Christmas with Tucker (2013)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Disregard 6 of the 7 bad reviews on this movie. It was an excellent movie with excellent characters and story. Story was based on a book which gives the movie some depth. I only give about 10% of the movies a perfect 10, but this one had that special quality.James Brolin at age 73 as the grandpa. It was just perfect. He played in Marcus Welby at about age 30. In 2016 he was in "I'll be home for Christmas". In this film he has that tough John Wayne presence. At the end of the film a great confrontation with a bad guy- great drama. The grandson was excellent and was the main character with his affection for Tucker the dog. The grandma actually played the grandma on "The Road to Christmas" 2006. She was great in this role, so pleasant. The friend was played by Olivia from Heartland. We also see Dr Crane and Dr Hebert from Doc.This movie had that special bond between boy and dog as well as proud grandparents. The story showed how the boy was building character. In one part the grandpa told him he had to give up Tucker. Now that was a complete surprise, but the drama was intense. Definitely worth the watch.

Christmas with Tucker is supposed to be a prequel to A Dog Named Christmas which itself was adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame film back in 2009. I haven't actually read the books these films were based off, so I can't actually compare them, but I can compare the two films.In A Dog Named Christmas, there was a brief flashback involving the farmer's youth days with Tucker that took place around the 1940s. Here in Christmas with Tucker, those youth days are in the current time setting which was 2013. In other words, this film has continuity errors.Honestly, Christmas with Tucker was a So-So Hallmark Christmas film and one of my least favorite Christmas films made by the company. The only good thing I love about it was the great acting by the actors involved with the film, especially Barbara Gordon as the grandmother. If the film's story and most of the characters were given improvements, this would've been a great Christmas film. If I had to choose between this and A Dog Named Christmas, I'll stick with A Dog Named Christmas. I also consider this another Christmas film from Hallmark to watch only once.

I enjoyed this movie. The other reviewer(s) who said the grandfather made the boy give the dog back to a man who was going to leave the dog out in the cold to die could not have watched the whole movie. The dog owner was NEVER going to leave the dog out in the cold to die, and the grandfather knew that. The dog was well-fed and healthy, and the owner didn't interact with him much or play with him or seemingly care much about him, but when the boy went to check on the owner after a snowstorm, the dog was indoors. Left outside to die? No. The dog was indoors. The grandfather was telling the boy he couldn't take someone else's dog just because the dog stayed outside in a fenced yard a lot of time. The grandfather was correct. The boy used his initiative to convince the man to sell him the dog instead.

This is a typical Hallmark movie but with a high sap level. Story is OK but fairly predictable. I did watch the whole movie, but wasn't much impressed with the acting. Best actor was "Tucker".The story is basically a 10 year retrospective look at the way the dog "Tucker" came to be part of the McCray family at Christmastime; hence the title for the movie.The writing and acting for this film was, in my opinion, much below the quality of a far better Hallmark presentation such as any of the "Good Witch" movies. I've come to expect a certain degree of sappiness in any of the Hallmark movies, but this movie was a little over the top. On the plus side, like all Hallmark movies, its a wholesome family film with a positive message to share.