A Royal Christmas Crush (2023 TV Movie) User Reviews

Did not really crush it.

[gfrasmd · 4/10 · 9 July 2023]

Hallmark takes us again to the Hotel de Glace, on the outskirt of Quebec City, this time for a royal themed, July Christmas movie. While the ice hotel is a wonderful location, the story begins with the ingredients for a real drama, with a suitable villain, the hateful, scheming Brigitta, and a solid male lead, the usually capable Stephen Huszar. If played well, the romantic story of a not-so-rascally prince with a nice common girl, though predictable, can, still, offer moments of interest and good entertainment. I am not sure it does in this instance. The chemistry between the lead characters seems borderline,. Most other characters have no depth and feel cartoonish. The final transformation of the fiendish Brigitta into a purring kitten is idiotic, no less than Ava describing her as a person with a good heart. Granting that miracles may occur in Christmas movies, this was far too sudden and unexplained. The end of the film is so bland and insipid that makes the production look like a nicely inflated festive balloon that pops and deflates to a shrinking piece of rubber, rather than soaring to the sky. Other inconsistencies mar the the show. One that immediately jumps to the eyes is the look of the Queen mother. Pip Dwyer appears, and probably is, about the same age of the son, Prince Henry. There is much to say, about aging gracefully! And, as final peeve: when a Prince cites one of the most famous quotes in human history, please, have him do it correctly. Rene' Descartes said: "COGITO, ergo sum", not "COGNITO, ergo sum".

Dreadful and inane

[teepack-75312 · 4/10 · 11 July 2023]

Hallmark's Christmas in July original movies are either really great (Crashing through the Snow) or major duds, and this one falls squarely in the latter camp. An inane premise (some nondescript Royal Family commissions an ice castle to be built each year for them to spend the holidays), terrible casting (pretty sure the Prince's mom is about the same age as the Prince) and an insipid plot drag this one to the depths of barely watchable. The royal family hardly spends any time in the ice castle. Stephen Huszar's accent comes and goes, and he can't decide if he's supposed to do an English accent or a Nordic accent, so mostly it comes across as a half-hearted attempt at trying to be a snob. A papparrazo wanders around snapping photos at his leisure. Where's security? The only thing this movie had going for it is Katie Cassidy has the prettiest eyes, which apparently won over Huszar because they are now an item.

So ridiculous

[lorriehoagland · 4/10 · 15 July 2023]

The lead characters had zero on screen chemistry, for starters. The prince's fake accent was ridiculous. No one came across as believable or genuine (except a very small side character- a paparazzi photographer with integrity - was played very well by the actor). And we're supposed to believe the lead female character, Ava, is innocent and all but invites the prince into a hot tub? If she was just trying to help him with his sore neck she would have suggested he go and she kept her distance. And then the villain, Brigitta, just magically and instantly changes into someone who cares about the prince's best interests? She's been plotting and conniving the whole movie, has huge plans on putting her family in a royal position, but just suddenly gives up? Uh, no. It was just ridiculous and don't waste your time. I'll never get that 2 hours back unfortunately.

Casting disaster

[mysay-97-581086 · 3/10 · 13 July 2023]

Okay I know these are Hallmark movies but this one is so far fetched with the ages of the actors it's just absolutely absurd.

The actor playing Prince Henry (Stephen Huszar) must be pushing 40. There's nothing wrong with that except when you have the actress playing his mother, the Queen as being in her 30's. Really the 1 grey streak in her hair does not qualify her to be 60. And they don't even list the actor who plays the King but he looks to be in his early 40s.

The Prince crush story has been done so many times, I have lost count. Boring.

I just can't image there is no one at Hallmark that can come up with a better story or someone else that has to say enough already!!!

Royals can't afford security

[hallmarkmov · 7/10 · 9 July 2023]

