Party crashers and Family Olympics...week one Hallmark movie reviews!
Our season is off to a strong start! We got a little bit of everything this weekend, but I think we are in for A LOT of movies featuring overworked Xillennials struggling to find the spirit of Christmas. GROUNDBREAKING for Hallmark, I know.
We have three movies to get through. Starting this week, we’ll have four, since the Mystery channel will begin airing their movies on Thursday evenings.
‘Twas the Date Before Christmas: 6/10 ⭐
This is a great movie to kickoff the season because it has SO MUCH of what you expect from Hallmark - a fake dating scheme, over the top family Christmas fun, I GINORMOUS family estate somewhere in the country, and a sprinkle of small town activities.
I really liked both our leads in this movie, and the family home is one of the best I can remember. It’s all very “Christmas in the Berkshires” which is a movie Hallmark should make, or ask me to write for them.
While I do LOVE a fake dating scheme, I did not like that these two meet on a dating app. Personally, I much prefer the old fashioned meet cutes that are not at all realistic. It picks up about a half hour in, when Bryan attends the big family Christmas with Jessie as her boyfriend, excelling in all the family Christmas Olympics events before their charade inevitably unravels. There is a sub plot here involving a family candle store that is VERY high stakes with lots of talk around superior candle scents.
Outside of the dating app, my only other real knock on this movie is that family Christmas olympics sounds like my personal hell. It was exhausting and over the top just to watch, so I can’t imagine ever participating in such nonsense.
Holiday Crashers 7/10 ⭐
This is BY FAR the best of the weekend and it isn’t close. There is a reason I gave this only a 7 but we’ll get to that in a moment. This is Hallmark’s version of Wedding Crashers, but it’s G- rated and instead of crashing weddings, our two gal pals crash a series of holiday parties. And instead of being invited to a family compound, they end up getting invited to a corporate retreat at a Ski Chalet. A classic tale of hidden identities and both ladies end up getting far too invested in their own scheme.
After meeting a handsome businessman during one of their party crashing escapades, Antonia is invited to his corporate retreat on account of her “legal prowess,” despite the fact that Antonia never passed the bar and isn’t licensed to practice law. The scheme unravels in Vermont while Antonia struggles to figure out her career path and her future.
The first half of this movie I really thought we were going to end up seeing an early 10/10. It’s fun and flirty and our gal pals are having the best time parading around Connecticut in their fancy dresses and hidden identities. But the back half is kind of a mess. There’s a whole sub plot around Antonia’s dad and his ambulance chasing law practice, and it becomes a big part of the final storyline. It’s so stupid and felt like filler. They should have just had some kind of love triangle if they needed to fill 15 minutes of time.
Scouting for Christmas 5/10 ⭐
Our first single mom story! Angela is STRESSED, amicably divorced, and working a million hours a week as a realtor. Her ex travels all over as a paleontologist and honestly is such a deadbeat, doing the bare minimum to keep in touch with his kid.
Their daughter is 10 year old Brooklyn, who decides to set up her mom with the cute guy who runs the local bakery, William. William is a gem and teams up with Angela to cater the girl scouts event her troop is hosting for Christmas. Of course just as Angela and William start to hit it off, Dakota the deadbeat comes waltzing back in trying to win her back! It’s a very classic love triangle that just missed the mark for me.
Loved the bakery, loved the kid playing cupid, but the production and acting in this one is just not good. It’s not at all unique and I thought based on the title there would be more to the “scouting” storyline but it just isn’t a huge part of things. It will fall under “very forgettable” by the end of the year.
Overall this is a strong start to the season! Keep in mind that Hallmark doesn’t usually put out the best movies until November, so the fact that week one doesn’t have any real stinkers is a good sign for the season!