Holiday High School Reunion

This movie is probably the WORST Christmas movie I've ever seen and I've seen Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The basic story-line combines a Christmas theme with a 10 year high school reunion. Rachel Boston as Georgia Hunt, our heroine is an assistant at a fashion house rather than the designer she's told her old class-mates. In high school she was voted most likely to succeed, was head cheerleader and an award winning soloist in the Glee Club. She broke up with her football player boyfriend at the prom because she though he was cheating on her. All through high school her best buddy was an arty guy who clearly had a crush on her that she was too oblivious to realize.

The nerdy high school guy still has his crush and she's still just as oblivious. The writing of this drek was so bad that I was continually cringing in embarrassment for the actors. Particularly poor Harry Hamlin. There are four musical numbers that are so painful to watch that I wasn't able to make it through any of them without fast forwarding. Jonathan Bennett plays Ben Oliver, and he made his scenes watchable but if it weren't for him I'd have given up on the film 30 minutes in.

To add insult to injury, the NetFlix version of this movie appears to have had some song substitutions, Most likely as an economy measure. It was kinda weird in the final scene where smitten guy is dancing with popular girl, to be hearing Auld Lang Syne while seeing the lyrics of Israel "Iz" Ka'ano'i Kamakawiwo'Ole's medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" on screen.

There aren't words to describe how terrible this movie is. In every way. On every level. I can't.

There is really nothing good about this movie besides the attractive cast.

The writing is juvenile, active is terrible, the plot is very shallow and predictable, even the soundtrack is just awful.

As a play or a parody this movie can work, although not extreme enough to be considered a parody.

Even though all of the characters are 30 years old, they behave as if they are still in high school, they also didn't even bother to make the cast look any different in the flashback scenes, which made the entire thing very confusing since their adult self behave the same as their your counterparts.

Rachel Boston is one of my favorite actresses. In watching this movie, and remembering a couple of others years back, I realized that much of my appreciation for Boston is based on her more recent romantic and Christmas movies like you find on Hallmark and 2018 on Lifetime. If this were the first movie I ever saw her in I might never have watched another.

My first impression of Georgia is Loser. (I was tempted to write Loser in all caps, but I know that's a no-no.) Absolutely everything she does and what happens to her in the first half or so of the movie is textbook Loser. And she just keeps on reinforcing that impression.

One reviewer says this movie is an insult to women and I agree. All the female characters except Beverly are extremely shallow, narcissistic and even mean. This movie could not be made in 2018 or 2019. Hopefully never again.

I suspect and hope that much of this movie is satire. That means that normal standards for acting and character behavior can't be applied. The evaluation has to shift to how funny it is and whether the satire hits its target. I didn't find the movie funny, but I've never been a fan of satire. Likewise, I feel unqualified to judge whether it hit it's target.

Hope springs at almost exactly the halfway point of the movie where Georgia and Ben are in the music room, but that is soon crushed by Georgia's stupidity reinforcing her Loser title and things are up and down until the end.

Toward the end, Georgia's mother and Georgia try to make it out like Georgia is on the high road, but her behavior to that point certainly doesn't support that. It really fell flat. The Georgia of the last part of the movie is not the same person as the first half or more and that is far more than her just having an epiphany.

There are several musical numbers including both song and dance. Boston (I'll assume that's her and not voice over) does a credible job, at least on one number, but O Holy Night was not a good choice for her ability. It wasn't bad, but I just don't think she did the song justice.

This is a very predictable and often used plot for a Romantic movie. This movie has NOTHING to do with Christmas. On Netflix this is titled "Christmas Crush". Don't fall for it.