#hallmark2021 Archives – Page 4 of 4

Movie Review: Snowkissed

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/a-winter-getaway

Rating

I was really excited to watch this movie from the first preview I saw a few weeks ago. I adore Jen Lilley. Although I need to say that I prefer her with darker hair instead of blonde. But regardless of hair color, she made this movie something special.

I love quirky women and Jen’s character, Kate – or as I call her – always play it safe Kate is definitely quirky. See, Kate is scared of living, so she stays in New York and never ventures outside city limits. In fact, she doesn’t like being country quiet, being outside, and her version of rock climbing is in a temperature controlled building with ropes and safety precautions abound.

However, Kate needs to travel to Canada to visit with an Author for an article she’s writing. While there, she makes plans to stay at Noah’s B&B. Unfortunately, Noah’s business isn’t doing well, so he’s decided to expand into giving tours. He asks Kate and Jen to take a 3 day adventure tour and provide feedback on his tour giving abilities.

Boy oh boy does Kate give Noah feedback! She’s ruthless. LOL. Now granted, Noah did need some serious help. He was horrible, but with Kate’s help, he finds his stride in being a tour guide and Kate finds her stride in living life.

I loved this movie for several reasons. If you want to analyze this movie, it had many life lessons. One of the biggest being not to waste life. Don’t be afraid to experience life and don’t be closed off to new opportunities. Sometimes we put blinders on and forget to take them off to see what else is out there. GIVE NEW EXPERIENCES A TRY! You never know what you might end up liking.

Another reason I loved this movie was that it made me laugh…A LOT. Noah’s ridiculous jokes even had my husband laughing (shhhh…don’t tell him I told you all that he was watching this with me or that he ENJOYED IT!).

I was just reminiscing about the beautiful herb garden I had when I was growing up. Good thymes.

Why do melons have weddings? Because they cantaloupe!

What do sprinters eat before a race? Nothing, they fast!

I only picked 3, but if you click them, they’ll take you to another 100+ jokes I found on bestoflife.com. Hehe. Check them out! Also, check out this movie! It was definitely worth watching. For those of you who like sales, you’ll love this! It’s like a two for one, because Kate’s photographer also has a little romance going on. Happy movie watching y’all!!

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Movie Review: A Winter Getaway

_{Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/a-winter-getaway}

Rating:

Do you have kids? If so, I think you’ll appreciate this. I’m not quite sure why, how, or even when, but somehow I wound up with two kids and a dog in my bed Friday night. The dog is expected, but the kids…not so much. Luckily, my wonderful husband took each child back to their bed and I was able to go back to sleep quickly. Unfortunately, when your sleep is disrupted, it can leave you dragging the next day.

Combine the middle of the night wake-up with my two on-call wake-ups this week and I was really dragging by Saturday night. I really really wanted to watching this movie though!

So, I stayed up just for this movie and boy am I glad! This movie had so many wonderful scenes!

Have you ever traveled on a private jet? If not, I hope you get a chance some day! The first time I was on one, I was just like Joe! Actually, I was worse. I moved the chair every direction it could go, opened every cupboard, grabbed the free drinks and snacks, and took pictures of myself (and the plane) every 5 minutes. It’s a fantastic experience and Joe’s reaction was perfect. The helicopter ride though? No thanks! I’d pass on that experience.

After the helicopter ride, the outdoor lunch looked amazing. Did anyone else notice the beautiful charcuterie board Courtney and Joe didn’t touch?! Oh man, I wanted to eat that whole board!

What about Joe’s reaction to the squab? LOL. This cemented my love for his personality. He gave it a try and when he didn’t care for it, he covered his distaste, because he knew Courtney went through the trouble of organizing the special meal.

I really enjoyed Joe’s reactions to everything. Olga was scary, but Joe gave her a try and loved the experience. We could all learn a little from him. It was wonderful watching Courtney loosen up and learn from Joe.

Overall, this movie was soooo cute! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry at the end. It was ridiculously sweet. Give this one a try folks. Happy movie watching y’all!

Movie Review: Two for the Win

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/two-for-the-win

Rating:

Confession time…I wasn’t looking forward to this movie. I’m not a huge fan of either lead in this movie. Also, I struggled to understand the plot from the commercials, but after the first 30 minutes, I was pretty hooked.

