Christmas Movie Review #9 - The Flight Before Christmas

Ok so I am a little behind on Movie Reviews. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching! So please fasten your seat belts and return your seats to the upright position, we are ready for take off.

So remember a month or so ago when I told you that Lifetime and Hallmark had dueling Christmas movies about flight delays? I reviewed Hallmark’s entry (A Christmas Detour) last time. Now I have Lifetime’s “The Flight Before Christmas” to tell you about. Spoiler - Lifetime’s was better!

In this Merry little romp we have Mayim Bialik (yes Blossom) as Stephanie Michelle Hunt and Ryan McPartlin (from Chuck) as Michael Nolan both live in L.A. but have ties to the East Coast.

After what is one of the most brutal dumpings to ever occur on TV, Stephanie’s boyfriend waits until she is all packed and ready to move into his apartment to tell her he is having second thoughts. (He is a tool). So not having anywhere to spend Christmas, she decides to head home to Connecticut (maybe Boston?) to celebrate Chritmas/Hanukkah with her half Christian / half Jewish family.

Michael Nolan on the other hand is flying to NY (or again maybe Boston?) to see his Long Distance Fiance (I don’t know her name my notes just say bitch).

Through a madcap series of events including Brian Doyle Murray as a Secret Santa and a surprise snow storm that shuts down all flights in the US, Stephanie and Michael end up spending time in a small town in Montana. If you guessed that they hated each other and then fall in love - you got it. There are the normal ups and downs but you know where this ends up - a dive bar on New Years Eve.

I liked this one a lot better than the Hallmark version, because there was some actual chemistry between to two leads.

Cry Time: 22 Minutes (the break up was rough)

3 Candy Canes

Christmas Movie Review #3 - Ice Sculpture Christmas

I didn't think she would be able to top her Oscar worthy performance in 2012's High School Holiday Reunion, but Rachel Boston may have done it with her performance in 2015's Ice Sculpture Christmas. In this film she plays Callie Shaw a young chef trying to break into the restaurant game and show off her ice sculpting skills at the very same time.

On her first day she (literally) bumps into a boy she met the day she sculpted her first ice angel, and the heat was enough to melt the...well you get what I mean. 

This movie was cute and charming, and had a couple of twists and turns. At the beginning you think that the antagonist is going to be Callie's mean boss (Brenda Strong from Starship Troopers). But no! It is her annoying co-worker played by some bitchy red-head I am not familiar with.

I won't ruin this one for you, but I will tell you that it will warm your heart. You also learn quite a lot about ice sculpting. For instance: Ice blocks have to 'temper' before they can be cut or they might fracture, and  that a Japanese handled ice saw is a thing. So this was a fun, romantic little romp that I enjoyed very much. I would recommend it on a chilly Saturday night.

CRY TIME: 90 minutes

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