Reviews

This one feels completely different that the usual Hallmark style, although full of the usual writers-don't-know-how-the-world-works details.

It's by far the fastest paced Hallmark I've watched, not only plot-wise but also in speech: although English is not my first language I never have any problem following dialogues but I did struggle with this one because of how fast they speak at times.

The supporting cast is excellent, which is also unusual for the genre, and the lead actress is unbelievably cute. I really hope to see her in more Hallmark movies.

And finally, from reading other reviews I thought it was going to be a "do over and over and over again" movie, which can get a little bit tiring, but it's rather a "one time second chance" movie.

(Very very mild spoiler) Anyone can defend themselves in a trial but for everything else you do need a degree and a practicing license, so basically nothing in the plot could have happened since she wasn't a lawyer yet. Which is frustrating since it would have been very easy to avoid: just have all those events take place right after she graduates. But I guess the unnecessary plot-holes are a Hallmark signature.

Typical cheap movie that tries to create an atmosphere by having never-ending silent scenes of people with a blind stare and a shaky camera.

The movie starts with an old lady showing early signs of dementia and her daughter starts looking for a residential care home, but as those signs become more severe and horror events start to manifest, the daughter and granddaughter's apathy also starts increasing for no reason whatsoever: "I thought I saw a demon under the bed. Ups, a book felt to the floor, let's switch my attention to that, pick it up and forget about the trivial demon thing." "Horrifying sounds coming from the walls, but wait, they seem to have stopped now, never mind." And the worrying about the woman's dementia and the interest for finding her a place completely vanish just like that.

If we cut all the dead time off, the whole movie could fit into a 20 minutes short film, or even less. And no, a "deep meaning" doesn't beat "painfully slow and boring".

A story about a self described strong independent woman with no cooking skills who still has feelings for her ex, and her old pen pal who's been patiently waiting for her while being aware of the ex situation but respecting her times and her space like a good boy.

If you're a fan of forced inclusion then you're going to love this one cause the plot revolves around a wedding between a middle aged white woman that looks like a terminal cancer patient and a gay black man. Also, right at the start of the movie we see that her ex is now engaged to a black woman (who is also strong and independent, obviously) so we start wondering "Is the white guy going to leave the poor black woman for his better looking white ex?". I like to keep my reviews spoiler-free so you'll have to watch it to find the shockingly unpredictable answer.

The fact that it was filmed in Paris makes this movie a huge missed opportunity, it's not the first Hallmark movie set in Europe but it has the best scenery and aesthetics so far. There's Paris, a glamorous palace, a wedding.. with those ingredients you'd think it would be hard to screw up the final result, but whenever you need to screw something up, woke culture will be there to help.

This could be a perfect romance movie if it wasn't that the protagonist's goal is horribly unrelatable: travelling to a small traditional town in Ireland to convince the town council to sell a medieval castle to tear it down and build a resort in its place. In order to enjoy a movie we need to be able to relate with the protagonist and root for her to accomplish her goals, but how are we supposed to do that in this case? And even ignoring the moral aspect, it's simply absurd to think that buying a majestic castle, demolishing it and replacing it with some modern crap is in any way profitable. It's not that the planet is running out of lands with no castles built on them.

What makes it so frustrating is how unnecessary that plot device is: the firm could just want to give the castle some use that the town council finds incompatible with the local spirit and tradition, which would make them reluctant to sell it. There, it's that simple. Even wanting to run a night club there would make more sense for the plot that tearing it down.

Having said that, I suggest you just go with it because everything else makes it worth watching. The acting feels real and there's great chemistry between the two leads. The story is rich and kept me hooked up all the time: there's always something relevant happening in a different and interesting location and, speaking of locations, the visuals are simply stunning. It has an obvious "Leap year" air, although I'd say the landscapes and places are even more beautiful with a fairy tale feel to it.

(Very mild spoiler ahead, although I thing knowing this in advance would help you enjoy the movie even more) The reason I rated it 9 and not less is because it's kind of obvious from the start that at some point she would see the insanity of her mission and change her mind, which happens pretty early in the movie, so it doesn't ruin it to a great extend and one can easily ignore that part of the plot and enjoy an otherwise great movie.

I can't believe a movie with so little going on can be so good! The scenery and overall aesthetic, the warmth feeling to it, the well written dialogues and smooth pacing create a lovely feel-good atmosphere that makes watching this movie an incredibly pleasant experience.

The lead actress is absolutely adorable, she's godsent for the genre and I'm looking forwards to seeing more of her. There's also a perfect chemistry between the two and the romance builds in a realistic and captivating way. A perfect example of how a proper execution can make a simple script shine.

