Christmas Bake-Off

Laura Osnes and Christopher Russell are incredibly well-cast on 'A Dash of Christmas' aka 'Christmas Bake-Off'. They can both act, their chemistry is off the charts right from the beginning, and Osnes is very, very easy on the eye.

The 'returning to your small hometown for Christmas' trope has been used many times before, but is only a sliver of the plot here. The baked goods are mouth-watering and the set design was stunning. The secondary cast were all solid actors, with none of the over-acting by those in peripheral roles that sometimes mars these films to be seen.

(This film comes a close second behind 'One RoyalHoliday' as my favourite Laura Osnes film, and given how spectacularly good I thought she was in that one with Aaron Tveit, that is high praise from me!)

Definitely one of GAC Family's best movies. Here's hoping we see Russell and Osnes together in more productions. Like, Christmas 2024 or earlier!

5.2/10

I don't watch these Hallmark style films to purposefully hate on them. I genuinely go into each one hoping that one of them will spark in me a little joy for Christmas love. However, it's really hard to not hate on them when they're all the same, or start off in the most horrendous ways possible.

I would say about ninety percent of this film feels fake. The chemistry isn't totally there, the makeup on the male lead is awful at times, and the prop drinks don't even move. The story is cute, the build-up feels unromantic, and the rest is just awkward googly eyes.

The big butt here is that it slightly saves itself at the end. The chemistry finally kicks in. The love, while seemingly forced, works the way it should. And everybody gets that classic happily ever after.

Overall, there are a group of people who'll love this film, and I don't want to take that away from them. I feel like this a film my mom and sister would watch on one of their Hallmark Saturdays. Unfortunately, I get nothing out of it, and if you're not a fan of the cheese then best to stay away from the nachos.

That's all for now. Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Until next time.... Enjoy the show!

A Dash Of Christmas/Christmas Bake-Off (2023) -

Christopher Russell is usually a winner in these films and right from the start he was very charming as Aaron.

However, Megan's "First" baking attempt was annoying. No one is that stupid or insecure and I actually struggled to connect with her throughout. Thank God Aaron was such a nice guy to keep me interested in the story.

Although he was probably too nice for reality, he was also the more natural actor too.

I did think that it was nice to see Adam Hurtig as Ronald looking a bit more polished and getting a few more lines. He hasn't generally been in the forefront of these films except in 'Snowmance' (2017) so I liked that he was given a chance to showcase himself a bit more.

And I know that Christmas is for kids, but I was glad that Erica (Zoe Fish) wasn't overly featured because the kids in these films can sometimes make things really treacly.

As the relationship developed between the leading two, in order for her to get a new job, I generally liked the direction that it took with his selflessness and the risk that things might not go the way that they obviously would, but without it being for some stupid reason or misunderstanding like an overheard conversation or some such thing.

But one of the flaws was that Aaron did vlogs but didn't like websites, which just didn't fit the character, even after the explanation given, which then seemed to be irrelevant very quickly when Megan started doing almost exactly what his ex had done. I won't explain too much. You'll have to watch and see what that was.

And also, as a Brit I do find the Americans distaste for Fruit Cake a tad bizarre. Their take on it is very strange. Certainly the version depicted here didn't seem like any baking I'd ever seen before, definitely not when making a Christmas Cake. I think that they're doing it wrong which is why they don't like it?

There's nothing to report regarding the production values, which were all fine, but I did think that with a different lady in the lead, delivering things in a slightly less over the top way, it could have been a more successful film for me.

Christopher Russell was the element that made it as enjoyable as it was.

6.43/10.

7.0 stars.

Initial feeling of 'A Dash of Christmas' aka: 'Christmas Bake-Off', it's a generic holiday romance with a few interesting and lovely parts,, which makes it standard, because all of these films have some interesting parts. In this case it rises slightly above formulaic. What makes this movie stand out is...not much, unfortunately. It received fairly high praise from some people, but my gut tells me it's just so-so. I rate based mainly on entertainment, and this was average in that area. There were a few moments of really heartfelt romance, and he's a total dreamboat (which accounts for some higher ratings), but Osnes has a below average track record from what I recall of her films. I can see her in some pictures, just from memory, and none of them stand out. There's that one about Tahoe, and the one where she's a country singer, let's see...I looked up her other films and probably the best one is 'One Royal Holiday', which I gave 7.1 stars, for the same reason as this, both of these are about equal for me. It all points to one person: Osnes. I guess she's not my favorite. I bet if she was, all my ratings would be bumped up a full star.

Unfortunately, 'A Dash of Christmas' is nothing to write home about. I really wanted to like it for the few great scenes. But it only has a few great scenes and a few good moments, but mainly just a whole bunch of ok.

As some other reviewers noted, the storyline moved along well. While the bakery theme is not too far off the usual themes, the perfunctory "conflict" moment was not too contrived. I find Christopher Russell to almost always deliver a likable, charming character and manages to avoid coming off looking like the bumbling idiot in front of the girl which is such a staple of this Hallmark type genre. The romantic chemistry was there, although Laura Osmes actually delivered that better than Russell. Why didn't he kiss her upon leaving after the family dinner? When she says 'I love you' at the end, why didn't he actually say that too? I sometimes wonder if these HM screenplay writers have any firsthand knowledge of how a normal male reacts under feelings of sexual attraction? One thing we don't do is just stand there, not saying or doing anything.