Holiday Harmony | 2022 Christmas Movies

With Holiday Harmony, we are now up to six Christmas movies about singers. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, we have had less movies featuring random businesspeople or marketing executives (which are usually the big careers in Christmas movies) than we have had singers. Fa la la la la, I guess.

Gail (Annelise Cepero) is an up-and-coming singer who gets an opportunity to open for the I Heart Radio Christmas Eve concert. As she is driving her trusty VW van across the country, she crashes the van after almost running over an alpaca in rural Oklahoma. Stuck in Harmony Springs for two weeks, she stays with repair shop owner, Van (Brooke Shields), and her son, Jeremy (Jeremy Sumpter). Despite living in the middle of nowhere, the two help Gail figure out where she truly belongs.

I have to admit that Holiday Harmony was a sweet little movie. Sure, some of the accents are a little cringy. And there are a few moments that are a little too schmaltzy. But, as a whole, I thought it was sweet. I think my favorite character out of all them was Rosemary played by Jordyn Curet. Curet was able to give Rosemary the appropriate amount of shyness and uncertainty before belting out that final song. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that kid.

If you are looking for those sugary sweet romance movies that we all expect from channels like Hallmark, this would be a good upgrade for the genre. We don’t get the “Big city woman comes home for Christmas” trope that is way too tired and the romance isn’t shoved down our throats like they have to convince us that these people actually like each other. What we do get is a couple of young people who have emotional baggage and aren’t sure where they fit in the world. And it’s only when everyone comes together that a family is truly created.

8-Bit Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

It’s time for HBO Max to throw themselves into the Christmas movie ring with 8-Bit Christmas. Can HBO even compete with the Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix Christmas juggernauts?

Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) wants a cell phone for Christmas. Her father, Jake (Neil Patrick Harris), decides to regale her with the story of how he received his beloved Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980s. The story doesn’t go quite the way Annie thinks it will.

I have seen people comparing this movie to A Christmas Story or Jingle All The Way. I can see the similarities that people are noticing but they aren’t really good comparisons. A Christmas Story is entirely told in flashback, like 8-Bit Christmas, but we never see Ralphie as an adult and it’s also a series of smaller stories within the big story of Ralphie trying to get a Red Ranger BB gun for Christmas. Jingle All The Way is the story of a father trying to get his kid the hot toy of the season. The parents in 8-Bit Christmas refuse to buy Jake the Nintendo he so desperately wants. Sure, both the Nintendo and the Turbo-Man action figure were “hot” toys for their respective eras but that is the only real comparison there.

Personally, I really enjoyed 8-Bit Christmas. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor - I did grow up in the 80s so this story pretty much hits me in my childhood. But it was also just fun. Winslow Fegley as young Jake is so emotive. It’s difficult to not feel disappointed when he’s disappointed or smile when he’s having fun with his friends. And he’s not the only one. All of the kid actors were really good. The only one I had difficulty connecting with was Jake’s younger sister, Lizzy (Bellaluna Resnick), which I think was intentional since Jake is the storyteller.

I don’t know that I would watch 8-Bit Christmas every year but I think I will show it to my daughter. It is some good family entertainment. Just keep in mind that it won’t end the way you think it will!

Scaredy Cats | 2021 Halloween Movies

Did someone call 2021 “The Year of Family Friendly Movies” or am I just very out of touch with the usual Halloween movie releases? I thought I would be watching a lot of slasher horror movies. Instead I’m watching movies about 12-year olds and magic. I’m not complaining. This is just not what I expected.

Scaredy Cats is the story of Willa Ward (Sophia Reid-Gantzert). On her 12th birthday, her father (Michael Teigen) gives her a cat-shaped necklace that belonged to her mother (Lauren McGibbon) who is no longer with them. Soon, Willa finds out that the necklace is magic and her mother was a witch. Now that the magic has been activated, two bad witches, Sneak (April Telek) and Wanda (Carolyn Taylor), are trying to steal it from the young witch. Willa gathers her two best friends, Scout (Ava Augustin) and Lucy (Daphne Hoskins), to help her defeat the evil witches and save their town.

Again, we have a series instead of a stand-alone movie. This one is aimed at rather young children. It’s created by the same people that did the Air Bud movies. (And all of the other movies - Snow Buddies, Santa Buddies, MVP, etc.) The reason this series is titled Scaredy Cats is because the three girls turn into cats. Frequently. At least once each episode. But at least it is cute.

When I read the synopsis, I thought this was going to be so dumbed down that it annoyed me. Instead, the series is actually good. Well, the CGI is bad but I didn’t expect cinema-level graphics. The story is quite interesting - a witch who leaves her daughter a gift to help her protect the town. They even make fun of the fact that Willa is 12. Her mother’s instructions were to give Willa the necklace when she “comes of age.” Apparently, her dad thought that meant 12. Everyone else thought it would be 18.

This is definitely a Halloween movie for elementary school aged kids. There isn’t anything particularly scary about it, despite the fact that Netflix has “fear” listed on the G-rating warning. So, if your kids are looking for a Halloween series to watch this season, this is it. The episodes are, on average, a half hour long...except for episode one, which is about 45 minutes. Just long enough to keep the little ones entertained before their attention span runs away.