Christmas on Duty

I have liked Janel Parrish in other TV movies. This time, I feel she has been awfully, poorly miscast as the military soldier/captain Blair. It begins with the scene where she, all smoothed and painted and looking like the smallest doll of a matroska set, competes in an army training obstacle course with Josh, an athletic looking guy who is twice her size. Whether she could, herself, believe it real that she would beat him, even if he had let her, is outlandish. Then she carries on for half the movie as an unpleasant, arrogant, bitchy brat, somehow instantly recovering loving, feminine qualities at the end, the role she could play credibly.

The plot offers a series of mishaps, some a bit farcical, in the hope to lighten the general tone. The ending shovels the expected romantic connection, and some cliché Christmas spirit.

Not very convincing is the immediate conversion of the hateful, stubborn respective fathers.

The attention to details is a bit erratic. E.g., Blair starts the truck journey sporting heavily painted lips, at times deeply maroon, yet, in the middle of the trip, at the second warehouse stop, her lips are pale pink, almost natural, just to magically revert to the original dark shade later on.

In summary, while the original concept was quite original, the execution lacks real substance and appears even awkward at times.

On the plus side, there are some gentle moments, the movie is clean and family friendly. An overall watchable holidays movie that I would not want to watch again.

And it dosnt improve. Its just acting by numbers. Your school kids could do better. But its hallmark, they should be re titled to boremark. Its o.k if you dont value your time and want to get drunk watching it, because thatll be the only time its bareable. Poor writing, casting, acting, direction. Its as though its a training school of trying to learn how to do things correctly. And this one failed. Anyone who scored it over 2 or 3 are friends and family, or desperate cheese lovers.

I found this movie to be so cute and entertaining. I really liked the military angle, I thought it was super unique and the writer had some really creative takes on how to make this cute and fun for the holiday season. Also the leads were great together! Definitely recommend for a sweet, feel good holiday film!

Two of my favorite Christmas movies are Operation Christmas and Holiday for Heroes. This is not either one of those. It is a kind of counterpoint to them in that it draws on the sentimental desire for military kids to have a good Christmas, but in a goofy way.

I don't think any viewer expected any surprises. You know things won't go smoothly.

This really isn't my kind of Christmas movie, but I thought it achieved what it set out to do. I especially didn't like that both leads started out unlikeable especially Blair. This movie falls into the pitfall of so many that start out that way because Blair became likeable suddenly not gradually.

The acting is about right for this kind of humor. Likewise the dialogue. Did the leads have chemistry? I didn't really see it as it took too long for the characters to bridge their gap and their rivalry had an edge to it.

7.3 stars.

This is not a bad movie, not sure why the low overall rating. A lot of reviewers really liked it.

The atmosphere is a Christmasy road-trip romance between two army captains. They are on a mission to buy a bunch of toys and deliver them to children in their hometown for Christmas. All roads are snowed-in and deliveries are delayed and the only way to get the toys to the town is to requisition a large military truck, able to drive through thick snow, and load it with toys from toy stores that still have them in stock.

The captains end up driving all Christmas Eve through the night and into Christmas morning to accomplish the task, and in the meantime they spark a romance (this is Hallmark after all).

The backstory is that their fathers did not get along and it was looking like the apples didn't fall far from the trees for these two either; but the love birds rewrite their family story (after a few initial hiccups) and the romance is on.

I really like the setting as most of it takes place on the road in the cab of this five ton army truck. She drives and he navigates as they share good conversations. Along the way they attend a parade and a party, and the truck breaks down...all familiar tropes for Hallmark fare. On the other hand, something about the mood captures the essence of Christmas.

This is a feel-good film, not spectacular, but sufficiently enjoyable for a once-over.