Tag Archives: christmas

Cleaning Out The DVR: Wish Upon A Christmas (dir by Terry Ingram)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

WishUponAChristmas

After finishing up with A Gift-Wrapped Christmas, it was time to move onto the final Lifetime Christmas film on my DVR, Wish Upon A Christmas.  Wish Upon A Christmas premiered on December 13th and, much like Becoming Santa, The Flight Before Christmas, and Last Chance For Christmas, it features Santa as a matchmaker.

Well, maybe it does.  Though he has the beard and the jolly attitude, the film is somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not Mr. Tomte (Kevin McNulty) is actually Santa Claus or not.  The facts certainly suggests that he may be.  Before Mr. Tomte shows up in town, Danny (Dylan Kingwell) does make a wish that Santa could bring his single father, Jesse (Aaron Ashmore), a girlfriend.  And then, one night, a bright light flashes in the sky and there’s an explosion in the distance as something crashes to the ground.  Was it a meteorite or was it Santa’s sleigh?  Who can say?  But Danny does come across a silver bauble that Mr. Tomte is somewhat desperately searching for.  Is it just a family heirloom and or is it, as Danny suspects, filled with the magic that allows Mr. Tomte to fly his sleigh?

Meanwhile, Jesse is the much beloved owner of a company that makes hand-crafted ornaments.  He inherited the business from his parents and Jesse is a big believer in tradition.  Despite the fact that it’s cutting into profits, he insists that every ornament be hand-made and that his workers take their time to make each one perfect.  His workers are so happy that they even hum Christmas carols while they’re working.

Unfortunately, the big mean corporate world does not understand what makes Jesse’s business so special.  They send efficiency expert Amelia (Larisa Oleynik) to inspect the company and make some recommendations.  Much like George Clooney in Up In the Air, Amelia makes her living by firing people and convincing them that it’s for their own good.  However, as soon as Amelia arrives in town, she finds it difficult to do her job.  For one thing, she grew up in the town and she’s always had a crush on Jesse.  Secondly, it turns out that she’s not as cold-hearted as she believes.

So, will Amelia fire everyone at the factory?  Or will Danny’s wish come true?

Well, you already know the answer.  This is a Lifetime Christmas movie and there’s nothing really surprising about it.  However — and yes, I do realize that this has become a reoccurring theme when it comes to my Lifetime Christmas movie reviews — Wish Upon A Christmas is such a sweet and good-intentioned film that it would really be silly to be overly critical of it.  You know what you’re getting when you watch a Christmas movie on Lifetime and Wish Upon A Christmas delivers.

Add to that, Kevin McNulty makes for a very likable Santa.  Next year, he should co-star in a movie with The Flight Before Christmas‘s Brian Doyle-Murray in which they play the competing Santa brothers.  It’ll be fun!

Cleaning Out The DVR: Last Chance For Christmas (dir by Gary Yates)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last-Chance-For-Christmas-movie

After I watched The Christmas Gift, I continued to clean out the DVR by watching Last Chance For Christmas.  Last Chance for Christmas originally aired on Lifetime on December 6th and it took me a second viewing to realize that, as far as Lifetime holiday movies are concerned, Last Chance For Christmas was actually pretty good.

Annie (Hilarie Burton) lives in a small town in Alaska, along with her daughter Madison (Lola Flanery).  Annie owns a reindeer farm, which is her inheritance from her father.  The bank is eager to foreclose on her and take the farm away from her.  It’s all because Mr. Buckley (who is somewhat inevitably played by Tim Matheson) wants to build a ski resort on her property.

Desperate but still defiant (which is why I liked her), Annie is understandably paranoid when John (Gabriel Hogan) suddenly shows up on her doorstep and says that he needs to borrow one of her reindeer.  She assumes that John must be working for either the bank or Mr. Buckley.

Which she doesn’t know is that John’s boss lives up north.  For the past 15 years, John has worked for Santa Claus (Derek McGrath).  John is in charge of the stables and taking care of Santa’s reindeer.  When Prancer cracks a hoof, it’s crisis time at the North Pole.  As John explains it, without Prancer, it could take three to four months to deliver all of the presents.  John even suggests that they may have to delay Christmas or cancel it altogether…

That’s when Mrs. Claus (Jayne Eastwood) steps forward and announces that, under no circumstances, will Christmas be canceled.  As she puts it, the children will get their gifts “by any means necessary.”  John is sent into the human world, instructed to track down a replacement reindeer.  And he thinks that he’s found one on Annie’s farm.

