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impyWhile it might be too soon for me to actually really want to start decorating for Christmas (my Halloween bats are still up and I must admit the desire to make them tiny little Santa hats is very strong), I have begun my Christmas movie watching. I don't really do guilty pleasures as I'm fairly upfront about things that I like. I might not wave them around and scream, "I LOVE CHEESY CHRISTMAS MOVIES!" at work or something, but I'll cop to it easily enough.
I'd meant to keep a list of the ones I've watched thus far but I'm fairly certain I've forgotten one of the first couple I watched. Oops.
With that said, here's what I've seen (and remembered)/tried thus far and mini reviews.
Engaging Father Christmas is the follow-up to Finding Father Christmas, which I watched last year. This definitely felt like the second movie in a trilogy, and if you're just here for the romance, this one focuses a bit more on the family drama. Which isn't a bad thing for me. I find Erin Krakow fun to watch and Wendie Malick is a goddamn treasure. It has the traditional ohnoes, everything has gone wrong moment and now I must make it worse bit, but it also ducks other tropes so I'm more forgiving.
Short version: Miranda heads back to Vermont to spend Christmas with her boyfriend and her father's family, even if they won't publicly acknowledge her because he was famous and she's proof that he wasn't quite the family man everyone would like to believe he was. She runs into an ex-boyfriend at the airport and breaks her year long silence about the family and a reporter who happens to be sitting behind them overhears and chaos ensues. Also, boyfriend Ian tries to find the perfect time to propose.
The Bridge is up next. I have seriously mixed feelings about this one, because it expects me to believe that Faith Ford and Ted McGinley are young lovers at the start of the movie and they get married, get pregnant, and then they lose the baby and hopes of a family are lost. Because adoption is somehow never an option for people. But then they decide to open a bookstore, The Bridge, which is meant to be so much more than just a bookstore and really, it is, and they look pretty much exactly the same age even though time has clearly passed and fine, whatever. The blurb was about Molly and Ryan (if one takes a shot each time Ryan is called Ryan Kelly, one will die very, very quickly) who meet cute and fall in love and are ripped apart because they never communicate. Also, Molly's father is an ass.
Thing is, the movie ends on a goddamn cliffhanger. Molly's flown home to Seattle, not sure why Ryan has broken her heart just before she left, and then they're chatting on the phone and things are looking maybe up and then... nope. The movie ends. Annnnnnnnd apparently this wasn't a case of it just airing Part 2 the next week. People had to wait months for this originally?
The Bridge Part 2 picks up right where P1 left off and we finish the scene... only to jump ahead 7 years. There was no need to end on that cliffhanger, guys. Also, Molly and Ryan look exactly the same and not in that "well, 18 and 25 aren't that far apart" way. Like... exactly the same. And they're still terrible at communicating. The Bridge is damaged in a storm and for Reasons, Charlie and Donna (Ted & Faith) can't afford to fix it up and instead of telling the town, Charlie keeps pretending everything is fine. But it's not.
In a switch from the first movie, Charlie is the one hellbent on The Bridge succeeding and this is actually probably the most interesting part of the movies. The Bridge is definitely how Donna and Charlie deal with the loss of their child. Charlie does his best to get the place up and running because he's focused on Donna and her healing, and while he does that, he finds solace in church. This was one of the things I liked about P1 that was undermined in P2: Charlie finds going to church to be something that helps him with his faith. Donna's faith is in Charlie and The Bridge. You'd think that with the store going under, she'd be the one to fall apart, but it's Charlie. And the interesting part of that, for me, is that clearly it meant that he felt he was losing his kid (and the life he'd built) all over again. However, we sideline Charlie in a coma* for most of the rest of the movie so we can have Donna have to go to the hospital's chapel to pray. Sigh.
I will say that Pt2 did realize that anyone with half a brain watching would eventually wonder why Molly, whose family is stupidly loaded, wasn't just saving The Bridge herself with Daddy's money.
Overall, ennnnnnnnnnnh. The tricky part of Hallmark movies is that you never know when you're going to stumble into one of the more religious ones and while this one wasn't actually dragging your ass to church, it did have cringe moments. And also * after Ari's coma, I find "dramatic coma!" plotlines to be one of those things where I nitpick the hell out of them.
Basically, Molly's storyline made no sense but Katie Findlay is almost worth the price of watching both parts, and while I could've done without a Save The Bridge storyline, it does seem like a place I wish I could visit. And I am not the most social of people as you might've noticed. :P
Mums picked Klaus on Netflix Sunday night and it feels most unfair to compare it in anyway to the movies I've watched thus far or plan to watch because it's gorgeous. Do yourself a favor and go watch it. Go! Shoo! Do it and be happy.
That said, Jason Schwartzman (Jesper) is doing his absolute best to channel David Spade in The Emperor's New Groove and I spent almost the entire movie having that lowkey running in the back of my mind. This movie hits TENG button so hard. SO. HARD.
