Christmas at the Drive-In

Danica McKellar has done better work. Her second outing with GAC Family is not a strong one, despite the presence of Neal Bledsoe, whom she has worked with before, over at Hallmark.

If I were asked to describe 'Christmas at the Drive-In" in one word it would be 'formulaic'.

You can tick the boxes on this: small town. Teenage sweethearts. Important town location in danger of being destroyed. Said location (a drive-in, as you probably gathered from the title) being saved by the two protagonists and sparks fly along the way. Devious entity tries to stop it. Said entity is defeated. Protagonists fall in love.

This sort of movie has been done before and done better. Didn't seem to be all that much chemistry between the leads and the storyline was pretty weak.

We really like Danica McKeller, and we've liked the male lead in a couple of Christmas films too, one of which was also with Danica.

They have great chemistry in the film, both showing personality and charm ... just what you need for a successful romance. Plus, there are plenty of clever lines and a few funny moments.

Normally I'd call this an 8-star Christmas movie. So why did I dock two stars?

The premise is just silly. LOL A "Historic Drive-In"?? And showing that a failing drive-in has more value to the town than a new distribution center that would certainly provide dozens if not hundreds of jobs?

Ridiculous.

It's not that this movie is offensively bad, it just would be fully forgettable, were it not for the improbable premise: fight for saving a "historic drive-in" over jobs for regular folk? Where the supposed antagonist is for no reason made to help his rival?

However, it was refreshing that there were no cartoon bad guys as such. And I liked both of the leads and enjoyed watching them. It just didn't seem believable they would be a couple: one with that bad boy energy and the other one rather wholesome. Sure, sometimes the whole opposites attract situation creates great sizzle, but here the leads felt more like bickering and bantering siblings.

One big issue for me is that I enjoy, nay, demand beautiful visual and set design in Christmas movies - somehow this just wasn't visually very impressive. It was a bit bland a little unwarm, and e.g. The shop with Christmas decors looked more like a Goodwill store.

So: if you're looking for sumptuous Christmas movie with fiery romantic chemistry, keep on driving.

Meet Sadie (Danica McKellar) a failing lawyer, who has returned to her home town to find out that the drive-in cinema which she used to love going to is closing down. And Sadie gets determined to save it and prove that it's a good way to bring the community together. When she proposes that the Drive In should be saved to the major and his friends they give her 'til Christmas to prove that it's worth keeping open.

But as the days go by Sadie soon finds out this drive in is not gonna be saved overnight and it's gonna take more than just a few ideas about how to keep people warm whilst they're watching a film outside to stop it from closing down.

At first I almost turned this film off because the acting is not that great and it didn't make me laugh much but as the film went on, I got more and more interested in how or if Sadie is going to be save her local cinema. And I think that's because I enjoy going to the cinema and it upset me a bit when they closed during the COVID pandemic and in the end I found it watchable and I might watch it again next Christmas...if I can't find anything else on TV or Netflix.

I also liked this film because it was only 87 minutes and didn't drag on for too long, but I think the length of this film could have been more appealing if they had made it more kid friendly, perhaps by having a few child actors and then it could have attracted families with children that are too young to sit still throughout a long film.

This was a light hearted and fun little movie that I really enjoyed.

Danica and Neal Bledsoe have a great on screen chemistry. They were both very good in this movie as well as the rest of the cast.

The premise may seem far fetched and maybe it is, but everything they did to try and save the drive-inn from making cake pops to putting up all kinds of beautiful festive decorations, I found lovely and charming.

I did take off a few points because something kept sticking in my craw, did she not say she came home to help his dad get historical status for the Drive-in? If that were the case than he could not sell it nor could they demolish it! Also the ever handsome Neal Bledsoe's hair annoyed me they dyed his gorgeous dark/salt and pepper hair some kind of yellowish brown and it appeared he didn't comb his hair through the entire filming of the movie. This may sound superficial to some but it was very distracting to me and it detracted from his very good looks.

This was a fun little movie if you don't take it too seriously, a great way to relax and wallow away a few hours. I would definitely watch again!!