Enchanted Christmas (2017)

Please don't spend money on this.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

At 1 hour 19 minutes and 44 seconds she walks thru the curtain onto the stage. She is wearing a blue suit on the backstage side of the curtain. She emerges on the other side wearing a red dress with no time in between to change. Christmas magic or blooper?Alexa is wonderful in this movie, but is miss-paired with her husband/co-star Carlos. I sincerely hope they have magic and sparks in their real relationship, but that was sadly missing for their onscreen characters. It was almost like Major League (Alexas) vs Little League (Carlos). It was a good story but Alexa had to carry the film by herself.

I actually had big expectations about this movie. It sounded promising and maybe not different from what Hallmark does but maybe it would be average. I'm a little disappointed.While I liked the movie I would say that it is mainly because of Alexa, who, as usual, made a movie charming. I also find Laura and Ricardo the cutest but that is all thanks to Alexa and Carlos.But the rest of the movie? It is within average and maybe a little lower. Predictable boyfriend. Predictable ending. The acting of a few people was... not good. The script had no "laugh out loud" moments, and I did feel it was lacking something else. However, the child was adorable.To sum up, I liked the movie: I liked Alexa, Christmas and Carlos. In that order. But I was expecting more.

I have tagged this with spoilers, but I really don't think I give anything significant away.Let's see what usual themes do we have? Laura comes back to her home town where she hasn't been in years. She runs into Ricardo who was kind of an old boyfriend. She has an impossible assignment to complete in too little time. Although not clear at the beginning, apparently her job is at stake. She already has a boyfriend back at the office and he shows up awkwardly. She has a kid who believes in Santa (and she wants snow from Santa). They have a traditional icon in the form of the hotel's fountain.What's different? Not a lot and the things that are a little different have been done before. They dance a lot. Instead of a contest to win, there is a dance finale to prepare for.For actors that are married to each other, I would have expected more chemistry, but they are comfortable together. Part of the lack of chemistry is a shortage of chances to dialogue between them. There were obviously some, but much of their time together was either not very romantic, or was dancing. As in many Christmas stories with kids, Nikki is a factor in bringing them together. Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen is cute but she does almost seem like a 30 year-old in a 9 year-old body, but I think that is part of the story.The act put on by the kids was pretty good, more than a school pageant. Same with the lovers dancing - it included some flashy and slightly difficult moves.The ending is predictable, although there were two small things that could have gone differently.

I was a fan of the TV show big time rush so I was looking forward to this movie. I was not disappointed.I think four factors influence the quality of the Halmark Christmas movie.Was the romance believable? I thought it was here without any huge does of melodrama.Did it relate to Christmas? I thought the movie was very well done visually and I thought it had some nice family and tradition themes as well. The kid and kids were cute too, so that has to count for something. (the kid also was not really the matchmaker which I enjoyed because I find that plot creepy generally) What about the minor characters and subplots? Not many subplots here, but I thought the bit parts were well played and added to the movie.Four, was it funny? Not so much. It was sweet in parts but not really funny.So all told I felt it was a better than average Hallmark Christmas movie.