But also, I cried. Shush. And no, you don't get a summary of the movie because you got a gif and because I didn't get one before watching and it's glorious and just trust me, dammit. Do you like traditional animation and long for beautifully done movies? Then go!
Yesterday I tried a couple of movies and left one fairly early on, though I might go back?
His and Hers Christmas is the one I gave up on, though mostly because I think I need to calibrate the TV so it doesn't look like a soap opera when trying to watch this. Or watch it on my TV or something. Also, Walgreens clearly paid a boatload of 2004/2005 cash to be all the fuck over this. But I like Dina Meyer and David Sutcliffe so perhaps I'll give it another go later.
Girlfriends of Christmas Past is what it says on the tin. It's also somehow both better and worse than you'd think it would be? Livvy's boyfriend, Anderson, breaks up with her on Thanksgiving while at her parent's house when everyone thinks he's about to propose. She's understandably upset and wallows for a week or three when her assistant/best friend Ty directs her to a revenge website and she learns that not only was her boyfriend an uncaring jackhole, but he was also a cheater. Or maybe she catches sight of him with another girl and then she checks out the site. In either case, she loses her damn mind and teams up with two of his exes and they vow to destroy his new relationship. Naturally, Livvy falls for one of Anderson's coworkers and things are complicated.
The good: Carter and Livvy work together and are cute as hell. Murphy and Zoe are the best oddcouple and after you've decided fine, I guess we're watching this, they're probably the best thing about the movie. In my mind, they wound up together and are making it work. Megan, the new GF, is actually kind of wonderful and you're torn between wanting better for her than Anderson and wondering if maybe they work. Ty has several valid points and isn't automatically wrong just because if Livvy listened to him the movie would be over. He's right, she just goes ahead and blows things up anyway because she's in too deep to realize he's actually giving her good advice.
The bad: The cringe levels on this thing are so high I had to mute it at times. Livvy's mother is awful and we're supposed to forgive her because she just wanted Livvy to have a good life? Really? This woman encouraged her daughter to not have pretty friends (so any female friends?) because they'd stab her in the back and take her man? That's not... I mean... *throws things in frustration* Also, Carter is having dinner with the three girlfriends, not realizing what's really going on, and it's at this exact moment when he literally says Not All Men and then blames them for going out with the wrong guys that you realize this movie was most DEFINITELY written by a man and it shows. Seriously, the only goodwill I had towards Carter after this point was due entirely to his actor being really charming and hopefully better than the drivel coming out of his mouth.
I'd meant to keep a list of the ones I've watched thus far but I'm fairly certain I've forgotten one of the first couple I watched. Oops.
With that said, here's what I've seen (and remembered)/tried thus far and mini reviews.
Engaging Father Christmas is the follow-up to Finding Father Christmas, which I watched last year. This definitely felt like the second movie in a trilogy, and if you're just here for the romance, this one focuses a bit more on the family drama. Which isn't a bad thing for me. I find Erin Krakow fun to watch and Wendie Malick is a goddamn treasure. It has the traditional ohnoes, everything has gone wrong moment and now I must make it worse bit, but it also ducks other tropes so I'm more forgiving.
Short version: Miranda heads back to Vermont to spend Christmas with her boyfriend and her father's family, even if they won't publicly acknowledge her because he was famous and she's proof that he wasn't quite the family man everyone would like to believe he was. She runs into an ex-boyfriend at the airport and breaks her year long silence about the family and a reporter who happens to be sitting behind them overhears and chaos ensues. Also, boyfriend Ian tries to find the perfect time to propose.
The Bridge is up next. I have seriously mixed feelings about this one, because it expects me to believe that Faith Ford and Ted McGinley are young lovers at the start of the movie and they get married, get pregnant, and then they lose the baby and hopes of a family are lost. Because adoption is somehow never an option for people. But then they decide to open a bookstore, The Bridge, which is meant to be so much more than just a bookstore and really, it is, and they look pretty much exactly the same age even though time has clearly passed and fine, whatever. The blurb was about Molly and Ryan (if one takes a shot each time Ryan is called Ryan Kelly, one will die very, very quickly) who meet cute and fall in love and are ripped apart because they never communicate. Also, Molly's father is an ass.
Thing is, the movie ends on a goddamn cliffhanger. Molly's flown home to Seattle, not sure why Ryan has broken her heart just before she left, and then they're chatting on the phone and things are looking maybe up and then... nope. The movie ends. Annnnnnnnd apparently this wasn't a case of it just airing Part 2 the next week. People had to wait months for this originally?
The Bridge Part 2 picks up right where P1 left off and we finish the scene... only to jump ahead 7 years. There was no need to end on that cliffhanger, guys. Also, Molly and Ryan look exactly the same and not in that "well, 18 and 25 aren't that far apart" way. Like... exactly the same. And they're still terrible at communicating. The Bridge is damaged in a storm and for Reasons, Charlie and Donna (Ted & Faith) can't afford to fix it up and instead of telling the town, Charlie keeps pretending everything is fine. But it's not.
