Inhumans99

A friendly reminder that starting tomorrow Hallmark is releasing an original Holiday film each day through this Sunday (and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will also have a batch of originals airing). Lifetime is keeping to their schedule this year and releasing their first weekend original on Friday, and I believe that UP is also just staying with releasing on the weekend (no Thanksgiving day original). GAC is increasing the tempo of their originals this weekend, an original on Friday, Sat, and Sun (usually they do not air an original on a Friday).

Of course, while not part of what I would call the Holiday Originals being put out by Hallmark, Lifetime, UP, and GAC, the CW network has The Waltons film airing on Sunday. Holy cow, that is a crapload of films hitting the airwaves over the course of four days, lol!!

ETA: I forgot that UP is doing their full week Gilmore the merrier marathon this week, originals resume next weekend.

davidh777

On the GAC front, I thought Much Ado About Christmas has been their best so far. A Kindhearted Christmas with Cameron Mathison was pretty good too. When his character visited the small town and the residents got starry-eyed, I couldn’t help thinking of the reaction in this thread about his going to GAC (yes, I remember it was also a soap thing, and that many stars are doing both channels). I like Sara Lind in her Hallmark mystery series, but The Great Christmas Switch didn’t knock me out. Maybe it needed more of a difference between the twins.

I recorded The Spruces and the Pines on GAC, but it was actually An Autumn Romance. I recorded it again and will see if they got the broadcast correct this time.

PhantomStranger

Caught My Sweet Holiday on Lifetime. A man buys a bake shop with no experience and falls for the woman who grew up with it.Pretty good romance and story, even if I found the last act a bit wanting.

davidh777

One December Night was fun for having Bruce Campbell and Peter Gallagher yukking it up. Could’ve used more music, though.

Open by Christmas was mostly notable for Erica Durance as the best friend. I guess Smallville is officially an old show because some of the hotties are now doing Hallmark movies.

I’m not wild about Danica McKellar, but You and Me and the Christmas Trees was not bad. She plays a tree expert trying to solve a problem of ailing trees. The Santa Stakeout had an interesting crime angle, but the leads were just ok.

Boyfriends of Christmas Past might be my favorite comedy so far. The cast was good enough to lift an overused plot device. Christmas Sail was fine, though it was nice to see Katee Sackhoff and Terry O’Quinn. The kid dialogue was some of the worst I’ve heard in a while.

Picked off a couple from last year: The Christmas Carousel with Rachel Boston and Cross Country Christmas with Rachael Leigh Cook, neither very memorable.

Paff

I'd watch it if it was a crossover with Brand New Cherry Flavor

PhantomStranger

My Christmas Family Tree is about the best Christmas movie I've seen in the past 2 or 3 years, really enjoyable and pleasant. Starring Aimee Teegarden, it has almost everything you need from a Hallmark movie. I almost never notice the direction watching Hallmark but My Christmas Family Tree offers great direction for television. Sharp dialogue, a warm and inviting scenario, fabulous Christmas decorations, and an excellent script that nicely balances touching drama with laughs and a little romance.

It's about a woman who accidentally discovers her biological father through a DNA test.

TGM

these movies are pretty bad, nice comfort food to have on while goofing on the internet, but I must say I really like Tyler Hynes as an actor and get sucked into his movies because of it. He should be in more (non Hallmark) stuff.

davidh777

I watched Nine Kittens, and it pretty much delivered for cat fans just like the original, except with cute kittens and nine of them. I didn’t remember much from the original, but they provided enough catch-up, and I like they started out with the characters having diverged from their paths at the end of that movie.

I just watched this one and liked it. I too was unfamiliar with Chelsea Hobbs, but her bio indicates she’s often been a Hallmark peripheral character. I recorded it off the air, but it’s well worth the 99 cents.

PhantomStranger

Caught another good movie on Hallmark new for this year. Christmas CEO is the tale of childhood friends who grow up to start a toy company and have a falling out. Another new female lead I don't remember seeing before but she did a great job alongside the reliable male lead, an old veteran of Hallmark.

I've noticed Hallmark is now throwing at least one song performance into almost every new Christmas movie. Especially children singing or solo performances.

Inhumans99

Phantom, Christmas CEO starred Marisol Nichols, who you do not see in a lot of Hallmark, or Hallmark type films on other channels, so that was a refreshing change of pace to see a new face. The film actually was pretty good and I am a fan of Nichols, having seen her in Riverdale, and some other stuff over the years. I take that back, while she has indeed not been in a ton of films lately, she was in another solid Hallmark Film, Holly & Ivy, which starred Nichols and Janel Parrish (seeing as how I am also a fan of Janel Parrish's Holiday type films, I really enjoyed Holly & Ivy which is from December 2020).

