A Cozy Christmas Inn | 2022 Christmas Movies

I believe there are two Jodie Sweetin Christmas movies this season. It’s a little unusual for a known actress to be in more than one Christmas movie per year. Perhaps she’s trying to steal the Christmas season from Candace Cameron Bure. Well, let’s see if A Cozy Christmas Inn is any good.

Erika (Jodie Sweetin) is a real estate executive working for Sharon (Vivica A. Fox). Sharon sends Erika to a small town in Alaska to purchase a local inn. When Erika arrives, she finds that the inn is owned by her ex-boyfriend, Andy (David O’Donnell). Will Erika be able to make the offer before she falls in love again?

To be honest, I didn’t expect a lot from A Cozy Christmas Inn. Generally speaking, movies about inns or bed and breakfast places aren’t usually good. For some reason, they spend too much time on the hotel instead of the couple. While the romance shouldn’t be the sole focus of the movie, it should have a leading role.

Surprisingly, this hotel movie was quite good. It balanced Erika’s hesitancy at reconnecting with Andy, giving each of the interesting townspeople a small spotlight, and the actual rekindling of the romance between Erika and Andy very well. Both Erika and Andy had their “I know better than you” moment but neither of those moments were mean about it. Sometimes romance movies make one part of the couple snarky about knowing something more or being better at something than the other person. In this case, Erika cooks Andy a meal and Andy gives Erika a pair of real boots (as opposed to dress boots). There is a little bit of fun ribbing - Erika kinda makes fun of Andy’s diet and Andy kinda makes fun of Erika thinking that dress boots are appropriate for Alaska - but it’s never in a mean way that would make the other person feel bad. It’s moments like this that make them feel like an actual couple.

While there isn’t a ton of Christmas in A Cozy Christmas Inn, this is a really good movie. There is some holiday spirit and a winkwinknudgenudge that says Andy might be Santa’s son. But even if you love tons of Christmas in your Christmas movie, I think you would enjoy this one. I almost want to say it’s the perfect Christmas romance movie. Almost.

A Kismet Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The first weekend of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies ends with A Kismet Christmas. Yes, I also had to look up the meaning of ‘kismet’ since they use it a million times in the movie. It means destiny or fate. I guess they can only use ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’ so many times before they run out of titles. It’s just kismet, right?

Mia (Marilu Henner) bakes kismet cookies - cookies that will tell you who your true love is when you sleep with one under your pillow on Christmas Eve. One year, Mia’s granddaughter, Sarah (Sarah Ramos), sneaks a kismet cookie under her pillow. It told her that her true love was the boy next door, Travis (Carlo Marks). Unfortunately, Travis was getting married that day. Embarrassed, Sarah rips up the recipe for the cookies and leaves the town of New Britain. Years later, Sarah is a children’s book author. Her publisher runs a contest and the winner lives in New Britain. Sarah is forced to return to town and face both her grandmother and her childhood crush.

On one hand, I found A Kismet Christmas interesting. On the other hand, the slow parts were very slow. I liked the idea of magical cookies that told you who your true love is. If the movie dove deep into that, I think I would have liked it more. However, since Sarah tore up the recipe within the first 15 minutes of the movie, the cookies aren’t around a lot. Instead, we get a lot of people hemming and hawing about how there aren’t any kismet cookies and they wish there were kismet cookies so they could know FOR SURE that a certain person liked them. And since there are no cookies to be baked, Grandma Mia is fairly useless. She makes very vague statements about things and doesn’t tell Sarah any of the important news that is fairly necessary to her life. I think the movie would have been more interesting if the cookies were still around and the conflict is whether the magic in the house is leaving since Mia is planning on selling it.

Instead of the cool things, A Kismet Christmas focuses on Travis and his daughter, Jasmine (Rubi Tupper). In the beginning, Sarah was mortified about having to face Travis again after interrupting his wedding. She got over that so quickly and she spends a majority of the movie helping Jasmine with her contest-winning project or helping Travis make Jasmine happy. I understand that the writers wanted them to spend more time together to push the romance but it’s insinuated that they have always loved each other. Again, the focus should have been on the magic cookies and house. They could have easily had Travis and Jasmine try to help figure out why the house is losing its magic and how to get it back. It’s a much more interesting story.