The problem, of course, is that the reindeer — named Frankie — is Madison’s favorite.  As John slowly starts to win Annie’s trust (and as he and Annie fall in love), he realizes that he cannot bring himself to take Frankie away from Madison.  However, when he explains this to Mrs. Claus, she tells him that the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few.  If John isn’t willing to steal Frankie then maybe Mrs. Claus will have to come do it herself…

And really, the portrayal of Mrs. Claus as being the ruthless head of a crime syndicate was perhaps the best thing about this film.  It was so unexpectedly dark and almost cynical.  As well, Jayne Eastwood was obviously having a lot of fun playing this very unsentimental version of Mrs. Claus.

Beyond the subversive portrayal of Mrs. Claus, Last Chance For Christmas was a genuinely entertaining film.  Hilarie Burton and Gabriel Hogan made for a cute couple, Lola Flanery gave a blessedly non-cutesy performance as Madison, and the snowy scenery was nice to look at.  All in all, Last Chance for Christmas is a perfect example of the correct way to do a holiday movie.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit #3: A Christmas Accident (dir by Harold M. Shaw)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, as a part of my effort to get all of our readers into the holiday spirit, I present to A Christmas Accident, a silent film from 1912!  That’s right — this movie is 103 years old!  When this movie was first released, William Howard Taft was still President and the Ottoman Empire was still a thing!

Anyway, A Christmas Accident tells the story of rich and miserly Mr. Gilton.  Mr. Gilton shares a duplex with a large and impoverished family.  Mr. Gilton may be rich but he’s definitely not happy.  He spends his time arguing with his wife and harassing the local shop owner.  However, he reserves most of his anger for his neighbors.  When his dog dies, he accuses them of poisoning it.  When his wife’s meatloaf disappears, he accuses them of stealing it.

But then, on Christmas, something happens that causes Mr. Gilton to understand the true meaning of the holidays…

As I’ve stated many times here, I am a huge history nerd and films like A Christmas Accident fascinate me.  It’s amazing to see, firsthand, how people lived in 1912.  Add to that, A Christmas Accident holds up pretty well for a 103 year-old film.  William Wadsworth does a pretty good job as the Scrooge-like Mr. Gilton and, as the most prominent of the poor children, Edna Hammel is the epitome of the saintly (if poverty-stricken) children who dominated popular culture at the turn of the 20th Century.

Enjoy A Christmas Accident!

Cleaning Out The DVR: The Christmas Gift (dir by Fred Olen Ray)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Christmas Gift

After I watched The Flight Before Christmas, it was time to continue cleaning out the DVR by watching The Christmas Gift!  The Christmas Gift was one of the first Christmas films to show up on Lifetime this year, premiering on November 30th.

Megan (Michelle Trachtenberg) is an ambitious writer who works for a tabloid magazine and who is frustrated by the fact that she’s only assigned to write articles about the best lip gloss for fair skin.  As well, her boorish boyfriend, and fellow journalist, Alex (Daniel Booko) not only dumps her but gets assigned the big story that she wanted!  Michelle’s editor, Cooper (Rick Fox), tells her that, if she really thinks that she deserves better assignments, then she needs to go out and find a story that proves it.

Megan returns home to discover that her aunt has sent her a package of her old belongings.  Going through it, Megan comes across a notebook that was anonymously given to her one Christmas many years ago.  The notebook — and the poem that was inscribed within — inspired Megan to become a writer.  She decides, for her story, to track down the person who gave her the notebook.

Her investigation leads her to Wesley Hardin Johnson, Jr. (Sterling Sulieman), who runs a foster care program.  Megan says that she wants to do a story about the program and the kids that Wesley is helping.  Wesley agrees, on the condition that the story be about the kids and not about him.  For reasons that only make sense when you consider that this is a Lifetime holiday film, Megan decides that this means that she shouldn’t tell him about the notebook.

Not only does Megan have a hit story but she and Wesley are also falling in love!  However, Megan then discovers why her aunt sent her all of her old stuff.  It turns out that her aunt’s retirement community is about to be leveled and repalced with condos.  And who is evicting Megan’s aunt?  None other than Wesley’s father, Wesley Hardin Johnson, Sr. (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs)…

Needless to say, it all leads to misunderstandings and conflicts but it’s nothing that can’t be solved within 90 minutes of narrative.  This is a Lifetime Christmas film, after all.  You watch it with the full knowledge that everything’s going to turn out okay.  The Christmas Gift is a good-natured and likable holiday movie and Michelle Trachtenberg does a pretty good job in the lead role.

