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Reviews
The Art of Us (2017)
The premise is this story is absolutely absurd and horrible.
I don't like HM movies and find their movies ridiculous from method or one-dimensional acting, outrageous plots, actor miscasting, weak scripts, and formulaic premises. The Art of US has to take the mantle of the most deceitful plot. Cole, an Instructor at a local painting school, wanting to land an promotion LIES, LIES about Lund's character being related to Van Gogh.
Taylor Cole who is not a good actress oversells the absurdity of her character and her dilemma. Lund on the other hand is a capable character who occasionally becomes one-dimensional goes along with this farce. He obviously falls in love with a liar and becomes more entrenched in the lie.
HM does the smart thing to center on the budding relationship rather than dealing with Cole's character's lies. They pretend to be bothered lying to ppl but forget about it when focused on the relationship.
Yadda, Yadda they are getting ready for the coming out party for Lund's character. The soft music to heighten the sexual attention and affection between them.
The foreplay is the increasing tension and stress continuing from the lie they are experiencing. The climax is getting caught in the lie and she is asked to leave her position. But lo and behold, she ends up with the guy. What message is Hallmark making with this movie? It's okay to lie but punishment is nonexistent. It is a constant complaint I have about Hallmark movies and the movie plots that are horrible and oftentimes ridiculous.
My Summer Prince (2016)
Absolutely worthless and cringeworthy movie!
Hallmark loves to showcase lying, backstabbing, emotional manipulation and blackmail. The premise is completely ridiculous. An assistant took advantage of her boss' illness to prove she could take on more responsibility. She lies about who she is and her qualifications to surprise, surprise getting closer to the prince.
Cole Taylor plays ridiculous characters in her movies, pushy and aggressive to accomplish a self-serving goal. Another Hallmark bomb.
Love on Safari (2018)
Lacy's character is so dishonest.
Love on Safari is another vehicle for one of Hallmark's worst actresses. I will cover the constant problems and weaknesses of Lacy's acting ability.
The premise is Lacy finds out she inherited a safari park in Africa. She hasn't thought about it and quite frankly forgot about it. I had visited lots of areas back in my youth and they still hold special places in my heart. But would I drop everything to attend a an inheritance appointment especially in another country? She had the convenience of dropping everything that included a job, a boyfriend, an apartment, etc.
So, she gets over there and finds out the place may be sold to a competitor. Additionally she initially was being agitated by the safari park crybaby, Tom Anderson. He hopes to get Kira onboard with keeping the animal reserve. Cor overplays his hand with this character. Just broods too much and acts like a child as they do in the Hallmark movies. Kira's boyfriend makes his way over and tries to help but spins discovers Kira was emotionally unfaithful to him. In course of finalizing her inheritance quagmire, she breaks up with her boyfriend who proposed to her and apologized for trying to help her.
The other characters in this movie were non-existent and played stereotypes. Lacy Chabert should give up acting in Hallmark movies. She plays all her characters in the same manner and it seems she likes to play these damsels in distress and find their inner strength at the end. I vomit when I see her movies.
Isle of the Dead (2016)
There have been better and there have been worse *Spoiler Alert*
I love zombie movies and I take the worse ones with a grain of salt in terms by accepting the premise and concentrating on the acting. Now to my review of Isle of the Dead.
So basically, the military was sent in to the island 10 years after the incident briefly showed in the first 20 mins of the movie. Now, they were sent on a mission to find out what became of the groups and teams stationed on the island. In zombie movie fashion, the team is sent in about 8 Seal team members with one doctor/scientist. As soon as they land, they are attacked and Joey Lawerence's character is in charge after their captain is killed by the zombies. They make their way to the research facility encountering the lone survivor who injects himself with the zombie-causing vaccine and that the team's doctor is the daughter of the lone survivor. Everyone on the team except for Joey Lawerence has turned or is killed. Joey Lawerence's character manages to nuke the island thus destroying the biological research center.
