Weihnachten ahoi!

There are some typical themes in this story but also some fresh angles. An investigative reporter has a dream to do a human interest story so we have a fairly usual quest for the story. But the setting is a Navy carrier and her personal backstory as a Navy brat folds into the larger story. There are echoes of the earlier Christmas movie "Operation Christmas" which is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. Maddie faces similar concerns as Olivia did in the other movie, but for Maddie the concerns are more first hand.

Jen Lilly and Trevor Donavan have chemistry from the first wine spill. Even as each of their characters hesitates, they are still comfortable with each other. The obligatory sparring is never mean spirited. Maddie and Billy's relationship is fun as they chase a mystery together.

The mystery is never really one for the viewer to solve because the details have to be pursued by the reporter and her helpers. But that story folds into Maddie and Billy's story in a heartwarming way. There are several other heartwarming moments even before we learn the outcome of the story.

A little like the old JAG TV show, military honor and service are idealized, but not overly so.

Please, if you found discrepancies in military protocol or other factual issues, remember that this is not a documentary and it doesn't seem like rigid accuracy was the goal of the people making the movie. These movies are only a few steps removed from Fantasy or SciFi in terms of realism.

There is a cute little Walt Disney book titled "Button Soup" It is a 1975 Disney's Wonderful World of Reading storybook featuring Daisy Duck and Scrooge McDuck. In this book, Daisy tricks her stingy Uncle Scrooge into making enough soup for the whole town -- using just one button.

Using a similar approach to the Disney book "Button Soup" a pretty writer named Maddie Contino (Jen Lilley) begrudgingly agrees to go on what's called a Tiger Cruise with her mother Elizabeth (Barbara Niven). A Tiger Cruise allows a naval officer to take their family to work and in this case Maddie's sister is stationed as a fighter pilot named Lt. Amelia Breslin (Stefanie Butler) on a ship. Lt. Amelia Breslin, her sister Maddie, and their mom Elizabeth receive a dinner invitation from the ship's captain who invites his own son, Lt. Billy Jenkins (Trevor Donovan) to join them for dinner and reminisce about Christmas's past when the ships Captain Chet Jenkins (Brett Rice) used to work alongside Maddie and Amelia's father who is now deceased. As Captain Jenkins discusses the very first Tiger Cruise he lights a spark in Maddie's desire to write about a long forgotten romance of a couple who first met on that very first Tiger cruise.

Captain Jenkins assigns his good looking fighter pilot son Billy to assist Maddie in researching her story by accessing the ships archives, and Billy initially wants nothing to do with Maddie's research or with the Christmas spirit. But as luck would have it, with every stone Maddie over turns (just like in the 1975 Disney book Button Soup) she draws the unwilling Billy closer and closer into the research and into falling in love with one another.

Maddie and Billy's research leads to good things happening which I don't want to divulge and ruin it for any interested viewers but suffice to say the story took a lot of hard work, push and pull, and convincing but all works out in the end for all parties.

I give USS Christmas a decent 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

In the archive room Billy sees a photo of what I believe was the A1 Skyraider but he identifies it as a B-29. Other than that, I enjoyed this one more than most. But I'm a sucker for anything that flies. Some cool footage of the cats at work.

Although he starts out quite gruff at the beginning, it's easy to see how he mellows throughout the film, thus proving that Trevor Donovan is not only gorgeous, but a good actor too. I've seen a lot of these films lately and quite often the actors haven't been able or directed to get this change from "Grinch" to "Santa" to flow naturally and as a result they have seemed highly unlikely to have that crucial change of heart that the formula of every Made For TV Christmas Film demands and some of them are just downright horrible. She annoyed me a bit though, I'd have dragged him off to a room alone somewhere after the first meeting.

It's a cute story, although it is just a variation on the theme, but it is nice to see a different setting this time, even if they do still end up in New York. The idea of a Navy ship was clever and they didn't go over the top with the "We must honour our troops" thing.

I may be biased because Trevor looked so good in uniform and in Black Tie, but I did like this one and I look forward to watching it again next Christmas preferably before February, but there are so many to watch aren't there.

6/10 - following the new trend of mixing a new and old romance, this Hallmark flick is pleasing if forgettable