Should you watch it? Probably not. Unfortunately, I think the boring parts outweigh the interesting parts. Which makes me sad because there was so much potential there. At least it’s only the beginning of the movie season. Maybe there will be something better soon.

Destined At Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Destined At Christmas is my first jump into Christmas movies from the Great American Family channel. This is the channel that Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar left Hallmark for. This is also the channel run by the former CEO of Hallmark who didn’t like Hallmark including LGBTQ+ people in their programming. I’m not sure exactly what to expect but my expectations aren’t high.

Kim (Shae Robins) and Theo (Casey Elliott) meet while shopping on Black Friday. The two hit it off but lose touch after getting separated during a power outage. For the next month, they try to find each other. Close calls and misunderstandings abound until they are finally able to reconnect.

To be honest, I was expecting some sort of “God will work things out” message. That never happened. Instead, it was two people trying to find each other with the limited information they had. Granted, the whole movie could have been avoided if Theo just called out for Kim when he left the store. She called out for him but since she left first, he didn’t hear her. And there were a couple of weird places where they asked for the personal information of the other person. Why would a random store give out the contact information for one of their customers to a random person walking in off the street? For the sake of The Plot, I will give them a pass.

Surprisingly, I actually liked Destined At Christmas. Sure, it was a little cheesy but the acting wasn’t awful and the script was pretty decent. It would have been better if they had ditched the two potential love interested for Kim and Theo since they had zero influence on the main plot. However, I do understand what they were going for.

Destined At Christmas most likely isn’t going to make it to my list of top Christmas movies this year. That doesn’t mean it was a waste of time to watch. Grab a really good cup of hot chocolate and maybe your cell phone for the slower parts. I don’t think you’ll regret watching it.

We Need A Little Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Wow. We have already reached the dead spouse/parent portion of our Christmas movies. I thought that maybe Hallmark would wait awhile before their aired their sad movies. I guess I was wrong.

Julie (Erica Durance) is a newly widowed mother to Gavin (Azriel Dalman). The two have moved into a new home and are trying to navigate the holiday season without their loved one. While at Christmas camp, Gavin meets their neighbor Irene (Lynn Whitfield). With Irene’s help, Gavin learns how to share his emotions and be supportive of his mother. Meanwhile, Julie is trying to keep her decorating company afloat. She takes on a new job redesigning a restaurant owned by Peter (Patrick Sabongui). He helps Julie open up and accept help during these difficult times.

We Need A Little Christmas is kinda on the depressing side of things. Julie lost her husband, Gavin lost his dad, and Irene will be spending Christmas alone because her military grandson can’t come make it home for the holiday. Almost everyone in the movie is just sad. Thankfully, Irene has a little insight on how to trudge through the sad times. Oh, did I forget to mention that her husband is also dead? Yeah, this movie has a lot of death in it. To be honest, Irene is probably the best character in the movie. Though she feels like she’s supposed to be some sort of guardian angel type and not an actual person. I kept waiting for there to be some sort of “magic” on her side that would bring everything together. There wasn’t but there felt like there should have been.

The problem with movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mystery channel is that none of them are bad. I mean, they aren’t good either. They are just boring. It would be easy to say “don’t watch this” if it’s bad. But when it’s boring, I don’t have a good excuse to tell you to not watch it. And WNALC is another movie that talks about Christmas but we don’t see a ton of Christmas happening. So, watch it if you have nothing else to do. Just be warned that nothing happens in the movie either. It’s a lot of talking with no follow through. Very dull.

We Wish You A Married Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Channel dominates the beginning of the Christmas movie season. I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Anyway, the second movie they give us this year is We Wish You A Married Christmas. It’s a little weird to get a married couple story this early in the season but, hey, what do I know.

Becca (Marisol Nichols) and Robby (Kristoffer Polaha) are a married couple having difficulty connecting with each other. Their marriage coach suggests a vacation to Gracious, Vermont. Thanks to a few setbacks, they end up having to stay longer than they planned. Will that help or hurt their marriage?

