Sister Swap: Christmas in the City

This one fell flat primarily because I already knew the plot from watching the companion movie a week ago. There were a few elements added that we were not aware of and some more details, but they were not enough to save this for me. The other reason was because I am just so tired of Ashley Williams. She was like a manic-depressive without the depressive. I really wanted the depressive. A few times she stopped smiling and bouncing off the walls but the respite didn't last long enough.

Part 2. This was on my Watchlist last year but never got to it. I liked the idea of this but the execution of parallel stories across 2 movies didn't quite work. I'm not sure if it was the focus on telling parallel stories or the fact that there were 4 scriptwriters but this was an uneven mess.

So in this movie we see a lot of the same scenes from the prior movie except some of these are shown from different camera angles. There are also continuation issues. In this movie, we see Simon driving away from the city but in the first movie his mother is the one who pulls up to the Madison.

Also, it's finally made clear why the gift for the mother is so important and who Ashley's character is grieving. Based on the first movie alone, I honestly thought she was a widow like her sister. In this movie, we find out she's having a hard time because she's grieving her uncle. Once again, it's not well explained why he had such an impact on the family. And her character does not come off as someone heavily grieving in either movie.

Ashley Williams and Keith Robinson have zero chemistry and honestly I lost interest about one third of the way through. This one focused more on the love story than the first movie did but the movie was incredibly boring. I did like the food bank story though. There also were too many stories going on here so the party story didn't really get the focus it should have. Again, 4 scriptwriters? The imbalance shows.

Where was Mark Deklin in this one???

I love the idea of the Williams sisters working together but give them a mystery series instead where they both have love interests or families. This concept didn't work very well and if Hallmark really wanted to be innovative, they should have just combined these 2 movies into 1 longer movie.

In simple way it seems enough to write I love it. Maybe for Ashley Williams energy. Maybe for romances, including the gay couple. For the meeting father - daughter for food bank or for the remind of importance of family.

Sure unrealistic in few scenes - the promise of Frank is the most significant exageration - but energetic and sweet.

In short, the version of Meg, beautiful for humor and few sweet moments at first sight better than the first part, a Hallmark in which Ashley and her sister are the fair option for presence, are than for acting.

Nothing new but good easy entertainment around a cinema theater and a restaurant.

6/10 - this concept of two connected movies/storylines in a single year is certainly a first for Hallmark is certainly new for them, but I would recommend watching it a little bit apart (as it was aired) since the two become a little redundant if double featured.

This movie is the second part of the Christmas Swap sisters tale. From the first movie we knew what will be the story this time. They used scenes from last week and added more. Im not sure this really worked with two parts tale, the Williams sisters are great in almost every movie they are in , they are charismatic and cheerful you just smile when they are on even when the movie isn't great like these movies. The stories weren't bad but weren't great or Christmas magic that you want in these movies. The only unique part was the sisters part.

Also I think they should have aired these movies in one night like the thanksgiving holiday weekend creating one big movie in one night.