Love any ice castle movies, they are so beautiful and such a magical setting! But I do prefer hallmarks other ice castles movies over this one as the story was very lacklustre. There's no one the niece can come over to work for 5 hours and it magically helps finish the castle- this requires professionals with ice sculptures and architects! I thought all royal activities were going to be at the castle but it was just made for 3 of royals? What about the children the prince talked about making the slide for? Where are they? The ball was in a regular building and many scenes were at boring non ice buildings which was disappointing. How is the paparazzi allowed there? Where is the security? There is zero security anywhere! When the prince runs off to spend a day with the main girl it was funny that no one knew where he went nor did they care. No search party for if he got eaten by a polar bear. Maybe Meghan markle should have watched this movie to get a realistic look at the lack of security even royals get. These royals were really on their own with just the gossiping staff. The story was okay, not very interesting. The villains turn out magically good at the end and only wish the prince well and will do really anything to keep they jobs and pretend like they have no ulterior motives. The king and queen looked nothing like a king and queen. The prince's fake accent made me laugh. I liked that it was an older couple and cast compared to some of hallmarks recent line ups with very young main casts that don't know how to act and just stare at each other. Maybe they weren't allowed to film more areas of the ice castle, but it would have been nice to see more. The random storyline of the woman's career in helping people suffering from natural disasters was slightly interesting but it didn't amount to anything and seemed to just be thrown in there so her career wasn't the typical freelance writer, photographer, social media blogger. Although any of those would have made more sense with why the prince would ask for help for his speech. Again, where are his staff to write speeches for him? Our presidents don't even write their own speeches. Not a great movie but better than a lot of other ones.

Awful!

[SidlumCB5 · 2/10 · 28 August 2023]

I don't generally review that often because it's Hallmark, & I mean, you know what you're getting into. This movie was terrible! The plot is chewed up, but fine, whatever. This ice castle is too unique to keep using over & over again, but fine, whatever. But the casting?? Katie Cassidy can barely move her new lips or close her mouth & she used to be wonderful from the days of Gossip Girl & on! Trying to watch her speak dialogue was painful. And if they really wanted Stephen Huzsar to have an accent, they really should've paid for a better dialect coach for him. That accent was half American, a quarter Valley, & 3/4 no one knows. And finally, it's 2023 - the bare minimum you can do is change the date on an iPhone so it doesn't show March 12th, 3:13AM in a text convo that's supposed to take place right before Christmas. There's definitely enough in the production budget for that. The only reason I finished this film is because I'm Type A & needed to cross it off of my Hallmark Movie Checklist. Would never recommend it to anyone.

It's much better than I expected

[hypzrkunt · 7/10 · 19 July 2023]

I saw the trailers and the lead up's to this movie. I wasn't impressed. Typical hallmark prince and American girl pushed Romance. I have liked a few of 5he prince and such romances. Taylor Cole did one that kinda worked as did meghan Park. Not both of hereby the way.

This one only had the slide as a forced scene. They had chemistry. Stephen I liked in the Ruby herring mysteries which is another good o e Hallmark is killing. He played the role well. The script was soft but not forced so credit there. They didn't need to do a lot of muscle filler like the other newly released Christmas movie.

I will watch i5 again. We aren't looking at Oscarmovies here but enjoyable, watchable and surprised how much I liked Katie Cassidy. I will say stop the lip fillers but she was great.

Terribly miscast same old same old

[kjc-32205 · 3/10 · 16 July 2023]

Same old story line with new cast. Been there, seen that. The cast is terribly miscast. The leading man looks line he's on the fast slope to 50 and the royal parents would better have been cast as his siblings. The cast seems more suited to down home setting as opposed to pretending to be royalty. This is not more evident than at the"royal ball." Looked more like the local middle school Winter dance than a ball full of monarchs. I actually laughed out loud. And the dinner with the missing prince... why was the hired help at the table with the queen and king? The whole scene was a miss and a mess. Overall, the story was not much better than the execution of it.

Repetitive, monotonous, tedious

[MickyG333 · 7/10 · 17 November 2023]

7.2 stars.

And any other synonyms of the words tiresome, wearisome, dreary, etc... This story has been picked apart, chewed up, swallowed, digested, and blown out our proverbial collective back sides on one too many occasions. And yet, I give this 7.2 stars? What, why? First of all, if I erase all the previous similar films with this exact same story and location and characters and plot and angles and sets and, and, and... then we come up with a fairly original movie that is semi-fun and semi-entertaining. All the actors do this justice if I'm being honest, but like I've stated above, so that you don't miss the point, this go round is just the last straw (probably not). This go round is actually better than a couple other clones of clones that we've already gotten acquainted with with the ice castles in the story ('Winter Castle' is the best of the bunch, no way to measure up). To be fair, for the sake of the actors and the experience, I give it 7.2 stars, but for the sake of Hallmark I can only say: PICK A NEW LOCATION upon which to center the story. Ice castles are cool, but after seeing so many portrayed in these films, I've lost any desire to actually visit one (not really).

Waste of time

[jkrizm6760 · 1/10 · 4 November 2023]

This was such a horrific waste of time that I had to come here to review it in the hopes of keeping even just one person from not sitting through this torture.

I'll begin with the good parts:

• the ice castle was beautiful
• Ava's (Katie Cassidy) dress at the ball was pretty
• the paparazzo has a decent set of morals by not running with the 'scoop' Brigitta gave him about Ava's fraudulent ex fiancé.

