A Hollywood Christmas

I enjoy a cheesy bad Christmas movie, but this one went too far with force-feeding you the "formula." I think if the writers took out the role of the PA spelling out the analogy between the Director's real-life interactions and the happy-ending Christmas movies then it could have really saved the movie. I hate it when scripts are too on-the-nose and GOD that assistants voice was annoying which only made it more excruciating. I think in any real life scenario, if someone behaved like that regarding another persons love life it would have immediately shut down any chance of romance. The second-hand embarrassment I got from her pointing out the chemistry in an unnatural way was out of control. I didn't hate the acting, which is typically the issue with these types of movies, but I couldn't get past how much they shoved the plot in your face. Let me live in the fantasy that the characters have no idea they will have their predictable happily ever after.

I have read a couple of reviews for this movie where they obviously didn't get that this is a deliberately awful movie encased in a deliberately cheesy Christmas movie. I admit that the first ten minutes were going hard until I realised the intentional cheesiness, and also thought that Anissa Borrego's fake voice was wonderfully awful, until I realised it was her real voice, I'm so sorry! This is simply a comedic look at Christmas movies, but done in an interesting way. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but when you realise how over the top it is you've got to find it funny. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it.

We love bad, formulaic Christmas movies, and this is a movie about making one of those bad, formulaic Christmas movies while (mostly) following the formula itself. It's so meta lol!

It was fun to watch and the people leaving low rating reviews don't get that it is SUPPOSED to be a movie that doesn't take itself seriously with bad writing and "flat" acting! The acting actually is great, especially the actors playing the a lead actors in the "movie." It makes fun of itself multiple times, albeit subtly sometimes.

If you realize what this movie is before you watch it, you'll enjoy it that much more!

Christmas in the summer. You can enjoy 2 different Christamas movies in a shot. A bit childish to be honest, but totally agree to the protagonist's line that Christmas was her safe space. That she does this because had chosen the job, not just because it was her next step on "wherever my skills take me" unexpectedly inspired me, the quote I needed just at the right time. A few lines survived... but it still has a 90 minutes worth of Christmas vibe we love!

P. S. But I guarantee this could be done much better than this... maybe the budget cut in the movie is a metaphor of the movie itself...? Maybe or maybe not.

As someone who has watched dozens of these Hallmark Christmas movies (ok, been in the same room while the wife has watched them), I thought this idea had promise; unfortunately this movie just didn't deliver. The writing was flat, and the acting wasn't any better. Honestly, this should have been on the Hallmark Channel. For HBO to release this seems hard to believe. The lead actors seemed wildly miscast. The character of Reena, who played the perpetually optimistic sidekick, was about the only good thing about the movie. I was honestly disappointed to see the always fun to watch Missy Pyle in this. This could have, and should have been much better.