WWYAMC started out extremely boring and confusing. It was difficult for me to tell if these two were married and having problems or if they were just business partners. Honestly, it was worse when I figured out they were married. They have the most boring marriage problems. Instead of actually fighting over anything, they just ignore each other. Yes, that is their problem. They don’t “see” each other. And while that is a real life problem actual married couples have, it makes for very boring television.

Annoyingly, the movie doesn’t actually pick up until it’s almost over. Even when Becca and Robby were spending time together, it was still boring. Picking up items for the bed and breakfast they are staying at, shopping at the Christmas market, watching the shortest parade in the world…the most interesting thing they did was bartend at the employee Christmas party at the bed and breakfast. Even that was done as a montage. It would have been much more interesting if they had reconnected a little earlier. We could have seen a much happier couple giving romantic advice to the new couple - either the two townspeople that get together or the new couple sent by the marriage coach. Like a wink to the camera sort of thing.

If you really want to watch a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, WWYAMC isn’t terrible. It’s just boring. So maybe pop it on while you clean the house or cook dinner or some other household task. It’s not worth your complete attention but maybe your half attention.

Noel Next Door | 2022 Christmas Movies

The 2022 Christmas movie season has started! We’re starting the season with Hallmark Channel’s Noel Next Door. And, yes, of course the title is a pun on the main character’s name.

Noelle (Natalie Hall) is a divorced single mom to Henry (Callum Shoniker). While waitressing at a local diner, she meets Jeremy (Corey Sevier), a stroke survivor. The two hit it off but little does Noelle know that Jeremy is the neighbor that has been terrorizing the neighborhood with his anti-Christmas ways. Will they be able to reconcile their differences?

I’m not sure if it’s because this is the first Christmas movie of the season or if it was actually good but I quite enjoyed Noel Next Door. Usually, I find all of Corey Sevier’s characters unbearably annoying. This time around, he manages to somehow combine the “annoyed at life” and “charming leading man” types somewhat smoothly. I think my only complaint for him is that he is a little inconsistent with his character physicality. I know that not all stroke survivors have the same issues afterward. He just needs to decide when his limbs will and won’t work for him.

As for Natalie Hall, I think most of the time she chooses terrible scripts. She is frequently cast as a cardboard cutout of a woman that has zero personality. In Noel Next Door, her character has a little more depth to her. It nice to see the change since I don’t think Hall is a bad actress. She just makes bad decisions when it comes to Christmas movies.

While I think that Noel Next Door is a very watchable movie, it isn’t particularly groundbreaking. We still have the “one person hates Christmas, the other person will fix that” trope. But it isn’t the main point of the movie and I think that is what makes it better. The movie focuses more on the relationships than it does the holiday. That is almost always a win in my book.

The Best and Worst Halloween Movies of 2022

Sadly, tomorrow starts the Christmas movie season. But before we let go of Halloween, let’s take a look back at the top five best and worst movies this year.

The Best

5. Lou
4. Sissy
3. Deadstream
2. The Midnight Club
1. Grimcutty

Honorable mentions: Pearl, My Best Friend’s Exorcism

The Worst

5. Control
4. Dark Glasses
3. Who Invited Them
2. Flux Gourmet
1. We’re All Going To The World’s Fair

Dishonorable mentions: Raven’s Hollow, Matriarch

Let me know which movies you loved and hated. Were there any movies that I missed that you loved? Leave a comment so I can check it out!

Wendell & Wild | Halloween 2022

Coraline is a favorite movie in this household. When we heard that Henry Selick, the writer and director of Coraline, was releasing a new stop-motion animated movie with Jordan Peele, I knew we had to watch Wendell & Wild.

Kat (Lyric Ross) is a young teenager that blames herself for the death of her parents. When she is enrolled in an all-girls school in her old hometown of Rust Bank, Kat finds out that she is a “Hell Maiden.” Two demon brothers - Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele) - are trying to make a fairground for souls, one that is better than the one their father, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), uses to torture souls. However, the brothers need money to create their dream. They convince Kat to summon them to the mortal world, where they make an agreement with the evil Klaxons, Irmgard (Maxine Peake) and Lane (David Harewood). The demons will resurrect the deceased members of the town council so they can vote in favor of the Klaxons demolishing Rust Bank. But Wendell and Wild also promised that they would bring back her dead parents, which the Klaxons don’t want. Who will win the fight for Red Bank and will Kat ever forgive herself?

