Christmas at the Royal Hotel

Putting together a period piece war drama on a micro budget is no easy task, but that's exactly what Craig McCourry and his crew pulled off.

A small, intimate story set against the backdrop of the biggest war the world would ever know. The production values are a big win for this film. I was amazed at how they were able to put together the world of these people's lives, circa 1941, with costumes and sets to match, on the kind of budget that often would only result in a running through the woods in modern day type of film. When you consider much of the movie was filmed in just a living room, repurposed to be different parts of a historic hotel, then you really have to admire how an indie crew could create from the bottom up what I would expect to see from a bigger budget History Channel production.

Story wise, it's not often that we see the lens focused on the regular people just trying to live their lives when suddenly thrown into such an overwhelming and precarious vet instanced beyond their control. We've all seen the kinds of war movies with epic battles on the beaches or the plucky gang of misfits storming the stronghold. I give a lot of credit to this movie showing us a bit of what it must have been like to try to keep a sense of normalcy while disaster looms just over the horizon. Nice performances from the whole ensemble cast of up and coming, Hong Kong based actors and actresses. I really hope this movie makes onto screens around the world.

Whilst understanding that this is a low budget film about an epic event in history, the acting, costumes, dialog and scenes needed substantial improvement to be realistic. The Canadian and British uniforms have no rank badges and the tan shirts and shorts look like they were purchased at Walmart. The Colonel does not have red tabs or the correct cap for the period. I don't think this film helps remembrance of the sacrifice of Canadian forces in the forlorn defense of Hong Kong.

..which was that this is a horribly low budget affair, bad script, inarticulate direction with a lack of knowledge about how to tell a period piece accurately, and the acting was just..... questionable to say the least. Possibly a decent story lurking underneath the mess, but I can't say I'll bother to find out.

Honest and earnest, but light on fact and substance. The two female leads are easy on the eye but heavy going in the acting compartment. As others mention, the absence of insignia of rank, both British and Canadian, is glaringly and surprisingly careless and obvious. Scenes are largely confined to a telephone or switchboard, so nothing dynamic here. Very few outside scenes and most of those are night-time. The Chinese accents were all British I believe, and not a single hint of Hong Kong or Cantonese was to be seen or heard, nor did I hear any Canadian accent except in the Winnipeg scene - as I say, received British predominated. Well I stuck it out and in the end give it a generous 6, failing to understand how it has achieved almost.

This looks like a homemade film. Poorly directed and poor acting. As every movie nowadays historical accuracy is thrown out the window. From lycra boxer shorts in the 1940's to africans in china at that time this home video is what you'd expect from this day in age. If none of what I said deters you then I hope you enjoy it. I couldn't watch it