A '90s Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

When I saw the title for A ‘90s Christmas, I thought that this might be a movie starring actors or musicians from the 1990s. It’s not. It’s a time travel movie. As someone who lived through the ‘90s, that made me a little sad.

Divorce lawyer Lucy (Eva Bourne) just got a promotion to partner. As she celebrates alone in a diner on Christmas Eve, she is asked by the waitress, Grace (Katherine Barrell), if she is happy with her life. While Lucy claims to be happy, Grace - now a rideshare driver - transports her back to her childhood home in 1999. Now Lucy has the chance to repair all of her broken relationships.

As I said, I was sad that this movie wasn’t really about the 1990s. They had the stupid references: “Ugh, how we wait so long for the internet to load?”, “I can give you a Blackberry to read your email.”, and people staring at her when she says to google something. (For reference, Google existed in 1999. It just wasn’t considered THE search engine.) Oh, and there was one song - I think it was “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, which came out in 1998. That is about all of the ‘90s stuff the movie has. I hate it.

Sadly, there isn’t anything that could save this movie from the disappointment the title gave me. The acting was fine but nothing spectacular. The script…well, the most annoying thing about it is Grace tells Lucy multiple times that she can’t change the past. To the point that “The 12 Days Of Christmas” plays every time she does something that causes the future to change. And the change is the freaking point of the whole movie. So Lucy is trying to figure out how to get back to present day without changing anything and Grace is doing nothing to help her. WHAT IS THE POINT OF GRACE?! There are so many contradicting things going on. I hate it.

Rating: This is not a ‘90s Christmas.

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

A Tale Of Two Christmases | 2022 Christmas Movies

Hallmark has decided to give us two Christmas romance movies in one! Though in A Tale Of Two Christmases, it’s one woman and two men. This could get messy.

Emma (Katherine Barrell) is an architect living in Chicago. She has to decide whether to go home to Vermont to celebrate Christmas with her family and childhood friend, Drew (Chandler Massey), or stay in Chicago to spend it with her crush, Max (Evan Roderick). Thanks to some Christmas magic from Santa, Emma gets split into two separate Emmas to explore both possibilities.

I have to admit that this sounds like a very interesting plot. We get to see Emma experience both choices but Emma herself doesn’t know it’s happening. So instead of like a split personality type thing, it’s simply two completely separate stories featuring the same female lead with two different male leads. What could have been interesting just turned dull.

Since this is Hallmark, they are obviously going to pick one of the men over the other. There’s no way they would let both of them be The One. The result is that Max is kind of a self-centered rich douchebag while Drew fawns over everything Emma does. It would have been cooler if both men were on the same level and Emma’s big decision was to stay with her corporate job or move home to work with her father. That is a much more interesting story.

Sadly, twice the romance doesn’t mean a better movie. While I wouldn’t recommend watching A Tale Of Two Christmases, I do have to say that Massey is pretty fun as Drew. I guess if you want to sit through it, he would be as good a reason as any to do it.

A Godwink Christmas: Miracle of Love | 2021 Christmas Movies

The Godwink Christmas series has been going on for awhile at Hallmark. For those that don’t remember, a “godwink” is a coincidence where God is trying to nudge you in a certain direction. Last year we had Second Chance, First Love. This year we are given Miracle of Love.

Joy (Katherine Barrell) just graduated with her masters in nursing. Not knowing what to do with her life, she signs up to volunteer at a week-long community service event called Advent in Oshkosh. There she meets Eric (Alberto Frezza), who is trying to become a writer. They spend the week helping a family rebuild their home while falling in love.

The Godwink movies are a perfect blend of religion and secular. They don’t bash you over the head with God but they also don’t discount God’s hand in every day life. I think it’s a nice way to try to bring both Christians and non-Christians together.

As for Miracle of Love, specifically, there is nothing groundbreaking here. The acting is fine. The story is fine. Everything is just fine. Like the other movies, there aren’t any real conflicts. Supposedly, these are based on true stories so there is never a villain or big obstacle to overcome. (Well, OK. Eric does get injured toward the end of the movie. That is the Big Godwink.) It’s just people trying to make good decisions in life. I do like that there is no manufactured conflict. However, it can turn the movie toward the boring side. Since there is little to nothing to overcome and you already know they are going to end up together (what Christmas movie ends where they don’t get together?), there isn’t a lot to get invested in while watching.

Much like last year’s movie, if you are into the “God has a plan for us” mindset, you’ll probably enjoy these movies. For everyone else, there isn’t a lot to keep your interest unless you really want to watch two people dance around whether or not they should date. These movies are basically the equivalent of people watching in the mall except you get to follow them home when they are done shopping.