In a switch from the first movie, Charlie is the one hellbent on The Bridge succeeding and this is actually probably the most interesting part of the movies. The Bridge is definitely how Donna and Charlie deal with the loss of their child. Charlie does his best to get the place up and running because he's focused on Donna and her healing, and while he does that, he finds solace in church. This was one of the things I liked about P1 that was undermined in P2: Charlie finds going to church to be something that helps him with his faith. Donna's faith is in Charlie and The Bridge. You'd think that with the store going under, she'd be the one to fall apart, but it's Charlie. And the interesting part of that, for me, is that clearly it meant that he felt he was losing his kid (and the life he'd built) all over again. However, we sideline Charlie in a coma* for most of the rest of the movie so we can have Donna have to go to the hospital's chapel to pray. Sigh.
I will say that Pt2 did realize that anyone with half a brain watching would eventually wonder why Molly, whose family is stupidly loaded, wasn't just saving The Bridge herself with Daddy's money.
Overall, ennnnnnnnnnnh. The tricky part of Hallmark movies is that you never know when you're going to stumble into one of the more religious ones and while this one wasn't actually dragging your ass to church, it did have cringe moments. And also * after Ari's coma, I find "dramatic coma!" plotlines to be one of those things where I nitpick the hell out of them.
Basically, Molly's storyline made no sense but Katie Findlay is almost worth the price of watching both parts, and while I could've done without a Save The Bridge storyline, it does seem like a place I wish I could visit. And I am not the most social of people as you might've noticed. :P
Mums picked Klaus on Netflix Sunday night and it feels most unfair to compare it in anyway to the movies I've watched thus far or plan to watch because it's gorgeous. Do yourself a favor and go watch it. Go! Shoo! Do it and be happy.
That said, Jason Schwartzman (Jesper) is doing his absolute best to channel David Spade in The Emperor's New Groove and I spent almost the entire movie having that lowkey running in the back of my mind. This movie hits TENG button so hard. SO. HARD.
But also, I cried. Shush. And no, you don't get a summary of the movie because you got a gif and because I didn't get one before watching and it's glorious and just trust me, dammit. Do you like traditional animation and long for beautifully done movies? Then go!
Yesterday I tried a couple of movies and left one fairly early on, though I might go back?
His and Hers Christmas is the one I gave up on, though mostly because I think I need to calibrate the TV so it doesn't look like a soap opera when trying to watch this. Or watch it on my TV or something. Also, Walgreens clearly paid a boatload of 2004/2005 cash to be all the fuck over this. But I like Dina Meyer and David Sutcliffe so perhaps I'll give it another go later.
Girlfriends of Christmas Past is what it says on the tin. It's also somehow both better and worse than you'd think it would be? Livvy's boyfriend, Anderson, breaks up with her on Thanksgiving while at her parent's house when everyone thinks he's about to propose. She's understandably upset and wallows for a week or three when her assistant/best friend Ty directs her to a revenge website and she learns that not only was her boyfriend an uncaring jackhole, but he was also a cheater. Or maybe she catches sight of him with another girl and then she checks out the site. In either case, she loses her damn mind and teams up with two of his exes and they vow to destroy his new relationship. Naturally, Livvy falls for one of Anderson's coworkers and things are complicated.
The good: Carter and Livvy work together and are cute as hell. Murphy and Zoe are the best oddcouple and after you've decided fine, I guess we're watching this, they're probably the best thing about the movie. In my mind, they wound up together and are making it work. Megan, the new GF, is actually kind of wonderful and you're torn between wanting better for her than Anderson and wondering if maybe they work. Ty has several valid points and isn't automatically wrong just because if Livvy listened to him the movie would be over. He's right, she just goes ahead and blows things up anyway because she's in too deep to realize he's actually giving her good advice.
The bad: The cringe levels on this thing are so high I had to mute it at times. Livvy's mother is awful and we're supposed to forgive her because she just wanted Livvy to have a good life? Really? This woman encouraged her daughter to not have pretty friends (so any female friends?) because they'd stab her in the back and take her man? That's not... I mean... *throws things in frustration* Also, Carter is having dinner with the three girlfriends, not realizing what's really going on, and it's at this exact moment when he literally says Not All Men and then blames them for going out with the wrong guys that you realize this movie was most DEFINITELY written by a man and it shows. Seriously, the only goodwill I had towards Carter after this point was due entirely to his actor being really charming and hopefully better than the drivel coming out of his mouth.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-19 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-19 11:56 pm (UTC)And I think I caught either the very beginning or very end of that one once during a cleaning marathon so I'll definitely have to make sure I find it this year and see the whole thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-20 05:26 am (UTC)