In case you struggled with the plot too…this movie is about Justin, a male skier, who is failing to come back from a knee injury. Sound familiar? It should, we saw a similar movie, Taking a Shot at Love, a few weeks ago about a hockey player who had an ankle injury.

That’s okay though, there are only so many romance plots. It’s the content that counts. Did you see the auction scene? I couldn’t help laughing! Kayla was a fantastic auctioneer. And the lady who bid against herself? Yup, that would be me. Totally excited and in the moment and forgetting what you’re doing.

Could you imagine if they auctioned off a day with our favorite Hallmark leads? I know many women who would drop money on Andrew Walker, Ryan Paevey, Luke Macfarlane, or Chad Michael Murray. I would actually consider dropping a few thousand on Ryan myself! I mean, if the money goes to charity, where’s the harm??

There definitely wasn’t any harm in the interview Kayla and Justin did together. How did Kayla not swoon when Justin softly gazed into her eyes, held her hand, and said, “I got you.” Be still my heart! I live for those Hallmark moments.

With all the sweet words, lingering gazes, and past history, it wasn’t surprising when there was a kiss just over an hour into the movie. These two had some serious chemistry brewing 🙂

Of course, shortly after the kiss was our climax where our two leads must decide which direction they want their lives to take. Unexpectedly, this is where we also get our second kiss! Did you hear that folks? Two kisses before the end of the movie. Hallmark, are you feeling okay? We’re getting a little riskaaayyy here.

I’m sure you’re now asking, is there a third kiss?? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out. I know, I’m mean. I’m told that almost every single day by at least one of my kiddos. Such is the life of a parent.

However, in between all the moments where I’m called mean are also the moments where I’m considered awesome, and this movie left me with an idea that will have them calling me awesome. Why? Because it left me wanting to run to the nearest ski hill! What’s more awesome than playing in snow?! Luckily being in Wisconsin, there are a few around here. I think we’ll be scheduling a trip really soon.

Before I leave on that trip, I want to encourage you to watch this movie. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It was a lot better than I expected. Plus, there are previews for Snowkissed. They were really cute!! Woot woot! Something to look forward to 🙂 Happy movie watching y’all!

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Movie Review: A New Year’s Resolution

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/a-new-years-resolution

Rating:

 3.5/5

Well, right off the bat, I LOVED that this movie took place in Milwaukee!! It had all my favorite Wisconsin things…discussing Packers (GO PACK GO!), polar plunges, and discussions about favorite brat toppings (I’m a ketchup girl). But should you say YES to watching this movie?? Let’s talk about it!

Kelly is a producer who works for “‘Wake Up Milwaukee.” As a new year’s resolution, she decides she won’t say No to any social requests, because she felt she’s said no too often in the past year and isn’t happy about it.

Tom works for the marketing department of a popular bank. He is at the same restaurant as Kelly, when he makes a bet that he can pick anyone’s resolutions. He picks Kelly’s table and guesses everyone’s resolution except Kelly’s.

This is the start to a series of godwinks (without the annoying winking noise – THANKFULLY), Kelly and Tom wind up at many of the same activities over the next few weeks while Kelly is saying yes to social requests.

Then, Kelly is brought a story about accounts being opened for customers without their permission at Tom’s bank. Kelly decides to bring the story to Tom and the rest you’ll need to see 🙂

This movie is cute and sweet and everything you want to watch in a Hallmark movie. There was good chemistry between the two leads and lots of wonderful quotes. My favorite – “You’re worth making time for,” from Tom to Kelly. Awww!!! Swoon. Tom was adorable!

Plus there was an extra kiss! Yay Hallmark! I was super happy for this, because it was in line with these two characters. Tom seemed like a hugging, happy-go-lucky guy, which naturally extends to wanting to kiss a woman he’s falling in love with. And even though Kelly is closed off in the beginning, she was receptive by that point, so it was perfect.

With all this good, why did I only rate it a 3.5? Well, for me, the biggest issue was that it lacked the IT factor that I talk about. It was a solid movie and if it’s on, it makes good background movie watching, but it’s not a movie I’ll seek to watch again and again. In fact, it’s been 20 minutes since it finished and I’m already forgetting it.

Also, there were a lot of little things that irritated me. Someone said “Go Pack!” I hardly ever hear anyone say that. Real Wisconsinites yell with passion “GO PACK GO!” I’ll give them a little credit for not saying “Go Packers,” because I really never hear that.

