Crown Prince of Christmas

This was awful. The plot was entirely predictable and the two leads had no chemistry. I was distracted by the female lead's yellow teeth and her makeup was so awful it made me not want to look at the screen. The women playing her mom and sisters are truly awful actresses and their scenes were so bad and cringy it have me secondhand embarrassment.

If the movie is about a royal family, I expect the sets to reflect that. Apparently there was no budget for the decor because the fancy gala looked like a middle school dance with dollar store decorations. Hallmark would never.

And finally, there was so much emphasis on the lead being a breathtaking singer and we were supposed to be blown away with her big performance, but it fell flat. Her voice was neither good nor bad, but they should have had an actress with a GREAT voice considering we were supposed to be in awe of the voice.

Yet another "royal" Christmas re-hash. The prince-pretending-to-not-be-a-prince (Jilon VanOver) was actually not a bad actor. He was believable, both as Madison's co-worker friend and as a prince. Madison (Cindy Busby) and her entire family were excruciatingly bad. Her sisters laughably bad actors. Her mom was ditzy and over-emoting most of the time. Her dad was mostly invisible. Even the scene where he tries to empathize with Madison was non-descript. But even he was better and more believable than the King and Queen. I had the idea they just grabbed a couple off the street, dressed them in what they thought passed for regal costumes and set them loose. Don't waste your time on this one.

I watch a lot of Christmas movies and with four networks now cranking them out full time, I had to pick and choose more. Now I pick films that vary from the traditional formula or have stars that I really enjoy.

This one got my attention because it had a slight twist on an old theme and both leads were engaging. However, it felt very low budget, like super low. Odd camera angles, shots and close-ups, awkward pauses, and some not great acting and dialogue.

However, the biggest disservice to the script was the obviously low budget they had to produce it. Part of the premise was that the hotel was supposed to be a luxury hotel lavishly decked out for Christmas! In fact, that was the reason it was chosen for the "Gala". However, the bulk of the decoration was tinsel garland and strings of lights. And the same tinsel showed up everywhere, on every set (the red and silver). I even think I saw one small, unfluffed wreath with two present bows stuck to it being hung on a wall!

Another big plot element was the "Royal Gala" which felt more like a daytime junior high assembly. Minimal set decoration, tiny crowd, no lighting or orchestra. The headline entertainment was an acapella version of Silent Night?!? Cindy is a decent singer, but certainly not the prodigy that built up the entire movie. Heck, even the most accomplished singer wouldn't drive the crowd into that frenzy in that scenario. And that single song appeared to be the entire content of the gala. So odd.

I could overlook a lot of plot absurdities and predictability when it is visually beautiful and filled with Christmas imagery and magic. This unfortunately lacked and even the charming stars couldn't save it.

We've made a heroic effort the last few years to catch every Hallmark Christmas movie, last year some of the GAF movies, and this year all of both. We don't make an effort for the Lifetime movies, because in our opinion, they're much more miss than hit.

The last four years of Hallmark have gone downhill in our eyes, and we've made the decision to cease our quest to watch them all. We'll continue to sample our favorite stars and possibly check some reviews for the rest. Movies like this made that decision easier to arrive at.

I think all three networks have overdone it. Too many plots are just rehashed versions of previous movies, and some of the efforts to "do something new" stretch so far out they crash and burn.

So what does all that have to do with GAF's Crown Prince of Christmas? It's a harmless little movie, but with an absurd premise and some ham-fisted writing and direction which embarrassed us for the actors and writers at times. I had to get used to my wife saying "Oh Good God!", like the cut-away take where the hotel employee has to stuff his fist in his mouth in an emotional reaction to the ubiquitous wrap-up kiss.

I liked the characters, it's just that every few minutes there were scenes too stupid to believe ... either from atrocious dialogue, poorly wrought motives and reactions, or overplayed cliches. GAF had a couple of very nice movies this year, but they've also had some real stinkers, and so has Hallmark.

This movie didn't offend our senses enough to rate it lower than 4, but it's not one we'll ever consider watching again.

I have to remember that one of the goals of the new GAC network is to be family friendly. I'm guessing that means movies like this one, with an obvious nod to Cinderella, are aimed to include children in the audience.

I'm used to Christmas rom/coms aimed at adults. I expect a little more subtlety in the acting. In this movie it seemed that many actors were delivering their lines with emphasis and the result often didn't seem natural, perhaps even melodramatic. That is especially the case with Cindy Busby. Add on her smile which can look pasted on and it seems even less natural. Jilon VanOver was a little better, but only slightly. In addition, characters' reactions to actions or preceding lines seemed out of place and transitions were rough.

The script often made no sense or was confusing. I will say as a definite positive that the story had some interesting twists from the beginning. I am very unhappy with a reviewer who included an untagged spoiler that bore directly on one of those twists. I think I probably would have suspected, but I will never know and the twist was revealed about the halfway point. The tone of the story was upbeat and there was almost no tension other than Madison's nerves and that seemed overplayed not to mention inconsistent.

I agree that the sets gave a definite low budget feel. The "Gala" had something like only 30-40 people and a tiny stage. The makeup was often bad, especially for Cindy Busby.

I find it interesting that all the written reviews as of this writing are lower than the average overall rating, including my own. Many of those reviews are critical of Busby's singing. I found her singing to be mostly pleasant, but lacking the polish of a regular singing performer. I would leave it at that were it not for the fact that her final note of her final song was off key.