12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 12 Finally!

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my TV gave to meeee...Summer Glau as an elf!"

This was tough, the whole having to post every day thing.  I didn't save the best for last but Hallmark's Help for the Holidays was decent.  Sure, it was as predictable as all the rest but Summer Glau just makes things better.

So the story is this: Glau plays one of Santa's elves and is sent (by the big guy himself) to help a family who has lost their Christmas spirit.  This is perplexing because the mom and dad own a store where they sell Christmas stuff.  There's some other part of it where Christine Prancer (her non-North Pole name) falls for the brother of the mom she's trying to help.  However if she falls in love with him then she faces dire consequences upon return to the North Pole. 

Will the family find their Christmas spirit again?  Will Christine choose love over toy-making?  Could Summer Glau be any cuter?  I can't really answer the first two questions because I didn't finish the movie.  Oops.  It's Christmas Eve and I had stuff to do, family to see and a dinner to eat.  But I can answer the third question and the correct response is "No.  She cannot be any cuter."  I will be finishing the movie eventually but I'm guessing that it will all end well.  And on that note...

Happy Christmas!  Happy (belated) Hannukah!  Happy (belated) Festivus!  Happy (early) Kwanzaa!

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 11

"On the 11th day of Christmas, my TV gave to meeee...The Mistle-Tones!"

For some reason I'm terribly ashamed of myself for actually liking this movie.  ABC Family delivered with The Mistle-Tones this year.  Ok, it was totally cheesy, not terribly well-acted, and I'm pretty sure not too many people were doing their own singing (with the possible exception of Tia Mowry and the male lead, Jonathan Patrick Moore).  Sure, Tori Spelling was in it but it was a goofy role and she cheesed it up just right.  The performance-y songs were way too Glee-esque but it was still fun to watch.

So the story is this: Tia Mowry's "Holly" (of course) is obsessed with being part of a singing group, the Snow Belles, that performs at the local mall on Christmas Eve.  Her mom was an original Belle and it's always been Holly's dream to follow in her since-passed mom's footsteps.  She auditions and is fantastic but the Belle's leader, Marci (played by Spelling) doesn't want to be outshined, so Holly doesn't get in.  Instead she convinces the manager of the mall to hold a competition because why should the Snow Belles get to be the center of attention every year.  In another plot line, Holly falls for her boss "Nick" (of course), played by Aussie cutie, Moore.  Of course there's some deal with him getting a promotion and moving to the company's office in India.  I guess that even love gets outsourced.  Sorry.

Yes, it all works out in the end.  Yes, it's corny as heck.  Yes, there is a massive amount of obvious lip-synching.  But it was still fun and I would watch this one again. 

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 10

"On the 10th day of Christmas, my TV gave to meeee...NICK FREAKING ZANO!!!"

Thanks to ABC Family's Desperately Seeking Santa, I got to see my obsession, Nick Zano, in a cheesy Christmas TV movie.  It was a Christmas miracle, I tell ya!  Also...it wasn't awful!  It wasn't great but it wasn't awful.  How could it be when this guy is in this hat?

 

 Plus he dances!!!

Ok, the dancing and original music was not good.  But the rest of it was pretty good so I excused the dancing and the music.  There was some bad acting but the two leads, the aforementioned Zanooooohh and Laura Vandervoort, did just fine. Actually the story was pretty dang weak too.  Ugh.

The story is this:  Mall manager Jennifer (Vandervoort) needs to boost her sales numbers or her mall will get shut down and she won't get a big promotion.  Isn't that always the way?!?!  She decides to have a search for a sexy Santa instead of the same old, big belly, bearded type.  Because the holidays are all about competition!  But it's ok...Zano shows up and wins the competition.  Zano's character, David, works at the family restaurant but is also studying to be an EMT and then a doctor.  David's dad thinks he should be focused more on school and less on being a sexy, dancing Santa.  David entered the competition for the prize money, which he uses to hire a lawyer to help the family fight some big development that is going to buy up the whole neighborhood for some new building.  Convoluted?  Yes.  But who cares?!?! 

