Christmas On Ice | 2020 Christmas Movies

There’s a lot of ice skating in Christmas movies. This one is actually about ice skating!

Courtney (Abigail Klein) is a former ice skater who currently runs a local ice skating rink. Noah (Ryan Cooper) is a former hockey player who is opening an indoor skating rink. When the mayor announces that he is closing Courtney’s rink, Courtney tries her best to save the rink and its Christmas Carnival.

While the concept of saving a business from closing isn’t new, there are a few new twists on it in Christmas On Ice. From what I can tell, Courtney doesn’t actually own the ice skating rink. The city pays for everything via the parks and recreation department but she acts like she’s not a city employee. She acts like this is her business and the city is trying to shut her down. But I do give her props for working so hard to keep the rink open. Especially since it offers free classes and cheap entertainment for people who can’t afford to go to the fancy indoor rink.

Overall, Christmas On Ice is a pretty good movie. The acting is decent, the plot is pretty good. But it is missing that certain something to kick it over the edge into a can’t miss movie. Maybe it’s because everyone seems so apathetic about everything. Yes, Courtney is working hard to keep the rink open but she doesn’t really put any emotion behind it. Even in the scene where she is getting emotional about Noah’s Christmas traditions with his daughter, Grace (Meara Mahoney-Gross), it doesn’t really feel like she’s actually moved by it.

One part that disturbed me was the book idea for Courtney’s roommate, Beth (Caroline Portu). Beth works at the local Santa station, taking pictures of kids with Santa. Courtney recommends that Beth make a book with the pictures of kids crying on Santa’s lap. The book happens but we never see Beth asking parents for permission to put their kids’ pictures in the book or getting them to sign photography agreements. There is a scene where Courtney, Noah, and Grace go to Santa so they could have easily showed Beth asking parents to sign some paperwork. It came off as a little creepy to me.

Even with all of this, is it worth watching? Yes, if you can look beyond the few shortcomings. There are a few good moments in there. Particularly the scene with the kids performing at the Christmas Carnival. That was cute.

A New York Christmas Wedding | 2020 Christmas Movies

Frequently, I am bored by Christmas romance movies. Sometimes I am moved. I don’t think I have ever been so thoroughly confused as I have been by A New York Christmas Wedding.

Jennifer (Nia Fairweather) is about to get married to David (Otoja Abit). However, David’s mother, Alison (Tyra Ferrell), is pushing for a Christmas Eve wedding. Unfortunately, Jennifer has had a lot of personal trauma around the Christmas season. When she takes a late night run to clear her mind, Jennifer runs into Azrael (Cooper Koch), an angel who transports her to an alternate universe where her life is very different.

When I started watching this movie, I thought it was going to be an updated version of It’s A Wonderful Life. Instead, Jennifer is given this alternate life where almost everyone she had lost in her current life is alive again. Her father (David Anzuelo) and her former best friend, Gabrielle (Adriana DeMeo), are back but her mother is not. I’m not sure why the writer (Otoja Abit wrote and directed this, as well as played David) was so selective about who got to come back. I guess because it wasn’t about bringing back dead people, it was about putting Jennifer and Gabrielle into a romantic relationship. Mothers aren’t needed for those.

Ah, the Jennifer/Gabrielle relationship. In the beginning of the movie, we see the friends get into a big fight. Later in the movie, Jennifer says that she was hurt because she was going to confess her love but Gabrielle blew off their plans to hang out a boy. Before this moment, we don’t see anything that shows that Jennifer loved Gabrielle. She says she is sad that Gabrielle died but that is it. You can be sad about a former friend dying without being in love with them. It would have been nice to see some sort of hint about her feelings before having the women suddenly thrust into bed.

Then there is this angel Azrael. He kinda pops up whenever it’s convenient to...well, not really explain anything. He just pops Jennifer around in time without telling her anything. When it comes time for him to bring her back to her actual life, he reveals that he is Gabrielle’s dead baby. Apparently, Gabrielle had gotten pregnant the night she ditched Jennifer and the baby died. And he has been watching over Jennifer ever since. Um, what?

