Christmas with a Prince

Love Christmas with all my heart. Love the fun and nostalgia it brings, and cherish all the time spent with family and friends every year. Recently wanted to see some different and new Christmas films released in 2018 and 2019 to stretch my horizons beyond the ones traditionally watched every year. Feelings have been extremely mixed doing this and even when trying to take them for what they're meant to be some have been lacking (though there have been some surprisingly good ones too).

'Christmas with a Prince' was one of those that was lacking, am saying this with a heavy having always made it a duty of mine. There are certainly far worse festive films out there and it is not even one of the very worst seen as part of my quest. Generally though it was towards the lesser end, with its moments but with a lot done badly. One expects cheese and schmaltz from reading the premise alone but not both excessively done and balanced poorly, or almost everything handled in a near-amateurish manner.

Sure, there are moments. The scenery is lovely to look at. The music captures the festive spirit with great affection, although some of the placement was questionable.

There are a few amusing moments and a few very cute ones.

Unfortunately the scenery was not properly done justice, suggestive of somebody behind the camera that had too much to drink on a long night out. The direction is some of the most disorganised and leaden for any film seen recently and of all the recently seen Christmas films, clearly having no idea what to do with the story and the direction of the actors.

Likewise, the script has no tension or emotional connection and is ruined by an overload of the cheesiest of cheese and equally excessive difficult to stomach sentimentality. The chemistry between the actors, especially the two leads, is so disconnected and the story jumps around and is so dreary and predictable not to mention jawdrop inducing daft. None of the characters are worth identifying with and actually found myself irritated by them, especially the doctor. Nobody looks comfortable in their roles and either over-compensate or don't try.

In summary, a charmless Christmas. 3/10

All the plastic surgery can't hide the age difference...And...Holy Teeth Whitener, Batman! Moral of the story, even an aging prince deserves love.

While the basic storyline is compelling, the acting is awful...stiff, over-done...with lines and behavior not fitting a doctor, security detail, etc. My guess is that this was a low-budget production and the casting crew were forced to hire less experienced lead actors. Having said that, there's no "off-color" language, nudity, or situations that would offend sensitive viewers or young children. That, in itself, is refreshing!!

I watch a lot of cheesy Christmas movies. They're dumb. They're predictable. But they're fun to watch. Usually. I've seen plenty of stinkers, but this one takes the cake. It was so awful, I wanted to run away screaming, but by golly I finished it. First of all, no one stays in the hospital for weeks for a broken leg. The prince could have easily just flown home to recover and I could have been spared this torture. Everything was so awful. The plot, script, acting, costumes, music, just everything. By the end of the movie, I had lost the will to live.

One of the many movies with a royal and a commoner. This one's, however, a little different because heroes knew each other already since they went to school together. Then there's the usual - prince comes from an unspecified Eastern European country (even the heroine speaks Russian for no apparent reason), and of course, an evil wannabe noble fiancé. Throw in a few kids with cancer and a royal gala, and you can imagine the result. Some dialogues are corny, characters are flat (the prince-obsessed nurse was really cringey rather than funny), and the acting isn't the best either (especially during dramatic scenes). Also never seen a doctor with such a short dress, and if it wasn't for some costumes and presents, one wouldn't even notice that it's supposed to be Christmastime. However, if you can look past the above-mentioned issues and expected clichés, it is actually a quite enjoyable movie. The only really terrible part was the party at the end.