There's nothing terribly wrong with this movie, Adelaide Kane is gorgeous and, unlike what's seems to be the norm in romance movies, the male lead is not a plank of wood.

The only problem is that nothing serious is at stake, nothing for us to root for the leads to accomplish. Sorry movie, but having beautiful people on screen is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

I wish I could give this movie 5 stars for its first third and 10 for the other two. Why do so many Hallmark movies start off so bad just to become great after the point in which a lot of viewers most likely stopped watching it?

You can read my review on the movie "It was always you", it applies to the first part of this movie just as well since the two are practically identical. Then it takes a turn for the best and becomes both legitimately funny and legitimately cute and romantic, unlike a lot of movies labeled as "comedy/romance" in which the comedy is just silly and cringeworthy farfetched dialogs and the romance is the two leads deciding they want to get together in the last minute before the ending.

This one, however, and despite the fact that the premise has the potential risk of falling into a boring and repetitive execution, manages to stay dynamic and entertaining adding continuity and uniqueness to each of the same day she relives.

I liked to see fantasy being used outside Christmas. There's still a little bit of cringe though, like when she relives the wedding for the first time she acts fully aware of the time loop mechanics for some reason while she freaks out the next time, but what kind of made-for-TV rom-com would it be without a little bit of cringe, right?

As the description says (so it's not a spoiler) the movie starts with a spontaneous and passionate kiss between the two leads when sharing an elevator. If watched through the optics that someone who kisses a random stranger like that is most likely a sl*t/womanizer and would hardly be a suitable partner for a long term relation, the whole premise of the story falls apart right from the start. But if you try hard to take the movie's word that it's a genuinely magical and, especially, one-time-only moment, it's a sweet romantic Christmas movie.

His exaggerated passion for Christmas is kind of uncanny for an adult man and the ending is unpleasant to say the least. It's hard to rate because it swings from creepy to super sweet, but I guess the movie stays in the sweet side for the most part.

A woman torn between her hyper stiff fiancé who has "first boyfriend" tattooed on his face, with whom she has absolutely nothing in common and is completely oblivious of her emotions and indifferent to every single thing she says, and his manic pixie dream guy brother who spends his time playing white savior to starving children in the third world, probably flying a vintage plane around the world because, you know, he's that cool. Who is she going to pick..? You'll have to watch it to find out..

The scenery is a joy to watch and the story is well written, just poorly executed with over-the-top one-dimensional characters.

(Possibly, maybe, a spoiler. I don't think it's a spoiler at all) As for the one review that mentions going after an engaged person, I don't think this movie does that at all. In fact, the script is clearly aware of that issue and handles it perfectly. He never seduces her, he exposes her to a different approach to life by his mere presence, you can't call that seducing someone. (Now solid spoiler ahead) And the possibility of them starting their relation right away, which would be unquestionably unacceptable adds to the thrill of the story, planting a doubt throughout the last third of the movie with a satisfactory pay-off that leaves everyone happy.

We can't play moral police with every tiny detail of a movie, they need to be able to challenge our pre-conceived notions of right and wrong in order to create situations in which our heroes are trapped in dilemmas where the limits between those two become no so clear, which is where the magic happens that leads to them finding their way out through some struggle that will ultimately make them wiser, stronger, happier than they were before.

Otherwise we'd end up with stories that just skip to the happy ending.

First of all, this is a great movie for everyone, not just Christians. Many movies these days sacrifice good storytelling in favor of promoting and agenda, an evil one by the way. This one instead sacrifices good storytelling in favor of promoting a positive agenda on which most of us can agree on.

The problem is, you don't need Christianity to promote good values. The story doesn't just take place in a Christian camp, the movie itself takes a stance for it and that's a major no-go for me in terms of storytelling. It takes the short path by choosing the simplistic approach of selling Christianity to the Christians.

A movie can be about a serial killer without promoting homicide, and this one could feature a troubled boy redeeming himself and giving a new course to his life after his week at a Christian camp that is an element of the fiction and not the "official" stance. By doing this, the movie limits its target audience to a very niche sector and lots of people will be turned off by the "Christian movie" label and miss out on a great musical.

The tech background gives this movie a different feel respect to what we're used to see in Hallmark productions. The plot is original and there seems to be more going on than in most movies of the genre, I just wish they had taken the extra mile and put a little more effort in polishing the details: the writers seem to believe that the audience is going to be completely illiterate in terms of technology and basic finances. Her app idea makes no sense whatsoever and we're even shown a bunch of code written in all caps that consists entirely on dummy instructions (although to be fair, I don't think a lot of people are going to pause the video and read it). Anyway, those things didn't keep me from enjoying it since the overall story is still well written and quite unpredictable. Just be aware that is not a romance story but one of self superation, not in a drama style but the light and funny rom-com style.