I can’t recommend watching this confusing mess. It is on Netflix so, if you do decide to turn it on, could you please let me know what you think the point is? Because it makes no sense to me.

Lonestar Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

Well, that was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I don’t think I understand how Lifetime chooses what movies to air. Do they just pick the ones that sound the most Christmassy?

Erin (Stephanie Bennett) is a widow with two young daughters. When her mother goes on a Christmas cruise, she decides to spend the holidays with her estranged father, Gary (Brent Stait). There she meets a local Mexican restaurant owner, Mateo (Marco Grazzini).

Lonestar Christmas isn’t really a romance Christmas movie. Yes, there is romance in it but it’s really about a woman that is emotionally broken. She has a lot of anger towards her father from him not being around when she was a child. Granted, it sounds like maybe he was going to college or something. They don’t really explain why or how he wasn’t around. Everyone just says he wasn’t around. In addition, I’m not sure she has truly grieved her dead husband. Since she has two young children, she admitted that she focused on raising them instead of dealing with her emotions. Erin needs to go see a therapist immediately.

I don’t have anything against a movie about a woman working through her emotional trauma. That might actually make a good Christmas movie since a lot of people have troubles around the holidays. If they took out Erin’s patient, Tessa (BJ Harrison), and replaced her with an actual therapist, it would have changed the mood of the movie. Erin (who is an occupational therapist) already uses Tessa as a sort of therapist, which is a terrible idea since she is one of Erin’s PATIENTS. She is not a friend, she is not a confidant, she is a patient. They should have had Erin talking to a professional to deal with her problems.

Should you watch Lonestar Christmas? I would say skip it unless you want to watch a woman devolve into self-pity. I really wish they had treated this differently so I could recommend it.

A Recipe for Seduction | 2020 Christmas Movies

Kentucky Fried Chicken has now gotten into the romance Christmas game. Who needs a 30 second commercial when you can have a 15 minute show?

When Jessica’s (Justene Alpert) boyfriend, Billy (Chad Doreck), proposes to her at dinner, she refuses to answer. Even though she isn’t sure if she truly loves Billy, her mother, Bunny (Tessa Munro), wants her to marry Billy for his money. Instead, Jessica falls in love with the new family cook, Harland Sanders (Mario Lopez). Jessica’s life is torn apart when she can’t decide between love and money.

A Recipe for Seduction is set up as an English-language telenovela - a soap opera with extreme situations and reactions. Mario Lopez plays a hunky version of the KFC man himself, Colonel Sanders. While in this version he isn’t a famous chicken man yet, there are frequent references to his secret recipe and how it will change everything. And, yes, there is some chicken eating going on. But the crazy conflicts come from Bunny and Billy, who team up to get Jessica to marry him instead of Harland. In 15 minutes, there is a kidnapping, an attempted murder, a sort of incestuous relationship, and a huge bribe. Oh, and a wedding. Let’s just say there’s a lot.

Needless to say, this movie was never set up to be serious. You need to go into the movie knowing that it’s going to be ridiculous and kinda stupid. It is poking fun at telenovelas, Christmas movies, and KFC itself. If you can go into it knowing that it will be “so bad that it’s good,” I think you’ll enjoy it. This was the funny break I needed from all of the cheesy Christmas movies this year.

A Sugar & Spice Holiday | 2020 Christmas Movies

As I’ve said before, 2020 is the year of diverse Christmas movies. We have had gay couples, black couples, and Jewish couples. Now Lifetime has given us an Asian-led movie.

Suzy (Jacky Lai) is an architect trying to win a promotion at work. When she comes home for the holiday, she finds herself participating in a Gingerlicious Baking Competition with a classmate from high school, Billy (Tony Giroux). Can she overcome her feelings of inadequacies to accomplish her dreams?

I love that there are so many diverse movies this year. Everyone deserves to see themselves in a cheesy Christmas movie. They may not be great movies but representation is never a bad thing.

