Everything Christmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

It is interesting that something called Everything Christmas is about a road trip rather than someone trying to stuff Christmas into every aspect of their life. But, as we all know, I don’t name these things. I just wish I did.

LJ (Cindy Busby) goes on a three-day road trip with her friend, Tori (Katherine Barrell). Their destination is a town where it is always Christmas but they have a special tree-decorating ceremony on Christmas Eve. On their way, they meet Zack (Corey Sevier) and Jason (Matt Wells). Will LJ forgo her Christmas promise to her late grandmother in favor for following her heart?

Hallmark is pretty good at movies that are just OK. Everything Christmas is one of those. I’m not quite sure how Corey Sevier became one of Hallmark’s leading men. Maybe because he has this goofy sort of good guy look? He’s kinda terrible at acting and he makes me cringe when he’s on the screen. Thankfully, he frequently gets paired up with women that can carry the movie for him. Cindy Busby isn’t amazing here but she more than makes up for everyone else. The best part of the movie is probably George Masswohl as Kris Kringle. I just wish there was a little more of him to go around.

Rating: Just some things Christmas

Crown Prince Of Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

This movie, Crown Prince Of Christmas, took so many shortcuts. I actually had to rewind a few times to make sure I saw what I saw.

Madison (Cindy Busby) is a waitress at a hotel in New York City. She is also a singer, though she suffers from terrible stage fright. When her family pressures her into having a date for Christmas, she convinces her best friend and co-worker, Sebastian (Jilon VanOver), to pretend to be her boyfriend. Only her mother and sisters mistake Sebastian for a visiting prince. But maybe they aren’t the ones that are mistaken.

In case you weren’t aware, these Christmas movies are frequently filmed during the summer months. All of the snow is fake and the actors are wearing puffer coats in August heat. To hide this, Crown Prince Of Christmas filmed their outdoor scenes in black and white then colorized the main couple. You can see the leaves on the nearby trees since not all of them are evergreen trees. It was honestly distracting.

There were also some other moments that the ADR was weird. (I talk more about ADR in my review for Merry Textmas.) I think that they left out all of the background noise when the lines were re-recorded so that background noise appears and disappears randomly. It is also distracting.

Sadly, the movie itself wasn’t terrible. If it wasn’t for the awful editing, I would probably recommend checking it out. Unfortunately, they couldn’t bother putting any real money toward the production of the movie and it is obvious. Feel free to check it out if you need a good giggle. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Toying With The Holidays | 2021 Christmas Movies

Sometimes I don’t understand how writers, or whoever is it that comes up with these titles, comes up with these titles! This one is called Toying With The Holidays but it has nothing to do with toys. It’s about trains! It should have been called On Track For The Holidays or something like that. Well, let’s get into it.

Danielle (Cindy Busby) brings her son, Paul (Callum Shoniker), back to her hometown for the holidays. When she gets there, she finds that the holiday train her recently deceased father kept was taken out of commission because it was too costly to repair. With the help of her high school classmate, Kevin (Chad Michael Murray), Danielle is determined to get the train running again for this holiday season.

Who read this script and thought it was a good idea to make? Absolutely nothing happens for the entire movie. Even in the last 15-30 minutes, when we get the big surprise reveal (is it really a surprise though?), still nothing happens! A bunch of people get on a miniature train then the leads kiss. We don’t get to see them take a grand train ride through a Christmas display or even a montage of anyone having fun. They’re just like “Yep, the train works now. Smoochy Smoochy.”

I seriously hate the boring movies more than the bad ones. At least with the bad ones, they make me feel something. I’ll hate a character or I’ll hate the way an actor reads his lines or I’ll hate the set design or something. The boring ones just make me want to turn my TV off and go do something else. Toying With The Holidays is completely forgettable and not worth a minute of your time.