Acting was piss poor. Joey Lawerence's character has the emotional range of a rock. He was not believable as a Navy SEAL and could not have done a worse job as an actor. He just slept through his role. The doctor portrayal was ridiculous and it begged the questions of whether she was on the mission to find out what happened to the research facility or to find her father (SPOILER). The lone survivor the Father is completely nuts and you can see it. What is completely unbelievable is the fact he kidnaps the soldiers and experiments on them but somehow does not pay for what he has done. Joey L's character merely points a gun at him. The other SEAL team members go down in hilarious fashion and commenting on the bad acting would be a waste of space and time here. Now, what was funny was the zombie behavior which was way more ridiculous on anti-social rather than zombie behavior. They were jumping around and challenging each other which was based on when they were injected or infected with the "zombie" vaccine. The scene sequence towards the movie's end when they were all fighting was downright stupid. The team doctor injected herself and fought one fo the "evil" zombies and was saved by her zombie father.
The premise could have shown promise if they did not take this course. A weaponized ebola virus destroying the facility and the military sent in to investigate and mitigate any potential disasters would have been a good idea. Th movie script was bad. The acting as I said earlier was pretty thin and unbelievable. The flow was pretty light and did not stagnate at any time during the movie. The bigger questions: How do zombies survive for 10 years? How could the Navy SEALS have a character like Joey Lawerence in their group? How can the team doctor egg Joey L's character into decisions? How would the Colonel be able to corral the "outliers" into the cage? When the doctor was in the lab looking for information about the zombie vaccine on the computer, how can that computer be in the same system for security? Instead of deciding what to investigate about the research facility, why didn't they just nuke or drop some bunk buster bombs to clear out the island? Also, 10 years after the incident or losing contact, couldn't other countries have gone in and seen what has happened?
Home by Spring (2018)
An obviously Hallmark Dud!
A very boring premise of girl working for an event planner who works behind her boss's back. She commits a dangerous unsafe act of sticking a metal knife into the blower to restart it. Who in their right mind would do that?! Hallmark has a small rep of having unsafe acts being committed on film.
Now, the movie is very formulaic about a girl who goes back home and runs into a cynical ex-boyfriend. They somehow could not make it work so they went their separate ways until now. She recruits/bribes him into with her. He "hates" and fights like a whiny brat until he falls in love again. A bore.
Destination Wedding (2017)
Boring! Contrived beyond belief
This movie was bad on so many levels:
1. Mispairing with Guilbaut and Pena-Vega. No chemistry between or belief that they were ever together.
2. The misadventure of trying to get her sister and fiancé to Mexico for the wedding. The obviously staged and poorly executed sequence of events the ensued I.e. exes fall in love, grandma that feigned sickness to get the truth (she should have died off and maybe it might have been better).
3. Sister and her fiancé refusing to talk even though people were waiting for them. Talk about being complete rude to those people's time. #Disrespectful
4. Pena-Vega's character needing to take over the entire planning and execution of the wedding to ridiculous levels.
5. Pens-Vega's potentially abusive, controlling boyfriend. He really approached those levels real quickly when he could not get a hold of her and when she was on the beach. Scary!
A Dash of Love (2017)
If you like blandness then this is for you!
It was okay except for a few things:
Pros:
1. Lilley and Penny had good chemistry. Lilley did not look constipated or have the "deer eye in the headlight look.
2. Penny actually gave a good performance for once. Good role selection and execution.
3. The chef(bad guy) was pretty devious and cunning stealing those recipes.
Cons:
1. Lilley's character using the chef's kitchen. She really seemed hellbent on creating recipes. Did she not have kitchen of her own?
2. The problem between penny's character with his dad was completely overblown. "I wanted to be a chef but you were disappointed because I did not want to be a baker".
3. Lilley especially with her huge eyes emoted too much in painful sequences.
4. The investor changing clients was ridiculous. He could have withdrawn from the chef and change investments to Lilley and Penny. To take money out from a bad still potentially good investment and putting it on a unknown chef? Not a smart business decision.
