Hot Chocolate Holiday

Hot Chocolate Christmas/Holiday (2020) -

My opinion of this film was probably skewed by the fact that Jonny Swenson in the lead male role of Marcus was absolutely adorable. The face, those eyes and that smile - Swoon! With a bit of work he might even be able to learn to act too. He wasn't the worst by a mile, but he needed a better director, bless him.

The character of Frank Banner was very odd though, as if they had dubbed his voice afterwards and not considered how weird it was and Colette's Mother was a tad special too, like something from a cartoon rather than reality, which this film mostly seemed to be otherwise.

I liked the slightly different storyline and the friend dynamics. Sometimes having too many other characters can take away from the main romance, but they really bolstered things in this film.

I could see the appeal in Marcus from the off, but I needed her to calm down before I started to think that Colette might be worthy of him and when she realised that she had been a crazy lady it definitely got easier to believe that they might be falling for each other.

The film was full of Christmas and mostly cheerful. Jonny's smile really was so charming that you couldn't help but want him to succeed, even with the occasional bad line delivery and in the end, even she wasn't so obnoxious that I wanted her to fall flat on her face.

6/10.

I lost count. They must have said Hot Chocolate 60 or 70 times in this lame movie. Very irritating. Absurd premise. The usual empty cup syndrome. The cups are clearly empty and every time, they tilt the cup 2/3 of the way back for their 1st sip of a very hot drink. Do none of these people have common sense??? Didn't care for for the lead actress.

A harmless movie but an absurd one.

The actors and actresses are not regulars in this genre, but they give a decent performance. The script is not bad, it's not full of sickly sweet dialog and boring talk of traditions. The leads have chemistry and the plot isn't full of supernatural twists. In the end it's believable, not full of fake contrivances.

Until 30 minutes of the movie is past, Collete is picking a fight with her new neighbor Marcus because she thinks he stole her Grandma's hot chocolate recipe. Then like so many of these movies, her animosity just goes away and for the rest of the movie she is bending over backwards for him in several ways. It's true that at about the halfway point something unexpected happens which would explain some of her change in attitude if she hadn't already started softening. Actually, one unexpected thing and then soon after a twist which some viewers might have seen coming.

It looks like one of the most common sources of conflict in these movies is about to happen, but it doesn't, so after the initial animosity, there is almost no tension between the leads. The chemistry is so-so. As a result of all this, the last part of the movie is flat, both the story and the romance.

Realism is not expected in Christmas rom/coms so I won't even go into the myriads of ridiculous things that happen but just a hint on some - health codes.

I went into this figuring I'd shut it off after 15 minutes. I've found myself doing that with several Hallmark movies this holiday season, much to my dismay. They did a good job casting the male lead. He's gorgeous and his acting wasn't awful. I'm surprised at the negative reviews on here. The female lead was a bit stiff but not awful. I sensed more attraction on her character's end than on his, which shouldn't have been the case. There was chemistry just not as much as there should've been. My goodness when the male lead smiles though, I can forgive a lot. Hallmark needs to cast better looking actors tbh and give their male characters better personalities, because I haven't been able to enjoy most of their movies this season. Their male leads are either unattractive or their characters personalities come off almost toxic to me. That's why I have been giving other networks a chance this holiday season and have been pleasantly surprised. Anways, I enjoyed this movie. I didn't love it, but I haven't loved any movies this season. Still, it was an enjoyable watch.