Hallmark Movie Review: Scouting for Christmas

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/Scouting-for-Christmas

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

It’s been a long time since I relaxed on the couch, pulled out my Chromebook and watched Hallmark. But it’s Countdown to Christmas and I signed up for the Hall-GAC Christmas Movie Showdown again! 32 movies in the bracket this year. Yay!! I don’t know about you, but after watching 32 movies, I’m going to struggle to remember the first few. So I’m back! 😉

I was hoping I could come back to writing and have this awesome movie to gush about. Unfortunately, Scouting for Christmas isn’t that movie. It has it’s moments I’ll gush about later, but overall, it was a solid three star movie. Below is a quick recap and my two cents.

Quick Recap

Life is hard sometimes. Especially as a single working mom of a Sunny Scout who’s biggest wish for Christmas is for her mom to date someone and have her Dad visit home. Add in a Sunny Scout ball, a cute baker, and a surprise visit, and the scene is set for a sweet Hallmark Christmas movie.

My Two Cents

This movie runs right down the center of the road. There’s cute and funny parts and a few slow or annoying moments. But in the end, I still cried (happy tears of course). LOL.

There were a lot of good moments, but the highlight of the movie was Brooklyn’s Dad, Dakota, coming home early to surprise her. His fly by the seat of his pants/over the top attitude compared to Angela’s stick up her butt attitude was a nice change. Then add William’s timely appearance and Angela’s subsequent melt down into the mix and I loved it.

Luckily, this wasn’t the only good part of the movie. The sweet ending brought everything together in the classic Hallmark happy ending. Even the evil villain (Elizabeth) came around to the good side. 😊

Despite the great moments, there were several not so great ones too. I really wasn’t a huge Angela fan. She was too headstrong and kept denying her feelings for William due to how Brooklyn would handle their relationship, which was weird since Brooklyn wanted them together. Her fighting with Elizabeth was a little over the top for me too.

Overall, the movie was okay. I won’t be adding it to my must watch or top 10 list. But it’s a typical and solid Hallmark staple movie. They can’t all be like A Biltmore Christmas or The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 😊

If you have a chance, try this movie! Let me know what you thought! Leave a comment!

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Hallmark Movie Review: Inventing the Christmas Prince

Image via: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/inventing-the-christmas-prince

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

OMG! That ending! A horse drawn carriage, crowns, and a Christmas Prince. What more can a girl dream of?! Here’s a quick recap and my two cents 😉 

Quick Recap

Evan is a brilliant engineer, but not a good boss. He doesn’t understand how his actions impact his employees. He’s lost several employees and his boss threatens to put him on review if he loses any more.

Evan upsets Shelby by telling everyone they’ll need to work Christmas, and she says she’ll quit until her daughter notices a mark on Evan’s hand and declares him the Christmas Prince. In order to keep the Christmas magic alive, Shelby bargains with Evan not to leave if he becomes the Christmas Prince for her daughter.

My Two Cents

In case you don’t know, I love movies with a little bit of fate or magic in them. So, I absolutely loved that this family had the Christmas Prince story passed down through generations until a man with a reindeer kiss on his hand met the woman who had grown up hearing about stories of the amazing Christmas Prince.

But he didn’t start as a Christmas Prince. He started more like a Christmas grump. In reality, he wasn’t a grump; he was someone who doesn’t understand peopling. Yes, I’m using that as a verb! Sometimes brilliant people understand facts in black and white, and they have a hard time understanding the subtleties of why people are offended when they state said facts.

People like Evan need people like Shelby in their life to show them how to people and why it’s important to treat others with respect and kindness. Because without Shelbys in the world, the Evans of the world will continue to be cold and isolated and never know what they’re missing.

I loved how the wishes helped teach Evan little things along the way about being kind and caring. And by the end of the movie, Evan really was the Prince from the fairy tale. It brought tears to my eyes to see such a sweet ending. Loved it!

I hope the majority of people like this movie. I really enjoyed it! It kept pulling me away from the book I was trying to read tonight. LOL. In case you’re wondering, By a Thread by Lucy Score is super hard to put down!! She’s a fantastic romcom writer. But this movie was worth putting my book down for a bit. I mean…HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE! WORTH IT 😊

Did you watch this movie? Let me know what you thought! Leave a comment!

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Movie Review: Christmas Comes Twice

Rating:
3.5/5

Fate, time travel, enemies to lovers, this movie hits 3 of my favorite themes! On top of that, Tamara and Michael were super cute together! Unfortunately, this movie failed to keep my interest and I had issues with too many parts of it.

The beginning of the movie has Cheryl coming home to Wellsboro and going to the town fair. While there, she makes a wish that she could go back in time for a week to not take a job Dr. Phillips offers her five years ago.

I’ve made similar wishes in my life. I often wonder what could have been from time to time. So, I fully support this concept!

Shortly after the wish, Cheryl sees a carousal and hops on. The carousal takes her for a ride to the past, where she’s presented with the opportunity to change her future.

This is where things went downhill for me. I’ve always liked these movies when the character goes back to the past at night when they’re asleep to change something they feel they did wrong the first time around, but this was a little too corny for me.

When Cheryl got off the carousal she almost immediately starts seeing significant clues she’s not in 2020 anymore Toto, but she REFUSES to believe it. She sees a poster with a 2015 date and talks to someone about a date she has on Friday, but still refuses to believe. She finally passes out when she runs into someone who’s dead.

She’s suppose to be a smart woman with her doctorate! I just didn’t buy that she would resist the truth so strongly.

While passed out, George carries Cheryl to a first aide tent, where she wakes up and tells him what’s happening. George laughs, but becomes her confidant. Cheryl and George wind up spending the week together teaching a kids science club and Cheryl discovers her love of teaching (and George).

Honestly for most of this movie, I struggled staying awake. It was a solid 3 stars through out, but the carousal time travel concept only gets a 2 from me.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good seeing Cheryl and George grow together. They really are a cute couple and the relationship growth was well done. It was just missing that something extra that some movies give.

I also enjoyed all the discussions of fate and living in the present, but I kept hoping for things to go different. Hallmark could have taken the date with Terrance and had it go worse than the original date. It would have been a great opportunity to infuse some extra humor. Instead, it was used to prove how Terrance was more into himself than Cheryl. If we were proving that you can’t really change the future, I feel like the date should have gone worse than the original.

In fact, there were several parts where the movie seemingly contradicted itself. Don’t tell the dead person she’s going to die, but tell Mom and Dad to not leave the cat alone with the Christmas tree. The inconsistencies made me crazy.

I know I told you this movie was mostly a 3, but you’ll see I’m giving it a 3.5. Why? Well, the ending is honestly a 5. If you don’t watch anything else in the movie, just watch the last 15 minutes. You’ll get all the feels and skip all the blah. Happy movie watching y’all!

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