Jingle Bell Run | 2024 Christmas Movies

Last year, my daughter made me watch a few of the past seasons of The Amazing Race. I think this prepared me to watch this year’s Hallmark movie, Jingle Bell Run. Which is basically Christmas-themed Amazing Race.

When all of Avery’s (Ashley Williams) family has other plans for Christmas, her sister signs her up for The Great Holiday Dash, a Christmas-themed race across the United States to win a million dollars. She gets paired with Wes (Andrew W. Walker), a recently retired professional hockey player trying to figure out what to do next in life. With her puzzle-solving skills and his physical prowess, the duo is destined to win the big prize.

Well, Jingle Bell Run may make the top 10 list this year. (Granted, we are still in November and there are a LOT of movies to go.) I thought that the premise was fresh and new, Williams and Walker had pretty good chemistry together, and I enjoyed how they featured a couple of the rival teams. The movie may have been a little bit better if they played up the rivalry between Wes and currently popular hockey player Nash (Jamall Johnson) but it is possible that would have made the movie too stuffy. Without that rivalry, we were given room to let the romance between Avery and Wed flourish. I would have just liked to see at least a little more between the two hockey players. As it was, Wes was jealous that Nash is a younger player and Nash barely knows who Wes is.

Overall, I did think the movie was fun. While I don’t think I would watch it again, it is definitely a contender on the best movie list of this year.

Rating: Maybe add few more stops around the United States

Five More Minutes: Moments Like These | 2022 Christmas Movies

Last year, I reviewed Five More Minutes, a movie based on a song. This year, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries gave us Five More Minutes: Moments Like These. I think this might be a new series blossoming.

Kaitlyn (Ashley Williams) lost her husband four years ago. Now she is raising their son, Adam (Brady Droulis), by herself. She couldn’t bear to stay in Colorado without her husband so she moved the family to Los Angeles. However, Adam is not doing well emotionally. For the holidays, they go back to Colorado to prepare to sell the old house. Kaitlyn wishes to see her late husband, Brian (Lane Edwards), for five more minutes. Instead, Brian’s ghost does what he can to help Kaitlyn and Adam move on with their lives.

I didn’t like last year’s chapter of Five More Minutes. This year’s chapter is a little more realistic and a little more emotional. It isn’t quite as overboard as the previous one. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any pitfalls. Ten-year old Adam is a little too…good. He is constantly trying to figure out how to do more for charity. Which is a nice thing but I’m not sure that an emotionally traumatized ten-year old is going to throw themselves into charity work like that. It was more realistic when he was pulling away from his mother by playing video games. But that is probably the worst of the problems. Since it’s easily overlooked, it’s not a big deal.

Sure, you can go ahead and check this one out. I think splitting so much of the story between Kaitlyn and Adam was a bit of a mistake since it means that we don’t really get to focus on either. But it’s fine. It’s a Christmas movie, not high cinema.

Sister Swap: Christmas In The City | 2021 Christmas Movies

Christmas is almost here but there are still a ton of Christmas movies to watch. This is the time of year when I get beat down by watching so many of these movies but I am going to try my hardest to get as many of these reviewed as possible! So let’s get going with the second half of A Hometown Holiday titled Christmas In The City.

While her sister, Jennifer (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), is in their hometown of Hazelwood, Meg (Ashley Williams) stays in Salt Lake City to help Jennifer’s restaurant prepare for a local Christmas competition. Will Meg’s big ideas help or ruin Jennifer’s restaurant?

A Hometown Holiday was an adorable movie. Christmas In The City has a similar energy but doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor. I think the problem, as usual, stems from the conflicts in each movie. In Hometown, Jennifer had to deal with all of the issues that come up when trying to renovate an old building. In City, everything was pretty much done for Meg. She was only coming up with ideas to make the restaurant more festive. There was only one real issue she had to deal with and it was easily solved. The rest of the movie felt unnecessary.