5. Penny especially towards the end acting like a spoiled child by storming off when his dad showed. Jumping to conclusions when his dad was already sad.
Valentine in the Vineyard (2019)
Should have been one movie
It was completely unoriginal, forced, and contrived. It was one of the worst of 2019 so far.
1. Two vineyards but only 2 people working it?
2. All the activities and work needing to be done? Where did they find the time?
3. Obvious plots of trying to understand each other's point of view. They talked but had no clue of what to do for relationship.
4. So they proposed and did not want to rain on the other's pending wedding? Screw it! They should have just made the announced it instead of going through keystone cop-like sequences.
5. Getting pressured into marrying with the other couple. They lacked cajones and will power to resist the others' call to have a double wedding.
6. Rachel Leigh Cook's anxiety is nauseating that she was constantly "worried" and being selfish.
7. The compatibility tests and the public game was completely idiotic and their reaction.
I could keep going on but this movie was terrible.
Love Under the Rainbow (2019)
Pretty lame on all levels even for Hallmark
1. Hayden and Jodie make a potential relationship very awkward.
2. The jokes are pretty stale and unfunny.
3. Hayden's father character lacks an semblance of a relationship with his daughter.
4. Jodie's teacher character is wholly unprofessional by focusing creepily on Hayden and the girl.
5. Hallmark could have done more for the classroom and more realistic teaching in the classroom.
6. Poor classroom management by leaving the students alone to talk with her co-worker and answering texts while working.
7. The "leaning" the two leads always assume when exchanging glances.
Welcome to Christmas (2018)
It is the same stale Xmas theme.
Hallmark sticks with formulaic template and this is no different. However, it does have a comedic element that works for it. It is the saving grace for this movie. Woman decides to scope out another location for a ski resort and would not really want to do it. The sheriff unbeknownst to this woman is close to the welcoming party who don't know her true intent. She obviously spews a lot of hatred for this mission and reveals to the sheriff. My question is who does that? Blabbing your mouth off. Very tacky and unprofessional for her.
Love, Romance & Chocolate (2019)
Lacy plays the same character
The premise is pretty good but suffers from Lacy playing the same character. She is somewhat "weak" and being pushed around until she finds her power to pushback and win the day. Plus her role's occupation centers around culinary arts. She should expand her acting chops. Boring
Killing Eve (2018)
A great show
One of the best shows of the last 2 years. TV shows really don't catch my attention for wanting more but KE does it and more. The writing, acting, storylines, and characters are well developed and work together to cook up a delectable show. I caught the show after the first half of 2017 season finished. Now, I want more and cannot wait and hope it will be back into production.
Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
Not a very good horror movie, but not bad
OK, first allow me to premise my review with the following statement: this movie isn't solely about the possession as it is about Bana's POV of the events. As for the plot, it was believable. The plot thankfully didn't include any outlandish scenes or events. It was a straightforward telling of the events in the movie from a non-believing NYPD officer. Plot kept up a nice pace so it never really bogged down in any scene except for one which takes place at the police station. While other movies may have played it out, this movie tried to keep the plot to one size fits all so it kept its pace. But this one scene which I thought was crucial was cut short. The acting was kept to only a three main actors, Bana, McHale, and Ramirez. Each actor takes awhile to lay out their "character's explanation" and unfortunately it was a weakness in the movie. Bana was almost unbelievable as a cop due to the fact he chose method acting for this role and the accent. Ramirez was a Jesuit priest who has committed these atrocious sins and we had to take it with a grain of salt on his purpose. Mchale was the uber-masculine comedic partner I guess designed to take the edge of the scene they were in. He was a likable character until his character started zipping one-liners. They just don't quite work against the backdrop of possession. Real creepy scenes and environments does contribute effectively to the movies overall dark and ominous tone. Well, overall, I liked it and I found myself enjoying it. The only thing I didn't like was the neat, tidy ending. I was expecting bad.