This movie has only one problem: one of the romantic contenders is an idiot. There's nothing wrong in a character being an idiot, the problem is that in this case the character is supposed to be a charismatic and successful professional but the actor plays a complete sit-com buffoon, which creates a dissonance between what we're told and what we see that keeps us from fully believing and feeling invested in the story.

Overall, I still recommend it and if you're a fan of Hallmark this is definitely one you should watch.

This is one of the sweetest, most heart warming movies I've ever watched: if I had to choose one movie to illustrate the expression "heart warming", this would be it. It accomplishes the main goals of a comedy, being funny and entertaining, with the two leads finding themselves in the body of the other one with a highly (and positively) emotional portrayal of family love.

Warning: heavy dose of cringe at the beginning but keep watching, it's only the first few minutes. It features some frustratingly overused tropes like the two women being in a complete panic state while their husbands just keep talking to them completely oblivious of the fact that there's clearly something wrong, or complications in dealing with being in someone else's body that could be easily solved by just calling the other person to ask her for context.

My only complaint is that only one of them has an actual character arch while the other one's purpose seems to be solely to help the former in her journey. But that's a realization I only arrived to when meditating about it afterwards, while I was watching it it kept me hooked up the whole time and left me dreaming awake about having a family as loving as theirs.



(Spoiler) I was really frustrated on the way the last few seconds completely ruin the meaning of all of the previous story by showing that the whole body switching experience is given to basically anyone instead of being reserved to those in a situation that could actually benefit from it. We don't know of any existencial problem the two girls could be facing, the little girl just expresses a wish that is a result of what was happening at the moment, just a random thing a 5 yo girl would say. Why does she need to live a traumatic experience that, far from helping her self improve, will most likely drive her to insanity?

One thing that makes this movie different is the fact that the main couple shares practically every scene from beginning to end, starting as childhood acquaintances and slowly growing feelings for each other, a progression that feels too rushed in a lot of movies of this genre but in this case we truly see two people falling in love instead of just saying "I love you" just before the end.

The whole movie is a sequence of the most implausible and random events: usually this level of absurdity takes you away from the story and all you can think of is "What the hell were the writers thinking of!", but in this case I found myself enjoying every moment of it.

Also I loved the main actress, she's absolutely perfect for the genre. I'm happy to find that she's made other Hallmark movies, which I'm definitely going to watch.

I was surprised by how little screen time Brooke gets despite being the protagonist. Of course the movie could be about the male protagonist, but he's not presented as being the center of the story yet most of the screen time goes to pointless scenes about him having irrelevant conversations with his children. Her initial boyfriend, uncannily feminine, serves no purpose whatsoever in the story, which is yet another element the writers used to fill empty spaces and compensate for the lack of an actual story.

Anyway, I'd say it's an okay family movie, just mislabeled as romance.

The romance TV movie genre has a special privilege that no other genre has: a free pass for using the most insanely unbelievable plot devices in order to make the story move forward. This movie abuses this concept to the point that even hardcore lovers of cheesy romance with a well trained suspension of disbelief would find it impossible to stay immersed in the story without getting constantly disrupted by "What the hell...!" moments. To give a non-spoiler example, an overweight military mom with a ridiculous amount of badges that would place her in the war hero category. But that's just to keep this review spoiler free, it gets much worse, especially in things involving the actual plot.

Besides that, it had the potencial to be a really nice movie: the chemistry between the protagonists works really well, the character development of the female protagonist is quite decent and, this is something rarely seen on these movies, child actors that are actually good and not completely cringeworthy.

I say watch it only if you're absolutely sure you have no better option.

This movie felt like it was 10 minutes long, I didn't get bored or distracted for a second!

It's as feel-good as a romantic TV movie could get: adorable female lead, simple and predictable story that you know exactly what's going to happen but you want to watch it anyway because of how sweet and cute it is. Only that, for a change, it's done the way it's supposed to be.

The main thing you should know about this film is that it's 100% talking and 0% actions. Right from the start we're bombarded with an overwhelming stream of names and facts that keep you in a constant state of confusion, trying to figure out who's who and wondering if you're even supposed to incorporate all that information to begin with or if the intention is just to show us the characters gossiping about random stuff to set up the story and illustrate what a normal day is like for them without the dialogues themselves being relevant. To save you a headache: no, none of it is relevant.

