Holiday Crashers | 2024 Christmas Movies

Once again, I did zero research on Holiday Crashers before I turned it on. I suddenly heard a familiar voice…and that is when I realized that Daniella Monet, who has starred in number of shows and movies on Nickelodeon, is the secondary female lead. I definitely did not expect her to show up in a Hallmark Christmas movie. This better be good!

Toni (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Bri (Monet) are best friends that happen to work together in a card shop. When Bri finds an extra invitation to a client’s fancy Christmas party, she suggests that the duo spend the season crashing the holiday parties of the shop’s customers. They make up fake personas and have an amazing time. Until Toni, who finished law school but never finished the bar exam, gets mistaken for a working lawyer. Afraid to come clean, she drags Bri with her on a corporate retreat to Vermont to help a business with an acquisition. Will it all come apart when the truth comes out?

I have to admit that Holiday Crashers was pretty fun. I loved the parts where Toni and Bri were making up backstories for themselves, no matter how ridiculous they were. Of course, later in the movie they backfire but that is what makes it fun, right? I don’t think this movie would have worked as well if they didn’t have Monet playing Bri. Monet has an ability to give amazing personalities to characters that you probably shouldn’t like. If anyone else had this role, I can almost guarantee that Bri would have been grating and annoying instead of playful.

Another plus in the movie is that we don’t get one romance, we get two. And we actually get a little more story between Bri and Vinny (Jag Bal) than we do with the “main” romance, Toni and Justin (Chris McNally). I’m OK with that since I like Bri as a character better than Toni anyway. But for those of you looking for the romance part of these movies, this one won’t let you down.

Rating: Can I get a sequel with Bri and Vinny next year?

Where Are You, Christmas? | 2023 Christmas Movies

I have to admit - the commercials for this one got me. A movie that does a reverse Wizard of Oz? It starts in color then goes black and white? It had me intrigued. But was it any good?

Addy (Lyndsy Fonseca) is an advertising executive whose job it is to market Christmas. However, Addy had lost her Christmas spirit. She is finally convinced to come home for the holiday but finds herself overwhelmed with the town’s celebrations. Addy makes a random wish for a year without Christmas. But did she really mean it?

Where Are You, Christmas? has such a cute concept. Addy’s wish makes everyone in town forget Christmas altogether and it’s up to her to make everyone remember again. I know that we couldn’t watch every single person come back to color but it would have been nice to see a few more people that aren’t directly connected to Addy somehow. But I do appreciate the ones that we did see.

This is the type of movie that someone who is looking for a little more than just a romantic Christmas movie. Interpersonal relationships of all kind are focused on here. Friends, lovers, parents and children. It really shows that we shouldn’t take anyone for granted and we should celebrate our loved ones at every chance.

Rating: Bring on the eggnog

Next Stop, Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

Last year, Hallmark remade The Wizard of Oz into a Christmas movie. This year, they took the basics of Back to the Future and turned it into Next Stop, Christmas. They even got Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd as basically the same roles.

Angie (Lyndsy Fonseca) is a doctor who is unable to come home for Christmas, despite her family’s pleas. Her normal train commute ends up taking her back in time 10 years to 2011. Now she has to figure out what she needs to fix in the past in order to get back to the future.

Yeah, see? It’s basically Back to the Future. She even has to get her parents, Evelyn (Lea Thompson) and George (Matt Walton), back together. And Christopher Lloyd plays the train conductor that takes her to the past. Hallmark is trying to play on our nostalgia.

One of the things that annoyed me the most about this movie is Angie’s family. First, they are begging her to come home for Christmas. She is some sort of surgeon (we see her performing surgery) and she is on-call. Her mother blatantly says that this is the second Christmas that she hasn’t come home. Do they think hospitals stop because there’s a holiday? Not to mention that she is probably the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to surgeons at that hospital. We learn that 10 years ago she was in med school. We don’t know how long she has been in med school but let’s say almost finished. So another year there plus up to 7 years in residency. She may have only been a “real” surgeon for a year or two. She doesn’t get a say on when she can and can’t work. Her family needs to learn that. Fast.

When Angie is in the past - meaning that she has never missed a Christmas at home - her family is whining that she doesn’t communicate with them enough. Her sister wants her to call or visit or text or whatever. Which is understandable but YOUR GIRL IS IN MED SCHOOL. Cut her some slack. Maybe instead of waiting by the phone for her, pick up the phone yourself and text her to see if she is surviving.

I get the overall message of the movie. Relationships of all types take work and the people that really love you will always be there for you no matter what. But, man, these people suck a lot. Poor Ben (Chandler Massey) keeps getting passed over romantically for self-centered Tyler (Eric Freeman) and I don’t understand what Angie sees in Tyler. They have nothing in common. I’m not even sure they like each other all that much. It’s also annoying.

I guess if you are looking for the True Love Conquers All type of movie, this is definitely one of those. I’m not sure that I enjoyed the movie but I did like seeing Lea Thompson again. Even if her character was a sad sack.