12 Men of Christmas

This movie is predictable and forgettable, a Christmas rom-com that ends happily ever after before barely grazing the surface of the leads' potential character arcs. Not that I am convinced either of the lead actors was capable of greater depth, but the script didn't give them any room to try. The secondaries were reasonably attractive and warm and human, but didn't get much in the way of lines or focus.

The reasons to watch:

1. Breathtaking mountain scenery 2. The photo shoot montage is excellent eye candy with humour attached 3. The mid-plot mutual-loathing confession of attraction that's a blatant ripoff from Pride & Prejudice but done in language far less polite.

4. The nod to the very real issue of cash-strapped Search and Rescue services, staffed by volunteers and relying often on borrowed or out-dated equipment, who manage at tremendous risk to life, limb, and family/romance to bring most people home most of the time from the wildernesses they've wandered into.

It's a 6 for those 4 reasons. Otherwise, it might be a 3.

After watching this flick this evening, I am now looking hard for something I saw really worthwhile, something moving, something not a stereotype or cliché, something not seen before or unique, something I can say to you,like: "Hey, I'd like to recommend this one because...", but, I can't think of anything.

These ideas they come up with for Christmas stories are really annoying sometimes. Haven't we seen something similar and probably better put before? A top New York (when not) publicist catches her boyfriend in a compromising situation with her lady-boss and quits her job, then after fruitlessly searching, decides to take a position working for the Mayor of a small town in Montana (again, sameo sameo), doesn't exactly fit in with the local small town life (no surprises?), finds out they have a climber's rescue team but not enough money to buy the equipment they need, so drums up the 'brainy' idea to have 12 of the town's Adonises pose semi-naked for a calendar to produce profits to meet the goals? Well, admittedly, if you are in a place this small with limited resources, you bring out your think tank and go the distance, but honestly, after the first 45 minutes or so, everything was so humdrum I was becoming bored.

The plot had some gaps that made me mentally race ahead to try understand what was going on. Then in romantic affairs, I got mixed up with who was dating who and who had a crush on who and so on and on. The only thing that stood out was that E.J. Baxter (Kristin Chenoweth) and Will Albrecht (Josh Hopkins) were slicing each other up into ribbons ever since they met, but during the last 30 minutes or so, they found out they liked each other and fall in love, or something like that anyway (surprise!). So with the right mixture of improbabilities and copycat ideas, we produce this movie called "12 Men of Christmas" (why Christmas anyway - unless referring to the general period in which things took place). If trying to place a happy, hopeful feeling about the season, well, this movie failed to get that feeling moving - it was pretty banal and hum-drum. I felt suddenly empty and missing something.

As for the rest, you find yourself really stretching imagination a bit here to understand how they created a wannabe feel-good story that doesn't leave anything to think about, cherish, comment on, criticize constructively, or learn something for posterity's sake, if nothing more. There was nothing noted in the acting either, usual lame not-good not-bad stuff.

Honestly, I watched this one because I had nothing better to do, and I was enjoying my supper meanwhile. MY supper, how was it? Good! This movie, 12 Men of Christmas? Are you kiddin'?

Not a great movie, but not bad.

Entertaining, lots of hunky guys.

The plot is weak, the acting for the most part is adequate. But on the whole it is a watchable movie.

My advice: go ahead and watch it, you will enjoy it.

This movie had sassy written all over it, but yet I sat through it till the very end.

The story told in "Twelve Men of Christmas" is right out of the academy of clichés; a corporate high-end New York woman going to a small town in Montana to get away, and here she ends up taking advantage of all her skill she acquired in New York, in order to raise funds for the local search and rescue crew. Alrighty then, not really believable, but still a movie came from it. The story is, of course, the type of story that you have figured out the course it will take and how it will end right from the beginning. So no big surprise there!

As for the cast and acting, well I can't really say that it was bad. I found the cast to actually be good enough, though I haven't really seen any of the faces before (and the head of Kristin Chenoweth is kind of hard to get around), though I seem to recall having seen Josh Hopkins somewhere before, though I can't recall where exactly. Josh was actually the most memorable of all people in the movie here.

The setting of the movie was fantastic. Really nice and beautiful scenery, nature, and an idyllic town setting. That was so nice to look at.

There were a couple of times throughout the movie where the movie might have actually become funny, but it never shined through. It was always just brooding beneath the surface. But of course, this wasn't really a comedy.

Despite it being a super predictable movie, I still found "Twelve Men of Christmas" to be good enough entertainment, though you have to fight your way through a tsunami of sassyness along the way. But ultimately, I was entertained, but I doubt that I will be returning to the movie for a second watching, ever. This is the type of movie that will go well with women with big romantic hearts and suckers for sassy movies.

Oh, and before I forgot. I noticed the coolest blooper ever in this movie. If you manage to sit through the movie, take a good look at the drummer in the background at the pre-launch party for the calender. He goes crazy at the drums at a certain time, and it doesn't even match the drumming sounds from the actual music playing. But wait, it gets better. The guy isn't even hitting the drums, hi-hats or cymbals, he is just drumming in midair, and it is so obviously clear to see. I had to go back in the movie to watch it a second time, it was just that priceless. Hilarious stuff right there.

Have actually seen a fair share of Hallmark Christmas films that have been surprisingly good and more, so they are absolutely capable of having a good film in them, hence why they keep getting watched by me. Despite giving '12 Men of Christmas' a mediocre rating and am going to give it a fairly lukewarm review, it did have some potential even if expectations weren't entirely high because of the casting of Kristen Chenoweth (a big singing inspiration of mine).

'12 Men of Christmas' is neither one of the hits or one of the misses. There are definitely worse Christmas films from Hallmark, as it just about misses being in the mediocre at best or dud category, but there are also better as it is not quite surprisingly good level or particularly good. '12 Men of Christmas' is one of the just about semi- watchable in between films of theirs, but to me for a one time watch only for completest sake and for Chenoweth.

There are good things here. Chenoweth sparkles in her role, wasn't crazy about her character but Chenoweth gamely brings effervescent charm to her. Josh Hopkins is also charming and their chemistry is natural and sweet. Actually did think on the whole that the acting wasn't bad at all considering what was given to the cast.

Also thought the production values were very nice to look at, especially the scenery which is beautiful. The music is pleasantly festive.

On the other hand, '12 Men of Christmas' isn't particularly good. The biggest strike against it is the story, which is formulaic (due to almost every recognisable Hallmark cliche in the book, or at least that's how it feels like, and with no freshness) and painfully unrealistic to a quite silly degree. Did think too that some of what happens was forced and actually could have been left out and felt like filler. While thinking that the cast was game, the characters weren't well fleshed out.

More tired variation of familiar character types, and either bored or irritated. The male roles are all one dimensional and Chenoweth's character's quirks can be overdone. The fish out of water aspect was too alien from space randomly inserted in a location like. Furthermore, the dialogue goes well overboard with the cheese factor and comes over as really dumb and childish. As well as quite stilted. There is a lack of warmth and heart, which is all lost underneath all the silliness and contrivances, while there is absolutely no doubt how things will end and in a way that even for that ending feels too tidy.

Concluding, didn't do very much for me in spite of Chenoweth. 4/10.