Holiday Movies-Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix, etc.

[trifle]

Agreed! And part 2 is written by the same person that did the first one—there’s no excuse. As bad as the second one is, it’s better than the third one.

I did notice with interest that the heroine’s black bestie got her own Christmas romance this year. Of course, I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s mentioned in that Vulture article about holiday movie tropes. I shall tune in, with interest.

[Mugsy]

with Andie MacDowell as the town's cafe owner. She taught the leading lady (an uptight, shallow woman from NYC, 'natch) how to bake. The NYC girl also had to work as a hotel maid (THE HORROR) because she was out of money. The leading man wore lots of plaid flannel.

Literally the plot line of every Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movie.

Big city woman with high powered career goals ends up somehow trapped (car accident, sudden job posting, plane diverted) in a small town in a northern climate. She is woefully unprepared for the cold temperatures even if she knew she was going there because even though she's highly educated, she's too stupid to know you don't wear four-inch heels in the snow. She's initially irritated that everybody knows everything about her life, but after a small crisis she finds it comforting. She meets a hot guy who she initially brushes off, maybe even dislikes, but you know they're going to end up together, even if she has a boyfriend or fiancé in the big evil city. She ends up doing a job that she initially thinks is beneath her skills and education, but ends up find it fulfilling. She learns a folksy skill, like sewing, baking or chopping firewood. If she hated children before she got to the small town, she loves them by the end of the movie. There's a goofy young coworker that she initially finds annoying, but they become best friends. There's a middle-aged, overweight woman who runs the local diner/coffee shop who dispenses folksy bon mots, even though she would scoff at a high-falutin' word like "bon mots". In the end, she gives up everything she worked for her whole life because nothing is as great as Christmas in a fictional Hollywood small town, where the snow is just a stylized skiff and the air is never cold (unless it's necessary for the plot, of course). Bonus points if some fat old guy with a white beard is the real Santa Claus in disguise.

Yeah, I hate this cheesy, anti-feminist treacle. And I actually live in the country where half these things are real.

[Ladybug]

I tried Christmas Calendar on Netflix this weekend, but I couldn't finish it, it was so cheesy and predictable, even for this type of film. I did like seeing Ron Cephas Jones as the grandpa, though.

[LAX]

I'd talk about my favorite Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas Cheeseflick but I honestly can't name one. They're all just so similar they just meld together in my memories. I may have even seen some last year that I'll watch again this year and not even know it's a second viewing. Won't stop me from watching though, they're my ever so guilty pleasures.

[chitowngirl]

I really liked Crown for Christmas.

[ratscabies]

Nov 12, 2018 22:56:18 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

I really liked Crown for Christmas.

There is a Crown Royal and Apple Pucker joke in here somewhere, but it's 2:30am, and I am too tired to find it.

[scarlet]

Nov 13, 2018 3:29:54 GMT -4 ratscabies said:

Nov 12, 2018 22:56:18 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

I really liked Crown for Christmas.

There is a Crown Royal and Apple Pucker joke in here somewhere, but it's 2:30am, and I am too tired to find it.

Now I want a Red Snapper.

One year I was keeping my aunt company and we watched 3 Hallmark movies in a row. They all starred Candace Cameron. I think that broke me.

[peachybean]

Nov 12, 2018 22:56:18 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

I really liked Crown for Christmas.

...because Rupert Penry Jones is a sex monster. (Is that how you meant to finish the sentence? That’s how my brain automatically completed that thought.)

[mojogirl]

We watched Princess Switch starring Vanessa Hudgens which just dropped on Netflix last night. It was pretty bad even for that type of movie. However we watched the whole thing because
1) We were drinking wine.
2) "Belgravia" is a kingdom, yet Vanessa's character kept addressing the king and queen (and I think the prince too) alternately as "Your Majesty" and "Your Royal Highness" and I kept yelling at the tv, "Those are totally different forms of address!"
3) Discussing the fake European countries in these movies and what their economies must be based on... this was set in "Belgravia", The Princess Diaries is set in "Genovia" (I knew that one) and A Christmas Prince is set in "Aldovia" (had to look that one up.)
4) Netflix is still trolling its viewers because at one point Vanessa sits down to watch a Christmas movie and she turns on A Christmas Inheritance but then switches to A Christmas Prince.

[Deleted]

I'm trying to get into Christmas movies this year (don't ask), but they just piss me off, you know? Like, 15 minutes into The Holiday Calendar I'm annoyed by the lead's perfect life: her lovely (and rich) family, her super nice apartment, her hot best friend. She's a photographer who is frustrated with her job in a boring little photo studio. Why in this day and age she only wants to publish her photographs in a gallery instead of at least get some of it out on the intent is beyond me. In the day of Instagram, this should be like the least of her problems. It's her biggest though. Her only problem really.
I guess I just can't enjoy these movies for what they are, but I will try :-)