Christmas On Call | 2024 Christmas Movies

When I saw the title for Christmas On Call, I thought I immediately knew what the movie would be about. I wasn’t completely wrong but I wasn’t completely right either.

Hannah (Sara Canning) is an emergency room doctor that recently moved to Philadelphia. While on-shift, she meets EMT Wes (Ser’Darius Blain) who invites to show her the town. As their romance blossoms, other first responders also try to balance their family and professional lives.

Living close to Philadelphia myself, I laughed at how often they said “Go Birds!” to each other. Oh, and the Donna Kelce cameo with the cheesesteaks? I’m not sure who wrote this but they sure did try to put all of the Philly stereotypes in there. Other people may not like it but it made me giggle.

As for the movie itself, it was fine. I liked that Hannah and Wes weren’t the only couple getting their romance on. However, it would have been nice to get a little more relationship out of police officers Danielle (Reena Jolly) and Sanjay (Erik Athavale). I know they had a relationship before the movie started but we didn’t get to see a lot of progression between them. To be honest, it felt like the writers were trying to shove as many relationships in as possible but, without making the movie longer, they just aren’t satisfying couples. They were shoved together because they happened to be in the same vicinity and had similar jobs. Sometimes more isn’t merrier.

Rating: There’s a reason medical dramas are successful tv series

Coupled Up For Christmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

I got tired of watching the movies on Freevee. So I popped over to Paramount+ to see if they had anything. The first movie I chose was Coupled Up For Christmas, which seems like it might be on some other streaming services too? I’ve found out that I have no idea how streaming services outside of Netflix and Hulu work.

Tiffany (Sara Canning) has decided she is in love with her childhood friend, Brett (Joe Perry). But Brett is currently dating Matilda (Jocelyn Chugg). Meanwhile, Peter (Marcus Rosner) wants to get back with his ex-girlfriend, Lorraine (Skye MacDonald), but she is currently dating Samuel (Everett Dool). Tiffany and Peter agree to pretend-date in order to make their crushes jealous.

This must be the theme for this year because this is not the first movie I have watched with this exact plot. And I don’t understand why any of them think it would work. Ignoring the fact that this is an annoyingly dumb plot, the movie isn’t terrible. Canning and Rosner are decent enough actors to pull off some awful lines. I think the only thing I really didn’t like about the movie is that Tiffany’s sister, Camille (Megan Tracz), gets left out in the cold. She ends up as a fifth wheel to the other two couples, though there is a sort of hint that she is going to end up with the bartender Brie (Colette Nwachi), who keeps stepping in to pair up with Camille in events. But we don’t get an ending to that. Poor Camille is left high and dry.

Rating: Draw me like your Santa man.

Holiday Road | 2023 Christmas Movies

Because this film is titled Holiday Road, I had no choice but to sing the Lindsey Buckingham song “Holiday Road” every time I said the title. Thanks a lot, National Lampoon’s Vacation. This will be the season of the “Holiday Road” song.

Nine strangers get stranded at an airport due to bad weather. Since all of them are trying to get to Denver, they decide to rent a van and share driving responsibilities instead.

I don’t think there are a lot of road movies that I like. They either end up boring or too over the top. This one had just the right amount of roadtrip fun and wacky hijinks. I wasn’t particularly fond of Dana (Sara Canning) always chiding Clay (Warren Christie) for not taking risks and always being safe. Not everyone is cut out to randomly drive across the country during a snowstorm with people they literally don’t know. And she keeps that attitude up the entire trip. When the van (inevitably) breaks down, instead of being upset like the others, she does the “Well, now we can participate in the local town celebration!” thing. I understand looking on the bright side of things. Sometimes it’s annoying though.

Rating: I’ll drive the night shift

Christmas At The Golden Dragon | 2022 Christmas Movies

When I saw the title Christmas At The Golden Dragon on Hallmark’s Christmas movie list, I wasn’t sure what to think. Hallmark isn’t known for its diversity. I was a little worried about a movie about Asian people with a title like that. Thankfully, my worries were unfounded.

Jim (Vincent Cheng) and Sue (Sharon Crandall) Chen have run The Golden Dragon for as long as anyone can remember. Now that their children have grown, they have decided to close the restaurant to allow them to live their own lives instead of spending every Christmas working at the restaurant. Prompted by the news of the closure, their regular customers start to reexamine their own relationships and what they want from life.

Christmas At The Golden Dragon isn’t just one story. It’s five different stories that are all related. Not all of the stories are great but a couple of them are actually good. Romy (Kara Wang), the Chen’s daughter, has a great story about going home for Christmas with her boyfriend, Blake (Markian Tarasiuk). She imagines the Christmas that she sees in the movies with perfect caroling, a childhood bedroom that hasn’t changed in decades, and the family gathering around to open presents on Christmas morning. When she doesn’t get that, she starts to understand how her version of Christmas (working at the restaurant every year) effects the other people in her community. She really comes to appreciate the restaurant that she resented growing up.

While I don’t think every story in here is a home run, I do think The Golden Dragon is worth watching. At the very least, you will get to see how “helping your community” can have a different meaning from volunteer or charity work. Keep an eye on Miguel (Jason Fernandes). He is someone we should all strive to be.

The Christmas Yule Blog | 2020 Christmas Movies

Ah, blogging. A lot of Christmas movies are about bloggers nowadays. I mean, didn’t you know that bloggers are living this amazing life traveling all around the world? Oh, right. They’re not.

Caroline (Sara Canning) is a travel blogger/vlogger/writer. Her editor sends her to Carte De Amor in New Mexico to do a 12 Days of Christmas blog….and to find her Christmas spirit again.

First off, I don’t really understand what Caroline’s job is supposed to be. In the beginning of the movie, there’s an office and a staff and they are acting like it’s a magazine. But then Caroline and her boss, Camilla (Alison Araya), keep referring to her piece as a blog. But then she’s actually posting vlogs and pictures to the website? A magazine writer is fine. A blogger is fine. A vlogger is fine. Just pick one. And if she’s going to be a vlogger, make her videos interesting. She would be better at her job.

Next, there’s a whole section in the movie based on the fact that Caroline doesn’t have clothes with her? Again, she’s a travel writer. She knew she was going to New Mexico. Why didn’t she research what the weather would be so she could pack appropriately? Is it normal for a travel writer (who I can almost guarantee is not super rich) to have to buy new clothes whenever she gets somewhere? Do better, Lifetime.

Other than that, The Christmas Yule Blog is starting to head in the right direction. They show a variety of interesting traditions celebrated by the people of color in the town. Instead of an ugly Christmas sweater contest, there is an ugly Christmas poncho contest. (Not my favorite example, to be honest.) The town is lit up by luminarias, which are actually gorgeous on screen. And there are a few Mexican food references thrown in. I would have loved to have a more….New Mexican feel to it though. It seemed to be missing that…thing…to make it a traditional Mexican Christmas.

Would I recommend it? It’s not a terrible movie, by far, but it’s also not very interesting. Even the Christmas romance in boring. Does Oscar (Zak Santiago) only speak in monotone? B.O.R.I.N.G. If you’re really interested in seeing the pseudo-Mexican traditions, I would say to give it a watch. Just be warned that you might fall asleep in the middle.