With that said, A Sugar & Spice Holiday is another movie that tries to put too much into it. The whole movie is named and themed after Suzy baking with her grandmother. Then they try to force in this work promotion with a looming deadline that keeps getting pushed up. If they had only focused on the baking, this could have been a pretty good movie. The work stuff felt completely irrelevant.

Beyond that, the movie isn’t too terrible. The acting is decent. (With the exception of the baking competition judges.) If you can ignore the work-related stuff, the plot isn’t particularly bad. Is it worth watching? Yeah, give it a try. But don’t eat the stinky tofu!

Operation Christmas Drop | 2020 Christmas Movies

After binging so many Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies, I took a break and switched over to Netflix. One of their first releases for 2020 is Operation Christmas Drop.

When Congresswoman Bradford (Virginia Madsen) sees an article about an Air Force base’s humanitarian mission called Operation Christmas Drop, along with a picture of a shirtless airman with a ukulele, she sends her aide, Erica (Kat Graham), to the Guam base for a budgetary analysis. Captain Andrew Jantz (Alexander Ludwig) is assigned to show Erica the ins and outs of the operation.

There is a lot to unpack with this movie. I know that there needs to be a heartless villain that wants to ruin The Good Thing but I’m pretty sure one of the purposes of US military bases is to provide support to locals. In this case, it would be local islands that don’t have access to necessities. So I don’t think that a congressperson would make a decision to close a base based solely on one annual supply drop. It is a good backdrop for a movie, however, and it does shine light on the good things the US military does.

In case you weren’t aware, Operation Christmas Drop is an actual Air Force tradition that began in 1952. (If you stay tuned after the movie, there are some real life facts about the mission.) And while Erica and Andrew are fictional characters, we do get to see Brother Bruce played by himself. I appreciated seeing someone who participates in the annual event in the movie.

Is Operation Christmas Drop worth watching? Well, it’s not as cheesy as the Hallmark/Lifetime fare. And there are some really pretty locations. But there isn’t a lot of substance. It’s OK, just not great.

Unlocking Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel gives us another mysterious Christmas movie. This time it’s a riddle-based adventure around town.

Kate (Taylor Cole) is a doctor working on her fellowship. Kevin (Steve Lund) is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life now that he has returned from the Air Force. Each of them find a mysterious key and riddle on their front door, leading them on an adventure through town.

Unlocking Christmas is an interesting movie. The idea of a sort of riddle-based scavenger hunt isn’t a new one. Giving the pair two envelopes - one to open now and one to open after they completed their task - is a strange twist. It relies on them being honest enough to not open that second envelope immediately. Considering the riddle-makers (yes, we do find out who is behind all of this) don’t really know Kate, it was awfully trusting of them to be like “Don’t open this!!” It would have been better if they just gave them the second envelope after completing the first.

Despite that, it isn’t a terrible movie. Some of the solutions to the puzzles are a bit of a stretch but it isn’t anything that ruins the movie. If anything, I would have liked for the ‘scavenger hunt’ to last longer. I think the movie takes place over a week or so. It would have been nice to have it last a couple of weeks so Kate and Kevin could get to know each other better. As it is, the Big Kiss at the end feels forced. I didn’t see anything in the movie that looked like they were falling in love.

Go ahead and watch Unlocking Christmas. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for new Christmas traditions for your family.

Christmas Comes Twice | 2020 Christmas Movies

Ugh, another time travel Christmas movie. When will writers realize that these stories are terrible?

Cheryl (Tamera Mowry-Housley) is an astrophysicist with a job reviewing grant proposals for the National Science Foundation. She isn’t particularly happy with her life as her job requires long hours and little science. When she comes home for the holidays, she rides a magical carousel at the Christmas Carnival that sends her back in time five years. Would she be happier if she made different life decisions?

I don’t understand why this movie was greenlit. When Cheryl goes back in time, it seems like she didn’t make bad decisions originally. She just didn’t want to say no to anyone. That job she dislikes? She knew what the job was. She agreed to it. Even when she had a second chance to turn down the job, she doesn’t tell the boss no. She tries to make herself sound like a terrible candidate so he won’t hire her. It’s perfectly fine to say no. Especially when it’s a job that you didn’t actually apply for.

