Christmas in Paradise

I'm surprised at all the bad reviews for this movie. I have to believe that NONE of them have even watched the first film, "Father Christmas Is Back", or they would have a better appreciation for the characters and the dynamics of their relationships. Talking about the actresses' age in relation to Kelsey Grammar's is irrelevant and nit-picky. Movies have always featured stars that are close in age playing parents and adult children.

The first movie was full of laughs, at the sisters and the situations. This one has a lot more drama in it, and a bit of humor. We enjoyed this one, even though it has a slow start. If you've seen the first one, give this one a chance. Just don't expect a raging comedy. Expect more sentimentality, and you won't be disappointed. P. S. The locations are gorgeous!

The film begins establishing that 57 year old Liz Hurley is mother to a newborn baby.

The grasp on reality just gets further away from this point on.

I picked this film because it was 89 minutes long as 90 minute movies tend to have a good pace and easy to watch. This film felt much, much longer than a compact hour and a half.

Of that 89 minutes, over 10 minutes of it was Billy Ray Cyrus singing various songs from his back catalogue. All the time he is on screen you can't help but stare at his poorly dyed beard.

The writing is poor, characters are paper thing and there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of story.

It's too sentimental to be a jaunty festive comedy, it's too light and vapid to be a meaningful piece of cinema. It's just lots of nothing.

It's a shame, because there are a lot of excellent actors on screen, but everything else about this film is awful.

First, It is nice and not too heavy and had its sweet moments.

I honestly love me some Elizabeth Hurley- and Kelsey Grammer but 1) the casting in this was ( I'm gonna say it) just weird. Elizabeth Hurley- is Kelsey's daughter ? And she a newly pregnant mom? She looks amazing true but quite the stretch. The youngest daughter is ( I could be wrong about this) recently out of college? Okay so I guess we're suppose to use our creative mind- EH has a baby a little later in life. Ok. The youngest daughter went back to college or whatever but none of them barely look young enough to be his daughters? Billy Ray was Billy Ray- decent job all the way through but this was just a hard one to watch for me I love Christmas movies and am good with mushy or sappy but this was just a bit off and odd.

Elizabeth Hurley, in addition to being a fine actress, is a magnificent beauty who is just a joy to watch and hear. But this "movie" is absolutely dreadful. You will wonder how these actors were convinced to take part in something which has an elementary school feel to it. Mr Cyrus demonstrates why his career crashed and burned after his one-hit-wonder cover of someone else's' song. There is a charisma deficit here. If you find screaming babies being ohhed and ahhed over during cellular phone conversations this might be for you, but if you are a fan of Mr Grammer (as I am), does what he can, but, this is no Fraser.

Liz Hurley just had a baby in this movie... Never do anybody mention that she is close to 60! And she certainly looks it, even if they try hard to make her look younger.

If you like Billie Ray Cyrus, you might enjoy 7% of the film, otherwise, stay clear of it! The script is thin an unbeliveable, the acting is poor, the plot doesn't exist, so giving it two stars is based on a few glimps of decent Kelsey Grammer acting.

When Billie Ray is playing and singing, he is backed by bands and choirs, even when he is alone. He doesn't move his hand, and still plays the guitar.

The movie does talk about illness, serious enough, but I can see a thousand ways to do it better!