ZANO:

Dancing Zano!!!

She's pretty too, I guess:

She has the best eyebrows!

So, naturally, it all works out.  Jennifer is offered the promotion but passes on it in order to save her mall from closing as well as saving the neighborhood where David's family's restaurant is.  The plot actually happens in the last half of the movie and it's a blink and you'll miss it situation so don't even bother looking for it.  I mean, all I want for Christmas is you:

Oops! How did this get in here?!?!

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 9

"On the 9th day of Christmas, my TV gave to me...a real tearjerker."

My mother forced me, not by gunpoint but by guilt and manipulation ('cause that's what the holidays are all about), to watch Liftetime's The Christmas Hope.  Hope is the third in a series of overly-sentimental tearjerkers based on novels written by one Donna Van Liere.  It's my impression that she sees Nicholas Sparks's movies as happy-go-lucky fare.  With Sparks you usually get one dying character.  With Van Liere's, it seems as though you get three or four. 

The series started with The Christmas Shoes, starring Rob Lowe.  The second, The Christmas Blessing starred Neil Patrick Harris.  The series ended with The Christmas Hope starring Madeline Stowe, pre-Revenge.  My mother informed me that it took her three hankies to get through Hope.  I love me a good tearjerker and even though I could predict the tears, I still succumbed. 

The story is this: well...let's see...there's a little girl whose mother gets hit by a car and dies just days before Christmas.  There's a sick baby who was abandoned by her meth-head mother and never gets adopted by the end of the movie.  There's a grieving couple on the edge of divorce following the loss of their son, also death by car accident, two years earlier.  There's a doctor and his wife who are expecting a baby but they're happy because their heartbreak happened the movie previous.  Um, there's an angry kid who hates when people see potential in him.  Um, I'm sure someone had a bad hangnail or a flat tire too.  But guess what?!?! Yup, you guessed it.  It all works out in the end (except for the poor, sick, abandoned baby).  I mean, the dead mother doesn't come back to life or anything but the little girl gets a new family.  The couple is able to fix their marriage and love a kid.  The angry kid gets a free trip to California where more people can see his potential.  And I'm guessing the hangnail went away too.

Maybe I'm being mean.  This one was good.  I hadn't seen the prequels but I knew enough about how they linked to appreciate it.  Stowe was great but she always is.  The little girl could have been obnoxious but wasn't too bad.  The writing, though predictable, was fine.  So overall it was worth a watch.

So if you want a real cry-fest...watch all three.  They will tear your heart out and sing some Christmas carols while stomping on it.  You'll love it.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 8

"On the eight day of Christmas my TV gave to meeee...a ripoff of Sliding Dooooors."

Lifetime's All About Christmas Eve was an attempt at showing the two roads one's life could travel if timing, mere seconds really, made all the difference.  Sliding Doors, one of the few films of Gwynnie's that I loved, did it right.  All About Christmas Eve did it poorly. 

The movie stars the lesser of the Duffs, Haylie, a dude from Laguna Beach: The Real OC, and a dude from The O.C. (aka the fake Laguna Beach).  Throw in a performance from real-life American Idol couple, Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young and you have our movie.

Haylie Duff stars as Eve (get it?!?!), an ambitious party planner whose life goes down two different paths, one focused on career and one focused on finding oneself.  When I say it's a Sliding Doors ripoff I'm not exaggerating.  One of her selves misses a train and ends up at home to find her jobless live-in boyfriend in bed with some girl.  The other self makes the train and advances her career and meets a less-cheaty guy. I'd get into more of the story but it's really not worth it.  Suffice it to say, things work out in the end and she winds up with a fully realized self and the less-cheaty guy.

Listen, it's not good.  It's so bad that The Soup picked up on it.  Someone worked really hard on writing original music for it and that was bad too.  The writing is terrible.  It's not at all believable and I could go on and on.  It's a shame too because, for whatever reason, I find myself rooting for Haylie Duff.  I want better for her.  This was not it. 

