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david_hardman
Reviews
The Killer in My Backyard (2021)
not only would the local police get involved in a civil dispute....
....they'd rush round with the sirens blaring.
This was the point at which I couldn't take any more and stopped watching - I was already at the end of my tether for all the reasons listed by other reviewers. From what I'm gathering I made the correct decision.
Apparently I need another 300 odd characters before I can submit, so I may as well continue - the cardboard characters, the unrealistic scenario that the husband would just let the guesthouse out to a stranger on a whim because he seemed OK, without references or even speaking to his wife first, even though it's a jointly owned property - I dread to think how much worse the decision making from the "protagonists" became - it usually ends up with one or both of them going to an isolated place alone to confront the dangerous killer.
Enough characters now. Phew.
Hidden Gems (2022)
stopped after 30 minutes
The leaps in logic were just too ridiculous for me to handle.
The positives - it's nice to see some fresh faces as opposed to the usual Hallmark actors, and contrary to some other reviewers, I thought the leads and the supporting cast did a good job for the third of the movie I saw.
The scenery was beautiful and you can't beat the authentic on-location setting.
Also the idea for the story is great - her grandmother's ring bringing true love together by going missing when it did, as if through the very magic that her grandmother believed in.
Unfortunately, this idea ended up being wasted as it was so poorly executed.
As one reviewer has already said, not taking the ring off to do SUP yoga was stupid. OK, it's needed for the story, I'll carry on watching.
Then it only transpires after she's waited a full day and gone to such desperate lengths to try to enlist the help of the dive-master that she's a certified diver herself. To be fair, the movie does try to address this by having Addy asked about this on two separate occasions. Sadly her explanation doesn't really stack up. While it doesn't to any harm to get the help of a dive master who knows the currents, why did she not start looking herself immediately? (I'm no expert on currents, but surely the sooner she started looking, the more likely it would still be in the area where she'd just been doing the yoga), and, as another reviewer has said, why was she not spending every available hour looking herself?! Jack's assistance should have been a bonus, not a necessity.
It's needed for the 2 lead characters to meet and have initial conflict. I can just about accept it and carry on watching. There's numerous other ways they could have met - off the top of my head, she could have been looking for it herself and interfered with one of Jack's dive excursions. But I'm 30 minutes in now, I want to see where this goes.
The final straw for me though came when her sister demanded that the dive-master spend his spare hour helping them do some utterly trivial scavenger hunt game rather than be looking for the ring. That was just the height of selfishness - it was her grandmother's ring too. That no-one called her on it was just too much.
In fact, given that her and their "friend" insisted Addy do the yoga against her wishes, quite actively stopped her from looking for the ring immediately, and now this, I have to wonder if the sister was jealous that their grandmother hadn't given her the ring instead and so wanted it to stay missing.
If that gets revealed later in the plot, then great. I can't watch any longer to find out.
All I Want for Christmas (2007)
needs to be shown again
If A Christmas Kiss was the romance movie that started my appreciation of Christmas movies, then All I Want For Christmas is the family movie that really got me hooked.
Contrary to other reviews which described the child as "bratty", I actually found Jesse to be very likable. Roger was an absolute d**** who never quite accepted Sara's life or who she really was and wanted to change her and everything around her. He certainly never accepted her son, who he viewed as an inconvenience, wanting to send him off to boarding school first chance he got.
What child, or adult for that matter, in that situation, wouldn't react angrily and push back every chance they got, especially knowing that he'd unintentionally caused this situation himself by setting the whole contest thing in motion - poor kid must have been cursing himself for that.
I find it difficult to believe it took Roger's boarding school stunt for Sara to finally realise what an d***** he was and how incompatible they were - I guess I just have to accept that she got caught up in the fantasy and the whirlwind of it all and lost her mind for a few weeks.
While this movie isn't without its flaws, there are some wonderfully subtle moments that I've not seen in a Christmas film since, in particular when Sara's setting her parameters and is describing her ideal partner - she's actually describing Ben but doesn't realise it, and this is something the viewer only picks up on during repeat viewings.
Speaking of repeat viewings, this is on the list of movies that got replayed every year (I first saw this in 2014 I think) and then suddenly stopped and disappeared from the rotation. Given some of the, for me, far inferior movies that get heavy airtime, they could do with bringing this one back.
A Christmas Kiss (2011)
Harmless Fun
My first review, and I thought it would be fitting to go for the first TV Christmas movie I can remember watching.
I guess I first saw this in 2013 and at the time I naively didn't realise that Hallmark and Lifetime made numerous movies of this ilk every year (and make even more every year now!).
The love story, the Christmas themes, the whole family friendly feel good nature of the movie was completely fresh to me. I watched it every year for a few years afterwards when it was repeated, although I must say that once I started watching christmas movies with more regularity, this one paled in comparison to some of the others. Therefore, my 6 star rating is probably motivated by sentiment.
That said, although it's not as good as other christmas movies, for every one that Hallmark and Lifetime put out that's better, they churn out half a dozen each year that are worse! And this is still shown on True/Sony/Great! Movies every autumn with regularity, so it must be doing something right.
It does have it's qualities -
The friendship the lead has with the other 2 girls feels very natural and that alone adds a certain warmth to proceedings. It's a pity they didn't get more screen time or let the main story revolve around her friendship with them.
I also liked the whole Cinderella-esque story - it's subtly done (unlike other movies that ram home the fact that they're remaking Cinderella in the modern age) - and it has the added bonus of her stealing Prince Charming from her oppressor.
I also like its self-awareness at the end with the spoof news article (for those who haven't already done so, pause it when the newspaper comes on and read the small text).
The bad - it's predictable, the whole broken nose stunt backstage at the end was just silly, and the male lead is instantly unlikeable as he's shown cheating on his partner by getting involved in the elevator.
I've not seen the male lead in anything else. Nor have I seen the female lead's friends. The female lead herself, the only other time I've seen her was in a supporting role, in The Michaels.
The unknown cast to me actually adds to the escapism, makes me feel like I'm watching real people, if that makes sense.
Best of all, the "villain" - Elisabeth Rohm - the only other movie I've seen her in was the sequel to this, in which she reprises her role but is a reformed character, which is an excellent touch and a pity her redemption wasn't used to end this movie, rather than the cliché of her getting her so-called comeuppance.