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tristevenin
Reviews
Love You Like Christmas (2016)
Watchable once, but we'll crack jokes about it for a while
Small town good! Big city bad. Small shops good! Big business is soulless and evil (except when their tactics they use for marketing can be a positive use for small business.) This movie was so painfully predictable and so overly cliche that it almost has an air of comedy to it.
Maddie has to make it to her biggest client's wedding but her car breaks down in Christmas Valley. The most adorably creepy Christmas town you'll ever see. Where everyone knows everybody's personal business, and they're all obsessed with getting this one certain guy, Kevin, hooked up with Maddie. But he's not the only one trying to brighten her holiday spirits with napalm. His equally obsessed daughter, Jo, will stop at nothing to remind Maddie that Jo's mom is dead and Christmas means more to her than anyone's personal space. Everyone in town becomes instantly enamored by the new stranger and turn her road trip into a guilt trip. Every time she talks about her life in New York or her job they pretty much mock her and guilt her into skirting her responsibilities. These people are so creepy I was waiting for the lone local black man to start screaming "get out!" The predictable end is her giving up all her success with a very promising career so she can go live with Mr handsome Christmas tree man and his creepy daughter.
All in all this movie was bad, but it did have some fairly funny bits of dialogue. And the acting was pretty good for a hallmark movie. Plus the line about branding trees and cattle was one of the funniest lines we've ever seen in a hallmark movie.
My Grown-Up Christmas List (2022)
Overly schmaltzy and an completely illogical plot
The movie is all around illogical but the leads do have good chemistry together. I can look past the minor military blunders; ribbon racks issues, hair regs, saluting indoors etc. But the back half of the story is beyond stupidity. I thought it couldn't get worse in the last 30 minutes when he suddenly becomes the only guy in the world to rescue his friend. But then 5 minutes later she goes running after him in a "war zone." The complete disregard for protocol and making this fantasy that family members can go to a deployed setting at will is ridiculous. It's almost like the writers didn't do any research at all. It would have been nice if there was actually a relationship established before he was deployed. Not just that dumb "we fell in love instantly and one week later he was gone." It's almost a toxic thing to show people, especially in the military.
A Magical Christmas Village (2022)
Cool concept, poor execution
The script is rough and the acting was very sup par for actors who usually bring a lot of charisma to their roles. There's very little focus on the magic of the village while we sit and watch the most awkward relationship play out. Then there's the crazy hippy grandma who has the biggest Deus Ex Machina when she suddenly remembers her dead husband has a pension. It's one thing to believe in the magic of Christmas but it's another to be dependent on it. It's frustrating to see how she ignored all responsibilities but still gets everything she wants and all her problems swept away by simply "believing in Christmas." They should've focused more on how the village plays a role in the holiday magic.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Character development? What's that?
Visually a mess and hard to follow at times. This movie took all of Wanda's past traumas and sacrifices and threw them out the window. This was a huge disappointment to see such a powerful character be stripped of her uniqueness and be devalued by simply making all her motivations based on being a mother. She's so much more than that. All the fighting scenes with strange were about bending everything around them but these fights simply turned into sparkly fist fights. Furthermore, it seems like this film took all the hype and buildup from other projects and tried to put their name on it while also stomping them out.
A Christmas Treasure (2021)
Great character chemistry, super loose plot
The actors play off each other really well and the characters have decent chemistry. But the story has too many sub plots to really stay invested in the main story. The description of this movie puts a bunch of emphasis on a time capsule but it's hardly ever mentioned. The main focus seemed to be more on the tavern and the nephew's cooking. The lead actress has a story line of becoming a novelist wanting to go to New York but there's really no explanation as to why New York and not San Francisco where her ancestors actually wanted to get to 100 years prior.
All in all it's a decent movie with good charm, but the story is too muddled to stay interested.
Christmas CEO (2021)
This movie tripped on its own laces at the finish line
This could've been a really good movie but the lead actress gives up on her lifetime dreams for a guy who is hung up on the past. Horrible moral of the story and a horrible ending. "Hey kids. Don't have dreams or aspirations because they're going to get in the way of a love life that died ten years ago." Chris could've easily kept the merger and incorporated a way for Joe to be a part of the company. Lazy writing. Joe was more a villain than anything in this.