Meet Me Next Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Netflix has suckered me into watching yet another Pentatonix Christmas movie. They aren’t the main characters of Meet Me Next Christmas but they are a very large part of the plot. Like, unavoidably large part of the plot.

Layla (Christina Milian) gets stuck in an airport on Christmas Eve, forcing her to miss the annual Pentatonix concert in New York City that she attends with her boyfriend. As she waits in the airport lounge, she meets two men - Teddy (Devale Ellis), who gives her some culinary advice, and James (Kofi Siriboe), who connects with Layla deeply after a long conversation. However, since Layla is currently in a relationship, they decide to not pursue this connection further. Instead, James makes Layla promise that, if her relationship should fail in the next year, she will meet him at the next Christmas Eve Pentatonix concert to see if there is more between them. A year later, Layla has broken up with her boyfriend but the tickets to the Pentatonix concert are sold out and she didn’t have a ticket. She unknowingly hires Teddy, now working as a concierge, to help her obtain the elusive concert ticket in order to make her dreams come true.

Let me start this off by saying I don’t hate Pentatonix. I used to listen to them in the 2010s but then they started feeling over marketed. Their faces and music was just everywhere. So having a whole movie dedicated to the group and their music makes me have those over marketed feelings again. And this movie feels even more so. There are so many times a character says “Oh my god! You love Pentatonix too!” or “Who doesn’t know Pentatonix?!” or “Hey, listen to this Pentatonix song!” If I drank a shot of alcohol every time the group name was spoken, I would have been way over the limit in the first half hour of the movie. It, honestly, was a little grating.

The sad thing is that the rest of the movie is really cute. I love the way Layla and Teddy were running around the city trying to find tickets. There were scammers and scalpers and even a weird couple that just wanted them to run an errand for them in exchange for a ticket. Unfortunately, all of the cute things were cut with kinda annoying scenes of Pentatonix in their hotel suite following the pair on social media. We really didn’t need their commentary on what was going on. I, honestly, would have liked the movie better if there was a little less backstage Pentatonix and a little more of Layla/Teddy running around New York City. NYC is an amazing backdrop for a movie and there is so much you could do with it. Instead, we’re interrupted with random harmonies in the middle of a conversation. Thanks, I hate it.

Rating: Can they go to a different concert next year?

Candy Cane Lane | 2023 Christmas Movies

Next up is Candy Cane Lane from Amazon Prime Video. With a rather boring title, who knows what this is about.

Every year, Chris (Eddie Murphy) tries to make his homemade Christmas display beat his neighbor’s inflatable display in the neighborhood decoration contest. To upgrade his display this year, he buys a 12 Days of Christmas tree from an elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell). But when he signs his credit card slip, he unknowingly makes a pact that brings the 12 Days to life. Now he must gather all of the golden rings or he will be turned into a figurine for her store.

The “try to outdo Christmas decorations” is a tired plotline. We’ve seen it a lot. However, the twist of bringing the 12 Days of Christmas to life and having to gather all of the golden rings was a nice change. I also really liked the way they portrayed the days. The fight at the high school track was pretty awesome.

I didn’t find myself liking Chris or his wife, Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), very much. They kept nagging their children to do things they want to do. “Go to the college we want you to attend” and “Don’t be interested in music, even though you are in the marching band and we have obviously spent a lot of money on instrument lessons.” Unfortunately, this means that I didn’t really care if he turned into a figure. I wanted the current figures to be turned back into humans more than I wanted Chris to save himself. The side characters really were the highlight of the movie.

Rating: Can I live with the figures?

Pentatonix: Around The World For The Holidays

Disney+ doesn’t have a lot of Christmas movies coming out this year. So I let them get away with calling Pentatonix: Around The World For The Holidays a movie when it’s really a special.

A capalla group Pentatonix is heading into the studio to record a new Christmas album. Sadly, they seem to have recorded every Christmas song ever written. When they go to take a break, their manager accidentally locks them in the mailroom. Thanks to Disney magic, they are able to hear holiday stories from their fans around the world. And we even get a few musical collaborations with them as well!

Did any of us expect the Pentatonix special to not be cheesy? Of course it’s cheesy! It’s basically the group in front of a green screen opening letters. Then we switch to the fan reading their letter as they write it and telling us all about the holiday traditions from their country. As cheesy as the special was, it was nice to see a variety of countries represented and how each country related to one of the Pentatonix members.

Should you watch it? If you are a fan of Pentatonix, sure. But if you don’t like the group, you probably aren’t going to like the special. The whole point of it is they are recording an album. And we do a cameo from Disney’s a capella group, Dcapella. I bet you didn’t even know they existed!