A Christmas Star

The story is alright, but the real gem is the surprise celebrity cameos. They are really big names and I wonder how the filmmakers managed to get the big names to appear in the film!

I believe that some of the people who worked on this film may have actually been trying, and good on them, but this is just lazy film making. It feels so fake and I watched it with my 4 year old cousin and she was bored the entire time. It gets it's points across in the most on the nose way possible, and it is honestly just awful. I don't want to slander anyone who makes movies and is trying to create art, but this movie should not have been made. Whoever had the most creative control should be ashamed.

Based on some of other reviews, I first watched this in 2017 or so, and I'm glad I did. I've watched it every year since. I have no idea why the overall rating is poor. I just changed mine from 8 to 9 to help!

The acting was good - children and adults - the scenery's lovely, and the story is real. There is some ugliness spoken, but it all gets resolved. I heartily recommend this movie to anyone - please give it a try, and rate it! It may be best for ages 8-9 and up, since there's not much action or shiny things for small tots. If you like this, also see Journey to the Christmas Star (Norway).

A Christmas Star (2015) -

Noelle played by Erin Galway-Kendrick was the real star of this film. She was the only one, in a cast of supposedly good actors, that could actually deliver.

Robert James Collier was not the leading man the credits would have had me believe. He was also awful and his accent was all over the place. He was so false and the "Junior" thing with his son got really gross, really quickly.

And Pierce Brosnan was worse than he was in 'Mamma Mia!' (2008), but at least he didn't sing in this one.

I suppose that the only saving grace, apart from Erin, was Liam Neeson as the Narrator/Radio DJ, but I did have to wonder why he and Pierce would ever lend their names to a production like this. I was also very disappointed with Kylie Minogue and Dermot O'Leary for agreeing to be in it. Neither of their cameos were impressive or even that necessary.

The story itself, was very old fashioned, making the people of Ireland look backwards and out of touch and most of it was contrived, far fetched and forced. Not to mention that the whole factory take over thing had been done many times before and much better. It didn't even feel like a budget TV production, it just felt cheap.

It was really unclear what the random numbers that kept appearing in baubles were too, but it turned out it was the date.

They tried to end with a feel good moment, like that of 'Nativity!' (2009), but failed terribly, because it was just a bit confused and out of nowhere, all of a sudden. It didn't help that it was so bad that I wished that I hadn't bothered, so by the time it did get to the end, I was just desperately waiting for the credits to roll.

I've definitely turned off better than this.

Never to be watched again, I will never see that time again and I might actually sue the producers for compensation.

It was so bad!

1/10.

For a low-budget film that uses a lot of non-professionals, this is a really good film.

A pleasing plot. Very neat.

And the children are great actors.

I'm glad I watched it. I almost didn't - because of the low rating.

I had watched a big-budget children's film before it and that had the same rating. I gave it a 4. It was dire.

This film, however, is so much better.

No special effects, no professional child actors, but just so much better.