Fourth Down and Love

Hallmark is making too many movies where the lead couple already knows each other from their romantic past. I don't find it compelling. I would like to see two people meet and learn about each other during the movie. It's a shame that all of that discovery process happened years ago so we don't see any of it. All we are left to do is wonder why they gave up on each other years ago, when their resentment will subside, and why they think the outcome will be different this time around.

The rest of the movie is fine -- typical Hallmark stuff really, which is probably what most viewers of this movie want. The actors were pretty good, and the football content was actually very good. I just think the movie would have been nicer if the leads were as new to each other as they are to us.

I watched this the first time awhile back and remember it as a rather blah romance. However, I just watched again, this time with an eye towards finding what I didn't like. While Pascale Hutton doesn't do much for me, I realize now the script called for her to be reluctant to engage romantically with Paevy because Paevy's agent sold her a bill of goods back in college. Now that I caught this, I think her character acting was fine as she was scripted. If anything this second time, I thought Paevy was too low key on the romance angle. His style is always laid back but with engaging charm, which I usually find enjoyable, but this time, he didn't bring enough charm to make it work. I have a feeling this role, the casting match and a rather lame script caused this to be one of his lesser outputs.

Another shortened "Hallmark version" of a real movie. Been aware that Ryan had not had a new movie in almost a year. Glad to see him and Pascal. But. This is a poorly developed story, highlighting a good cast-missing a fully developed script. With the writer's strike, perhaps the best writing/rewrite was not available.

This story is more a paragraph than a good short story. Too, too bad. They had the bones, but no flesh of fully developed character background or story.

It is rather up to the audience to intuit the missing story gaps and fill them off-camera.

Gave the actors the score of 8 for doing as well as they could with the ghost of a script they had to work with. Just another disappointing, shortened version of what the story/movie could have been. Too much of this seen amidst the release of very few notable movies this year.

7.3 stars.

Ready, set, hike, pass the cheese... this one is a bit silly. I like the football theme and he looks like a baller with his muscles and physique, but his personality and how he handles life are not anything like an NFL receiver would be in my opinion. On the other hand, the romance is cool and they seem to have chemistry. I see patterns with Hallmark films and they seem to be stretching their legs with this film as it does expand some of the ideas in a way that I find unique and strangely stimulating.

There are several hard to ignore details like the fact that he's not mobbed by fans wherever he goes. If he's a pro, and he's back in a place where he would be recognized, he would not have any time to himself. Also the way his agent and the NFL are handling things is totally fabricated and fake beyond belief. Finally, how they were together but she let him go when they were younger so he could pursue his career has been beat to death, Hallmark, give us something original for once.

The way she is enamored with him showcases her acting ability, especially with his dry humor and acting style which seems to pervade every role he performs. All that being said, I enjoyed 'Fourth Down and Love' enough that I'd recommend it to any Hallmark fan at least once every few years.

This was a cute romance movie. I like both the leads and they usually appear in the better scripts. What I didn't like is this notion that an all girls team would beat the boys team in football. I realize this is a fantasy romance movie, so the other parts can be fantasy too but it's not right to give our girls unreasonable expectations. Men are more athletic than women because of genetics and I'm not talking just about hormones. Girls can be better than boys at certain things, but football isn't one of them. Stop the nonsense you're selling our kid's, it doesn't help to set unreasonable expectations. Back to the movie (sorry had to fill up word count), anything with Ryan Pavey is worth watching, even if it's not his best. And Pasquale Hutton has 'it'. Maybe chemistry between them was a wee bit off but it's very watchable.