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 7 (getting in under the wire)

"On the 7th day of Christmas, my tv gave to me...a singing competition."

Natasha Henstridge, she of the other Species, stars in Hallmark's Christmas Song.  It was ok.  It was cheesy as heck and I had some major issues with some of the singing voices but, like I said, it was ok. 

So the story is this: Two private schools, one for boys and one for girls, have combined and now there are two music programs.  The girls have Miss Deason (Henstridge) who teaches them with a more classical approach.  The boys have Mr. Stoddard (played by Gabriel Hogan [son of Michael Hogan, aka Col Tigh from BSG]) who teaches with a more current flair.  The school can only afford one music program so it's up to the teachers and a few chosen students to compete in a local singing competition.  Whichever teacher's team wins gets to keep their job.  Woo!  Each teacher recruits kids with stories (popular wrestling boy and wheelchair boy; popular, spoiled girl and shy girl) and lessons will soon be learned.  In the meantime Miss Deason and Mr. Stoddard keep getting set up by an online dating service even though they are sure it's a mistake.

Will one of the teachers lose their job?  Will Miss Deason and Mr. Stoddard fall in love even though they're competing?  Will shy girl get over her shyness?  Will anyone ever actually care that these movies are so terribly predictable?  Will a Christmas go by when I don't insist on watching these cheesy movies?

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 6

"On the sixth day of Christmas my TV gave to meeee...Hallmark's The Wishing Treeeee."

Everyone's favorite Iron Eagle, Jason Gedrick, stars as Evan, a quirky English teacher at a boarding school whose job is on the line.  Oh and he's a widower.  And he gets stuck taking care of the school's orphan kids, the ones who had nowhere to go for Christmas.  One of those kids is a spoiled rich boy whose parents are too busy getting divorced to spend any time with him.  One kid is a poor girl from the west coast who can't afford to go home.  The third and final kid is a nerdy guy who wants to get extra work done or something.

There's also a very pretty and kind of pushy lady teacher, Clarissa, who has her eye on the widowed (widowered?) Evan.  He's still having dreams of his dead wife so there doesn't seem to be much room for Clarissa.  Especially because poor Evan is trying to get spoiled rich boy under control. He destroyed the town's titular wishing tree along with the hopes and dreams of all those who left a wish on said tree.  West coast poor girl wants to be a singer but has stage fright.  And nerdy guy just wants a date or something.

Will Evan save his job, get the girl, bail out spoiled, rich boy, give west coast poor girl confidence and get nerdy boy a girl?  Gee, I wonder...  You can never tell with these sappy tv movies.  I actually did like this one but there seemed to be something a little off with Gedrick's performance.  Other than that it was sweet and worthy of a watch.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 5

"On the fifth day of Christmas, my TV gave to meeeee...five, uh, five...this is tough. Nevermind !"

At least two stars from TV's One Tree Hill and Kyle XY bring you Hallmark's Naughty or Nice.  Aren't you excited?!?!?! Yeah?  Me too.  Ok, this one was kind of cute.  The production value was so-so and the acting was about the same.  Star Hilarie Burton has charisma and you find yourself wanting things to work out for her so there's that.

The story is this: Burton's character, Krissy Kringle (no relation, just mean parents), gets fired right before the holidays even though she was working her butt off for her company.  Krissy also happens to live in the only undecorated house on....Candy Cane Lane.  Natch.  Her boyfriend of 6 years, Lance Leigh (I can't make these up!), breaks up with her after she gets all crazy on him but really their relationship is kind of secondary to her journey.  (Apropos of nothing, I'm currently getting distracted by Nathan Gunn singing with the Mormons as I write this.  Check him out on Google Images, you won't be disappointed.)  Um, so yeah, Krissy gets tons of Santa mail and somehow ends up with Santa's book of names.  Hilarity ensues (not really) and she reads all sorts of dirt about her neighbors, coworkers, and so on.  There's a whole part about her getting a job as a mall elf and competing for a neighborhood decorating contest.  Blah, blah, blah.  But she's got a plan to fix everything she broke.

