Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up

This movie was an utter disappointment The first movie was awesome, you saw the personal growth in the characters, they managed it very well, this one is just chaos and competition

They manage to get you annoyed from the get go at everything that goes on, feels like a bad attempt at showing HOAs in a good light(There is a reason they are slowly dying off) but at the same time it makes you so angry at the "famous"(Nowadays everyone is famous if they post the right thing online) people that are really only inconsiderate bullies that want to make other people feel bad

Usually in all of these movies(Battle of the bulbs, the christmas house. Deck the halls, etc) you see them realizing their mistakes and correcting them on the last leg of the movie, but this movie literally gives you a very lazy move from jerks to kind in the last 5 minutes, not 15, not 20, but 5.

The acting is all over the place, the main characters(Lacey, Wes, and the main HOA members) are as good as before(I mean, as good as can be expected for a Hallmark christmas movies, which are traditional but not top notch) but the rest is just bad and feels off

All in all it is just good to see as a continuation and in case there is a third one, but it does not hold on fine against the og nor other movies of its kind.

6.2 stars.

Take the original film and imagine it continued for another 2 hours and the logical continuation would in fact be "lit up". However, the first was already headed for a crash and burn and saved by the fact that it ended. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the first one, I actually thought it had some redeeming qualities, but it ended on a high note, thus it was a decent standalone story. There was something about the originality and all the cool neighborhood competitions and the undermining and the HOA rules fiasco. Neighbors being frantic with decorating and games and the whole weirdness of it was interesting. Now take all of that originality and multiply it by ten, but instead of adding some variety and a new spin, take the original theme pound it into the ground, i.e. Beat on a dead horse for two more hours. The ending seems to lend itself to yet another sequel, dollars to doughnuts it won't happen. This film cannot rest upon its laurels sufficiently enough to survive the gestation and birthing of a third.

This one is not nearly as fun as the last one and has a much darker undertone of mob mentally being swayed by celebrity's. Yes it's a Christmas movie so it does have a happy ending, eventually.

I get that's the point. But it's a sharp contrast to the last one which was a lot more fun throughout and being part of a community.

Also when do the Johnsons sleep. They Do sooo much and get everywhere so quickly. I just don't get it.

This sequel is not the worst, but it's definitely not the best. And we'll worth a skip if you liked the first one.

It does get s lot more light hearted and fun, but not until about the last 20min or so.

I absolutely loved the original Haul Out the Holly. I watched it a zillion times last year, and was really looking forward to seeing this sequel. However, they completely changed the tone this time. The original was light and funny, any tension was minor, and you knew everything would be fine. This one introduced major tension right away with the very unpleasant new neighbors. I gave it about half an hour, couldn't find anything to like about it (other than the stellar performances from last year's cast), and then just fast-forwarded to the end, which was fine. They really missed the boat on this sequel.

The anticipation for this movie kept me giddy for weeks. I adore the cast. In the first movie, I laughed nonstop, and it was a huge rewatch for me. This one was great, but the influencer aspect was awful. The Jolly Johnsons were mean-spirited and vexing. They made it difficult to watch. I get it; they are supposed to be awful, but it was to the point of me turning it off, but I didn't. I wanted to see the end. For me, the new neighbors ruined the movie, and I don't think I can watch it again even though it ended well. To listen to the Jolly Johnsons and others follow their lead is not my idea of fun.