A Hollywood Christmas

You have to get beyond wanting a 10 out of 10 Hallmark movie. If you want a Hallmark movie go to Hallmark. This is on HBO. I stumbled across this one by accident and was pleasantly surprised. I thought the fact that it played off of the cheesy romcom was perfect. It showed the other side of moviemaking, not the three week perfection that other studios give. There was the main character with the flaw they didn't see, the goofy sidekick, the classic misunderstanding, and the unpacking of feelings. Oh yeah, it also had some romance as well. If you can get beyond wanting the perfect movie, this really isn't a bad movie. There are a few familiar faces as well. Just try it and form your own opinion. As a matter of fact, this movie made me hop on here and look for other movies that some of these characters are in.

Christmas in the summer. You can enjoy 2 different Christamas movies in a shot. A bit childish to be honest, but totally agree to the protagonist's line that Christmas was her safe space. That she does this because had chosen the job, not just because it was her next step on "wherever my skills take me" unexpectedly inspired me, the quote I needed just at the right time. A few lines survived... but it still has a 90 minutes worth of Christmas vibe we love!

P. S. But I guarantee this could be done much better than this... maybe the budget cut in the movie is a metaphor of the movie itself...? Maybe or maybe not.

First, Josh never removes his shirt. Any movie with Josh where that doesn't happen is already down.

But, the movie kept me guessing just enough to make me keep watching it. Unfortunately, it did not deliver enough surprises, which I guess is to the form on Christmas movies, but again, just 1 surprise might have been nice. Can we not have 1 Christmas movie where it turns out one of the main characters is unknown to be gay, or something. Everyone can still end happy, but some major diversion would have been nice. In this one, maybe the b!tch executive could have wound up with the director in the end and Josh, coming out of the shower in just a towel, could look up and realize he had fallen in love with the all knowing assistant.

As someone who has watched dozens of these Hallmark Christmas movies (ok, been in the same room while the wife has watched them), I thought this idea had promise; unfortunately this movie just didn't deliver. The writing was flat, and the acting wasn't any better. Honestly, this should have been on the Hallmark Channel. For HBO to release this seems hard to believe. The lead actors seemed wildly miscast. The character of Reena, who played the perpetually optimistic sidekick, was about the only good thing about the movie. I was honestly disappointed to see the always fun to watch Missy Pyle in this. This could have, and should have been much better.

We love bad, formulaic Christmas movies, and this is a movie about making one of those bad, formulaic Christmas movies while (mostly) following the formula itself. It's so meta lol!

It was fun to watch and the people leaving low rating reviews don't get that it is SUPPOSED to be a movie that doesn't take itself seriously with bad writing and "flat" acting! The acting actually is great, especially the actors playing the a lead actors in the "movie." It makes fun of itself multiple times, albeit subtly sometimes.

If you realize what this movie is before you watch it, you'll enjoy it that much more!