So what did I like about it?  Well the bits with Santa weren't so overly magical and that was refreshing.  Again, Burton managed to make me care even though she was goofier than I'm used to (I like her as Sara on White Collar where she's not at all goofy).  Plus Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter (Mr. and Mrs. Keaton from Family Ties) were in it (not nearly enough) and were kind of cute too.  I guess mostly it didn't irk me like some of these do.  I wouldn't rush out to buy it on DVD or anything but it's going to be on again Wednesday at 12am. So if you're up and not watching an informercial for pajamagrams then check it out.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 4

"On the 4th day of Christmas, my TV gave to meeeeee...a really crappy holiday movie."

I'm kind of bummed that Lifetime's The Merry In-Laws was sucky.  I had high hopes because it stars Haven's Lucas Bryant (squee!) as well as Diane and Norm! (Nor-man) from Cheers.  Sadly the movie was beyond cheesy and not in a good way.  It fell flat and I think the female lead and weak writing were to blame.  In fact, I need to admit that I fast-forwarded through about 75% of it. 

The story is this: The guy, Peter, proposes to the girl, Alex.  She's a single mom and he's her son's teacher.  She's a logical scientists and he's a dreamer.  They're already in love so we missed out on what could have been a cuter story. I think they wanted to feature George Wendt and Shelley Long more but I think it could have been better if we had seen the falling in love part of their story.  Instead we get two hours of Peter trying to find a way to tell Alex that he's the son of Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Yawn.

Wendt was fine but Long was over the top and flat out goofy.  Unfortunately Bryant's Peter was more like his mom.  I'm so used to his character on Haven that seeing a goofball like Peter was unnerving. Alex, played by Kassia Warshawski, was meh.  The kid who played her son was cute but the rest of the cast was pretty meh too.

I just can't help but feel like there was a better movie in here somewhere that the writer just missed.  Granted this was different than the usual falling in love movie but it was missing the magic it seemed to think it had.  Here's hoping the next one is better.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 3

"On the third day of Christmas my TV gave to meeee....three...uh...threeeee...dang.  Oh forget it."

I made the grave mistake of watching a travesty called The March Sisters on Lifetime.  Actually that's not true.  I watched about 10-15 minutes of it and had to turn it off.  Listen, I'm in no mood to be posting today so this was the perfect movie for me to think (very little) about. 

As you might be able to glean from the title, some genius decided to update Louisa May Alcott's characters, the March sisters.  Maybe if it had been better written I would have given it a chance.  Maybe if the acting had been better I would have given it a chance.  Maybe if I'm incredibly bored some night and someone has stolen all my DVDs, I'll give it a second chance.  But for now...listen and listen good:

DO. NOT. UPDATE. THE. MARCH. SISTERS.  

Update Shakespeare all you want.  It's perfect for current adaptations.  So is Jane Austen, actually, so you have my permission to attack her material as well.  But leave those 'little women' alone.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 2

"On the second day of Christmas my TV gave to me…2 kids in Love at the Christmas Taaaaaable."

 

In all honesty, Love at the Christmas Table is now my all-time favorite cheesy, holiday made-for-tv movie.  It is the cheesy, holiday, made-for-tv movie against which all others will be measured.  Lifetime aired it and I’m so glad I watched it.  I’m a sucker for uber-romantic movies, especially holiday ones so this one got me right where I live.  Even though I don’t mind the cheesiness, there was hardly any cheese at all in this one.  The guy, Dustin Milligan, is cute and the girl is Winnie freaking Cooper.  Plus throw in a little Lea Thompson and Luke from Gilmore Girls and I’m in.  I’m totally and completely in.

Maybe what I liked most was that Love was different.  Sure, it’s still a predictable romantic movie but there were some subtle differences.  It featured the guy and girl equally and maybe the guy just a bit more.  Plus, unlike other tv movies, they didn’t fall in love in a week.  The guy and girl have been friends their whole lives and are, at one point, brutally honest with each other.