And now for the bad:

• the king (Simon Phillips, age 43) and queen (Pip Dwyer, age not listed but probably late 30's or early 40's based on IMDb credits) were woefully miscast, as they are about the same age - if not younger - than the prince (Stephen Huszar, age 39).

• following up on the miscasting, Angela Besharaha who played Brigitta, the mother who's trying to get her daughter fixed up with the prince, is 45 years old, and Kathryn Kohut, who plays her daughter Sigrid, is about 30. Not as insane as the royal family but still unlikely.

• the accents were terrible. Why on earth were the royals sometimes speaking with a British accent (sometimes an American one, and occasionally something unrecognizable) if they're supposed to be Nordic?

• the idea that the king and queen would invite their hired help to have a formal dinner with them is totally unbelievable. Note, the reason for this dinner was because Brigitta and the queen were trying to push their daughter (Sigrid) and son (the prince), respectively, to get together. They made some comment about how Brigitta is hired help for the royal family (Director of Operations for the royal family) but used to have some familial claim to royalty back in the day, I guess to make it not so strang but it still was... the butler was also sitting down to dine with them.

• the royals are supposed to be staying at an ice palace that they hire someone to create for them every year. But yet they're almost never there. They have that dinner in some tiny wood-paneled room.

• Brigitta, the conniving villain who is doing anything necessary to get her daughter to marry the prince so their family can restore their place as royals, which includes digging up dirt on Ava and leaking it to the paparazzi before fact checking anything, suddenly becomes Ava's biggest advocate in the last 90 seconds of the movie.

-Ava takes off on a commercial flight, changes her mind that she doesn't want to leave this fake country, and is able to have the commercial plane turn around to land back in the fake country so she can reunite with the prince at the ball.

• there is one single paparazzo and he can get close enough to touch and have a conversation with the prince and Ava after they get out of the hot tub and at the royal ball!! Are there no security personnel?

• everything works out perfectly in the last minute that now the parents want their son to be with Ava instead of Sigrid, Brigitta has no hard feelings about Ava winning the prince's affections, even apologizing, saying that Ava's perfect for him, and giving Ava a dress to wear to the ball, and the butler, who gave Brigitta the hot gossip on Ava, apologizing and picking up Ava from the airport so she could get to the ball in time.

I fully realize that you must be willing to suspend your disbelief quite a bit when watching a hallmark movie, but this one must've thought the audience were complete idiots and we'd all just wipe these glaring problems under the rug.

Loved this movie

[judy-delong-107-824488 · 10/10 · 19 August 2023]

I have watched this movie several times since it came out and I love it every time so much that I bought it. Had to get it from Etsy as Amazon does not offer it yet. Hope my copy is ok saving to watch it on a special night. I think Katie Cassity is beautiful and Stephen Huszar is so handsome and what a voice he has. Love the slow developing romance between them and the setting with the Ice castle is amazing. I hope others will watch and enjoy . I guess that I liked Huszar accent never even questioned it sounded good to me and also Ava could do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. Katie being David Cassity daughter just made it more interesting.

Beyond belief

[pineapplemouse · 5/10 · 13 July 2023]

Unfortunately, this movie really stretches the imagination. As much as I like Stephen H. He was dreadful in this role. As stated in some o the other reviews, the accent wavered and wasn't very believable. His character was stilted. And, never mind no security, what was Brigitte and her daughter doing eating at the same table with the King and Queen. She should have been fired for all her machinations. Her ending was extremely unbelievable. And the way they King and Queen treated their son was just as bad. Sad.

The story itself, didn't have anything relating to the CHristmas holiday, hor any holiday. And how come the prince knew of the house in the woods, but noone else did? And why didn't they ask hos sleigh ride driver where he was?

Big thumbs down

[barbg-85148 · 1/10 · 9 July 2023]

Had to fast forward through the entire movie, hoping it would improve but it didn't. Huszar's strange accent didn't come from any country that was discernable. The Dime store Xmas tree ornaments didn't work in any "royal" setting. The ball gowns at the end were tacky, as were "Ava's finger & wrist tats, and the guests couldn't dance.

It's sad Hallmark can't produce a decent movie anymore. It's no wonder all our favorite old stars, male and female, no longer seem to be interested in Hallmark. The movies are more like reality TV and don't require acting, costumes or decent sets. Very low budget productions.

