Die 12 Weihnachts-Dates

Don't get me wrong - I was expecting a complete rip-off of Groundhog Day with Amy Smart as the protagonist, reliving Christmas Eve & all the complications of rekindling an ex-love, a blind date as well as other friendships along the way. It worked better than expected and Amy Smart's natural sassiness & upbeat acting gave it a lot of positivity. What I think the film was missing, was just a depth of character in the feelings and conversations which worked so well in Groundhog Day, especially in the secondary characters. Even so - not a bad try and worth a watch. The all-round acting was good so will appeal to most people.

No Spoilers:

Before I say these mean things allow me to first point out that the movie was pretty enjoyable and if you are looking for a light easy holiday movie and have already burnt through all the really good ones, then go ahead and watch this. It isn't bad, just not deserving of "really good" or "great". It is actually a little good. 5/10 would be "just okay", which is why I'm giving it a 6/10, because it wasn't boring and did make me smile some.

In the beginning of the film they showed her as being very shallow. They made the mistake of never showing her as having wised up. She continued to be shallow through to the end. Yes she wizened a little, but not enough.

The movie never really gets deep enough to allow Amy Smart to show off her acting skills (she is a proven good actor). Not much of anything very heartfelt happens. No tears shed. No real feeling of caring for the characters.

Some of the plot feels a bit carelessly thrown together as if with a mindset of "yeah this will fill in the basic romcom blueprint good enough".

Felt like another movie training people to think that everyone is mystically fated for "the one" and that marriage is everything. Ironically it actually tries, for a brief moment, to suggest that her obsession with marriage instead of enjoying the day was the cause of some of her past problems.

Anyways. I kind of enjoyed it, but it felt shallow like the main character.

This ABC family Christmas movie is better than some of the recent Hallmark holiday movies. The writing is sharper and the cast is likable - more A list for TV than usual. The Groundhog Day formula has been used in TV movies sometimes unsuccessfully, but here they got the right elements of Groundhog. Each repeated day is different enough and builds upon the last with sufficient humor and inventiveness. A young lady pining for her ex is set up on a blind date.

Amy Smart has enough vitality without being annoying and she pulls the role off quite well. Mark Paul Gosselaar is a likable enough romantic lead.

If you have to pick one Christmas movie to watch this one is okay.

Might as well get the "G" word out of the way up front, as this likable Christmas TV movie shamelessly groundhogs its main plot device from a better-known earlier movie, the two twists being that this time it affects a female and that it occurs (or should that be recurs?) on Christmas Eve.

Amy Smart is the girl whose Christmas Day can't get started after a Christmas Eve fall in a department store sees her day rewind every time the clock strikes twelve. From there we see her make the anticipated journey from a truculent self-obsessive who won't accept her new step-mom, creeps out her ex-boyfriend who's obviously moved on from her and finally rudely walks out of a blind date with a handsome young widower to a regular Christmas angel who rights the lives of everyone she bumps into before finally making up with them all, including the guy as she finally gets past her twelve days of Christmas spell.

Smart is amiable in the lead part, a lightweight cross between Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Anniston and the circular time motif is deftly handled even if some of the situations she resolves are more sugary than a cane plantation.

Nicely shot around New York in bright December sun-light, this was an attractive, undemanding, feel-good Christmas movie worth seeing once, but just the once!

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 (C H R I S T M A S ) MOVIES AND SPECIALS.

SO PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME REVIEWERS THAT ONLY HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I REVIEW MOVIES & SPECIALS AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN! I HAVE DISCOVERED MANY GEMS IN MY QUEST TO SEE AS MANY " C H R I S T M A S " MOVIES AS I CAN.

In this film Amy Smart plays Kate. The character finds herself reliving Christmas Eve (including a blind date with a man named Miles) over and over again. She must discover how to break the cycle – should she attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend Jack, or should she pursue Miles, or something else?

I love everything this movie did. I love the fact when Kate realizes that "she will relive the same day over and over again" she decides to feast on every dessert imaginable.

This film also had lots of heart and its one of the better Christmas films. I will watch this again.