So now is a good time to get into the story.  Our guy, Sam, is home for Christmas for the first time in a few years.  Our girl, Kat, greets him warmly and the flashbacks begin.  We get to see Sam and Kat, at the kids’ table, grow up over the years.  When they’re older they realize there’s some chemistry but the timing is never quite right.  There’s also a side story with Lea Thompson and Luke from Gilmore Girls that wasn’t needed but was sweet nonetheless. 

The writing was pretty good as well and that almost never happens with these types of movies.  Lea Thompson’s character, EB, is a older, single lady who never got to be with her true love.  While trying to encourage Kat to finally tell Sam how she feels, EB reminds Kat about Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.  She was lonely and spiteful and as EB says, “The world has enough Havishams.”  So true.  And it was funny.  Another character got my favorite line, “Toby Weisman and his brothers are throwing a Three Weisman’s Party.” 

I don’t want to get all spoilery about whether Sam and Kat work things out but it is a sappy Christmas movie so I’m sure you can guess.  There’s a fun dance scene too that made me want to call in and vote for Danica McKellar on Dancing with the Stars.  So watch it!  You won’t be disappointed.

12 Days of Christmas Movies - Day 1

"On the first day of Christmas my TV gave to me...Christmas with Holllllyyyy."

Did you see Christmas with Holly on ABC Sunday night?  It was their Hallmark Hall of Fame movie and I knew it had to be good since it was airing on network television and not directly to the Hallmark channel.  So was I right?  Mostly!

Ok, so it was utterly predictable but it was better than most. These tv movies are incredibly formulaic but once in a while they can surprise you.  This one didn't surprise me but it wasn't OVERLY cheesy either so that was good.  I read a few slightly mean reviews and half of them didn't even get the story right.  I'm wondering if the reviewer actually watched it all.

Speaking of the story, we have young Holly mom has just passed away and she's now in the care of her uncle Mark.  Holly's not speaking so Mark decides that it'd be better if he moves her away from her school and home in Seattle and back to his home on a quaint little island nearby.  He's been renting his place so they move in with his two brothers, Scott and Alex.  Uncle Alex is a smart science guy and Uncle Scott has a bad perm and is in construction (see photo).  Honestly, Uncle Scott is super cute so why on earth did they think a perm was a good idea?!?!  Actually, his hair might have been my biggest complaint about the movie.  Anywhoodle, Mark meets a new girl to the island, Maggie, who is there opening a toy shop.  You can pretty much predict what happens with them.


What I did like about it was that the movie was less about the love story between Mark and Maggie and more about the care of Holly.  The relationship between the brothers and between them and Holly was fun and sweet. Everyone in the movie had great chemistry with each other even though the acting was, well, what you'd expect from a TV movie.

As I mentioned, this aired on ABC but will be repeating on Hallmark starting this Sunday I believe.  So keep your eye out for it.  It's fun, and tender and sweet.  Plus I want to know if I'm alone in my opinion about Uncle Scott's hair. 

Check back tomorrow for Day 2!  I hope one of the movies I've watched rhymes with 'doves.'  I'm not worried. 

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 12

Apparently 12 days of cheesy Christmas movies was too ambitious a task.  Those who know me well would be proud that instead of spending my day in front of the tv, it was spent baking with my mom and getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner with my parents, grandmother, Uncle, Cousin Jess (HI JESS!), her husband Eric, and their kids Cade and Zoe.  I love these people.  They're strange and wonderful and hilarious and exactly who I'd want to spend Christmas with. 

I did watch about half an hour of a TV movie starring everyone's (2nd) favorite teenage witch, Sabrina (aka Melissa Joan Hart) while I was getting ready.  In the movie she kidnaps Mario Lopez.  It's called Holiday in Handcuffs and the story is exactly what you think it might be...she  and forces Mario to pretend to be her boyfriend so her mother won't be disappointed.  If this is how mother's actually feel then mine must be so disappointed because I've never forced a guy to pretend to be anything of mine. 

