Good Morning Christmas! (2020)

Alison Sweeney and Marc Blucas play two TV show hosts in this Christmas TV movie. Sweeney is Melissa Merry. Blucas is Brian Bright. Their show is, of course, Today With Bright & Merry, and they are hugely popular, thanks to their onscreen chemistry. But that chemistry often disguises disagreements they have off-camera. Melissa likes to be prepared, and resents what she sees as an easy career path for Brian (who started off as a sport star, moved into a hit reality TV show, and then landed the presenting gig). Things may warrant a re-appraisal, however, when Brian hands in his notice. This makes things feel slightly different as the show begins a series of live Christmas specials from the town of Mistletoe, with the final show planned to be the time to announce Brian's departure to the public.

Perhaps it is down to the fact that daytime TV shows have that layer of forced niceness about them, perhaps it's the chemistry of the two leads, or perhaps it's just a better script than so many others, but Good Morning Christmas! is easily one of the better Christmas TV movies I have watched in recent years. There's no messing around with the formula, but it's worked well enough throughout a plot that just feels a bit less strained than most.

Director Paul Ziller does well with the resources available to him, possibly helped by the fact that he can get away with showing a lot of equipment onscreen (although that may be totally different equipment from whatever is used to actually film things, for all I know), and Riley Weston's script manages not to feel as if it is rushing anything, despite us knowing that a relationship needs to be developed, and obstacles overcome, within the 84-minute runtime. Leaving breaks for adverts.

Sweeney and Blucas certainly do their bit to help. Not only are they both very believable in their roles, they get on really well together. And not in an eye-rolling way. It's clear at the beginning that they work well on their show, despite the tension hidden off-camera, but the moments that have them learning to better appreciate one another are nicely done. Nicole Oliver is also very good, playing the show producer who can see the change gradually happening, and Matthew James Dowden, Jay Brazeau, and Kayla Heller are various Mistletoe residents who help to provide some small lessons, even if inadvertently, while Kat Ruston plays Christy, Brian's girlfriend who is happy to see him taking the next step in his career.

I'm still not going to overdo it with my praise here - even the best of these movies have to be marked down because of the adherence to formula - but this is one that I highly recommend to anyone making their way through the latest batch of festive treats in the TV schedules. Enjoy.

6/10

If you enjoy these reviews then you can buy me a hot chocolate here.

Five Star Christmas (2020)

It's always a difficult Christmas when you head home for the holidays and find that your father has decided to turn your family home into a small b & b, without thinking about things like staff, supplies, or anything else a b & b owner may consider when formulating a business plan. Okay, it may not happen often, or at all, but it happens here in this Christmas TV movie.

Bethany Joy Lenz plays Lucy Ralston, someone as shocked as her sister (Amber, played by Grace Beedie), her brother (Will, played by Blair Penner) and his partner (Suzanne, played by Barbara Patrick), and even grandpa (Walter, played by Jay Brazeau). Robert Wisden is the father, Ted, who has had this bright idea. And there's an anonymous travel writer in the area, a woman who writes reviews that can make or break a small business. When Beth Thompson (Laura Soltis) arrives, stopping there due to a flat tyre, everyone believes her to be that writer, and so begins a comedy that has most of the family members pretending to be staff members, or other guests, as they try to get the best review possible for their father. Oh, and there's also another unexpected guest in the shape of the handsome and lovely Jake Finlay (Victor Webster).

Okay, hear me out here. I am happy to admit that I often give Christmas TV movies more leeway than most. I know the checklist, and I am happy to see the formula adhered to in a way that is cosy and comforting. Five Star Christmas is an anomaly, however, in that it hits all of the expected beats while also being a genuinely enjoyable movie. You're still not going to absolutely love it, especially if you're expecting something on par with a cinematic feature, but the comedy really works, especially in the scenes involving Will and Suzanne, who decide to promote themselves as windswept globe-trotters. Their first scenes, revelling in the chance to embody their new personas, are a lot of fun. Beyond that, you get a lot of moments in which wrong names are uttered, people are made to hide away from others who may recognise them, and the b & b is shown to treat the guests and staff just like family. Because most of them ARE family.

Director Christie Will Wolf is, as so often the case with people who helm these TV movies, a fairly experienced hand. She knows what shots are required, and she gets them all done. You have the snow-tinged glow throughout, and that particularly paradoxical warming cold that infuses the best of these films. Writer Alfonso H. Moreno has a lot of TV episodes to his credit, but he does a really good job here, making the whole situation far less cringe-inducing than it could have been. The third act needs to tie up the plot strands, and you get some romance (of course), but it feels earned after the fun of the first hour.

Lenz is easy to like in the lead role, striking a great balance between level-headed organiser and someone with a major emotional investment in the outcome, and Webster is a decent, safe, male. Wisden and Soltis have some nice scenes together, and I think you should already know how much I enjoyed the performances from Penner and Patrick. Beedie brings a nice energy, the younger sister not really sure of what she wants to do with her life, but gradually finding out more about herself in the midst of the madness, and Brazeau and Paula Shaw are both great fun (the latter playing a grandma who embraces her new role with gusto).

Whenever I review these Christmas movies, I always remind people that they are being reviewed AS Christmas movies. That still applies here. But I still think this is also, at times, something that stands out from the crowd by being more enjoyable than most, in a way that isn't just checking all of the festive film boxes.

6/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Once Upon A Holiday (2015)

Briana Evigan plays a princess, Katie, who escapes from the busybodies around her to spend an enjoyable day in New York. Unfortunately, she is robbed, losing her handbag and a camera, the latter of which was a very special gift that she had managed to keep hold of for years. But she does get to meet a nice guy named Jack (Paul Campbell). The two of them enjoy the company of one another, Katie gets to meet some interesting people while she tries to evade those who are growing more frantic in their search for her, but can things have a happy ending for two people from such very different worlds?

Compared to many other Christmas TV movies, Once Upon A Holiday doesn't feel as if it is exactly overflowing with the spirit of the season. It has a number of Santas involved in one or two scenes, and people are occasionally shown to be celebrating in a festive manner, but the whole thing really feels like a "rich person pretending to be just like normal folks" plotline that was given a minimal addition of tinsel and holly to allow it to qualify for the Christmas schedules.

Between them, director James Head and writer David Golden have a good deal of experience working within the parameters of TV entertainment, but you wouldn't know that from this particular example. It has the comforting familiarity to it, in terms of the way thngs play out, but it doesn't do enough to make it all that enjoyable, despite the bonus of having Evigan in a lead role.

Speaking of Evigan, this winning performance serves as another reminder for me of the puzzling way in which her career seems to have halted before it even really took off. The same actress who was eminently watchable in Burning Bright, Step Up 2: The Streets, Sorority Row, and Mother's Day, to name the main titles that I have seen her in, remains eminently watchable here. But I can't think of the last time that she had a role worthy of her personality and presence. The rest of the cast aren't on her level, although Campbell tries hard to be acceptable as the standard safe, nice and sweet guy who our leading lady could find happiness with. Briana's father, Greg, does decent work with his limited screentime, Jay Brazeau is the sorta-Santa figure of the piece, and that really covers the supporting turns worth mentioning.

It's a real shame that this is so bland throughout, with the exception of Evigan. It never feels as if there are any decent stakes involved and there just aren't nearly enough gratuitous Christmas moments shoved in to make it all more appealing.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share