A cute festive rom com that we've seen a dozen times before

[lisafordeay · 5/10 · 9 July 2023]

Monte Carlo star Katie Cassidy stars in this festive rom com about a architect named Ava who travels abroad with her uncle and they set up a winter palace for the royals. Problems arise however when Ava meets and later falls for the dashing Prince Henry(Stephen Huszer) which causes a stir in the Royal family. Will they or won't they get together in the end?.

Overall it was a cute romantic comedy and what makes this one special is the fact that Katie Cassidy actually fell for Stephen Huszer off set and are now officially dating. As for the film itself I knew from the get go that they'd end up together in the end. If you liked Royal Matchmaker or A Christmas Prince then do check it out.

Totally absurd!

[dal49 · 5/10 · 8 November 2023]

The guy was fine. I didn't care about his accent. The thing that killed it for me was the woman drawing images of sustainable housing on a romantic date. Who would even do such a thing? I've seen people do strange things on a date, but I have never seen a woman so oblivious that she was sitting by the fire drawing images of sustainable housing units. That is truly one of the dumbest things I have seen anyone do on a date. Obviously, the writers wanted to get their progressive political views written into the movie, and there could surely be an appropriate time to accomplish that. But on a date, sitting by the fire while the guy is preparing a romantic dinner? That just killed the mood and the movie for me. Ridiculous.

Give me a BREAK!

[lindy-00795 · 3/10 · 29 October 2023]

1. If you are going to have a romance featuring a prince, get someone who can actually speak with a consistent accent or just don't bother. Stephen Huszar is a good actor and certainly didn't deserve this.

2. Come up with a new approach. Recycling the same old plot is sad. The interfering Brigitta who tries to besmirch the prince's love interest is just downright stupid! Credit us with more intelligence. Birgitta should have been fired and/or tossed in jail.

3. Does anyone who is staying in an Ice Hotel really get romantic? It is literally FREEZING! They are wearing coats and gloves throughout, yet they go get in a hot tub, which will result in them freezing when they get out. That scene seemed gratuitous so we could view Stephen Huzsar's chest. But Ava wears a jacket in the hot tub.

4. At the Royal Ball, the costumes were awful. What's with the woman in the tight yellow sausage dress?? Can't afford to hire anyone else?

DO Better, Hallmark!!!

What is wrong with her mouth???

[vintagebutterflyboutique · 10/10 · 5 September 2023]

There is a thing at leading actress which I don't understand. What is wrong with her mouth? When she talks she makes somethings like duck lips, but unsuccessful because her lips are not so full to look nice making this. It looks ugly making this. And when she doesn't speak and her mouth is closed she pushes her lips like outside somehow. Maybe she thinks that it's sexy doing this, but it's not. I don't know this actress, even that I've read that she had a little part in Gossip Girl, a show that I loved, I don't remember her to know that she is always doing this or now it's an unfortunate moment for having this habit.

I gave it 10 stars because I liked the movie and Stephen Huszar is one of my favorites actors from Hallmark movies, but indeed, there are a lot of things that could have been better, like a little older queen. :) For me it's not a problem that she is younger, but it was a thing that made me think wow, do they know that the prince look more like her brother or husband and not her son? :))))

Typical royal christmas story

[Jackbv123 · 4/10 · 20 September 2023]

If you've seen one royal Christmas story ... That's not totally true, but this movie has most of the usual plot threads. There is an iron maiden who dislikes everyone. There is a rival for the prince's hand. Happens to be the daughter who happens to be the iron maiden's (or iron matron's) daughter. There is a skeptical set of royal parents. There is the prince's assistant who like most such characters has been with the family for years and cherishes him like his own son. The thing that threatens the romance between the leads, which I usually call the conflict, was a bit unusual but had the usual result. The ending is mostly predictable but too much over the top in a few ways. The fact that the plot is unrealistic never stops writers of rom/coms especially royal ones. This one goes farther than most.

As you might guess from what I've said so far, I didn't think the story had much in the way of highs or lows. The dialogue was flat. Some of the scenery, including the ice "castle" was interesting. I didn't see much chemistry between Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar, but that might have been because Cassidy struck me as too stiff in general.

Ugh

[victoria_mci · 2/10 · 20 October 2023]

Where to start..... The cheesy and terribly performed accents, perhaps? While I accept that this movie takes place in a fictional (Scandinavian??) country, why - WHY - would you try to make them sound British when the attempt falls so short? With the exception of a select few people, the mains are Canadian. Had they just spoken normally the inane and overused plot/dialogue may have at least been bearable! As it was it was difficult to take any of the characters seriously.

The mains had little chemistry, the Prince looked old enough to be his parents' sibling and the ice castle (at least from the outside) looked like an oversized snow fort.