Anywhoodle, I could guess that over the course of Mario's capture he finds Sabrina, er, MJH's character (I can't be bothered to look it up) to be a wonderful person and falls madly in love with her.  This will be mutual of course.  She saw something special in him early on or she wouldn't have taken him hostage, right?  I'll likely watch it tomorrow so I can do this post in two parts.  Or we could just all agree that it was a terribly cheesy Christmas movie that was terribly predictable, and terribly acted. 

If you were Mario, would you forgive Sabrina for a felonious holiday kidnapping?

So I guess what I want to say is that I hope you have a family or friends or a kidnapped boyfriend you can spend Christmas with this year. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 11

12 Dates of Christmas

Grade: A-

Channel: ABC Family

Yep, we've got another "A!"  Ok, it's an "A-" but it's pretty close to great.  As you can see this one stars Amy Smart and ZACK! (aka Mark Paul Gosselaar).  I think Smart is adorable and I've loved Zack, er, MPG since I was a teenager so I'm glad they landed in a decent cheesy Christmas movie.  So let's get to it!

The story is: SHE is Kate (not Katie), a singleton who is doomed to live Christmas Eve over and over again, Groundhog Day style.  HE is Miles, a widower and all-around amazing guy (a parkitect for a living and hockey coach and tutor for a boys group home in his spare time).  She's still stuck on her ex who has moved on (he's going to propose to his new girlfriend) and doesn't see what a catch he is.  Add to the mix her father, his new wife, her friend, her neighbor, a dude at a bar who looks a lot like Rivers Cuomo, and some other randoms that she befriends over and over and over. 

He's just so dang wonderful!

Periodically she's pisses him off or brushes him off.  Then a couple of times they have an incredible night together and she learns something about herself.  No matter what happens she always ends up meeting him though so she learns about fate and what it has done in her life so far. 

Ok, so the story is a rehash and you can pretty much guess what happens at the end but the journey was fun.  She has some fun with her curse of reliving the same 12 hours over again.  She goes on a shopping spree, gets a tattoo, dyes her hair black and so on. Plus she and MPG had fun chemistry so it was fun to watch.  Why isn't it an "A" you ask?  HER EYELINER!!!  Just look:

It's awful.  Half the time it's running down to her cheekbones.  Just awful.  There were a couple of times that her eye makeup looked better though so I was able to relax a bit.

I'm kind of scared that today's movie was pretty good.  I really hope tomorrow's isn't bad.  Though maybe bad would be kind of fun.  We'll see.

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 10

A Christmas Wedding Tail

Grade: B

Channel: Hallmark

Nope, I didn't spell the title wrong.  It is indeed, a tail.  As in the tail on a dog.  Yes folks, we have reached the talking dog portion of the Cheesy Christmas tv movies.  A Christmas Wedding Tail is a cute and not too terribly cheesy tv movie, except for the dogs of course. Real life couple, Jay Mohr and Nikki Cox (take a second to think of their wedding announcement in the newspaper...I'll wait...got it?  Good) provided the voices for Rusty (on the right) and Cheri (on the left).  Mostly they narrated but it was still dogs talking.

The story is: SHE is Susan (played by Jennie Garth, a big city girl, temporarily stuck in her mom's house in California's wine country until she finds a new museum job.  HE is Jake (played by Brad Rowe), owner of a local winery.  She owns Rusty the golden retriever dog and he owns Cheri the standard poodle.They meet thanks to the dogs and fall quickly in love.  Oh and she is a widow with three sensitive boys (a computer nerd, a chef, and a selective mute) and he's a widower with two tomboy daughters (an athlete and a lover of all things icky).  The families blend easily and there's an engagement at Thanksgiving with a wedding to take place at Christmas.  But before they get hitched there's a hitch (I'm so dang clever).  She's just been offered a job at a big time museum in NYC.  It's what she's been working toward all her life.  But then there's the guy.  He's super sweet, loves her kids and is totally rich and incredibly hot.  Career?  Man?  Both?  Nah, not both.  Which will she choose?  Will the kids always get along so well?  Why is Tom Arnold in this?  WHY ARE THE DOGS TALKING???  I'll never know.
 