I forgot that ION even got into the Holiday Original game (again) this year, and they have started airing 1 original on Sunday nights. I am working through last nights A Christmas Witness, which stars Arielle Kebbel (and yet another actress I enjoy seeing in these types of films). The Kebbel film also stars Colin Egglesfield, who I believe you really do not see in a ton of these type of films. Log jam of films aside, I admit that while TGM is not completely wrong he also does point out that these mostly fluffy type of films are easy to watch in the background of futzing with your phone/tablet.

What I have noticed is that since you are seeing a lot of what used to be only Hallmark original regulars (although some of these same actors would sometimes show up in Lifetime/UP films) more frequently crossing over to star in films on GAC, Lifetime, and UP, that we get some rarely seen faces or new faces in the Hallmark Originals, which is great. It is always good to work on generating a new pool of regulars that you can turn too for these type of films.

DJariya

The Christmas Contest (2021)

This just premiered over the weekend. Candace Cameron Bure is cute and bubbly as usual. Her love interest in this is John Brotherton, who played her love interest in Fuller House. While I found her likable as in most of her Hallmark Christmas movies, I found this movie mostly boring. It's about a former couple who reunite to participate in a TV contest for charity and realize their mistakes in their past relationship and re-fall in love again as they are competing.

Inhumans99

I basically let The Christmas Contest run in the background and did not pay attention. From what I did catch, it sounds like I did not miss much and it was not one of the top tier Hallmark Holiday originals. Also, I could swear that GAC bragged about poaching Candace, so it changes the dynamic of how I view her promo bits on Hallmark saying how much she loves Hallmark and they are the greatest ever and their movies are so wonderful. She will be singing a different tune in 2022, that is for sure. I get that as of this moment she is still contractually bound to sing Hallmark's praises and to her credit, if you did not know about her upcoming jump to another channel you would indeed feel that she is still very enthusiastic about working for Hallmark.

davidh777

Vudu $4.99 sale has arrived, including some of last year’s releases. I don’t see some of my favorites, so I don’t know if they’re just not included or just not on video. I know they save some of them for broadcast or their app.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...2486?offset=-6

With all the weekend’s movies, I’m not sure how so many of us ended up watching the CEO one. I agree the lead was fresh, though the movie was just ok for me.

I’m not a big CCB fan, but they certainly gave her a lot to do when Lori Loughlin was kicked out. The Contest movie was fine, as was Taylor Cole’s Making Spirits Bright, another family-feud plot with another “Which Christmas song lyric have we not used yet?” title.

Also agree on Janell Parish. I’ve liked all of her stuff so far.

I haven’t been knocked out by anything so far, but a friend said some of the better ones have been on the drama side while I’ve been concentrating on the comedies.

Inhumans99

David, I feel that one of the better ones this year is: The Christmas Promise. It is a drama, and I admit to liking it so much that I have seen it twice already. It stars Torrey Devitto, who is also a Hallmark regular.

ETA: I watched a Lifetime film last night, Say Yes To Christmas, and I thought it was pretty good. I admit that I probably enjoyed it a wee bit more than usual not because it was shockingly different from other Holiday type films (although the lead character and her family did some preparing for a Japanese New Years celebration in the film) but because I found the lead actress to be so adorable. This film stars Erika Prevost. I see she was in the show Dare Me, but I did not bother to watch it.

ETA: Too funny, the only comment on IMDB for Say Yes To Christmas is: One of the most boring Christmas movies I have ever seen. Obvious ending. Waste of time. Characters had no appeal. Girl has been cursed with a spell and can't say "No".

That is indeed the premise of the film, it is not a "deep" film, and yes...I will even agree that you could see the resolution of the movie a million miles away, but I still enjoyed the film as a super easy watch. Or maybe like with what happens with JeffTheAlpaca in the sexiest person on TV thread, I was entranced so much by the main characters looks that I was oblivious to how cliched, trite, bland, or whatever word you want to use the film was, and if I was not so shallow and only paying attention to her looks that I would have noticed that the lead actress was not great in the film or whatever.

DJariya

Next Stop, Christmas (2021)

It stars Lyndsy Fonseca, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd.

I found to be a pretty charming movie about a young doctor who is magically transported back to her hometown 10-years in the past and gets a chance to re-do some things from her life and re-assess her relationships.

I like Christmas movies with a "hook" and the time travel hook along with the relationships with these characters was very charming for me. Fonseca had good chemistry with her leading man Chandler Massey.

The ending does feel a little rushed, but nevertheless, I enjoyed this movie.

DJariya

A Kiss Before Christmas (2021)

This aired a few weeks ago on Hallmark. It reunites Teri Hatcher and James Denton from Desperate Housewives

This was such a charming movie that made me smile at the end. It's another one in which the protagonist (Denton) is dealing with some frustrations in his life and then later is offered the option of living an "alternate reality" had he made different choices in his life.

