L'amour et ses astuces

LOVE HACKS is a charming, fun flick that is head and shoulders above the usual Hallmark romance stuff out there. Well produced on a tiny budget, it benefits from a good script and an appealing, diverse cast. I especially liked Annie Clark in the lead. I've never seen her in anything else but I'll keep an eye out for her.

The story takes the 'Shop Around The Corner/You've Got Mail' concept of two characters falling in love with their ideas about love rather than their outward personalities and gives it a new twist by having the two main characters collaborate on a relationship saving podcast. The idea of dealing with existing couples is a good one because it allows the writer and performers to explore some fresh and fun terrain.

I'm a big fan of TV romance movies and have watched a LOT of them of late, but the premise of LOVE HACKS really stood out to me. I absolutely loved the concept of two people working together on a romance-related podcast. It felt modern and fresh and I thought the interaction with the couples they were interviewing was executed well. The New York-based setting elevated the story for me, and Annie Clark as Sam and Romaine Waite as Josh worked very well as the leads. Loved seeing such a diverse cast and thought the two of them had excellent chemistry. Overall, tight writing, interesting cast and a thorougly enjoyable watch.

Love Hacks is a fun and playful romcom focusing on Josh and Sam who are thrown together to make a podcast on couples who need a major shake-up in their relationship. What follows is a fun deep dive into a three other couples who are facing challenges in their romantic lives.

The film is full of warmth, humour and hope. Everything you'd expect from the fuzzy feeling Reel One romcom formula.

My favourite performance comes from Kimberly-Ann Truong who plays Ness. Kimberly-Ann is making quite a name for herself in lots of other great Reel One films.

Love Hacks is really worth a worth. Fun for all the family!

Another day and another mediocre Reel One Entertainment TV movie which takes place in NYC but it was obviously shot in Hamilton, Canada like so many their movies, so they have to use stock footage to fool viewers but they actually didn't overuse. This one has the new bad trend trend in ROE TV movies - they used at least twice green screen for a few seconds to fake Manhattan in the background. The good news it doesn't suffer from the poor audio production, bad cuts, bad makeups and obnoxiously loud background music when cast speak or talk. Music score was barely passable.

This is the first time I watched Annie Clark, and she was convincing but atrocious writing killed her character. She played Sam, self-centered, my way or highway obnoxious millenial clown. Clown could sound a bit of harsh but in Act I Sam actually said that to her boyfriend for Josh who actually heard it. There are more scenes when she acted at least unprofessional so in the late Act II Josh actually said to her everything bad and rude she has done to him right to her face.

Of course, you already ask "Where is romance in this movie"? Well yes, there is some romance between supporting cast and obviously zero between leads but here comes the spin - for no reason at all, they decided to like each other, you guess, in the grand finale at the end. I simply can't believe how atrocious writing is!

I feel sorry for the cast as the writing killed it.

As this is ROE and for some reason(s) their every trailer shows compressed whole movie, you can save your valuable free time for something better.