By Catherine Engstrom-Hadley
Staff Writer
The hallmark channel may have started the TV Christmas movie trend with their “Countdown to Christmas”, but over the last few years Netflix has taken over as the new holiday cheer (or cheese) makers. With Netflix delivering over twenty-five Christmas movies to choose from, we whittled it down to the top four must see sugary sweet Christmas movies out this year.
The Holiday Calendar
Abby Stutton (Kat Graham), a struggling photographer who lives in New Jersey is gifted an advent calendar from her grandfather (This Is Us’s Ron Cephas Jones). Each morning the calendar opens up with a new ornament that predicts the events of the day and bring romance and mischief into her life. She meets a handsome doctor Ty (Ethan Peck) and it seems the calendar is pulling her into a dream romance. Meanwhile, her lifelong friend Josh (Quincy Brown) has moved back to town after traveling the world for his photography. While Ty is a picture-perfect romance, has Josh been the one all along?
This movie is a warm holiday romance featuring a diverse cast and a decent soundtrack. Songs like “Send My Baby Home” by Andy Powell and “Christmas in the City” by David Ayers make Netflix Christmas Movie Reviews the soundtrack stand out from the crowd of basic Christmas jingles. Ron Cephas Jones gives a great performance as the wise and possibly magical grandfather. The plot is very predictable, and the dialogue is stilted throughout the movie. This movie is best for someone looking for a fun, easy romance movie for the holidays.
The Princess Switch
Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens) is a baker from Chicago. Still recovering from a bad break up, her business partner Kevin (Nick Sagar) and his daughter sign Stacy up for a baking competition in Belgravia, a far-off country that is ecstatic about Christmas. Stacy bumps into Margaret, the duchess of Montenaro, and shocked by how similar they look. They agree to have tea later that day. The duchess suggests they swap so she can experience normal life and Stacy can enjoy two days of relaxing in the palace. Of course, nothing goes to plan, and love is in the air for the two doppelgangers.
The Princess Switch may be another modern retelling of The Prince and The Pauper, but the spin makes it enjoyable enough. Try as she might, the British accent Vanessa Hudgens gave is at best mediocre. The dialogue can be laughably predicable, for instance when the daughter yells “kiss her daddy!” and ends the movie. Princes from faraway kingdoms love clumsy, but charming American girls. Who can blame them? If you like cheesy romance, or you loved Parent Trap, you will love this.
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding
Amber (Rose McIver of the CW’s iZombie) a journalist turned blogger and the now King Richard of Aldovia (Ben Lamb of The White Queen) are back for the royal wedding. The sequel to last years A Christmas Prince, Amber is up against the rigid kingdom wedding planners trying to control her wedding and her career. King Richard is trying to deal with the crashing economy of Aldovia, now struggling from initiatives he created. Will the wedding be a royal affair with no heart? Will the spirit of Christmas help uncover the secrets to fixing Aldovias economy?
Again, the endearingly awkward American girl falls for a foreign prince. A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding attempts to mirror real life events for American turned duchess Meghan Markle, with the added twist of a country in peril. This sequel has extra cheese but is still a fun holiday watch. My only question after watching this was, what kind of monster gets married on Christmas?
The Christmas Chronicles
Katie Cat (Darby Camp) and her brother Teddy (Judah Lewis) are both coping with the sudden loss of their firefighter father. The two siblings hatch a plan to catch Santa on film after seeing a glimpse of him on an old family recording. But things go haywire and they end up crashing Santa’s (Kurt Russel) sleigh. The trio must band together to save the Christmas spirit.
Kurt Russel plays a sassy, sexy Santa who brings down the jail house in a great rendition of “It’s Christmas Time Pretty Baby,”. While the children have a slightly predictable narrative, Russel did a good job at reimagining Saint Nick. When people point out he doesn’t look exactly like the Santa they imagine, he retorts with “The billboards add 80 pounds!”. Although it is marketed as a family movie, it does have a lot of the markings of a darker, more adult movie. At one point a gang has Santa’s sack of toys and a group of elves attacks them, Santa spends some time at a jail, and a few car break-ins happen. The title, The Christmas Chronicles, hints that we may get another visit from sexy Santa next year.
