The Jingle Bell Jubilee

This time of year, it's hard to turn on a TV without seeing one of these mass-produced holiday romances.

I used to say, "Seen one, seen 'em all," but with these things breeding like rabbits, they are sorting into definite categories.

This, alas, is not one of the better ones. Like so many of these, it's so by-the-numbers that you can practically recite the dialogue as it happens. It's like a story on The Love Boat bloated into a two-hour timeslot. All it needs is Gopher and Doc mugging in the background.

It's great that these movies are committed to no violence, gratuitous sex, bad language, or stuff like that. But they also left out good storytelling, dramatics, action, motivation... Oh, well.