I understand what Hallmark was going for when they made these two movies. Having two completely different perspectives shown at once. There are multiple times that we see the sisters cross over into the other’s movie. That was so cool and original. However, you can’t have one sister doing something interesting while the other wanders around thinking about what she’s going to do in the future. It would have been a little more interesting if Meg was doing her own thing in Salt Lake City instead of doing something that was already pretty finished.

I do recommend watching A Hometown Holiday. But I would say skip Christmas In The City unless you are very invested in seeing the other side of the story. You won’t lose anything by watching only one of the movies. I really wish the second one was better. It would have been so cool.

Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday | 2021 Christmas Movies

I know that Hallmark and Lifetime have annual movie series. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series have two movies in the same year. Sister Swap has two movies this month. A Hometown Holiday came first and Christmas In The City aired a week later. I wonder if they will be any good.

Jennifer (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) runs a successful restaurant in Salt Lake City. Her sister, Meg (Ashley Williams), stayed in their hometown of Hazelwood to help their parents run their bakery. This year will be the first Christmas with the family since their Uncle Dave (Kevin Nealon) passed away. Meg has gone to Salt Lake City while Jennifer and her son, Simon (Jacob Buster), go home to Hazelwood. When they get to Hazelwood, Jennifer and Simon find out that the family is planning on selling Uncle Dave’s movie theater. Will they be able to save the historic theater or will it be sold to a new theater chain that will update everything?

A Hometown Holiday was a sweet movie. Once again, the romance took a back seat to restoring the movie theater. Sure, Jennifer was falling in love with Eric (Mark Deklin) but we didn’t get a lot of those long stares at each other. Instead, they quietly held hands at family gatherings and sat under a quilt together in the cold theater. The romance wasn’t shoved down our throats, which made it feel like it was happening organically. They fell in love because they were spending a lot of time together.

I also like that the movie didn’t forget about Simon. Instead of shunting him off to hang out with a new set of friends, they used him to bring Eric’s daughter, Madzie (Lila Clark), into the family. It was Simon that would ask Madzie what was wrong when she looked sad and it was Simon that comforted her when she was missing her mother. Bringing the kids together like that made this blending of families feel more natural as well. Sure, in real life, I’m sure the teenager would be a snarky pain in the butt and the child would be angry that her dad was “replacing” her mom but this is Hallmark. Kids don’t act like that around here.

Amazingly, I think this may be my favorite Hallmark movie of the season so far. Granted, I haven’t watched the second movie yet. Since we can see the set up for the second movie in this one, I have high hopes for it. Both of the Williams sisters are good actresses. They shouldn’t have any problems carrying the movie. I think the only way they could screw this up is if the second movie is entirely about Meg getting into a new romantic relationship. I don’t think that is the case but I will be very upset if it is.

Based on this movie alone, yes, I think you should watch it. I mean, if the second movie is bad, at least the first was good. We can pretend that one doesn’t exist if we have to.

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater | 2020 Christmas Movies

Just when you thought that Christmas movie titles couldn’t get any stupider, Hallmark throws this at us. Is there a longer title than Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater? I don’t think so.

Maggie (Ashley Williams) is a single mom who will spending Christmas alone. Until she accidentally injures Lucas (Niall Matter) and invites him to stay in her art studio until he heals.

Yes, Lucas is actually wearing an ugly Christmas sweater the first time Maggie meets him. Of course, that’s about as far as the title relating to the plot goes. The rest of the movie is about Maggie and Lucas volunteering at a holiday camp for children of military parents. And….that’s about it.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to say about the movie. The acting is subpar. (My husband actually commented about the delivery of one of Williams’ lines: “She doesn’t sound like she believes that.” ) The story is dull. Everything is just bland. Though I suppose one positive point is that no one has a weird obsession with hot chocolate. They straight up say they drink coffee. (Yes, I’m getting tired of everyone raving about hot chocolate or cocoa.)

I would say to skip this one. Or turn it on in the background while you’re running the vacuum. Sadly, this is another movie not worth watching.