A Christmas Village (2018 TV Movie) User Reviews

The Best Worst Christmas Movie

[amycakes1958 · 5/10 · 28 November 2022]

This movie is so earth-shatteringly bad that I couldn't look away.

I only caught the last half, but the main character is supposed to be blatantly money-grubbing, which i assume is meant to be charming, but it only makes it seem like she's just evil. She also mentions her dead grandmother when it doesn't seem relevant at all. Everyone is aggressively pushing her to date this business owner who hired her, but she's too much of an Edgelord to like nice things.

All actors are dreadful, but it's no help that their lines are rediculous. There's a terrifying scene with a bakery owner having an outburst about wanting to sit on Santa's lap that shook me to my core.

If you want a good laugh, you have to check this one out. I high-ly recommend it.

I gave it a 5 because it's so bad, it's good. It's simultaneously a 0 and a 10.

High quality production, at least. And not Hallmark trash, at least. Tolerable

[iranu-74195 · 5/10 · 28 November 2020]

Either I'm weird or everyone else is. Have seen plenty of horrendous Hallmark Christmas trash but this movie was definitely better than many. Camerwork, Lighting, Sound, Editing all fairly good/very good unlike the incompetent rubbish found elsewhere. REAL SNOW and trees! Indicating it wasn't shot off-season in Boulder. Script:pacey. Actors:good quality. Lead Actor ...OK bad choice. Lead Actress: fine. Supporting cast:good/fine. The humor got a tad misplaced hear and there, but was a welcome change from schmaltz. It's a Christmas Village and not La Dolce Vita. The cast gave it their energy...enough to make it float.

Boring

[judyharl · 5/10 · 2 August 2022]

Boringest movie ever cast was like moving in slow motion no Christmas spirit even with beautiful scenery.beautiful dog snow all wrong for Christmas. Leads no chemistry at all the dad is so lack of emotion.

Lifeless village

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 26 December 2019]

It takes a lot for me to give anything my lowest possible rating and dislike something so intensely. Have always tried to be as encouraging and perceptive as possible and actually being critical of things, especially when having to be harsh in fear of saying the wrong things. Giving 'A Christmas Village' a rating so low and a negative review is going to make me sound like a Scrooge and someone that hates Christmas.

This is something that couldn't be further from the truth. It's actually my favourite holiday and there are many good films, specials etc. and even classic ones, ones watched every year and never gotten tired of. 'A Christmas Village' was one of my recent festive film viewings to broaden my horizons and see something different. It was part of a Christmas film quest undertaken at the beginning of this year, and there have been some films that have been regrettable experiences. And 'A Christmas Village' is one of them and one of the worst cases.

'A Christmas Village' has nothing good about it. Now that is something that is very rarely said by me and whenever it has ever been said it has always been so with regret. The least bad thing about it is the setting but that was very difficult to appreciate with such drab filming and with the film's editing looking carelessly slapped together. The music is not much special and is often ham-handed and misplaced.

One of 'A Christmas Village's' worst components is the script, which constantly sounds awkward and can be quite cloying. Worst of all is the attempts at absurd humour, that the film goes far too over the top in and it is often overplayed and seldom fits. The acting is similarly woeful, there is no chemistry between the leads, any attempts are stiff and forced, and the cast are made to constantly overdo their one-dimensional and quite annoying characters and they do it badly.

From a story standpoint, there is no sense of joy or charm and although one doesn't expect the film to be realistic or completely surprising they don't expect non-stop contrivance or to never feel bored watching the film. The summary is not being truthful when it says that the Christmas spirit is in abundance, everything to do with the scandal and saving the reputation complicates the story at times and is a bit mean-spirited. Maybe it was an attempt at providing some depth but it doesn't work.

Summing up, awful, there are so many Christmas films that are a million times better. 1/10

Lame

[sarahjon35 · 1/10 · 27 November 2019]

Dreadful acting all round and lame completely OTT british accents, don't waste your time.

Cringeworthy

[skt946-149-667921 · 3/10 · 22 December 2019]

I only viewed the first 20 minutes of this movie and decided I had cringed enough.

It's pretty bad

[edblackham · 2/10 · 4 January 2022]

I won't say it's the worst show I've seen, but it's pretty close. I thought the baker could act, but that was about it. The lead guy was wooden at best. The female lead was a bit better and more likable but was more like a high school lead. The script was bad, as was pretty much every aspect of the show.

The worst Xmas movie ever done?

[ivobg · 2/10 · 11 December 2021]

Sure it is.

I don't remember watching any worse "comedy" xmas movie.

Lead actress buys a new phone, opens it from the box and then makes a phone call without inserting a SIM card in it. Mmmkay. I stopped watching at that scene, I've had enough.

Bad acting, bad music, clueless story and long blabbering. Nothing funny and nothing interesting.

