Christmas Time Capsule

7.6 stars.

Yet another movie with reviews all over the place, and so I had to see it for myself, see what's the deal. There aren't many comments, but for me, I have to comment on this because that's what I do these days, I do reviews on everything I watch. Why not, figure might as well do something with all this time on my hands watching primarily family and Hallmark films for two full months of the year, that's the tradition, starting in 2022, and boy there is an endless supply of these movies...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this movie. I like it, almost love it at times. The leads have great chemistry, what are people talking about? Sure, they're married, so what, that's not an automatic chemistry killer, they have it, the love is there...

The story is nothing new, but they do draw it out and it's sort of slow at times, but it's a really slow burn sort of best friends, always been in love story and it works. I can feel the raw emotions between them, she is absolutely adorable, he's got charm. What's not to like? But so many people just don't enjoy this movie, so maybe I'm on coolaid, who knows.

I found this to be a very likeable rom movie. There is comedy angle with the little off the norm parents but they provided a fine background of a loving family. The story is the usual why didn't they each say something earlier but the years had gone by. There was no hystrionics, the characters were down to earth and all likeable. They just needed to sort out what they felt and wanted. Closer to real life. Franco Lo Presti is always good, providing a good reflection of the characters he plays. If you want a really rom-com -ie movie, with the emotional, teary female with silly interactions with the male and the best friend not so sage advice, this isn't it.

It is that time of year where I love to watch these type of Christmas movies. Randomly came across this one and let's just say I won't be adding it to my rewatch or recommendation list to friends. Bad acting is usually fine with these movies, but when the leads have zero chemistry whatsoever with each other, it makes this a big miss...

These two should not work together again. Not believable... The lead actress was fine, but the lead actor was not very good at acting. He should be a secondary actor at best as I did not believe him as a leading man as there was a smugness to him I did not enjoy. He would be perfect for the jerk boyfriend role, and not this.

The Tiffany character was way more unlikeable than the fiancé and I felt that there was no rooting interest in seeing these supposed best friends get together by the end of the film.

Much better options out there for your "Hallmark" Christmas movie marathons.

The premise is a variation on the romantic leads are best friends from childhood. But now he is about to propose to his girlfriend and Tiffany is trying to stall him. One thing that is slightly unusual is that the rival, the pending fiancé, is totally likable. The movie gives you nothing in her character to dislike. That's the one exception to everything being wrong. The surprise that comes out of the time capsule is stupid and makes no sense. Other than that surprise, the movie follows the usual lines and has no great highs or lows or other surprises.

Mom is just stupid. I cringed at her appearances until late in the movie. It's a Christmas movie, so there is baking, but mom bakes cookies without sugar, on purpose.

Except for Emily Alatalo, the acting is bad. I found nothing appealing about Franco Lo Presti's James and certainly no chemistry. James was negative for so far into the movie that I couldn't understand why Tiffany was friends with him, much less thought she loved him.

Well, where do I start... I couldn't finish watching, sorry. This movie is an insult to one's intelligence. Both the script and acting are so poor that I don't feel bad anymore about AI taking over the movie industry: ChatGPT and synthetic performers would do a better job.

The lead actor's performance is particularly weak. Someone has to tell the guy that acting requires skills and talent (both missing here), and it's not just about memorizing text and repeating it in front of the camera. His narcissistic demeanor doesn't help either.

The lead actress did a better job. It looks like she is a seasoned Christmas show dame. The actress must be in her early forties now and it shows, so maybe it's time to switch to a more appropriate genre. Anyway, some time wasted, and I'm switching to Christmas classics to heal the trauma:)))

P. S. The leads are a couple in real life: they hooked up on some other low-budget movie set and they use their real-life "love story" to promote this masterpiece :))) Cheesy stuff.