Private Princess Christmas

3.7/10 (Do NOT Recommend)

I feel like this is the first Hallmark film in a long time that I would highly recommend NOT watching. The accents aren't bad, but the acting is extremely terrible. There's no good romance in this movie. There's no emotions in it either. Once you're exposed to the military lifestyle it's nearly impossible to turn off that mentality. Even then, if you can't turn it off, sometimes you can be forgiving, but not here. The whole "military" aspect to this film is atrocious. It's like watching kids play soldier except it's more laughable. Usually these films have some sort of underlying theme that gets you somewhat motivated, but the theme in this movie is so lame and unmotivating. I have nothing good to say about this film, and would highly recommend you NOT include it in your Hallmark Christmas countdown.

That's it for now. Thanks for taking time to read my review. Happy watching and enjoy the show!

I am a Hallmark Christmas movie addict and give these movies alot of leeway. But as with other reviews for this movie, I had a difficult time with the storyline, the characters, the acting, the idea that this was actually a Christmas movie, the idea that there was any chemistry between any of the characters, and the fact that it jumped from one ridiculous scene to the next with no depth or continuity. I also had concerns with the movie's moral theme, in that a group of misfits were sent to be improved by a strong military officer, but instead they continued to cheat, give up and rebel. Due to all their antics the commander started to soften and give in to them. At that point all the cadets became caring, compassionate, and united. In addition, they were all able to sing in perfect pitch. Somehow there was a blip of unsubstantiated romance between the two main characters, then a falling out, a bunch of unrelated insights by several of the characters, reconciliations, and thus ending as all Hallmark movies do, with a kiss.

5.4 stars.

It's not the worst thing I've seen, I've seen a whole lot worse. People say it's the worst movie Hallmark has ever made, but while the plot and the silliness and absurdity might be adjacent to the worst, the music, production value and acting are not.

I don't rate the movie in my bottom ten, I've seen almost a thousand Hallmark movies. However, it's certainly in the bottom 5%.

I feel if a film is not technically the trashiest of the trash, for sake of accuracy, I'll tell it like it is.

The actors are okay, the cinematography is good, the music is good, the sets are slightly lacking. What is extremely bad about this film is the story, theme, plot and dialogue. It's a joke. But like I said, these do not comprise the full experience. You have to take into account, the entertainment value, acting, the lighting the music direction. So overall, this is definitely in the bottom of the barrel, and a lost cause, but not utterly garbage.

Okay, so we have writers who decided to do a take-off on Private Benjamin, add in a little Hallmark Royal Trope (in this case a princess), wedge in a love interest, and try to make something funny.

Well, there was one laugh and a few chuckles, but their script failed to live up to their ambition for this movie. They got across that the princess was spoiled, but never could add any real meat to her change in the ten-day boot camp.

Not nearly enough happened between the princess and the captain to build a relationship, so the love story fell flat. The captain's best moments were early on when he manned the returns desk at a Walmart/Target type retail store, and that was over very early.

It's watchable, barely. We won't be repeating the experience.

This movie is unbelievably bad, primarily due to the script but not helped by the acting or directing. Rather used to Hallmark movies not having the best acting, being a bit light on production quality, and not having the strongest scripts. But the script for this movie is just terrible. Cannot stress how bad it is. The concept of a bunch of spoiled brats being sent to a boot camp seems like a great opportunity for some hard knocks, moments of personal growth, and big laughs. This movie has none of that.

All of the humor consists of the same recycled jokes from other "boot camp" movies. Although other movies over the years have managed to make old jokes funny again, this movie fails every time. The moments that are supposed to be funny are recognizable, just not funny.

Hard knocks? Not here. Any attempts to "push" the brats are weak, including "the shredder", the lamest obstacle course conceivable and somehow the ultimate challenge they must overcome. This is taken even further when their proverbial "drill sergeant" is taken to task for being too hard on the bunch of whining brats, and starts to dial it back. This lack of adversity is problematic because it means that any moments of personal growth are impossible.

And yet, And yet somehow they do manage personal growth. Or at least that is what we are told as the story wraps up and the brats all start congratulating each other on how far they have come. But they haven't, at least not on screen making the whole thing a frustrating mess.

And of course there is romance, somehow. Again, the story pushes through with the expected romance, despite the princess never really changing from the awful person she started out being. Again, a terrible script that just fails in every way imaginable.

Skip this one.