12 Games of Christmas

Wow there are some negative reviews on this. I thought the story was creative and brought something new to the Christmas movie table. Anyone expecting academy award level performances with GAFM, Hallmark or Lifetime are putting lights on the wrong tree. Seriously- people are bashing it because of the editing? These movies are about heart, spirit and faith - qualities this movie had plenty of. Sure there are some cheesy, and/or cringy lines in the script and some of the delivery was off, but it did hit me in the feels. And the characters were likable enough to overlook any shortcomings. Maybe that's because I identified some of the character's shortcomings as my own (missing out on memories with my family as I am deployed). I love the Yuletide spirit combined with simple, but meaningful representation of faith. It is always nice to have a reprieve from the big city main character finding love in a small town script. I would like to see more imaginative stories like this in the future.

GAF would've done better to produce fewer new movies this year than something of the caliber. It feels more like one of their first movies, not the other higher quality productions of this year; maybe they spent the majority of their budget on the bigger name movies? The story just didn't feel fully fleshed, as if they had planned the main events but forgot to connect them until the last minute.

There were many gaps in the plot. Most of the characters talked about having to get home, were told they could at any time by shaking their snowglobe, yet all waited their turn to do so. My biggest issue was with the gingerbread house challenge. The lesson was supposed to be about community and working together. All the characters got together to help the one who had the most experience make gets and neglected theirs so of course she won. And then, essentially, said peace out losers and ditched her current community who had sacrificed for her without a second thought.

The final complaint I'll share is with the male lead. His lines all seemed to come from a Hallmark card (wrong channel, I know). They were so sappy, I got to cringing every time he spoke.

I know this was supposed to be a "message" movie, and I have no problem with that. But the messages were all similar and shoved in our faces. No subtlety at all, no real journeys for the characters to learn the messages. Just simple tasks which really proved nothing.

Worse was the acting. Over the top. Stage actors don't even emote to this extreme. I found all the large smiles and interactions between the characters unrealistic and annoying.

I haven't watched many movies on the GAF network, and this didn't encourage me to watch more. The movies on Lifetime, LMN, UP Faith and Family, and the various Hallmark channels aren't exactly Emmy-level works, but they are so, so much better than this one GAF movie was. Maybe I'll try another one on this channel. Maybe.

For those who haven't seen the movie and are reading the reviews, trust them. This is a movie to skip.

The downlow: The dialogue sucks.

The acting sucks.

The editing sucks.

The plot HAD potential.

I thought "12 Games of Christmas" would be a fun seasonal version of "Jumanji". Nope. It turns out it's a lame parody of every white-charactered Christmas movie ever produced by Hallmark or Lifetime, but with GFAM, you get a sledgehammer message to boot. Faith, prayers, family, yada yada. If the message has to be repeated VOCALLY every few minutes, your writers and actors aren't doing their jobs. (see my review of "A Christmas For the Ages")

The characters repeat each other's dialogue, GIGGLE almost constantly in each situation, and the lead actress repeats her very own moronic line, "gosh, does this game have a card???" SPOILER ALERT! All 12 games have cards!!!

The editing left huge amounts of dead air within shots, compared to competent editing.

The plot had great potential, but fell before the starting gate.

I KNOW GFAM can do better. Just look at this year's "'Twas the Text Before Christmas" and "A Paris Christmas Waltz". Engaging stories, competent acting, good plots.

I'd give this stinkeroo 0 stars if possible. And I agree with another reviewer who wrote, GFAM needs to shoot for QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY!

This sounded like a great idea. A Christmas Jumanji. LOL

Six people are swept into a magical game after opening a game box and they have to pass through 12 games to exit. The blurb says they must play through the game's levels to "survive". Yet at the beginning some guy who hosts the game gives them snow globes and all they have to do is shake the globe to exit?

The games aren't games at all, but a series of banal and boring activities ... like making hot chocolate and building a gingerbread house. No clever funny dialogue, really nothing interesting at all.

Some nice set decoration is all you get here, and even at that I've seen better. Another GAC failure from our point of view.