My rating: 1/10.

Cute

[athompsonblue · 7/10 · 11 July 2021]

It's a good movie to pass eighty minutes with. No, I wouldn't say it's as well written as other shows. It gets a little cheesy in places. But, still, it's a feel-good movie that is enjoyable, with some funny jokes.

No.....just no!

[thediva-89114 · 1/10 · 28 November 2020]

The lead fella Tim has got to be one of the strangest looking, worst actors I've seen! Stupid insane grinning from start to finish God it was bad

I actually liked it

[techsupportdept · 9/10 · 16 December 2022]

As Christmas movies go, this one was fine. Fun, even. To those of you posting the cr@p reviews, all I can say is "Who peed on your cornflakes?" I simply cannot believe the vitriol.

My gosh. Just move on, will you?

For the rest of you, just give it a try. If deep down in your heart, there's some tenderness there, then parts of this movie will touch you.

I am, in fact, a professional Santa, and I'd like to see some more corniness, just like this. The world needs a lot more sweetness and innocence. And sweet laughter.

And I can honestly say, the movie gave me a real lift. And just before I started watching, I realized I needed such a lift.

Sweet Movie

[sherrikorn · 7/10 · 25 July 2021]

I liked the movie. It was sweet and innocent. Just a simple happy story.

This Movie Is The WORST movie of all time.

[emilycat-91511 · 1/10 · 9 December 2020]

From the beginning I could not get into it. The lead guy is an odd love interest choice and the guy can't act at ALL. When he goes on television to talk about the "Christmas Village" and he's supposed to act nervous, he rocks bath and forth, eyes darting everywhere. Randomly chuckles a bit... He truly looked like a mentally handicapped 7 year old on that stage. Not nervous.

Really, everybody but the female lead and the female leads "sister " were decent enough just had horrible cast and HORRIBLE writing .

My kids put on Christmas plays for my husband and I. And I honestly, swear to god, the plot in a 5 and 6 year olds Christmas play was better acting, and better ..oh..writing..imagination then this movie.

Awful

[miquiaro · 9 July 2019]

84 minutes of my life that I will not be able to recover

This was just aggressively bad

[b-hath · 1/10 · 11 January 2022]

In some ideal situations, in the hands of a gifted actor, their performances can elevate the perceived quality of a sub par script. In no way did this happen in A Christmas Village. The plot is fairly typical Hallmark holiday movie fare. Successful woman from the big city visits a small town, meets handsome local and their precocious child, and boy and girl fall in love. And thrown in a hokey villain for good measure, and all the elements are here. But this movie fails in almost every way possible.

Neil Paterson as Tim, the owner of a small town failing Christmas village acts as though he took a freshman high school theatre class for a single day, quit, and never spoke in public again. He then apparently was walking the streets of Canada when a production assistant tackled him, shoved a script in his hands and pushed him in front of a camera. He has all the charisma of a tree stump. But not a useful tree stump you can sit on. A tree stump that is either just too short or too tall to serve that purpose. He consistently looked awkward and uncomfortable on camera. And during the scene where he was supposed to be even MORE awkward and uncomfortable, I thought he may wither out of frame, curl into a ball and rock himself into a catatonic state. The "chemistry" between his costar, Madeline Leon, was beyond non-existent, and the majority of anything that bordered on a romantic interaction was honestly just hard to look at. It literally had me yelling "NOOO" at my tv. And the presence of his two on-screen children (one child too many) created no levity. Add to that a dog that has a penchant for breaking cell phones, and I flipped from laughing at how bad it was, to being angry at how bad it was.

There was a few glimmers of a bright spot. Madeline Leon gave it a good try, given the hand that she was dealt, and who she had to play opposite. And in supporting roles Diana Chrisman and Keith Cooper supplied a much needed rattle of energy in these dull proceedings. But add to that a minor character who's sole purpose was to seemingly con people into adopting dogs for some inexplicable reason, and a villain who was all on his own for the random comically bad green screen scenes, and you've quite possibly the most painful Hallmark holiday movie experience I've ever tolerated. I would say it's forgettable, but I'll never forget the many ways this was truly awful.

Is Tim brain damaged?

[gfinkelhoffer-45026 · 1/10 · 5 December 2021]

I started to watch this because it was on but when I got to the scene where Piper & Tim were on the 'local' talk show I was really confused as to why Tim was staring off into space like he wasn't aware of where he was? This was the second Christmas movie that had Madeline Leon as one of the primary characters (the other was 'A Christmas Recipe for Romance') & she was pitiful in that too!

I realize that they pump these these Christmas movies out on a budget but...? Please, DO BETTER!

Did they watch this after they made it?

[saccoken · 1/10 · 20 April 2022]

Really bad acting The village is nice.