I thought Denton was very charming and once again had good chemistry with Hatcher, who played his wife.

PhantomStranger

Hatcher is a little older than the typical Hallmark lead, interesting choice.

davidh777

I’m a former Desperate Housewives watcher and think I might be able to get the wife to watch. I think Marguerite Moreau was also on the older side, and that’s still one of my favorites. Honestly they might’ve had to stretch for leads with so many doing GAC this year.

I’ve whittled my unwatched backlog down to 13 of this year’s new movies.

I have seven set to record this weekend.

Inhumans99

I probably have the same, let's see...films from Hallmark, Lifetime, GAC, UP, and ION, yup, at least 7. Wow.

DJariya

I don’t record that many of these movies. As I said, I try to look for ones with an interesting hook. There’s just too many and it would be impossible to get through them. I can’t watch Christmas movies in January, so Christmas is my cutoff point to watch these.

davidh777

An Unexpected Christmas was good, with Bethany Joy Lenz and Tyler Hines playing exes who pretend to be together for the holidays. Hines has gone clean-shaven since Roadhouse Romance and looks totally different.

A Holiday in Harlem (Hallmark) and Christmas Is You (GAC) were not that great. Becca Tobin has had too much work done on her face since Glee.

I’ve seen way too much Jessica Lowndes lately, but Angel Falls Christmas was pretty good. She’s reunited with Chad Michael Murray, with whom she was just in a fall GAC movie, and I guess they’ve done Hallmark together too.

Also on GAC: I like Jen Lilley, but Royally Wrapped was just ok, and Christmas Time Is Here is just as dull as its title. That’s the first one this season I almost just stopped watching.

Time for Them to Come Home for Xmas is yet another in the series, but I liked it quite a bit, but then I have an odd fondness for amnesiac movies. Debbie Macomber’s A Mrs Miracle Christmas is a well-worn concept (and really all of these films use recycled plots) of the mysterious stranger who appears just when help is needed, but the family dynamics made for a good story.

Inhumans99

I have admitted this before, but Bethany Joy Lenz is someone I have a TV crush on, and usually her films, whether they are on Lifetime, GAC, or Hallmark, are worth a watch and lean toward upper mid-tier to top shelf Holiday originals. I liked the different than usual cast in A Holiday In Harlem, but agree it would be considered a mid-tier Holiday original at best.

The Christmas is You film I had to google to jog my memory and yes it was just okay. Angel Falls Christmas was okay (liked it a bit less than you did) but I really enjoy it when Jessica Lowndes is in a Holiday original film so I watched it to the end. I did notice that it looks like her and Chad Michael do not just team up in several films, but are also the producers as well, cool.
I have not even watched Royally Wrapped, as I usually like Jen Lilley films (in some cases a lot) but for some reason the description of the film did nothing to draw me in.

Christmas Time Is Here has a cast I usually enjoy in other films, but yes, this one was pretty forgettable (had to google, and I agree with you that it was more of a bottom tier film). Time for Them to Come Home for Xmas, yes...that one was a winner, helped immensely by the fact that it stars Jessy Schram.

The Mrs Miracle one, I believe that one stars the woman from It's Sunny, if so....I actually enjoyed that one quite a bit.

DJariya

My Christmas Family Tree (2021)

Stars Aimee Teegarden and James Tupper. I thought this was a sweet Christmas movie about a young woman who discovers through a DNA match her biological father (Tupper) and then tries to connect with him and then meets his current family.
It had some really nice moments. Teegarden is stunningly beautiful and very charming in this and has good chemistry with Tupper and the young kids who play her half siblings.

The ending though was extremely rushed and sorta contrived. I mean one of the big things was the name of Teegarden's character's Mom's name and some confusion it caused. But, overall I did like it and the performances.

Paff

One of the Mighty Ducks kids is now "on the older side"?

Yeah, that's it, I'm officially a grumpy old man now.

DJariya

Shall we just rename this thread like The One and Only Hallmark, Lifetime, GAC Christmas movies thread? Seems like there is a mix of movies talked about and not all Hallmark.

Anyways, saw two more Holiday movies last night



Christmas Sail (2021)

Stars Katee Sackhoff and Terry O'Quinn

I didn't particularly care for this. Just another romance themed movie that didn't really have a unique hook. Sackhoff and her leading man Patrick Sabongui didn't really have much chemistry.




A Kindhearted Christmas (2021)

This aired on the GAC Network. Cameron Mathison, who was in a lot of Hallmark movies appears here along with Jennie Garth.

I actually really liked this one. This one had a neat hook about a small town getting anonymous gifts from a secret Santa. A big city news reporter comes into town to cover it. Mathison is really likable and has good chemistry with Garth.

A very charming movie and I did enjoy the hook.