A Royal Christmas Crush

First, there are real "ice hotels" built every year, and I suspect the one in this movie is Hotel Grace, built in Quebec.

Many people have commented on the ages of the cast, as "the Prince" looks as old or older than his supposed parents. In truth, the actor playing the King (43) is only four years the Prince's senior (39). The Queen, however, IS actually 21 years older. She just looks great at 60. However, Stephen Huszar is a pretty rough looking 39. I could easily peg him by eye as being in his 50s. Ouch!

The accents are simply irritating, especially Huszar's. The story is the same old Prince meeting the "common girl" with a local rival in the picture. The dialogue is trite and unconvincing ... at its best. At its worst, it's embarrassing.

There are great visuals of the hotel, and for me that's the only draw in this poorly written movie where the cast seems to be mailing it in. They simply have nothing in the way of spark or deep emotion.

By the way, the "spectacular sketches" of dog houses? LOL Simple line drawings that you could barely tell what they are. I'd have bagged the thing there but my wife hadn't had quite enough of it yet. After the next scene with the mother and daughter scheming for her to marry the Prince, she raised her eyebrows to the point I asked if she'd had enough, and she replied "OH YES!".

1. If you are going to have a romance featuring a prince, get someone who can actually speak with a consistent accent or just don't bother. Stephen Huszar is a good actor and certainly didn't deserve this.

2. Come up with a new approach. Recycling the same old plot is sad. The interfering Brigitta who tries to besmirch the prince's love interest is just downright stupid! Credit us with more intelligence. Birgitta should have been fired and/or tossed in jail.

3. Does anyone who is staying in an Ice Hotel really get romantic? It is literally FREEZING! They are wearing coats and gloves throughout, yet they go get in a hot tub, which will result in them freezing when they get out. That scene seemed gratuitous so we could view Stephen Huzsar's chest. But Ava wears a jacket in the hot tub.

4. At the Royal Ball, the costumes were awful. What's with the woman in the tight yellow sausage dress?? Can't afford to hire anyone else?

DO Better, Hallmark!!!

Hallmark's Christmas in July original movies are either really great (Crashing through the Snow) or major duds, and this one falls squarely in the latter camp. An inane premise (some nondescript Royal Family commissions an ice castle to be built each year for them to spend the holidays), terrible casting (pretty sure the Prince's mom is about the same age as the Prince) and an insipid plot drag this one to the depths of barely watchable. The royal family hardly spends any time in the ice castle. Stephen Huszar's accent comes and goes, and he can't decide if he's supposed to do an English accent or a Nordic accent, so mostly it comes across as a half-hearted attempt at trying to be a snob. A papparrazo wanders around snapping photos at his leisure. Where's security? The only thing this movie had going for it is Katie Cassidy has the prettiest eyes, which apparently won over Huszar because they are now an item.

Okay I know these are Hallmark movies but this one is so far fetched with the ages of the actors it's just absolutely absurd.

The actor playing Prince Henry (Stephen Huszar) must be pushing 40. There's nothing wrong with that except when you have the actress playing his mother, the Queen as being in her 30's. Really the 1 grey streak in her hair does not qualify her to be 60. And they don't even list the actor who plays the King but he looks to be in his early 40s.

The Prince crush story has been done so many times, I have lost count. Boring.

I just can't image there is no one at Hallmark that can come up with a better story or someone else that has to say enough already!!!

Same old story line with new cast. Been there, seen that. The cast is terribly miscast. The leading man looks line he's on the fast slope to 50 and the royal parents would better have been cast as his siblings. The cast seems more suited to down home setting as opposed to pretending to be royalty. This is not more evident than at the"royal ball." Looked more like the local middle school Winter dance than a ball full of monarchs. I actually laughed out loud. And the dinner with the missing prince... why was the hired help at the table with the queen and king? The whole scene was a miss and a mess. Overall, the story was not much better than the execution of it.