Speaking of the Packers…have you heard about Wisconsin’s Frozen Tundra? Doesn’t that just sound cold?! Wisconsin in January/February could very easily be near 0 degrees. Unless I missed some serious clues, it didn’t look like anyone was actually cold at the polar plunge or in some of the other events. Sure, they were all fake shivering/trying to warm up, but in Wisconsin people actually shiver! And people “turtle” their heads into their coats to stay warm.

Beyond the shivering, I didn’t hear any midwestern accents. No one ended their sentences with “Hey?” or “…or no?” This would be like watching Steel Magnolias without Southern accents, but it’s easy to be nit-picky when a movie takes place somewhere you’ve lived.

Despite these issues, this was still a solid movie. You’ll have lots of opportunities to laugh or say “Awwwww…” So, don’t take the 3.5 as a negative. Sometimes these types of movies surprise me and over time they become movies you unexpectedly look forward to watching. Country Wedding (which was on after this movie) is one of those.

Give this a try and let me know what you think! Did you enjoy it? What was your favorite part? The game playing evenings? The chili cook off? Curling? I hope you enjoy it! Happy movie watching y’all!

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Movie Review: Taking a Shot at Love

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/taking-a-shot-at-love

Rating:

 5/5

It’s the first Hallmark movie of 2021!! Woot woot!! Who else was excited to see this one?! Not only is it our first movie of the new year, but it also has two of my Hallmark favs…Alexa PanaVega and Luke Macfarlane!! These two couldn’t have been cuter together!

Ryan is a hockey player who had an injury that wouldn’t heal. He tried everything the doctors requested, but his injury persisted. Enter Jenna. Jenna had the same injury and overcame it with a ballet protocol. So, Jenna becomes Ryan’s therapist.

I had several flashbacks to The Game Plan and watching Dwayne Johnson play a football player who did some ballet with his daughter. There’s a great scene in that movie where Dwayne is drowning in sweat and can barely breathe, but the ballet instructor is calmly sipping water and explaining the next move. Haha! I have a thing for buff/macho men doing ballet and yoga and watching them fall apart. Never mess with a ballerina!

Ryan had a similar moment where he wonders why he can’t walk after spending an hour with 5 year olds doing ballet. Watching him walk like he just got off a horse was hilarious!

Sadly, it was missing a half naked ripped body, but luckily it was missing the sweat dripping off his brow. Missing sweat is probably just my personal preference; I’m sure plenty of women would be lining up to wipe it off 😃

Really though, besides my obvious Luke ogling, there were so many wonderful moments in this movie…

Storm Snacks – I will be keeping these in my house!
An adult sleep over – Was this a Hallmark first? I can’t actually remember seeing this one before.
Power Outage Game Night – we do a form of this with the dogs and bring out treats during thunder and fireworks. It helps make them less worried. This was a good idea of something to do with the kids!
Watch the movie to see more!

Beyond the cute moments, there were so many quotes I wrote down. These were some of my favorites…

“You’ll find a flannel man someday” – Jenna’s friend. Side note: I giggled a little when Ryan wore flannel! I love flannel! Always have.
“Backup plans are for people who expect to fail” – Ryan
- “Backup plans are for people who do everything right but sometimes things happen that are outside of their control” – Jenna
- I tend to agree with Jenna on this. I always have backup plans. Sometimes I have backup plans for my backup plans! Haha!
“There’s always a million reasons to say no, but if you can find the courage to say yes, great things can happen” – Ryan. This was so encouraging and true! Focus on the positive!

After talking about all the positives, I want to take one second to talk about the negative in this movie. There wasn’t much. The ONLY negative I found was at the very end. I wanted to know what happens with the ballet studio. I can imagine what happens, but I really wanted to see it. You know? Maybe they’ll do a sequel? I wouldn’t mind seeing these two together again! I’ll cross my fingers and hope for that. I’m not taking away any stars for this, because I feel like that’s some of my type A personality coming out. They didn’t tie up the loose ends! Ahhhh! **Jamie slaps herself** Feeling better now…Moving on…

I’m really glad this was the first movie of the year. It delivered on many levels. Comedy, heart, growth, and more. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you give this movie a try! Happy movie watching y’all!