Ok, so aside from the uber-cheese of talking dogs I kinda liked this one.  I'm thinking Jennie Garth was made for these roles.  She brings a down to earth quality to these movies and has a natural chemistry with everyone.  It made me miss California...especially when they went to Solvang to look into wedding cakes.  I've TOTALLY been to that bakery. It was nice to see Brad Rowe again.  And although the talking dog thing was a turn off it's cute that they used a real couple.  Yes, the relationship is a bit rushed but when your widowed (widowered?) I guess if you know you know.

I totally should have written *SPOILER ALERT* above this pic, huh?

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 9

Deck the Halls

Grade: B

Channel: TNT

It's a Christmas mystery, y'all!  TNT's Deck the Halls is brought to you by mother daughter writing team, Mary and Carol Higgins Clark.  But never fear, this mystery is light-hearted and full of holiday cheese!  While it wasn't perfect, watching a mystery was a nice change of pace. 

The story is: Regan Reilly (played by the beautiful Scottie Thompson) is a detective who is visiting her family for Christmas.  Her mom is a famous crime novelist and her dad is a funeral director.  Dad gets kidnapped along with his driver, Rosita.  But before she knows her dad is missing, Regan runs into Alvirah Meehan.  Alvirah (played by Kathy Najimy) is an amateur crime solver and recent lottery winner.  She and her husband (played by Larry Miller) tag along and help Regan and the cops solve the kidnapping.  It wouldn't be ruining things for you if I say that all's well that ends well.  C'mon, it's a Christmas mystery!  We can't have anyone dead!

This was cute but terribly predictable.  Thompson was fine if not terribly charismatic but I'm guessing that's hard to accomplish if you're sharing screentime with the likes of Najimy and Miller.  I loved them (Najimy and Miller) as a couple and kinda wish they were married in real life. The story was as good as one might expect, which is not very.  There were tons of little clues and hints along the way for us at home. 

I could tell that these are characters who get written about a lot elsewhere.  After doing some research I found out that Alvirah is a character of Mary's and Regan is one of Carol's characters.  Cute.  So when mom and daughter get together they also bring together their two characters. 

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 8

Dear Santa

Grade: A (and not just because it's Whedon-adjacent)

Channel: Lifetime

AMY ACKER!!! Fred is in a cheesy Christmas tv movie!  And it was good!  PLUS...JASON PRIESTLY DIRECTED IT!!!  YAY! Ok, I'm calming down.  Let's get to it.

The story is: SHE is Crystal, a trust-fund baby with no direction in life.  HE is Derek, a widower and father to Olivia.  She is uptown chic.  He is downtown blue collar.  Will they fall in love in time for Christmas?  I'm guessing the answer is "Yes" but let's not jump ahead.  She is out shopping one day and a letter to Santa catches a ride on magical wind (it sounds worse than it is) and blows into her path.  She pockets the letter and buys the cute red dress in the store window.  She then finds out if she doesn't do anything to change her life (a job, a man, something) her parents will cut her off.  Oh no!  She opens the letter and reads the wish of a young girl who wants a new wife for her father.  It's been two years since her mom died and her dad is still very sad.  She decides she's going to check out this father and daughter to see if there's any potential.  At the least she can tell her parents she's doing something other than shopping.  Ok, so this is a story problem but bear with me.  It doesn't last long.  She stalks them and ends up following him to the local soup kitchen where she finds herself feeding the homeless.  Huh.  So it's a love story and a fish-out-of-water story.  Nice. 

