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Yes, I Do (2018)
Second Fiddle to Leading Man Failure
Marcus Rosner always successfully plays character roles that makes me cringe. Since he is usually the other man or friend or foil to the Hallmark movie's amazing heart-stopping hero his dopey portrayals don't annoy me so much. However, in this movie IMHO he is not leading-man material as he plays James, Charlotte's nar-do-well, third-time-the-charm's hero..... The few mid-movie minutes I watched felt forced because the love-blind heroine character (played by Jen Lilley) should never had gone down this route and should have followed her first then second instincts and left Marcus at the alter once-and-for-all so he and Nicole (played by typical bad-gal-cast-character-actress Jessica Lowndes) to live their own HEA together. This should have been James and Nicole's movie.
You Had Me at Aloha (2021)
You had me at Goodbye
In this case it is a good thing Aloha means HELLO and GOODBYE. In true Hallmark fashion the same actors are recast as different characters in different places in different movies so I know from experience Pascale and Kavan actually do have chemistry not displayed on screen in this painful-to watch romcom. Hopeful that this shipwreck would improve, I kept it rolling while I did things around my house, but alas it never improved. While most of writer Rick Garman's screenplays are set at Christmas his stretch to NOT write about winter along with the most annoying dialogue ever couldn't be saved by the location other than overused snowy Canadian mountains that always stand in for real locations. ALOHA -- and I don't mean HELLO.
A Time to Dance (2016)
Painful to Watch
Hallmark let me down on this one. I don't watch the Crown's movies to watch miserable people be miserable. And the groom to be didn't ask his girlfriend's father for marriage permission? Doesn't bode well for theirs to succeed either. Don't give the writer another chance to bomb.
Timeless Love (2019)
Love Time Is Less
Great premise. Great opening. However, the initial real relationship between Megan and Thomas post coma is awkward and painful and jarring. Less is not more in this case.
The Last Full Measure (2019)
Powerful Perseverance Story
Persistence and fresh perspectives are often the catalysts that make the biggest difference.
It took 34 years for an Air Force Pararescueman to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. USAF William Hart Pitsenbarger died in 1966, after switching places on a military helicopter with an injured medic, so he could support the mud soldiers on the ground below.
Twenty years later, the never forgotten story was finally shared on the big screen by writer and director Todd Robinson who filmed actual and fictitious characters in California, Costa Rica, Georgia, Thailand, and Washington D.C. His audience, many who were not alive during the Vietnam War, learned how a bloody battle's survivors fought for the airman who had saved them, so he would receive the sanctioned acknowledgement he deserved.
Watching this movie, I gained an appreciation of Pitsenbarger's sacrifices, the post war emotional and physical challenges of soldiers who fought in Vietnam over 50 years ago, and the struggles of working with military and congressional government officials.
I left the theatre with the refreshed awareness that persistence and fresh perspectives really can make a difference.
Falling for Vermont (2017)
Script Holes and Continuity Issues
Couldn't suspend disbelief for this one.
I kept watching because it was fun to spot errors.
With Brad as her manager-boyfriend, Angela's color headshot photo would have been printed below her blurb the back flap of the dust-cover, so Emily would have been able to quickly recognize the author of her favorite books and tell her dad 'Elizabeth' was really Angela Young. {Movie over}
The crowd of girls waiting to meet Angela at the Book Expo, while holding copies of her book, never asked for an autograph or took cell phone photos when Angela arrived? Angela meets a young fan inside and after talking the kid about what she was wearing, doesn't offer to autograph the of the book the girl is holding? Fans wouldn't have recognized their favorite author from her previous book PR promotional tours?
Why would the movie-based-on-the-book be shown in a theatre at a Book Expo the day before the movie premiered in LA? Why would her sister Cynthia park her car in tow-away zone at the TV station before taking a cab to the Expo? How would the security guard have known it was Cynthia's car? Angela drove from Boston to Vermont and never missed her MIA purse? She crashed at night but the sheriff found her wandering on the road in daylight after driving through the downed tree accident scene that could probably be identified by skid marks? She was found walking on a road on the outskirts of town but the town doc thinks she belongs in town? Angela is more concerned about what she should buy to replace her borrowed scrubs instead of figuring out who she is? She isn't concerned someone would be missing her? Why wasn't she wear a medical alert bracelet for her nut allergy?
The sheriff and the good-hearted townsfolks never bothered to look for a wreck until kids found it in a ravine two weeks later? Car tag? Owner's card in the glove box? Cell phone? {Movie over}
Continuity failures-When Angela leaves her home she is carrying a white designer handbag and a poster rolled inside a strappy carrier as she got in stretch limo yet when she got out of the limo at the Book Expo she held the rolled poster minus the case and, by the way, where is her expensive handbag? Brad says "go-for-Brad" when he answers the phone, except when the news is Angela has been found.
All of My Heart (2015)
Pennsylvania isn't in Canada.
This movie is a traditional Hallmark romance and from as much as I watched, it appeared to hit all the expected plot points.
However, the poor choices made by production location scouts and final editor caused me to lose interest in the story and change the channel, FAST.
**SPOILER ALERT***
Since this movie was filmed in VANCOUVER CANADA, why wasn't the scriptwriter's original location choice changed from the very specific BUCKS COUNTY, PA, USA to a fictitious named Main Street type place that could be located anywhere?
An example of a movie filmed in Bucks County? Signs (2002).