MOVIE REVIEW #1 - ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS

MOVIE REVIEW #1 - One Magic Christmas (1985) 

Here it is the first Christmas Movie Review of the year! Please ignore that I am publishing this on September 27, when it is supposed to be 80 degrees outside today! :) 

A friend asked me to review this movie and I said yes. I was worried it was going to be super cheesy, but oddly it was a pretty good movie, much better than I expected.

The cinematography is both good and bad, Whoever designed the lighting and color palate was actually very artistic. But I think it needs to be digitally remastered (To be honest I cheaped out and didn’t rent the HD version so that could be part of it) Anyway,  I read that it was filmed in Canada during the winter. The cinematographer used the winter light, and snow to set a tone of sadness and hopelessness. It is a very realistic movie for the most part, except for Harry Dean Stanton as a somewhat menacing Christmas Angel and Santa's workshop run by "good people" who have died. (To be honest I was not quite sure about that part because I was dozing off a little bit.)

This is the story of a poor family having a very hard time right before Christmas. They are getting kicked out of their house, they don't have enough money for Christmas presents, and Mom has lost the Christmas Spirit completely. After a series of sad sad things, some snowglobe magic, and some letters to Santa Claus, the Magic of Christmas makes everything right (including bringing the father back to life after he is murdered in a broad daylight bank robbery – told you it was dark).

This movie brings three of the standard Christmas plots together: Christmas Heals a Broken Heart, Santa is Real!, and It’s A Wonderful Copyright Infringement. (There is also one scene that feels like Let's Plagiarize Dickens but that might be more of a homage than theft.)

A couple of strange things about this movie:

Harry Dean Stanton plays a Christmas Angel, but he wears this dark hat and trench coat and is a little creepy.

The little girl has a really scary doll

And I didn't quite get the connection between the snowglobes and the Mom’s Christmas spirit, but hey what the hell it is almost Christmas.

Cry Time (How long into the movie I started crying) - 28 minutes.

Candy Cane Ranking - 3 out of 5 

Christmas Movies - the cheesiest part of the holidays!

Well, Summer is almost over and that means its time for the Pre-Pre-Christmas Season. If you know me, you know that I love Christmas Movies, So now I have a blog to share my obsession with you.

This blog is not about Good Christmas Movies like ELF, It's a Wonderful Life, or White Christmas. This is about Cheesy Hallmark/Lifetime/ABC Family Christmas Movies.  Some of the "classics" from the recent past include: The Mistle-Tones , High School Holiday Reunion, Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I will be posting reviews, thoughts, and links about these staples of the Holiday Season! Enjoy!

Christmas Movie Basics

If you are new to TV Christmas Movies, there are few things you should know. First of all, these movies are more "Sharknado" than "Jaws", the acting can be pretty wooden, the characters can be two dimensional, and the plots can be a little fluffy. However, they are always a good romp, always worth a laugh or two (even if you are laughing at the movie not with it), and they always have more Christmas Spirit than one of Santa's helpers hopped up on sugar cookies. 

There are 6 basic Christmas Movie plots

1) Plagiarizing Dickens - this type of movie steals all or part of Charles Dickens' Classic, "A Christmas Carol". It is a story of a miserable lonely person who hates (or ignores) Christmas. Through some supernatural visitation they see that the Christmas Spirit exists and by the time the credits role they are helping Tiny Tim walk again. - "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

2) It's a Wonderful Copyright Infringement - About 20 minutes into this kind of Cheesy Christmas Movie, you will realize that this is a movie basically lifted from Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life". The protagonist has a crisis in their life and through some magic or heavenly miracle, they see what the world would be like without them. - Every time you hear a bell ring, someone steals a movie plot.

3) Christmas Heals a Broken Heart. This movie plot is so easy to do that several mainstream movies like "Love Actually" have used it to great financial success. This type of movie has a protagonist (or several) who is lonely/getting over a past love/widowed/abandoned/orphaned and the magic of Christmas brings them together with the person they need (lover, parent, pet dog, etc.) usually on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning.

4) Christmas Competition- The background for this Christmas Movie is some kind of competition: Tree decorating, House decorating, Christmas Singing, Christmas Pageant, Cookie Backing, etc. The competition usually becomes so important to everyone that they lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas (until the end when everyone smiles and sings Silent Night and realizes that Christmas is about Love"0.

5) Christmas Saves the Town (or store, or library, or school, or assisted living facility or amusement park or toy company). Once upon a time in America there was a town or some other time honored institution that brought happiness and joy to the world. As less and less people know the "real" meaning of Christmas, the institution has faded a bit. Some rich evil Marty McHumbug decides to buy the land the institution is on and turn it into something awful like a strip club or a car dealership. The town (that has seemingly ignored this institution for many years) comes together to save it and put an end to the evil developers plans. 

6) Santa is REAL! This plot line actually works best with one of the other movie plots, using the REAL Santa as the magic in any of the above plots. But it also can be a stand alone movie. The title says it all - Santa is real and in the modern world - AMAZING!

Lifetime, Hallmark, and ABC Family (the major dealers for us Christmas Movie Addicts) take elements of these plots and mix and match them into a nearly endless quilt of possibilities. 

Autumn starts tomorrow - Merry Christmas and welcome to my Blog!

Well Summer is almost over and that means its time for the Pre-Pre-Christmas Season. if you know me, you know that I love Christmas Movies, So now I have a blog to share my obsession with you.

This blog is not about Good Christmas Movies like ELF, It's a Wonderful Life, or White Christmas. This is about Cheesy Hallmark/Lifetime/ABC Family Christmas Movies.  Some of the "classics" from the recent past include: The Mistle-Tones , High School Holiday Reunion, Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade

I will be posting reviews, thoughts, and links about these staples of the Holiday Season! Feel free to comment , laugh at me, or post your own Holiday Hilarity!

ENJOY!