A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming

However, Cake was so annoying. She can't sing or act (unless that was the way she was written) either way to much storyline; they could have given it to Billy (Greg Vaughan) or more about Quinn's dad. With that being said, it was a great 3rd Sequel.

I had so enjoyed the first two movies in this series that I bought a US DVD so I could watch it before its wider release. I really like Bea Santos and Greyson Holt and the first movie, particularly had a real spark to it. Sadly, the third one doesn't. It leans quite heavily on the awful 'Cake' which seems to tilt it towards being a comedy, while the introduction of the bereaved Grandfather takes it in the opposite direction. Raven Stewart is cute as ever, and now she can sing, too, but Bea Santos didn't seem to have her heart in it at all, which was the real disappointment because she was so great in the first two. Perhaps she recognised that the theme has run its course. My betting is that there won't be a forth one, however much we fans might have wished for it but I look forward to seeing Bea in something that stretches her undoubted talent next time and may that be soon.

Actually personally wasn't that crazy about the first 'A Very Country Christmas'. Liked the music and Greyston Holt, but disliked Bea Santos, how excessively unlikeable her character was and the lack of chemistry. Not to mention the pong-filled dialogue and over-stretched story. Expectations were not high in all honesty for 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming', seeing as most sequels (with of course some very notable exceptions that are on par or even better) have notorious reputations for being inferior.

Luckily, for me 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming' was a lot better (am not sure how well that opinion is going to go down, having a lot of support for the first film here in reviews for this). It wasn't great and had some serious faults still, but it also had two particularly major improvements that were enough to make it superior. There are much better sequels out there than 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming', and there are also much worse. As far as sequels for anything from Hallmark/Lifetime/UPTV go, this is somewhere in the middle.

Is it perfect? No. The story here also feels overstretched and has very little new, complete with moments of draggy pacing.

Did also think that 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming' was marred further by having too much of the truly obnoxious Cake and Charlotte Hegele's increasingly tiresome scenery chewing.

Holt however is as appealing and charismatic as he was in the first 'A Very Country Christmas' film. Santos' acting is a massive improvement here, much more comfortable, far less cold and with a lot more charm. Her character is also a lot more likeable, no flaws taken to extremes. The chemistry between Holt and Santos improves a lot too, there is some this time and it is understated but charming.

The dialogue is a lot less cheesy, apart from with Cake, and flows more and while the story is far from perfect it is warm hearted, doesn't take itself too seriously while not being over the top. The scenery is picturesque and complemented slickly by the photography and the soundtrack is pleasantly infectious.

Concluding, not perfect but superior. 6/10.

If you liked the 1st and 2nd Zane/Jeanette movies, you will probably like this one also. There really isn't very much depth to the storyline, so if you didn't see part 1- A Very Country Christmas 2017 or part 2- A Very Country Wedding 2019, this movie will probably feel like it rambles all over with no point. Some characters from the 2nd movie were given small parts that seemed unnecessary. Though there are some clips from the 1st movies, it would be better to record it and watch them all in order.

I was really looking fwd to it because I love movies with music star themes, I did love the 1st 2, and I like Greyston Holt. The absolute best part of the movie is the Quinn/Zane duet near the end. It was a uniquely beautiful song.

One major point - in my program guide, this movie is listed with the correct title but the date and synopsis from A Country Chrismas. I took a chance that the new movie would air, and luckily it did.

I really enjoyed the first one (haven't seen the second one) but this time around, Bea looks like she could. Not. Care. Less. You'd think the honeymoon phase is portrayed as happy and a couple absolutely besotted with each other but I could sense the awkwardness from my couch. These 2 have 0 chemistry and I feel as though Greyston tried to put in the effort for the sake of the movie, but Bea's terrible acting convinced me she hated making this third movie.