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Casa Vita (2016)
Béisbol and a Mexican Feista!
Lindsey Morgan takes on her first leading role in this romantic made for TV film alongside Baby Daddy hearthrob Jean-Luc Bilodeau.
The story opens with Early, an aspiring professional baseball player who receives a letter stating he's been accepted to a big league prospect camp in Los Angeles. Despite his farmer father's wishes for him Early takes off the follow his dreams.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles Ariana is plotting to get out form under her father's thumb. She currently works at the family restaurant, Casa Vita however she has much different plans. She dreams of opening her own restaurant where she is in full control of the menu. Though her father supports her brother Beto's baseball dreams he doesn't believe she's ready to branch out on her own.
While at baseball camp Early meets Beto who offers him a chance to get a decent home-style meal by inviting him to his family's restaurant. There Early meets Ariana and her father Rodrigo ends up offering him a job. Ariana is skeptical to Early and his lack of experience but he soon wins her over.
This was a cute romantic movie for for a day or night in. The main characters both have equal narrative and have a sweet chemistry.
Refreshingly Ariana doesn't have to make the usual TV movie choice between a man and her career and instead is working towards having both.
There's a great blend of baseball and Mexican culture in between the romance and family moments. Ariana will introduce you to traditional Mexican dishes and spices while adding her own fusion flare. Retired professional baseball player turned actor Casey Bond plays Early's baseball camp rival.
Stop the Wedding (2016)
Stop the Poor Plotting!
The entire movie felt strung together with no real direction. I read the novel this was based off of and noticed many things were changed about the setting and the plot just for the hell of it. The plot itself seemed to be abandoned halfway through the movie in favorite of clichés and wacky hi-jinks. The reasoning behind Anabelle's need to stop the wedding was flimsy at best but she soon got over it upon watching a short video of the couple together.However since there was still an hour left to fill the movie random plot points, hi-jinks and misunderstandings were thrown in as filler to stretch out the running time.Hallmark, please stop adapting novels! You do a terrible job bringing them to screen.
How Not to Propose (2015)
Script was lacking
I never got the sense that the two actually were truly in love and then the looming ex boyfriend was just oddly placed. I kept waiting for them to decide to go their separate ways. There was a real disconnect with this script. Like they decided to string together a bunch of events and call it movie. The script was lacking even for a TV movie.
One thing I will say about PixL movies is they highlight the supporting characters. However there could've been a lot less of the parents sitting around discussing their daughter. The side story with the brother and the best friend was a lot more interesting though. They should've told that story instead.
It Had to Be You (2015)
Fun Movie for a Lazy Sunday Afternoon
I recently subscribed to Pixl Movie Channel and this was one of the first movies I decided to watch. The movie is about two very different advertising agencies merging. One a traditional firm and the other a trendy boutique agency. Darby Powell is forced to work under her overbearing father again after being forced to merge her financially struggling company with her father's. She ends up being partnered with the company's creative director Derrick on a pitch for a major potential client. They but heads because of their very different styles while friends and coworkers Ethan and Sarah discover they have quite a lot in common. Darby and Derrick must learn to come together and work as a team or lose a mullion dollar opportunity.
Michael Rady and Torrey DeVito's characters had a cute rivalry but Henderson Wade and Briana Henry stole the show. I enjoyed watching Ethan and Sarah's relationship develop as they grew more comfortable working together and sharing their dorky tendencies. I also enjoyed the back and forth between Jennifer Lewis and Corbin Bernsen's character's. And of course Michelle Hurd as the no nonsense client. The strong supporting cast really saved this movie from becoming another sweet but forgettable TV rom-com.
A Kind of Magic (2015)
Cute Halloween Movie
This aired on ION as You Cast a Spell on Me So our main character Matt is a 35 year old warlock in need of a spouse. A little bit of a twist from the usual woman's biological clock ticking. His family arranges him to marry a witch from one of the families that make up the witches council.
Psychiatrist Sara's friend Lacy drags her out to Halloween party where she meets mysterious stranger Matt whom she talks to all night. What she doesn't know about Matt is he is a warlock and his powers end up transferring over to her. Sara thinks she's losing her mind when strange things start happening.
Over the next few days Matt is experiencing troubles with his powers and is desperate to figure out what's wrong. His mother determines it can only be one thing, Matt has fallen for a mortal!
Stitchers (2015)
Boring and Uninspired
I just don't see this show making it beyond the first season.
Our lead Kirsten is a horribly written character played by an equally bad actress. For a character that supposedly doesn't feel emotions Kirsten spends a lot of time being angry. Emma Ishta's performance is rather wooden and stilted. Completely unbelievable as this genius hacker.
The male lead Cameron is not much better and often utilizes fast talking dialogue to gloss over bad science.
The basic concept of stitching was an interesting idea but I refuse to believe the government would develop this level of technology just to be used to solve every day cases.
Poor acting, poor dialogue and poor weekly plots make for a poor show.