But that blank talk is all there is. In fact, the whole movie is an extremely simple story that could be summed up in a single sentence, only that buried in two hours of people talking at an insanely fast pace without saying anything.

Anya's character is completely emotionless, I could never tell what she was thinking, what anyone was thinking or what was happening at all since all we're shown is robots that just won't stop talking. Until it ends, and you couldn't care less about it.

A romance Christmas movie with Melissa Joan Hart that others have criticized for being too sugary? Yes, please! What could go wrong, right? Yet it's all Christmas and no story. As low as the bar is for this genre plot-wise, it still manages to fall completely flat: there's no element of conflict or tension whatsoever, no complications and resolution, nothing at all. And it's such a shame because it does have everything else to be the archetype of the feel-good romance Christmas movie: both actors are perfect for their roles, especially MJH, and the chemistry between them works flawlessly. The atmosphere is overwhelminly christmasy, taking place in a fairy-tale universe where houses, cars, shops, people.. everything is perfect in every sense. If only something happened..

Audio is indeed terrible, if you love to hear actors swallowing their food then this is the movie for you, and Natalie's father characther is absolutely unwatchable. But hey, I can live with all that as long as the story keeps me traped wanting for the two protagonists to overcome their ridiculously trivial problems in their perfect lives and get together at the end, that's why we watch this type of movies, right? Unfortunately the whole budget went to Christmas decorations and nothing was left for a screenwriter. Romance TV movies are expected to be predictable, this one however wasn't predictable at all, not because something unpredictable happens but because "nothing" happens!

So although it definitely wasn't worth the ice-cream I had watching it, overall I think it's a perfect movie to have playing on TV during a family gathering to provide Christmas spirit, beautiful visuals and a story that can be followed with minimal attention without having to sacrifice conversation.

The first episode was a bit too dramatic for my liking and it's probably going to be so for most people as well. I was about to stop watching it but knowing that it was starred by Anya Taylor-Joy, who wasn't present at all in the episode except for a few seconds, I assumed there had to be more to it so I kept watching and thank god I did!

One would believe a series about chess would be excruciatingly boring, yet (again, from the second episode on) it catches you and keeps you not wanting it to ever end. I found myself obsessively invested in Beth's story, feeling genuine joy and sorrow with each of her ups and stumbles and always wanting to know what was going to happen next.

The plot moves fast and balances actions and emotions marvellously. Every carachter feels real and believable and the cinematography is breathtaking. I doubt the time and places depicted were actually as glamorous as they're shown but that's completely fine with me: I much prefer visual appeal over realism. I watched 2, 3 and 2 episodes per night and that's how I'd recommend everyone to go about it so you get reasonable satisfaction per session without having it end so fast.

I've heard this series being described by some as "feminist" and, considering Netflix's woke obsession, I wouldn't blame you to believe it and pass on it thinking it's just one more woke crap. So let me assure you that's not the case at all: feminist fictions consist typically on a female protagonist with no flaw whatsoever and with unrealistic and unearned capabilities that require dumbing down everyone else for her to succeed with no struggles or self-improvement in the process. Also men are usually portrayed either as evil or bufoons and women either as perfect or corrupted by men. Beth however is far from perfect and has a fair share of struggles. The men in the story are all capable and, most importanly, real three-dimensional characters. If there are villains in this story, they're women, altough one could say there are no true villains here: Beth is both the hero and her own antagonist.

The only bad thing about the series was knowing that the more I watched it the sooner it would end. I'm not ashamed to say I fell a little bit in love with Beth.. and so will you.

I have to say it starts off really bad, the only thing we see in the first third of the movie is three women with a drinking problem. Her two friends are supposedly highly achieving professionals and one wonders how did they manage to get where they are while drinking the way they do.

(Don't worry, no spoilers) Friend nº1's date was ridiculously cringy and unrealistic, no man would ever behave like that and the whole scene could have been skipped altogether. Its only purpose was to justify her decision to join the others in their trip, but why did they need to dedicate so much time to explain why a secondary character decides to go on a trip with the protagonist? She's a secondary character, her entire existence is meant to be near the protagonist so we can know things about her through their dialogs, of course she's going with them! They had already planned the wine tasting trip to Napa Valley anyway so they didn't need to explain anything.

And her fiancé is definitely not husband material, at first I assumed he was the mandatory gay best friend.. it makes it really hard to get involved in their story and see them as a couple when he's so ridiculously feminine.

But despite those and a few other similar details, after the initial setup it evolves into the sappy romance TV movie you were expecting, with all the usual clichés and terrible acting but with a twist of a realistic and reasonable ending.

