. A year later, Layla has broken up with her boyfriend but the tickets to the Pentatonix concert are sold out and she didn’t have a ticket. She unknowingly hires Teddy, now working as a concierge, to help her obtain the elusive concert ticket in order to make her dreams come true.

Let me start this off by saying I don’t hate Pentatonix. I used to listen to them in the 2010s but then they started feeling over marketed. Their faces and music was just everywhere. So having a whole movie dedicated to the group and their music makes me have those over marketed feelings again. And this movie feels even more so. There are so many times a character says “Oh my god! You love Pentatonix too!” or “Who doesn’t know Pentatonix?!” or “Hey, listen to this Pentatonix song!” If I drank a shot of alcohol every time the group name was spoken, I would have been way over the limit in the first half hour of the movie. It, honestly, was a little grating.

The sad thing is that the rest of the movie is really cute. I love the way Layla and Teddy were running around the city trying to find tickets. There were scammers and scalpers and even a weird couple that just wanted them to run an errand for them in exchange for a ticket. Unfortunately, all of the cute things were cut with kinda annoying scenes of Pentatonix in their hotel suite following the pair on social media. We really didn’t need their commentary on what was going on. I, honestly, would have liked the movie better if there was a little less backstage Pentatonix and a little more of Layla/Teddy running around New York City. NYC is an amazing backdrop for a movie and there is so much you could do with it. Instead, we’re interrupted with random harmonies in the middle of a conversation. Thanks, I hate it.

Rating: Can they go to a different concert next year?

Trivia At St Nick's | 2024 Christmas Movies

Trivia At St Nick’s is one of those movie titles that could be really good or be absolutely terrible. Honestly, I think the name of the lead characters’ trivia team would have been a better title…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Celeste (Tammin Sursok) is an astronomy professor who loves competing in the local bar’s Christmas trivia contest every year. Unfortunately, her team, The Quizmas Elves, have yet to win the big trophy. When her Jeopardy!-winning colleague has to drop out of the contest for a speaking engagement in Asia, Celeste is forced to accept Max (Brant Daugherty), the college’s football coach, onto the team to make the required number of members. As the team participates in team building activities that help them build their Christmas trivia knowledge, Celeste finds herself appreciating Max more than she thought possible.

Yes, I think The Quizmas Elves would have been a much cuter title than Trivia At St Nick’s. (St Nick being the name of the bar where the trivia contest is held.) Title aside, I did find this movie enjoyable. It focused more on learning new facts and building camaraderie amongst the team members than making Celeste and Max take romantic walks among the snowy trees or something. The movie also allowed whole trivia questions to be read so we, the audience, could participate at little as well. Usually movies with trivia fade out over half of a question to start another one so we don’t get to try to guess the answers ourselves. It was a nice change of pace.

I think my only critique is that they made Celeste a little too “Type A.” She almost becomes unlikeable by only letting certain teammates answer certain questions - for example, history buff Gary (Willie C. Carpenter) is only allowed to answer the history questions and get shushed when he tries to answer something outside of his expertise . I’m not sure why her team would stick around year after year. I know my friends and family would drop out of something that is supposed to be fun if I was super controlling. But, of course, that gets resolved by the end of the movie. I guess there needed to be some sort of conflict.

Rating: Merry Quizmas!

Five Gold Rings | 2024 Christmas Movies

Woah, Hallmark Mystery has actually given us a mystery movie! Sadly, Five Gold Rings isn’t the type of movie that we, the viewers, can solve along with the characters. But it is a mystery!

As a child, Audrey (Holland Roden) would watch her grandmother return lost items to people during the Christmas season. After her grandmother passed, Audrey was tasked with finding the owners of five gold rings to return the valuable items. Her grandmother insisted that Audrey get help from Finn O’Sullivan (Nolan Gerard Funk), the first person that had a lost item returned. The pair fall in love as they find the owners of the rings.

Five Gold Rings started off as a decent movie. I thought we would get some really good sleuthing. Instead, we keep getting sidetracked with Audrey's failing art career and a grumpy rival shop owner and making Finn’s mother feel better about her art. There was so much going on that wasn’t trying to find the owners of the rings. Obviously, they find all of the owners but it all seemed a lot easier than it should have been. I get why writers think we need useless side plots to keep us entertained but sometimes we don’t really need that. We just need a good story.

Rating: The fifth ring was the lamest story of all.

Holiday Mismatch | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hallmark has reunited Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick from the 1990s sitcom, Sabrina The Teenage Witch. They aren’t witches in Holiday Mismatch but they bicker almost as much.

Barbara (Broderick) has recently retired. She decides to volunteer to work on the town’s Holiday Committee to help plan festive events. There she meets Kath (Rhea), a long-standing member of the committee who isn’t quite as organized as Barbara. Meanwhile, each of them sets their adult child up on a date. When they realized that their kids are dating each other, the women decide to try to break the new couple up.

I love when Rhea and Broderick work together. They have such great comedic timing and they play off of each other so well that sometimes it’s difficult to believe aren’t rivals. Honestly, Holiday Mismatch should have been entirely about them. The romantic subplot was boring and unoriginal. If Hallmark really wanted to leave a romantic plot in, they should have made the kids dislike each other as much as their mothers did. It would have definitely been more interesting. As it is, get rid of the kids and leave the moms to form an unbreakable friendship. It doesn’t have to be all about romance, you know.

Rating: The kids ruin the fun, as usual.

Our Holiday Story | 2024 Christmas Movies

I don’t watch a lot of commercials for these Christmas movies. I really try to go in unspoiled. However, I ended up accidentally watching some of the commercials for Our Holiday Story because I was so confused. Is this really just someone telling a story? Yep. It is.

Chris (Gavin Langelo) is meeting his girlfriend, Joanna’s (Sydney Scotia), parents for the first time. When Joanna misses the train, Chris is forced to spend time alone with Nell (Nikki Deloach) and Dave (Warren Christie). He, of course, asks them how they met. Boy, do they have a story for him!

When this movie started, I didn’t think it was going to be good. Thankfully, I was wrong. Our Holiday Story is actually pretty adorable. There is a lot more to their story than just “We met on a train.” The small twists and near misses kept the story interesting. Not to mention the chemistry between Deloach and Christie. I almost wish they starred in every Christmas movie.

The only down side to the movie is Chris and Joanna’s story. It would have been better if there were a few more twists and turns to mirror Nell and Dave’s story. Instead, their story is a little more boring. But I’m glad it’s there as a reason to tell Nell and Dave’s. It would have been weird if this was just them telling their daughter about their past.

Rating: Yes, Dave! A summer festival (and movie) would be a lovely idea!

Tails of Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Of all of the Christmas movies I have watched, the ones featuring dogs are the absolute worst. I’m not sure that Great American Family’s Tails Of Christmas will be any better.

Caleb (Eric Guilmette) is an Army veteran whose leg was injured in an accident. He meets animal shelter owner Amber (Ash Tsai) when she brings her dog to visit the soldiers in physical therapy. A year later, Caleb volunteers at Amber’s shelter to help her get more animals adopted.

Well, this movie follows the trend. It is terrible The script, the acting, the sets…the only thing that isn’t awful are the dogs. And, to be honest, there aren’t that many dogs in the movie.

I don’t understand why the acting is so bad here. I liked Tsai in last year’s Journey To Christmas. You would think she would be able to carry this movie. Sadly, it just doesn’t work. I really hoped for better.

Rating: Stay. Over there. Not here. Far over there.