Cloud 9 (2014)
Beautiful scenery, Predictable Story
Okay so how many times have we seen the story of the blonde pampered princess who sets out to show us she has some depth and learns a lesson. Of course there is the non rich boy next door type guy for her to fall in love with who teaches her a little bit about humility. Dove Cameron is the latest girl Disney is determined to make their new "it girl". While cute and adorable enough on Liv and Maddie she falls flat in Cloud Nine. Not completely fault the script of this predictable tale is flat.
Other tropes included the overbearing asshole father, the jerk boyfriend, the mean girl out to take the main girl's spot.
Dove Cameron and Luke Benward turned in vanilla at best performances. Typical Disney sitcom style acting. Most of their scenes just felt like they were reading their lines straight from the script.
Mike C Manning was pretty cringe worthy when it came time for Nick's "big reveal". As if we didn't realize when it happened that he clearly steered her into the sign on purpose. Nick's father was a mustache twirling villain. I can't even hold their acting in this movie against them with those flat characters.
Kiersey Clemon's was in this movie simply to make faces at our main heroine.
The scenery is amazing. Kudos to the director and cinematographer. The scenes out in the snow were well done as was the scene that took place in the pool. The way that was filmed really stood out to me. Much more than the dialog.
Over all I'd rate Cloud Nine about a 4.5.
Cowgirls 'n Angels (2012)
Cute Family film full of Country fun
This was a sweet movie. Fast paced and never boring. Best scene had to be when everyone was line dancing.
Bailee Madison is a capable lead as Ida the cute little girl with the dream of finding her father through starring in the rodeo. I just wished we would've had more heart to heart moments with the mother.
I was really interested in the side story and would've loved to see more of it though. Dora Madison Burge was just as endearing here as Kansas as she was in Friday night Lights as Becky. Jackson Rathbone lit up the screen the few times he was on as Justin.
Over all its a cute little family movie for a boring afternoon.
So This Is Christmas (2013)
Violent, Preachy, and Slow Paced. So this Is Christmas
I'm guessing most of the people who gave this movie positive reviews are Lexi Ainsworth fans. Eric and Vivica fans know those two can make some clunkers from time to time and this was one of them. I am familiar with some of this cast and since Christmas movies on TV this year have been pretty bad I thought I'd try VOD. This movie followed the trends of being badly written/acted and barely about Christmas that other movies this season have followed.
Word to the wise when trying to create "A different kind of Christmas movie" advertise it as such and don't label it a family film. I'm sure a lot of people were mislead into thinking it was a family film.
It started off your typical Christmas movie but after the first five minutes took a cringe worthy. Lots of bad acting during those scenes where Ashley was parading around in short shorts drunk. Eric Roberts seemed lost an confused like he didn't know which movie he was filming at the moment. He gave the same amount of effort he gives for most of his low budget films which amounted to basically none. Vivica Fox's was playing a caricature. She was the wicked stepmother to Ashley's Cinderella. When Ashley stumbled into the house I thought for sure she was gonna smack her up the way she was lunging. Jason, black athlete addicted to coke in need of saving. I've never seen that one before.
This movie was too preachy, too violent, and there were too many plot points. As someone who lives in the city and hears about violence frequently the last thing I want to see when watching a movie expecting Christmas cheer is a bunch of violent stereotypes put together to be showy and make the movie seem deep.
Chastity Bites (2013)
Campy Satire with a dash of feminism
Welcome to San Griento, We Focus on the Family After a brief scene that could play out in any horror satire the audience is introduced to protagonist Leah, ultra feminist journalist and town pariah, and her best friend the sweet but insecure Katherine.
Katherine is seen reading what is obviously Twilight and reflecting on it's romantic nature while Leah explains that the useless book does nothing but objectify women.
Cue the resident mean girls nicknamed The Hiltons entering the scene. The leader Ashley is a half Asian version of Regina George from Mean Girls who comes off like a little Chihuahua barking around orders. She frequently uses the word chicas despite throwing constant shade at the Mexican Gretchen Weiners of the group Noemi. Then there is ditzy blonde Kelly who is the Karen Smith of the group. The fourth Hilton is not as memorable and doesn't have as many hilarious one liners.
We also meet the mothers of the three most memorable Hiltons, three botoxed housewives obsessed with being youthful and their status in the community. They are the ones who organize chastity leader Liz Batho's arrival at the school. Ashley's mother Jillian at Liz's request has her daughter encourage her friend's to become chastity leaders in the school's group VAG.
While Leah smells something fishy abut Liz from the very beginning Katherine is intrigued by Liz describing her as just elegant and cultured and stuff. She is easily sucked in and develops a crush. Katherine thinks Leah is just angry that this VAG club ruined her big story.
While the horror movie aspect of the movie reeks bad 80s style Syfy TV movie the comedic aspect is what makes this movie watchable and enjoyable. The Hilton's deliver one liner after one liner and have amusing interactions. Liz Batho is played is the right blend of icy, campy, and deceitful. I could easily see this movie airing on Chiller, Syfy, or Lifetime and it has all the fixings of a cult hit.