As I said, Coraline holds a special place in our hearts. A lot of people will compare Wendell & Wild to Coraline but they are very different movies. The music in Coraline is catchier and there isn’t quite as much humor in it. Instead, W&W is more punk rock. I did expect it to be a little scarier, since horror king Jordan Peele helped write the script but it doesn’t quite make it. It lies in this weird middle ground where it’s not family friendly enough for small children but it’s not scary enough for older teenagers. W&W seems to be aimed at a very specific demographic - pre-teens who are looking to figure out who they are apart from their parents. Or people who really like stop-motion animation.

I do think Wendell & Wild is worth watching. Almost all of the cast is made up of people of color, which is amazing. But, as such, it’s not getting as much publicity from Netflix as it deserves. The more people that tune in, the most Netflix will realize this is what people want to see. And, I mean, Key and Peele are always magical when they are together. You may not walk away singing the songs but you will walk away loving the characters and hoping for more. Oh, and stick around after the credits. There’s a little scene with Selick and Kat that is adorable.

The Good Nurse | Halloween 2022

Most of the time during the Halloween season, I try to stick to reviewing scary or spooky movies. However, The Good Nurse is a different type of scary and spooky. Especially for those of us that lived in the southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey area in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Yes, this movie is based on a true story.

Amy (Jessica Chastain) is a single mother working as a nurse in a New Jersey ICU. Despite her strenuous job, Amy tries to hide her heart condition from her bosses and coworkers until her health insurance kicks in. The hospital hires a new nurse, Charles (Eddie Redmayne), to help with the night shift. Suddenly, patients that weren’t fatal begin to die. When all of the hospitals that Charles previously worked at continue to stonewall the police investigation into the patient deaths, Amy steps forward to help catch the man responsible.

This is a story that hit close to home. Not only is my mother a nurse and not only do I live in southeast Pennsylvania, I am also old enough to remember his happening. So watching The Good Nurse had a different type of horror for me. It’s the type where you never know if someone evil could take advantage of you when you are at your most vulnerable. If you have never felt like that before, be thankful. It’s not a good feeling.

There is a lot of backlash nowadays about true crime movies and podcasts and YouTube videos. And I don’t disagree that the victims need to be honored and not exploited. However, I also believe that stories like this need to be told. While it can be difficult to tell the difference between an exploitative movie and a good movie, I think that The Good Nurse is one of the good ones. The main focus of the movie is Amy, the woman who wouldn’t let hospital red tape brush these murders under the rug. She really is the true hero of the story. The one person who risked everything to do the right thing. I wish everyone could be like Amy.

Barbarian | Halloween 2022

Since there were so many movies that came out this year, I couldn’t pick the next scary movie to watch. My husband picked Barbarian for me. I didn’t know a lot about the movie so I agreed to watch it.

Tess (Georgina Campbell) has booked an AirBNB in a small neighborhood in Detroit. When she arrives at the house, she finds a man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård) already staying there. After finding out there is nowhere else nearby to stay, they decide to share the house for the night. The next day, after her job interview and while Keith is out of the house, Tess finds a secret door in the basement that leads to an underground maze of tunnels. Two weeks later, sitcom actor AJ Gilbride (Justin Long) has lost his job due to a rape allegation. He comes back to his house in Detroit to get ready to sell it. Even though he finds luggage and toiletries in the house, the property manager insists that no one has rented the house in a few weeks. Shrugging it off, he goes into the basement where he also finds the secret door. Excited that he could list that as more space in the house, he explores further.

Barbarian is a little all over the place. There are three separate storylines that all come together. Tess and Keith’s story takes place two weeks before AJ’s storyline starts and then there’s a man named Frank (Richard Brake) has a story that starts in the 1980s and ends when AJ finds him. It is a little jarring when they switch to another storyline. The transition between the three isn’t done very well so it takes some time before you realize what is going on.

With that said, I did like the horror aspect of the movie. The “monster” isn’t a new idea in horror movies. It has been done before. However, there is a bit of a twist that makes it slightly different. I think that twist is just enough to make Barbarian interesting. Take the time to watch it. Even if you hate it, it will give you pause the next time you book an AirBNB.