Christmas Made to Order | Blogmas Day 9

-

 Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas Day 9!

This is a Hallmark movie that I found on Netflix. The premise looked cute, so I thought that it would be a good one to include in Blogmas.

An architect (Jonathan Bennett), who is hosting Christmas for his family for the first time, hires the help of a holiday decorator (Alexa PenaVega) who is trying to get her business off the ground.

As expected, this probably isn't the best Christmas movie you'll see, but it also won't be the worst.

The first thing I noticed while watching the film was that, all of the characters' reactions to everything seem so huge and over-the-top. Everything seemed like a bigger deal than it was because of their expressions and the way they spoke.

Because of this, it takes a while for these characters to settle down and start to feel like real people. At points, it feels and sounds like we're watching the actors reading from their scripts.

As much as I love these generic rom-com Christmas movies, I am slowly but surely getting bored of the trope where the woman's entire personality is loving Christmas, and the man's personality consists of either hating Christmas, being a workaholic, or both. Can these characters get new personality traits please?

Nevertheless, the story is interesting and familiar, so it's a very easy watch. These characters, as over-the-top as they are, are very nice to spend time with. Our two main characters, Steven and Gretchen are a nice couple, and they do have good chemistry.

The only new thing that this film did was introduce another storyline with the architect's niece (played by Bailee Michelle Johnson). They didn't go into that storyline as much as I would have liked, but it was really nice to get out of the Christmassy romantic mindset for a bit.

The conflict of the movie comes completely out of nowhere, and it was clear that it was created for the sake of drama. Having said that, in the overall scheme of the movie, the conflict makes sense because of their wildly different personalities. For me, it was the making up that didn't make that much sense because the architect ended up changing his whole personality in a way that wasn't hinted until 5 minutes before it happened.

Overall, this is a cute, festive story. But there are better Hallmark movies out there.


Originality - 2/10

Christmas Spirit - 8/10

Christmas Music - 4/10


It's 16 days until Christmas!

Come back tomorrow for Blogmas day 10!

Lou

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for your comment xx

Popular Posts

Snatch | 100 Movies Bucket List

-
Image
I'd never heard of this film before last year, when I watched it for the first time, so this time around was my second watch. Guy Richie's movies tend to be a bit hit-or-miss for me. This is one of the only ones where I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other. I didn't love the story, it didn't hold my interest the whole way through. But one thing that I absolutely loved was the dialogue. It was smart, quippy and made the film a much more fun watch than the plot itself would suggest. Another thing I absolutely loved was Brad Pitt's performance. This was probably one of my favourite roles of his. He did a great job with the character, and it was really different to everything else I've seen him in. But that being said, all of the performances were great. For me, if I had to guess why this film is considered a classic, it would 100% be because of the script and performances, rather than the film as a whole. It was the script that kept me locked in and
Read more

My Problem With '8 Simple Rules'

-
Image
Hey Guys x Today's post might come out as more of a rant, which I'm OK with because I haven't ranted about something in a while! Last year, I started watching the show '8 Simple Rules' when it started playing on Comedy Central. It originally came on between 2002 and 2005 but I didn't watch it when it was first on. Anyway, I really got into it. There were only three seasons, so it was over before I wanted it to be. And I loved this show, and I still love it. Comedy Central doesn't play it anymore but if it did I would dive right back into it because I love a good sitcom. However, I have a major gripe with a plotline of the show, that got more prominent in season 2/3. Let me just explain the characters a bit, so you know who I'm taking about in case you never watched it. The show revolves around a family, Paul and Cate Hennessy, and their children Bridget, Kerry and Rory. In the second season, the father in the show died (due
Read more

Book Review #127: The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

-
Image
After the events of 'The Inheritance Games', Avery still doesn't know why Tobias Hawthorne left her his entire fortune. All she knows for sure is that she isn't a Hawthorne. But when she discovers something that suggests she's closer to the Hawthorne family than she ever imagined, Avery, along with the mysterious Hawthorne brothers, try to find the truth once and for all . I reviewed the first book, 'The Inheritance Games', HERE , and said that because I didn't love it, I wasn't really interested in reading the sequels. I picked this book up on the spur of the moment, because while I didn't love the first, I was kind of curious about what came next. I'm so glad I decided to pick this up, because I liked it a lot more than the first one! One of my criticisms the first time around was that I felt Avery was quite juvenile and childish. This time around was entirely different - I really liked being in her head, and she definitely seemed more matu
Read more

The Green Mile | 100 Movies Bucket List

-
Image
This was a first-time watch, but one that had been on my list for years, so I'm glad the Bucket List forced me to finally watch it! What a movie! I don't really know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect to be as affected by it as I was. Because this film really touched me. I was emotionally invested, engaged, immersed, devastated, broken and everything in between. I'm still not over it. There are so many things to praise about this movie, starting with the performances. Every actor was amazing in their respective role, but the two clear standouts are Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks. I've seen quite a few Tom Hanks movies, and I can honestly say that this is the first time I've completely loved a performance of his, he was amazing in this role. And Michael Clarke Duncan was phenomenal and completely made the film what it is. Then there's the writing and direction, both of which were incredible. The story is so powerful, which is due to, what I assume
Read more

Anyone But You | Film Review

-
Image
After a great first date that quickly goes bad, Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) despise each other. But when they are both invited to a destination wedding, they decide to fake date to stop their animosity from ruining the wedding celebrations. I didn't pay much attention to this film until I started seeing the reviews. I haven't seen a really good rom-com in a while, so hearing that this was quite a good one made me excited to see it! I liked this film, but I didn't love it. The meet-cute was really fun and unique, and a good way for the audience to get to know the characters. The cast is great, and the characters are all played really well. The main characters in particular are really fun to watch, especially when they're arguing. The dialogue is written really well and it's an enjoyable watch, but I never felt like I really got to know them, and so I never felt 100% invested in their stories. And with that, while I enjoyed their interactions, I never r
Read more