I agree. I'm not impressed by any of Danica's movies.

And I've been disappointed with Alicia Witt. I loved her in A Very Merry Mix-Up. But everything after that has been average at best.

My favorites are Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert and Rachel Boston.

This was a great movie. Rachel Boston is really delightful. I enjoy every movie I've seen her in.

The Last Bridesmaid with Rachel Boston was quite good. I'd like to buy that one. It's a pre-order on Amazon. Will be purchasing this one eventually. Really surprised the first Angel Falls movie with Rachel has not been released.

Lilley is probably the best actress of the Hallmark lot - she comes from a soap opera background. I've also found she picks great scripts more consistently than some of the others.

Not really related but caught this year's new Love in Winterland with Italia Ricci. Hallmark has been grooming her the past couple years to be one of their big stars. Noticed she had put on some weight in it and they dressed her up in bulky sweaters the entire movie. A-ha, first result on Google told me she was pregnant while filming the movie. She had her first kid in the Fall.

I used to post about other channels family friendly type films in a separate thread I created but have not updated in a very long time so if it is okay I will just fold any comments/discussion about Hallmark type films from UP and Lifetime Networks into this thread (although, outside of the holiday season Lifetime films generally are not Hallmark like and more like dramatic reenactments of those scary crime stories you would see on show like Dateline USA).

Starting the past few months, UP started airing what they call an original premiere film on Sundays (but many of them are from 2015-2017, so maybe first time on their network) meaning I had yet another source to turn to to watch a steady diet of these films and I love it.

In fact, with few exceptions I really don't remember seeing a lot of these films from the past few years on UP or other channels that might have aired them (I did remember seeing at least 2 UP "premiere" airings closer to or when they aired but I forget what channel they premiered on) and they are fun to watch.

In some instances I wish Hallmark would learn from these films about how to end a film. I was watching an UP film last night called A Moving Romance (2016) and right towards the end where a lot of Hallmark films would show you a montage of events that happened 2 seconds ago and rush to the end where the main leads kiss this movie covered a ton of territory in a short period of time that did a good job of not rushing things even though everything happened inside of 14m of screen time. The main character goes to say goodbye to the male lead she is destined to end up with and sees that he is hugging his ex at restaurant, so she hops on a plane to NY (which she was going to do anyway) then the male lead learns from her dad that she left with saying goodbye. We cut to her being in NY with her friend and hemming/hawing over whether to notify the male lead of her success by sending him notice of an event she helped shape. Her friend decides to drop the invite in the mail without telling her. The male guy gets the invite and we also see him deciding to complete an application to a law school in NY (a dream he put on hold to help out the woman in NYs' family moving business). We then cut to the event in NY and while she is speaking to the assembled crowd she sees the male lead and finishes up her speech. They connect and shortly thereafter she follows him outside and they kiss.

Amazingly, the above happened in the home stretch of the film and there was no montage, and things closed out at a pace that should have but did not feel rushed.

Granted, many of the UP films are not superior to the Hallmark ones but I have seen many a Hallmark film that feels like they rushed the ending.

Generally the UP films aren't quite as formulaic. They tend to use some of the same actors to wildly varying results. The Hallmark movies tend to be more sentimental and try to include multiple generations (everyone from grandparents to children) while UP goes strictly after younger adult demos.

There will be a Hallmark Wedding movie sale on Vudu starting Tues. I don't know what the prices will be. Titles are posted on another site but they don't want the details shared elsewhere. I will list the titles Tuesday once the sale is live.

Nice group of titles on sale for $4.99 each. I might buy a few of them.
https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...ding-Sale/6817

Lilley has always been my favorite due to her gorgeous bedroom eyes. She could look at me and I would melt.

While I am here, I'll mention Matching Hearts. It stars Taylor Cole and airs this week, originally having aired for Valentine's Day earlier this year. Taylor and her male lead have more sexual chemistry in it than I've ever seen in any Hallmark production by leaps and bounds. The actors in a Hallmark movie usually tone that down, but they gave off a vibe like they've known each other...off screen.

Jen Lilley is definitely my favorite right now, especially because some of my faves aren’t producing as much recently, for whatever reason.

I’ve seen very few of the wedding sale movies—maybe because that’s as far away from the holidays as possible. Not a lot of my favorite actors in the sale, but I like Chabert so I got the three All of My Hearts.

Christmas in July starts this Friday on Hallmark Channel. Given the state of the world right now some feel good entertainment might not be a bad idea.

What Bluelite said...I have already teed up my TiVo to record a few movies on Friday including A Christmas Duet which is a fave of mine.

I watched that last year. It’s a good one.

Was hoping for some sales on iTunes or Vudu for Christmas in July. Any news on possible sales?

I wonder how many Christmas movies have been made so far for this holiday season? With most productions of tv and movies have been shut down due to the virus, it makes you wonder.

The good thing is they can knock out one of these Hallmark productions in about 6-8 weeks. I don't think Hallmark will be as impacted as some other channels this Fall season.

The silver lining if Hallmark needs to hold back some Christmas films that were already in the can is that pushing some films out to 2021 so they have some original Holiday movie themed content as they slowly ramp up production for hopefully a more normal 2022 means we end up with less of a glut of films all smashing into each other over a 2-2 1/2 month period. I mean do we really need some more weekends where there was an original on Sat & Sun from both Hallmark and H-Mark Movies & Mysteries, 4 original holiday themed films in two days is crazy (and I think there were even weekends where an original would also air on a Friday)?

This gives the films some breathing space and lets viewers play catch up. Also, with Lifetime and UP in the mix you oftentimes had situations where there could be up to 6 (or more) originals airing over 2-3 days! I love these types of films to death but even I do not mind if some content needs to be pushed back to 2021. It beats 2021 being mostly re-runs.

Also, the Christmas in July event starts in earnest tomorrow! Put your hands up in the air and say hey yo! Gotta love Christmas in July.

A focus on quality over quantity too is always good.

I definitely clicked into that sale hoping for Hallmark! I know some of last year’s movies were available pretty quickly after they aired so it’ll be interesting to see if there are some that still aren’t available this year, though (offhand I don’t recall which were released last year).

I’m not going to get into the perpetual quantity vs quality complaints.

I didn't even see one (a sale) on iTunes this year let alone one with Hallmark Christmas movies!

Watched A Christmas Duet and Switched For Christmas which was another good one (from 2017).

Looks like FandangoNow is having a Christmas in July sale. There are several Hallmark Christmas titles on sale for $5.00.

Merry and Bright
Write Before Christmas
Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Nutcracker Christmas
Joyous Christmas

and several other Hallmark and non-Hallmark titles. Apparently this sale started on the 7th and I did not see this. Sale MIGHT end tonight.

I don't know if this is true but Hallmark will have its usual number of brand new movies premiering in 2020. 23 movies on the Hallmark Channel and 17 movies on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries.
https://www.feelingthevibe.com/news/...bure-is-in-it/

I have mixed feelings about this because it would be nice if Hallmark cut down the total # to say no more than 30 originals between both channels and saved some content for 2021. 30 films plus whatever we get from UP and Lifetime is more than enough to get me though the holiday season.

ETA: I wanted to add that I like the mix of returning Hallmark regulars like Candace Cameron and Lacey Chabert alongside some folks I do not mind seeing more of on the Hallmark channel such as Laura Osnes and Alicia Witt. I also noticed some new or newish faces to the Hallmark Holiday line-up such as Alvina August.