The rest of the movie was Cheryl pushing her opinions onto everyone else. Her sister, Trish (Zarrin Darnell-Martin), wants to open a restaurant. Cheryl thinks it’s too risky and does everything in her power to talk her sister out of it. She has zero concern about what her sister actually wants.

Big surprise, she also doesn’t treat George (Michael Xavier), the romantic lead of the movie, very well either. She claims she’s competing with him but she isn’t doing it in a friendly manner. She spends a lot of time belittling him. And we’re supposed to believe that she loves this guy.

Christmas Comes Twice isn’t worth your time. This is another movie that I fell asleep watching. That is probably the best way to watch it. Turn it on for background noise and take a nap. You won’t miss anything.

The Christmas Setup | 2020 Christmas Movies

As I have said before, Christmas 2020 is the season of inclusivity. The Christmas House is the “movie that broke Hallmark” because it featured a gay couple. Well, Lifetime did them one better with The Christmas Setup where the main couple is gay.

Hugo (Ben Lewis) is a New York lawyer trying to make partner. When he comes home to Minnesota, he meets Patrick (Blake Lee), a former tech entrepreneur. With a little meddling from his mother, Kate (Fran Drescher), and his best friend, Madelyn (Ellen Wong), Hugo finds what is really important to him.

The Christmas Setup is the best movie that Lifetime has aired this season. It might possibly be the best movie on television this season. In most romance movies, we don’t see that awkward stage where the couple likes each other but doesn’t know if the other person likes them back. Amazingly, we get that here. We get scenes where Hugo groans about how nerdy he is after an interaction with Patrick or how dumb a hat looks on him. There are shy glances between the men as they try to discern where they stand with each other. It is so sweet.

All of the acting is wonderful. Fran Drescher is great as Hugo and Aiden’s (Chad Connell) mother. She’s meddles a little and over plans the Christmas events but it’s obvious that she does it because she loves her boys so much. Ben Lewis and Blake Lee are a real life couple, which brings a reality to their characters’ relationship that you don’t get in other movies. And Ellen Wong as Hugo’s best friend? Perfection.

You should absolutely go watch The Christmas Setup. This is actually a movie you may want to watch every year. It is so good!!

A Glenbrooke Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

As we’re closing in on the end of Christmas movie season, I begin to wonder if these Hallmark movies are making me go insane. I have watched more Christmas movies this year than I have in any previous year. And the movies seem to keep getting blander as I go on.

Jessica (Autumn Reeser) is an heiress who goes to her deceased mother’s hometown of Glenbrooke for the holidays. She literally runs into a fireman, Kyle (Antonio Cupo), who she falls in love with.

There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense in A Glenbrooke Christmas. Jessica is supposed to be a fairly famous heiress. Her face is on the cover of magazines. Yet she thinks she can hide by only using her first and middle names while she’s in town. She’s surprised when someone looks her up on Google and finds out who she is without using her last name. I’m surprised that no one recognizes her face without even knowing her name!

When Jessica first meets Kyle, he walks in front of her car then blames her for hitting him. And he doesn’t get less ridiculous as the movie goes on. He makes a fuss about how rich people are different from everyone else and he couldn’t possibly love a rich person. Then he gets mad when Jessica doesn’t tell him who she really is. He is the definition of gaslighting.

The big “problem” in the movie is that the church bell needs some electronic thing fixed so it can ring on Christmas. It will cost $10,000. Jessica doesn’t want to pay for it so she suggests a fundraiser to the locals. Ruthie (Latonya Williams), who runs the community center, turns down the idea because everyone in the town has already donated to their charities. One - how does she know that no one in town would donate and Two - this bell is made out to be the Most Important Thing in town. Why wouldn’t the townspeople donate towards fixing it? It’s all a little frustrating.

I’m also a little annoyed that this is on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. While this does fall under the movie category, it definitely isn’t a mystery. I would like it a lot more if that channel stuck to the stories with actual mysteries to solve.

To be honest, A Glenbrooke Christmas isn’t worth your time. There are much better movies out there. Go watch one of those instead.