I cant believe anyone watched this after they finished filming it and said "we nailed it" But if you want to watch a christmas movie late at night for some background noise it will do.

What could have been!!

[Marynewcomb2013 · 3/10 · 28 December 2022]

This film had potential! The story was good & the sets were good!! The dog was perfect, but that's where the good parts end!! The cast was basically picked from the checklist they have used for most of the past decade!! The writing must have been done by the two kids that played the lead males kids!! The photographer was on the phone with the leads sister asking questions & saying, "on the count of three say your answer constantly!! That's how badly wrote this is!! The cast has no chemistry what so ever!! The leads are like oil & water!! The "heel" is over doing it!! The baker must have just started acting with his horrendous acting!! The lead & her story sister chemistry was almost as worse as the two leads!! This is a pass folks!!

Recycle premises

[bgwpwhct · 1/10 · 27 January 2024]

This movie is what Hallmarks love to make constantly where there is some white woman who lives in big name city like New York and work in big company. Of course she hates Christmas because the old cliche of father left the family when she was kid or something bad happened on Christmas to make her hate the holiday. So of course she either moves back to her home city which so happened to be small town of a corny name that so happened to be a Christmas like name or has to be go to a small town so her company can take over so small business which has to be own by her parents or old people. Anyway she has to be meet a guy who was her boyfriend when she was kid and of course he has kid and the mom has to be dead so that lady and guy can be together. Overall I don't know this is Hallmark production but definitely has that Hallmark movies vibe and how they like to recycle their plots so they can make so much money and movies during the winter months.

Even 2 stars is generous - Skip it.

[lm1574 · 2/10 · 31 January 2024]

Sorry, but no - just no. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a fair try. But I finally couldn't deal with it any longer and turned it off. I've sat through some pretty amateurish school productions that were still as good or better than this. It was almost comically bad. The 2 leads weren't impressive in their acting skills. And they had absolutely NO chemistry - they didn't even seem comfortable being in close proximity. And there's plenty of blame to pass around. Directing in particular added to the uncomfortable overall feeling. Actors' body language was middle school level. If there were 3 or more people in a scene they stood lined up shoulder to shoulder all looking at the camera and not each other. There is no live audience that needs to be considered, but they did it anyway. One especially painful scene had everyone who worked at the village and maybe some guests gathered along a fence. It physically gave them the line for side by side, 3 rows deep placement. It looked like a choir about to start singing. I was half expecting singing and dancing and a big production number. It might have been an improvement. That's just amateur placement and blocking. Middle school productions remember to consider that. How does a professional movie production miss it? I don't know how it ended up with a medium rating after so many abysmal ratings. On the plus side, probably the only plus, the dog was cute.

At least Hank is happy.

[piscesthesailorman · 8/10 · 12 July 2021]

He's so happy. Hank carried the entire movie, trudging along with it on his back. Abs using his broom. Though everything else about the movie was unnecessary, Hank was a constant. He must have been doing a really good job cleaning an unused goat pen, because he luckily stayed there the entire time. Good old Hank, being thorough. If they made a spin-off movie of just hank scrubbing the floor, I would watch it. More hank scenes needed.

It put me off in just a few minutes.

[adamjohns-42575 · 3 January 2022]

A Christmas Village (2018)-

This film was just one of quite a few that I have turned off before even 20 minutes of viewing this year.

It was just far too daft right from the get go and the guy wasn't hot to endure that.

I don't mind comedy elements in my Christmas films or Christmas films that are comedies, but for some reason, a lot of them are just farces and that I can't put up with.

Unscored as Unfinished.

The very definition of a feel-good movie

[snapechris · 8/10 · 6 October 2019]

This is possibly the worst film I have ever seen. However, the cast throw themselves into it with such zeal and joy that you can't help but be infected. It's like an amateur theatre production where everything goes wrong but the cast keeps giving it their best shot. The script is dripping with absurdist humour, and the scene in the bakery is hilarious. A terrible film saved by a great cast. Start watching, don't give up; you won't be disappointed.

Relaxing and funny

[marinoozicbasic · 10/10 · 17 December 2022]

A relaxing, comedic, family film with lots of quirky characters. A great recommendation for a good pre-Christmas mood. It should not be taken seriously, so there is no danger of disappointment.

A relaxing, comedic, family film with lots of quirky characters. A great recommendation for a good pre-Christmas mood. It should not be taken seriously, so there is no danger of disappointment.

A relaxing, comedic, family film with lots of quirky characters. A great recommendation for a good pre-Christmas mood. It should not be taken seriously, so there is no danger of disappointment.

Merry Christmas!

Love the cute dog

[deedeeanderson · 10/10 · 30 June 2021]

The main character was really smart and savvy which was fun to watch and the dog was really cute. I like the idea of the Christmas village.