Christmas at the Holly Day Inn (2023) User Reviews

Very weak script and Christmas flim flam results

[shirleyatsegment · 4/10 · 3 December 2023]

My excuse is that I am poorly. Under a blanket and in need of Christmas comfort having got a heavy cold. My goodness this is poor stuff.

Good to get one of these set in the UK - there are just dozens of American seasonal romances - but this doesn't ring true.

Dr Who (Colin Baker) and former EasterEnder Anita Dobson try their best with the jolity but it is hard to rescue a woeful script and disappointing settings.

I'm guessing it was filmed in Sept/October and the crew could only be supplemented by a handful of extras and the loan of a few garden fete atractions to make the big Christmas event.

The leads are sweet enough with a degree of chemistry but they aren't given the most believable material to work with.

There are a few directorial gaffes that make the piece lose pace - the hero parks several yards away when he turns up to change a tyre - weird!

They make cookies - at best they are gingerbread men and biscuits, we don't have a UK cookie baking tradition.

I wanted this to be so much better because it is about the UK but sadly it is in need of a re-think.

Rubbish

[timandjillsmith · 1/10 · 4 December 2023]

One of the very worse Christmas films my wife and I have ever watched. Absolutely terrible storyline (can't really call it a storyline - the story is so weak and predictable and very unbelievable - difficult to believe that Oliver is being threatened with the sack if he doesn't get the deal signed!) and even worse acting which is incredibly poor. The main characters are the worst and come over extremely plastic and false. The weather is clearly springtime and the Christmas fair they go to is more like a summer fete. We nearly paid for it before it appeared on Channel five - thank goodness we didn't.

Run! As fast as you can! It's not good!

[adamjohns-42575 · 9 December 2023]

Christmas At The Holly Day Inn (2023) -

I probably shouldn't have expected much when it took half an hour for the produced by credits to go by at the beginning of the film, you know when they've had to get funding from that many people, it's probably not been wanted by anyone that knows what they're doing.

And within minutes I did feel that the film was kind of amateur hour at Christmas time or like an after school special aimed at kids not adults, mostly due to the basic and hammy dialogue.

The lighting was off and the camera work was a bit shakey too. The production values weren't brilliant and the actors weren't great either.

I couldn't work out whether the cast were badly directed or if they were just really poor at doing their jobs. Anita Dobson should have been better, but it's always hard to tell with Colin Baker who tends to be quite flamboyant anyway.

I was prepared to give this one a go however, despite my reservations, which was more than the hotel had (Obviously - Standard plot device), but ultimately there was a bit where Oliver (Kevin Leslie) the leading man, got bumped in to just after the first break and his acting made me cringe so much that I gave up, because life is too short.

Unscored as unfinished.

Terrible script

[pauldevall-27436 · 2/10 · 7 December 2023]

So many of these Christmas films follow the same tired formula. This is simply relocating the standard Hallmark/Reel One outside the US but hardly changing the structure and making no allowances for cultural differences.

Is this due to the strike in Hollywood?

Open the drawer and take out Script 101. "Strong but irritating/rude" female lead. Dopey male lead. Car breakdown, Misunderstanding. Standard denouement. Then all miraculously sorted out in time for love and marriage in less than a week...

Everyone works to save the Inn/Reindeer Farm/Ranch/Bakery/Whatever.

As for baking "cookies" in an English kitchen ...