Jingle Belle

For once I could watch a movie just for fun. It actually reminded me some of "Sweet Home Alabama". Another movie I could relax and enjoy. I could enjoy "Jingle Belle" with my grandkids and not have to worry what they're seeing or hearing for one moment. The movie might be called "quaint", but when I was growing up it would have been the norm for a family movie. Quaint is just fine in my book, especially for a Christmas movie.

I have already watched about 20 Christmas movies this year, so I have seen the good the bad and fugly. This is a winner. I enjoyed the cast very much. The actors were quite good and natural. The kids were good too. It is nice to see different actors and people I do not see usually, in a holiday movie. Tatyana Ali , whom I have never seen or heard of before is very charismatic and charming. This is the third holiday movie I have watched in the last two weeks featuring her. ( I am watching some older ones, I had never heard of before). I loved the song they ended up with at the end. I would totally add that song to my holiday play list, if I can find it anywhere. Yes the plot was the same girl goes back to hometown plot, but this is like comfort food. The difference between a good one of these movies and a horrible one, is the actors, the production values and no plot holes. Yes the snow looked fake, but so far that is true in almost all of the ones I have been watching. Why do they never film these in the actual snow? I guess real snow gets muddy, wet and ugly with an entire movie crew working on it. Good job. This is an enjoyable feel good movie. Good family movie, or movie to have playing in the background while you go about your holiday prep. Merry Christmas!

Jingle Belle (2018) -

This was one of those films of this genre that I put on expecting to hate and turn off straight away, purely based on the fact that I've seen the story before and I was worried that it would just be an excuse for a 'Cosby Show/Fresh Prince Of Bel Air' reunion, but it made the cut after all and I found that I did enjoy it.

Belle returned to her hometown to find inspiration for a biscuit jingle and assist with writing a song to celebrate the towns 50th Christmas celebration. When she got there she found that she would be paired up with her ex boyfriend and as the story progressed, each had to thaw out to let the other one back in. It was incredibly clear what would happen to upset things once they had started to become friends again, but it was done in a way that flowed sensibly at least. And there were no "What? Why would they do that?" moments where I would have to scream at the TV "Don't be an idiot" which I have repeatedly done this year for other films.

My criticisms would be that it was a bit short on extras for the tree lighting and it was a shame that at times it was incredibly obvious that the film was recorded in the height of summer.

Also some of the chronology was a bit off with them going out for the night, whilst others were still working, etc or the sun was out when it was supposed to be an early winter evening.

As a positive though it was nice that at least all of the singers could actually sing for a change. There's nothing worse than a film about an amazing singer and how great they are that turns out to be someone nice to look at, but with only a basic knowledge of what makes a tune or even worse they're ugly too.

Not my favourite of the films I've seen this year, but at least I didn't feel the need to turn it off at any point. Although it probably won't make it to my immediate rewatch list, I might come back to it again in my autumn days at the old folks home.

6.45/10.

Plastic smiles and dito accidental tear, hollow characters, overloud background music, predictable plot (even the 'twist'), life in a super sweet smalltown versus bad, bad big town. A boring lovestory, all wrapped around the creation of a horrible, horrible song. Yes, it has it all and yes, it is a toe curling movie. The only reason I finished watching it was that I was sort of trapped on a sofa during a family moment.

Tatyana ali cornelius smith jr weak leads in this movie no musical ability comes through.she has a horrible attitude.