PhantomStranger

Taking the Reins (Hallmark) 4.5 out of 5 - Excellent Nikki DeLoach romantic vehicle set in the world of horse riding. The set-up is a little unusual for Hallmark as Nikki's character falls back in love with her...ex-husband when they train together for a competition. Corbin Bernsen plays the dad.

davidh777

Speaking of DeLoach, the new Curious Caterer was pretty good. I like how they really lean into the absurdity of the amateur sleuth being part of the police investigation. They’ve started a few new mystery series lately, maybe because some of their standard ones have gone cold—no Crossword or Martha’s Vineyard in a while, while others like Mystery 101 have been shelved by the GAC defections.

I really liked Sweeter Than Chocolate, partly because I like Eloise Mumford, but I thought the story was pretty good too. One of the better 2023 releases for me.

I also have picked off some stragglers in the Hallmark app checklist (darn that thing! ). Two sequels in the Vineyard series with Rachael Leigh Cook (the go-by-feel winemaker) and Brendan Penny (the scientific grape grower) were fine. Valentine Ever After with Autumn Reeser as a city girl gone cowboy was good because of Autumn. I don’t think I’ve seen Erika Christensen since 24 and The Girl Next Door, but I actually liked Anything for Love, about two people meeting through a dating app and getting caught in some profile… “embellishments.”

In a similar vein, I watched The Noel Diary on Netflix. Justin Hartley (This Is Us, Smallville) plays a successful writer who through unexpected circumstances has to face some lingering family issues. It’s a drama rather than a comedy, but I thought it was effective.

PhantomStranger

Bearing in mind I've never enjoyed Hallmark's murder mysteries (honestly I've never enjoyed Murder She Wrote-style programs) and almost always avoid them, I gave Curious Caterer: Grilling Season a chance since it starred Nikki and Andrew Walker. I'm probably not the best barometer given my tastes, but Curious Caterer did nothing for me. I actually quit halfway through. Walker slips into the detective role fairly easily, I found DeLoach a touch over her head in that kind of material.

davidh777

That’s fair. I watch a number of the mystery series and like them fine, but tend to avoid the ones with the leads who don’t do anything for me (CCB, Danica, Loughlin).

PhantomStranger

Christmas In Pine Valley (Great American) 3.5 out of 5 - Just a solid Christmas movie, more of an ensemble-driven narrative than usual though there are two nominal romantic leads. A woman with a Christmas business lies on her blog that it's run by a family and hijinks ensue when a journalist wants to do a piece on them. I vaguely recognize the two stars, maybe from UP.

davidh777

I watched Lori Loughlin’s Fall Into Winter on GAC. I never watched much of her stuff on Hallmark as a lot of it was before my time, but this one was fine. She’s paired with James Tupper, who played Aimee Teagarden’s dad in My Christmas Family Tree (he’s 57), so it’s kinda nice to have a middle-age-centric movie.

A Penavega in Paris, aka A Paris Proposal, takes the fake-dating trope a step further with a fake marriage, and as always you can see where the lies are going to come crashing down. This was also fine and a quick delete.

PhantomStranger

Time For Him To Come Home For Christmas (Hallmark) 5/5 - Maybe the best screenplay by Hallmark for their 2022 Christmas line-up. The female star is the redhead from MTV's Teen Wolf, paired with Hallmark vet Tyler Hynes. The entire narrative hinges on a deadly car accident and its impact on the people left behind. The stars share a very believable chemistry, even if Tyler is playing a character a bit younger than his actual age. Without spoiling things too much, there's a plot surprise which completely caught me off-guard...and I'm never surprised by these films.

davidh777

Yeah, I thought that was one of the better ones last year. I generally like the Time for… series.

davidh777

Welcome to Valentine was ok. I liked the lead actress, but her character was kind of annoying.

I liked Something from Tiffany’s on Prime. Zoey Deutch was super charming.

davidh777

The Love Game tries to jump on the popularity of board games, but as much as I like both Kimberly Sustad and Brooks Darnell, this one was just ok for me.

Made for Each Other is a fantasy about a woman whose sculpture of the perfect man suddenly comes to life, and then she starts developing a relationship with a real human. Kinda funny, I guess, and a non-holiday Jewish-centric movie. Ending was a bit different from what I expected.

The Love Club: Nicole’s Pen Pal has Brittany Bristow trying to find a college pen pal. The “club” is a group of four women conferring about relationships, and the other three characters each have their own movie… but only on the Hallmark service. This one was ok so I don’t feel the need to chase down the others. Only one of the other characters had a distinctive personality here.

Inhumans99

I had no clue that there were other Love Club Pen Pal films, but I guess only on Hallmarks paid streaming service (which I do not pay for). Like you, I enjoyed the film but do not consider it to be such a great film that I want to chase down and watch the other films in the series.

If they were trying a marketing experiment to get people to consider purchasing their streaming service by offering up just one film in the series for free on their regular basic cable channels, they probably should have went with trying out this experiment using The Wedding Veil series, due to the fact that those films had much more recognizable lead actresses.

davidh777

The Wedding Veil definitely came to mind as a comparison. They probably didn't want to lose the ratings that all that star power gave them, though. I assume they went well considering how often they replay them.

I can see the strategy of teasing out an unknown property (with unknown-to-me leads except Bristow, sort of) on the network then seeing if viewers follow for the rest, but I don't recall fast-forwarding through ANY ads pitching these other movies in the series. I only knew about them because a friend mentioned them, and later I saw them in the app.

I remember a couple years ago they did something similar with a Laura Osnes movie that premiered on their service. I later saw it when they released it to the network. They could try it again with one of their bigger stars, though. Don't even need to have a series but just advertise that the new Busby or Penavega or whoever movie is only available there and see what happens.

mk1

New Hallmark sale on Vudu.com starts tomorrow. E

TheBigDave

Here's the link. Lots of stuff I haven't seen on sale before. And some really cheap bundles.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...ove-Sale/17369

There's also a sale on Hallmark shows.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...ies-Sale/17199