Film Critics United

The Princess Switch 3 (2021) - Netflix Reviewed by Lisa Sue Having re read my thoughts on Princess Switch 2, let me say I now understand the need for the 3 rd movie, and there is a natural progression. It’s just taken me 3 movies to catch on, I can be slow but I’ll eventually get there. First movie was getting Stacy married off, second movie was all about Margaret and her man. So of course, there’s a third movie…cause Fiona needs to get herself a man! While that wasn’t necessarily obvious in the 2 nd movie, it is clear from the first act what this movie is about. And here’s where I’d like to put a plug in to Netflix, please feel free to reach out. We have ideas for Princess Switch 4. Considering we weren’t treated to yet a fourth doppelganger, how about let’s get a look alike Prince Edward? It could be country mouse/town mouse plot. Or we could have the inevitable babies that should be coming? Just throwing these ideas out there, and these are only the freebies, please have your peo...

The Jenkins Family Christmas (2021) - BET One thing I can say about my people at BET and TVOne is that, at least in regards to their Christmas movies, they show no interest in following the tried and true Hallmark / Lifetime formula.   No my friends, their movies tend to focus on a love of Jesus and lots and lots and lots of family melodrama.   With more melodrama mixed in.   For exhibit A we offer up 'The Jenkins Family Christmas’.   For starters it takes place in Atlanta, so snow is completely out of the question down here.   And having been in Atlanta when it has snowed, the last thing you want any of these people having to deal with, on any level, is snow.   They don’t handle it well.   Anyway, it's Christmas, the first Christmas the Jenkins family will experience without their pastor father, and the matriarch of the Jenkins family, Beneatta (Regina Taylor), has invited her family down to experience the holidays.   Knock knock on the door, B...

Dancing through the Snow (2021) - Lifetime Say hello to Michael (Colin Lawrence), a man’s man if ever there was one.  He has a manly job as a fireman, at 6’2” and I’m guessing 225 he could easily be a tight end for the Saskatchewan RoughRiders, he drinks beer with his homeboy, he’s a wonderful father to his young daughter Lily (Bianca Lawrence) and a doting son to his mom (Candus Churchill).  Best part about this man though… critical to this movie moving forward… is that his wife is long dead.  I’m not quite sure they told us how she died, could’ve been cancer or maybe murder in which he might still be a suspect… Oh wait, that’s Engaged to a Psycho.   Gotta keep these Lifetime movies straight in my brain. Across town in Snowyville Canada, we will also meet Olivia (AnnaLynne McCord), and aside from having an amazing head of hair which could be a character unto itself, things aren’t going so well for the kid right now.  Her dance studio is struggling, the bil...

An Ice Wine Christmas (2021) - Lifetime After watching these things for a few years, I think I’ve figured out a subtle difference between the TV-G rated Hallmark produced Romantic Christmas movies and the TV-PG rated Lifetime produced Romantic Christmas movies.   Where the Hallmark protagonists are kind of coy with how they approach their relationships, the Lifetime protagonists make their intentions pretty clear from the word go.   In a Hallmark movie the guy will say ‘Let’s hang Christmas ornaments!’   In a Lifetime movie the guy will say ‘Let me help you hang that ornament girl’.   Just something I observed is all. Camilla (Roselyn Sanchez) is a primo sommelier in one of the top restaurants in Philly, and her boss has just offered her the job of Queen Sommelier over his entire chain of upscale restaurants.   A dream opportunity for Camilla for sure, but sorry homeboy, she won’t be able to take that gig because she’s going to be madly in love with some dude ...

A Christmas Treasure (2021) - Hallmark Today we will be spending some quality time with Lou (Jordin Sparks) who is a hard working reporter for her parent’s newspaper in Tiny Town USA.  It’s about a week before Christmas and Lou isn’t long for this town as she is heading for New York City right after Christmas so she can focus on writing her novel.  Personally, I can’t think of a place more serene, peaceful and completely devoid of distractions than New York City.  Across town in Tiny Town is Kyle, as played by up and coming professional Holiday Romantic Movie Boyfriend Michael Xavier. This is like the fifth one of these I’ve seen him in.  Kyle is a chef from Chicago but is between jobs right now, meaning he’s unemployed, so he’s in Tiny Town to help his auntie Marcy (Lossen Chambers) who runs the local eatery.  In the last movie we saw, Christmas Sail, Ms. Chambers ran the local bakery and now we’re wondering if Lossen Chambers can cook for real.  There’s a...

One December Night (2021) - Hallmark Reviewed by L. Sue First let us set up this stellar cast, to be fair the initial draw is no less than Agent Grant Ward himself who is becoming an annual fixture at Hallmark. Followed by Evil Dead’s Ash himself Bruce Campbell, as well as THE OC Dad Peter Gallagher. To set this story up, Ash and OC Dad were in a famous band Bedford and Sullivan.  In a bit of a twist of casting, you might expect Ash to be the one to go drunk up on stage and break up the band, but you would be wrong.  So Sullivan retreats into a recluse, and eventually gets sober leaving Bedford as a solo act, with interest in Bedford alone quickly drying up.  What the people want, nay demand is a Bedford and Sullivan reunion! How famous did Bedford and Sullivan get you ask? Well, there is now the obligatory daily bus tour that drives by Sullivan’s home affectionally named Big Red. And things are so bad that Sullivan has a special knock, so not as to risk opening the door ...

Christmas Sail (2021) - Hallmark This one should be interesting based on the cast alone.   We have Patrick Sabongui, an intense actor who has spent the last few years playing the terminally pissed off police captain on The Flash, and being of Middle Eastern descent has probably played more terrorists than I’m sure he would have liked to in his career, Katee Sackhoff who has had a career playing characters of varying degrees of rage and intensity, particularly Starbuck on the BSG reboot, and Terry O’Quinn… The Stepfather.   I don’t know if you kids out there have seen The Stepfather and it’s various sequels back in the 80’s, but before The Stepfather, Mr. O’Quinn was just a regular working character actor, but after the Stepfather he became one of the most frightening people on the planet earth.   When I see Terry O’Quinn in a movie I know full well he is fully capable of flying off the handle and killing everybody, including the folks in this Hallmark Christmas movie. ...

Boyfriends of Christmas Past (2021) -  Hallmark Today, in the movie ‘Boyfriend’s of Christmas Past’ we’re going to spend some quality time with Lauren (Catherine Haena Kim) and Nate (Raymond Ablack), as these two attractive adults, who aren’t a couple, but spend more time together than any legit couple ever. Husbands and wives, young lovers, brothers and sisters, ex-con and parole officer, I’m am unawares of anybody in any universe spending as much time together as these two people.  And they’ve been doing this for decades.  It looks like Nate kind of, sort of wants to be more than Lauren’s best friend, dropping little hints here and there, but Lauren is the worst so that’s not gonna happen.  Nate should totally move on with his life.   Alas, we know Nate’s not gonna do that because we have a movie that needs to happen.  Lauren is a driven marketing executive tasked with coming up with a proposal for some baking company, and they want this proposal d...