Everything Puppies

This movie seems to prioritize the following themes in this order: 1) Cutthroat business wars; 2) Puppies and dogs; 3) Work/life balance; 4) Scarlett and Alex's relationship. The ranking is subjective as I saw it. Regardless of that, my point is that this rom/com spent a LOT of screen time on the business wars including unethical conduct behind the scenes. I don't tune in to Hallmark to watch a cliche portrayal of cutthroat business. I suspect most people who tune in to this channel do so more for relationship development.

The theme of work/life balance has been popular on Hallmark for a while now. There is nothing wrong with it, but it gets a lot of play.

The puppies are definitely cute and are a definite plus for this movie.

Scarlett's dog treats were almost magical in the way dogs reacted so instantly and so strongly. And they are healthy too!

Acting. Something was off at times. Rather than the acting, it may have been something else. Transitions were rough at times. Dialogue seemed trite at times. And the brand Pup Chuck. I did a web search on those two words and off to the right, but at the top of the page was a definition section for the word "up-chuck". The similarity is probably intentional since the guy pushing the Pup Chuck brand was the movie's cardboard villain. He didn't have a handlebar mustache though. Maybe the thing that seemed off to me was the humor which seemed to be based on parody but didn't seem to be invested in it.

Stephen Huszar is 40 this year. The only thing I could find about Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes was somewhere between 22 and 28. That's a notable age difference for a romance story. Scarlett's character seemed youngish in the way she approached things.

For story and acting, I would probably not watch this again. The puppies and dogs made it watchable for one time through.

...and I'm a woman. They are so completely unprofessional. Screeching and giggling when they get an order from the pet food store right in front of the person giving them the order.

Hallmark - have you gotten new writers recently? This is the second review in a row of your new movies that I've written that is negative because of the way the women are portrayed.

I agree with the other reviewers in that I don't expect serious movies from Hallmark, but can we at least make the women not seem like complete idiots?

And my husband's contribution: "This is not on my list of the top 1,000 Hallmark movies."

As with many Hallmarks movies, this one has a poor script so it was flawed from the start. Steve Huszar is a known quantity, he's been in many Hallmark movies and he's a good and reliable actor. The lead actress is always the star, but casting Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes was a huge mistake, she's terrible as is the director for not getting a better performance from her.

Puppies are always an attention grabber in movies, but they weren't enough to salvage this film. As always Hallmark locations are great and I've always appreciated their positive movies, but some are better than others. Overall their quality is much better than Real One Entertainment and Nicely films, they are still the gold standard for mass produced rom-coms.

Stephen Huszar (Alex) and Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes (Scarlett) seemed well paired; unfortunately, my saying that is not a compliment. I don't consider Huszar one of the better Hallmark actors though I can never put my finger on why I feel that. Since I'm having to put more though in to to write this review I'm thinking it might be because he doesn't seem to be into the part he's playing as some of the other actors might. A bit more of a feel of a person going through the motions of a job because it's a job instead of something they love. Anyway I digress. I decided to do a review because I had given this a lower rating & raised it for two reasons 1. I often get annoyed at the formula conflict point of a movie when it's unrealistic and overplayed. I thought this movie, while slightly overplayed, still had one of the better conflict scenarios between the main character's and the way it was played out.

2. How can I not give points for the great job the adorable dogs and pups did.

If you love dogs and warm fuzzy movies with them in it it's worth a watch.

I was under the false impression that this movie would have a lot more puppies, puppy products, and a love story somewhere there in. Instead, there was a disappointing focus on the "business" of selling puppies (which is distasteful in the way it was portrayed), a company selling only a single dog treat, and a David vs Goliath business feud.

The love story here was lackluster and left me questioning which love interest would have been better for him in the end after all. I am not sure if it was a lack of chemistry or the way their relationship was portrayed within the plot but it missed the mark. Overall the movie was watchable but fell a bit flat.