'A Christmas Princess' (2019)
Opening thoughts: The whole royal meets commoner and falling in love scenario was already very old and done to death by the time 'A Christmas Princess' was made. It is a scenario that Hallmark over the past seven years or so have recycled quite a lot and very few films that have this concept do anything fresh. Seeing it near universally panned also lessened my already admittedly quite low expectations. Some of the royal Christmas films have actually been pretty good, so there was a glimmer of hope.
Which was quite early on dashed in a film that started off quite badly and got worse until reaching terrible degrees the sillier and more irritating things got. There was no intent on hating 'A Christmas Princess', some films seen with low expectations have been surprisingly good and Hallmark have done good films regardless of any predictability. 'A Christmas Princess' is one of the very bad ones, with almost nothing working and the worst aspects being dreadful.
Good things: 'A Christmas Princess's' best aspect is some of the production values, which are very nice to look at. Especially the scenery, which Hallmark more often than not delivered on even in the duds. The castle is a source of wonder.
Bad things: Unfortunately, that is pretty much it. What immediately stands out in a bad way is how truly unlikeable the female lead character is, she is very irritating, her selfishness, rudeness and arrogance are taken to extremes and for somebody who is meant to be smart she does and says things that are insultingly stupid. In fact, none of the characters are interesting or worth rooting for, with the prince being bland and all the supporting characters with no exceptions being caricatures and pretty much recycled stereotypes.
Can't say anything halfway decent about the acting. Shein Mompremier's acting is very forced and affected, while also bland. Travis Burns is very wooden and lacks charisma, also agree about his physique and bearing being wrong for his character, too firm, too over serious and at times unintentionally creepy. All the supporting cast overact with Erin Gray's performance being pretty much reminiscent of a very hammy cartoon. Mompremier and Burns have absolutely no chemistry together in another relationship that is underdeveloped. With it being rushed and like there were parts intended to be there but left on the editing room floor. Some of the editing is choppy and like a rush job.
Music is too constant and over-scored. The direction is characterless and leaden. The script is full of cheese, over sweet schmaltz and is painfully awkward, a lot of the dialogue induces cringing. The story is thin, excessively silly, with too much cobbled together and does absolutely nothing new with a continually recycled formula. Which makes the film feel very fatigued and it is not good fun watching a film knowing throughout how it's all going to map out five minutes before the event happens. The ending is too neat and feels unearned.
Concluding thoughts: Concluding, very bad.
2/10.
Opening thoughts: The whole royal meets commoner and falling in love scenario was already very old and done to death by the time 'A Christmas Princess' was made. It is a scenario that Hallmark over the past seven years or so have recycled quite a lot and very few films that have this concept do anything fresh. Seeing it near universally panned also lessened my already admittedly quite low expectations. Some of the royal Christmas films have actually been pretty good, so there was a glimmer of hope.
Which was quite early on dashed in a film that started off quite badly and got worse until reaching terrible degrees the sillier and more irritating things got. There was no intent on hating 'A Christmas Princess', some films seen with low expectations have been surprisingly good and Hallmark have done good films regardless of any predictability. 'A Christmas Princess' is one of the very bad ones, with almost nothing working and the worst aspects being dreadful.
Good things: 'A Christmas Princess's' best aspect is some of the production values, which are very nice to look at. Especially the scenery, which Hallmark more often than not delivered on even in the duds. The castle is a source of wonder.
Bad things: Unfortunately, that is pretty much it. What immediately stands out in a bad way is how truly unlikeable the female lead character is, she is very irritating, her selfishness, rudeness and arrogance are taken to extremes and for somebody who is meant to be smart she does and says things that are insultingly stupid. In fact, none of the characters are interesting or worth rooting for, with the prince being bland and all the supporting characters with no exceptions being caricatures and pretty much recycled stereotypes.
Can't say anything halfway decent about the acting. Shein Mompremier's acting is very forced and affected, while also bland. Travis Burns is very wooden and lacks charisma, also agree about his physique and bearing being wrong for his character, too firm, too over serious and at times unintentionally creepy. All the supporting cast overact with Erin Gray's performance being pretty much reminiscent of a very hammy cartoon. Mompremier and Burns have absolutely no chemistry together in another relationship that is underdeveloped. With it being rushed and like there were parts intended to be there but left on the editing room floor. Some of the editing is choppy and like a rush job.
Music is too constant and over-scored. The direction is characterless and leaden. The script is full of cheese, over sweet schmaltz and is painfully awkward, a lot of the dialogue induces cringing. The story is thin, excessively silly, with too much cobbled together and does absolutely nothing new with a continually recycled formula. Which makes the film feel very fatigued and it is not good fun watching a film knowing throughout how it's all going to map out five minutes before the event happens. The ending is too neat and feels unearned.
Concluding thoughts: Concluding, very bad.
2/10.