I watched this out of morbid curiosity, I wanted to see what a movie with so many one stars was like. Unless you want to watch it for the same reason, please don't do it. It's a completely forgettable film that provokes no emotion whatsoever and you could stop watching it at any time without feeling that you're missing anything.

Pointless scenes with lifeless acting that lead to nowhere, the most ridiculously unrealistic representation of high school and youth, characters so physically identical that are practicably indistinguishable from each other, morally questionable actions by everyone.. it's amazing how many bad things can be said about such an empty film! Even the filming style is annoying. For some reason, at times the framing switches from normal teen comedy to European indie deep depressing film, with long and extreme closeups of ugly people's faces. Also the aspect ratio is extremely narrow and throughout the film there's some sms chatting printed on the extreme left of the screen, which gets cropped out if you enlarge the image to make it not look like a sausage of image inside your TV.

Don't believe other reviews that say that the bad ratings are because it's a chick flick and people "don't get it": the one stars are the movie's fault, not the genre's. I love cheese chick flicks and I rate movies according to each genre's standards, I won't give a rom-com a low rating for being silly or predictable, so believe me that there's no anti teen flick bias in this review.

Watch at your own risk.

I had never watched a Woody Allen film before. I was worried this one was going to be either boring or depressing, which is the vibe I always got from him (and now I'm rethinking) but I decided to watch it anyway for the two female protagonists and it was not the case at all.

It's the type of movies that don't have a strong plot but instead appeal to the overall charm of each one of its acts, somewhat like "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" style. When done poorly, this concept results in 90 minutes of just stuff happening, which is why I was a little reluctant to watch it, but this one keeps the viewer engaged in a very comfortably relaxing and entertaining way from beginning to end. Not anxious about what's going to happen next, wanting something specific to happen, rooting for one character or wanting a couple to end up together.. it just keeps you hooked up enjoying the moment. It advances at a gentle but constant pace, it never stalls, there's something interesting or meaningful happening at every minute.

Woody Allen's films are sort of a niche so if you're a fan of his work then you'll probably watch it without reading these reviews first, but if you're worried this might not be your type of movie I highly recommend you give it a try. It will not blow you away but it will definitely keep you entertained throughout the entire length and will leave you with a really nice and warm feeling.

I don't know where to begin to describe how great this movie was. Second parts are usually just a shadow of the original, this one however took everything that was good in the first movie and made it better while leaving behind the not-so-good stuff (like the very USAish appeal to the grotesque like the vomiting scenes and such) The two obese women are still present but not in a way that disrupts the otherwise pleasant aesthetics of the film.

Music performances dominate most of the screen time and they're truly a joy to watch, not only those of the Bellas but all the other groups as well, especially "Das Sound Machine", their German antagonists. It's not a comedy with a touch of music, it's a musical masterpiece. The humor is another strong point, it should be a given for a comedy yet I hadn't watched a comedy that was genuinely funny in a long time. And the commentators deserve a special mention, they were already funny in the first movie but here they're on a whole new level.

The movie advances at a beautifully smooth pacing, swinging between performances and all the subplots in a way that keeps you hooked up not wanting for it to ever end. This is by far the best musical I've watched to this day. I'm not a huge fan of musicals but this one is different, I love the fact of having a lot of music in a movie in a way that is coherent to the real world instead of the somewhat cringy trope of having the characters spontaneously sing their emotions as if it was a totally normal thing to do.

But whether you like musicals or not, please give this movie a try, you'll be glad you did. It has such an upbeat feeling to it that you'll be a happier person after you watch this.

This movie tries to be complex, but instead of achieving it by means of a clever plot, it creates a fake complexity through a messy editing. It presents the story through half scenes shown in a mixed chronological order so that the trick to follow it is to "remember" (get it?) everything and put the pieces together in a way that it makes sense. The thing is, maybe you're not up to play a memory game for two hours, maybe you just want to watch a movie, and if you don't play along you end up just watching stuff happen. This chronology puzzle can be entertaining at first but it quickly becomes monotonous and boring, it's two hours of nealy identical scenarios and dialogs repeated over and over again, and by the time you have all the pieces to put everything together, you simply don't care anymore because all you want is for the movie to end.

Lastly, the protagonist's condition on which the story relies on is too far-fetched for my suspension of disbelief to handle (don't worry, not a spoiler): a person with brain trauma that left him with an impaired short them memory and is unable to make new memories. Someone with such condition should be barely able to function in every day life without a care-taker, but being independent to such degree? And the most obvious question, how does he remember he has such condition in the first place?