Look, I know these movies don't have the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster, but come on. The flag of this fake nation has a red cross and several poorly drawn snowflakes. It was the icing on the cake.

It's an over used story with underwhelming performances. Good for background noise.

Liked it until..

[toocu · 5/10 · 14 July 2023]

I don't know why the writers of this movie just had to have her career interest in building "sustainable housing communities ". The whole point of watching Hallmark movies, especially one with a romance with a royal prince or princess is to get away from reality for a couple of hours. I don't want to hear about, listen to dialog about topics, like climate, or the environment that's are already covered 24/7 on the news channels.

Next, it was pretty obvious that they essentially used the same filming location and concept (an ice hotel) as they did for the Hallmark movie Winter Castle. Even the lead female characters had essentially the same color hair.

Probably should of waited for a better script

[waterskicindy · 3/10 · 28 October 2023]

I think the Actors did what they could with the script, but overall it was an over done, over played Royal movie. Unfortunately, the main character's didn't seem to have good chemistry. I can't tell if it was the bad writing or just miscasting. They're all really good Actors, they need better, more realistic parts to play. Maybe, the Actors had a hard time believing the storyline as much as we did and that's why the movie seemed "flat."

I watch Hallmark to escape, I personally would rather not have any "agenda" in the movies. I like that she was an Architect, however, I feel her character took up too much storyline trying to get her point across.

Honestly, if she had said what she wanted to build once, that was enough, but the writers focused too much on it and it was forced and overkill.

Hallmark has had some good movies lately with great Actors and beautiful locations. Scotland, Ireland and other parts of Europe are beautiful and my favorite to watch on Hallmark.

Unfortunately, this movie was a one time movie for me. It was even hard for me to get through all of it, but i forced myself too. I hate that, because, I believe if you give these actors a good script, it will be a amazing, memorable movie!

Same old boring story

[rhonnie-43139 · 3/10 · 5 August 2023]

I had recorded this movie when it came out but just watched it a month or so later. Within the first 5 minutes I thought it was boring. I almost hit the Delete button but had second thoughts.

I was hoping it would get better. But it didn't. Still by that time I figured I might as well suffer to the end. I agree with some reviewers that the cast was totally unbelievable. But more importantly the story was not well-written. No real character development. Where are the female lead's parents? Why does the uncle walk with a cane? Why did they need the hot tub screen? What happened to the aggressive daughter of the obnoxious woman who was so set on marrying the prince?

I had many questions which were not addressed and made it difficult for me to really enjoy the movie. I also hated the ice castle - they have used that setting in at least two other movies. Yawn.

Hallmark keeps the Christmas spirit going

[karaliao · 9/10 · 2 January 2024]

I love the holidays. I love watching movies that make me cry at the end. This movie didn't make me cry but it did get me to wanna watch it so bad when it came out. I really loved the characters. I love watching these movies during the holidays cuz it gives me time away from watching the same other movies and tv shows over and over again. I've watched a lot of hallmark movies and yea they do have similar story plots but it's what makes the holidays special. I really hope others don't see watching hallmark movies as a repetition. Just enjoy at least watching it. Happy late holidays to y'all!!!!!

Not Hallmark's best Royal movie.

[allmoviesfan · 5/10 · 25 November 2023]

'A Royal Christmas Crush' Not the best example of a Hallmark Royal movie. For every 'One Royal Holiday' there is one of these: a run of the mill movie redoing tired old tropes with zero imagination.

Quality over quantity is, I think, a phrase Hallmark needs to abide by more often. Just because you can show 40-odd Christmas movies in October-December and a few more for Christmas in July, doesn't mean you should.

'A Royal Christmas Crush' suffers from poor accents (why does every one of these countries, purported to be somewhere in Europe, seem to speak with a British accent?) and very stereotypical characters, and the key fact that the leads - Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar - do not have the necessary chemistry. I must admit that the ice castle setting was cool, but, again, it seems every twelfth Hallmark movie these days is set in one - so the originality is starting to wane.

Awful acting - no chemistry!

[ntdamiani · 2/10 · 22 December 2023]

I'm surprised the hear that the main characters are dating in real life. They had the chemistry of a tree trunk and coffee mug. Awful acting by both and the female character was exceptionally annoying and smug. I also agree with the viewer who said the main male character was older than his parents! Actually I think both were - maybe the parents and the main character roles should have been reversed.

I am giving one star for the ice hotel. I do not know if it is real - if it was set up, kudos to the production team! The scenery was beautiful and the indoor decor was nice. Again, all the work of production and nothing by the actors (maybe supporting actors were ok).