A Christmas Wedding Date

First of all, I enjoyed this movie. I've seen it now three times, and it's not a great movie (are any of these Christmas movies "great?"); it falls far behind "Christmas Kiss" and "A Perfect Christmas List" and about even with "Back to Christmas."

Still, it a nice cast - George Wendt is interesting as the ghostly cab driver, and Marla of course gives her all, which is very much indeed. So for the cast and story, I'd recommend it.

On the other hand, the direction is unimaginative (drab, actually) and the editing draws several scenes out way too long. It's as if they felt they had to hit us over the head with emotional tug, or didn't really have sufficient scenes written to fill in the length.

I do want to say that I have to thank Hallmark for helping to finance and distribute these films, and ION for running them also. It's much better watching than a lot of other junk the TV stations offer.

I have watched a lot of Christmas movies in the last month and honestly this was one of the worst so far; I can't believe the rather well known cast members agreed to be in it. It is basically a very poorly done remake of Groundhog Day. The characters were barely developed and I didn't care about any of them. So much of this movie was just plain stupid and annoying, from the miscast lead, to the way-too-good-looking ex boyfriend, to the undeveloped plot, to the unanswered questions. The causes for the behaviors of the characters were never even explained, just a lot of vague innuendo...what a mess. Basically I wish I had the two hours back.

The good point - George Wendt and Catherine Hiks. Only for presence but the acting is reduced at sketches by script. And, sure , the slice of version of !A Christmas Carol". The bad thing - childish use of Groundhog Day theme. Because it is boring, fake and not so convincing. And vulgar in this case. The reasonable thing - the romance . A sketch itself, bad used, but it is not so not reasonable to say a good word about a film who seems just a two hours improvisation.

Marla Solokoff is so good here. The character is pleasant enough most of the time, but eventually she is really nice. But I liked her best when she was having a good time, knowing she would not gain weight or have to pay for huge purchases on her (former) company's credit card, or spend time in jail. Her efforts to improve herself and get her man are really enjoyable.

The cab driver is well played by George Wendt (who has several roles),

Chris Carmack is good enough, and he even sings, but not well enough for me to believe he will be a big country star.

Catherine Hicks does a great job as Rebecca's mom.

There is plenty of good Christmas music, but also a lot of what I consider junk.

This is no masterpiece but it is a pleasant and even funny fantasy for the holidays.

It's not the worst 'Groundhog Day' at Christmas that I've seen, but I probably only stuck with it for so long, because Chris Carmack is just lovely. At the beginning of the film you definitely don't feel that he should be lumbered with the absolute cow that the lead female is, but after a few times of repeating the same day over and over, she starts to realise that she is not actually very nice and needs to change her ways. At that point she becomes bearable, but still not good enough for Chris in my opinion.

The supporting cast all play their parts as I would imagine they are directed to do, but they mostly seem to be quite exaggerated and annoying. Think 'American Pie' characters!

It's nice to see that Catherine Hicks is still getting work after she ran away to space with Captain Kirk and some Whales. She plays the Mum nicely here. It's also good to see Norm (George Wendt) although he's not looking too healthy. Perhaps he shouldn't have frequented Cheers quite so often? Hopefully he has a good doctor.

The film isn't hideous to get through like some of them, but you can certainly put up your tree at the same time without missing too much. Alternatively just forward the middle bit where she's still learning how to be good and skip to the getting it right bit.