The fish-out-of-water stuff doesn't last that long.  She soon finds herself connecting with his daughter and actually enjoying volunteering at the soup kitchen.  She does not enjoy his bitchy girlfriend and it's obvious no one is supposed to enjoy her.  Sure, she's a stereotype but her treatment by the writers/stylist is nowhere near as bad as the token gay.  The token gay is a chef at the soup kitchen and wear a bright pink chef's jacket and hat, er, toque.

The token gay in pink frills with a fabulous Amy Acker.

You don't need story details here because I'm sure you'll want to check out the movie for yourself (it's going to be on again this weekend and is on Lifetime OnDemand).  The short of it is, she gets along really well with both the guy and his daughter and finds a real purpose for her life.  There's a misunderstanding, of course, but it all works out. They say "fate," I say "serendipity" but no matter the word...it's a happy ending.

So we've established that the story isn't new and was just as predictable as most of these movies.  But there was so much normalcy and decent pacing to their relationship that it forgives the story problems.  The little girl was very cute and not at all annoying.  The guy was normal and natural and believable.  It wasn't goofy or overly cheesy.  I totally believed them falling for each other in the span of time that elapsed during the movie.  Plus Amy Acker was so great as the rich girl.  She wasn't at all annoying or obnoxious as many rich-types are in these movies.  She is sweet and adorable and is one of my favorite Whedon alums.

12 Days of Cheesy Holiday TV Movies - Day 7

The Christmas Card

Grade: B+

Channel: Hallmark

YAY!!! Back to a proper HE/SHE format!  This is one that I saw last year and really liked.  I watched it again this morning to see if it lived up to my memory.  It did.  This one flips it a bit and is from his perspective.  Ooooh!  I would have given it a solid A or A- but it's still pretty cheesy and very predictable.

The story is: HE is SGT Cody Cullen of the US Army and is stationed in Afghanistan.  One day one of his men hands him a card sent by the good folks of his home town.  They've sent cards to a bunch of soldiers telling them how appreciative they are of all they're doing to protect Christmas.  Ok, it doesn't say that but it kinda does allude to it.  The card is beautifully written and features a picture of Nevada City all lit up for Christmas.  SGT Cullen immediately falls in love with the card and it's contents.  Sadly, the kid who delivered it gets hit and killed the next day.  SGT Cullen's tour ends and he gets sent back to the states to deliver the guy's belongings to his fiance.  Plus it gives SGT Cullen, now just Cody, a chance to see the town on the card.  That's handy. He arrives and meets the SHE in the movie, Faith (played by Mrs. Ioan Gruffud).  It just so happens she is the one who wrote the card. Convenient, eh?  They meet cute by a coincidental ordering of the exact same meal at the diner.  She eats his fries and he's immediately smitten.  He meets her again the next day in church and also meets her father, Luke (played by Ed Asner), who runs the local mill.  He saves Luke from almost getting hit by a speeding car. In thanks he's invited back to their house for dinner.  She's definitely noticed him and his heroics but holds back because she has an oft-absent fiance.  Her fiance is a big-city type (played by Sex and the City's Skipper) who does not fit in with her blue collar family.  Hmmm, I wonder if this will come up again.  Of course

I'm going to now abridge the rest of the story because you've probably already guessed what happens.  He is invited to stay with them through Christmas because the father loves him.  He fits in quite well with her family and even helps out at the mill.  Her fiance shows up but is constantly overshadowed by Cody's ease and natural altruism.  He and She kiss but she feels terribly guilty about it.  She and the fiance break up but Cody, feeling pretty awful about it himself, takes off.  She finally realizes how much she loves him and chases after him.  Ok, yes, it's a bit rushed but they do have a natural chemistry that kind of excuses the shortened timeline.  They fit together as well as her parents do and I think that's a pretty big deal for her.

It's a sweet movie and not filled to the top with cheese.  He doesn't push her even though her family does.  There are lots of honest conversations about relationships throughout which I appreciated.  Ed Asner was very good and not goofy in any way.  Oh! Plus his brother is played by the guy who played Santa, er, Calvin Claus in Annie Claus so there's that.  This one just left me with a nice feeling and isn't that what these movies are supposed to do?