Perhaps what is most interesting about The Christmas Gift is that it was directed by the incredibly prolific Fred Olen Ray, who is better known for directing horror films and thrillers than for directing sweet-natured family films.  (That said, if you look at his filmography, you’ll actually come across several movies that you wouldn’t normally associate with him.)  Someday, someone is going to write the definitive overview of Ray’s long and varied career and, hopefully, I will be one of the first to read it.

Cleaning Out The DVR: The Flight Before Christmas (dir by Peter Sullivan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

After watching The Spirit of Christmas, it time to continue cleaning out the DVR by watching The Flight Before Christmas.  The Flight Before Christmas originally aired on December 5th on the Lifetime network.  I was at a Christmas party and I totally missed it.

fbc

The Flight Before Christmas is perhaps the epitome of your typical Lifetime holiday movie.  Stephanie (Mayim Bialik) has never had much luck in love but things are finally starting to look up!  She is planning on moving in with her boyfriend and she has already called her mother and let her know that she won’t be home for Christmas this year.  But then Stephanie’s boyfriend shows up and says that he’s changed his mind.  Not only will they not be moving in together but he wants to break up as well.

That’s it! Stephanie decides.  No more love, no more romance, no more risk of heart-break!  And, since she’s not going to be having hot, just-moved-in-together-sex this holiday season, she might as well just go back home to Connecticut.  She rushes to the airport and manages to get tickets on a flight back home.  Also, at the airport, she meets a jolly fat man with a twinkle in his eye.  His name is Noel Nichols (and is played by Bill Murray’s older brother, Brian Doyle-Murray) and … well, if you can’t guess what’s going on with Noel Nichols then you really haven’t seen that many Christmas movies.

Meanwhile, Michael Nolan (Ryan McPartin) is on the same flight as Stephanie.  Originally, he had seats in first class but, acting out of holiday generosity, he suddenly decides to switch seats with Noel Nichols!  (Are you sensing a pattern here?)  Michael ends up sitting right next to Stephanie.

Well, immediately, Michael and Stephanie don’t get along and we all know that means that they’re destined to fall in love.  However, Michael is flying to Boston so that he can ask his girlfriend, Courtney (Trilby Glover), to marry him.  No, Michael, she’s not right for you!

Fortunately, the plane runs into turbulence and is forced to land at the most romantic place on Earth … Bozeman, Montana.  Seeing as how they’re going to be stranded for a day or two, Stephanie finds a room at a local Bed and Breakfast.  She manages to get the last available room and then, despite claiming not to like him that much, she invites Michael to share the room with her…

Okay, so you’ve read the plot and you already know what’s going to happen.  There’s nothing surprising about The Flight Before Christmas but then again, holiday movies aren’t supposed to be surprising.  They’re light-hearted and somewhat silly and hopefully, you’ll feel good after you watch one.  The Flight Before Christmas is a sweet film that, for me, didn’t quite work.  Try as I might, I simply could not imagine Michael and Stephanie as a couple.  However, I did think that Brian Doyle-Murray did a great job as Noel Nichols.  If I ever meet Santa, I hope he’s just like Brian Doyle-Murray,

(Incidentally, this film ended with a dedication to Mayim Bialik’s father, Barry, who passed away earlier this year.  It was a sweetly sincere moment.)

 

Getting In The Holiday Spirit #2: Scrooge (or Marley’s Ghost) (dir by Walter Booth)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, in order to help some of our readers get into the holiday spirit, I shared a film from 1905.  Well, tonight’s film was made four years before The Night Before Christmas!  Produced by R.W. Paul and directed by Walter Booth, Scrooge (or Marley’s Ghost) was produced in 1901 and it is apparently the oldest known cinematic adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Of course, when watching, it’s important to remember that this movie was made during the infancy of film.  If it seems primitive, that’s because it is.  However, it’s also a true piece of history and you know how much I love history!

(Also keep in mind that, while this 6-minute film looks surprisingly good for its age, it’s reportedly incomplete.  It also greatly condenses the original story.  Let’s just say that Marley ends up doing a lot more in this film than he does in others.)

From 1901, we present to you Scrooge (Or Maley’s Ghost)!

(Also, a big thank you to the Xmas Flix YouTube channel for featuring so many classic holiday films!)