A Hollywood Christmas

I have read a couple of reviews for this movie where they obviously didn't get that this is a deliberately awful movie encased in a deliberately cheesy Christmas movie. I admit that the first ten minutes were going hard until I realised the intentional cheesiness, and also thought that Anissa Borrego's fake voice was wonderfully awful, until I realised it was her real voice, I'm so sorry! This is simply a comedic look at Christmas movies, but done in an interesting way. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but when you realise how over the top it is you've got to find it funny. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it.

Christmas in the summer. You can enjoy 2 different Christamas movies in a shot. A bit childish to be honest, but totally agree to the protagonist's line that Christmas was her safe space. That she does this because had chosen the job, not just because it was her next step on "wherever my skills take me" unexpectedly inspired me, the quote I needed just at the right time. A few lines survived... but it still has a 90 minutes worth of Christmas vibe we love!

P. S. But I guarantee this could be done much better than this... maybe the budget cut in the movie is a metaphor of the movie itself...? Maybe or maybe not.

As someone who has watched dozens of these Hallmark Christmas movies (ok, been in the same room while the wife has watched them), I thought this idea had promise; unfortunately this movie just didn't deliver. The writing was flat, and the acting wasn't any better. Honestly, this should have been on the Hallmark Channel. For HBO to release this seems hard to believe. The lead actors seemed wildly miscast. The character of Reena, who played the perpetually optimistic sidekick, was about the only good thing about the movie. I was honestly disappointed to see the always fun to watch Missy Pyle in this. This could have, and should have been much better.

First, Josh never removes his shirt. Any movie with Josh where that doesn't happen is already down.

But, the movie kept me guessing just enough to make me keep watching it. Unfortunately, it did not deliver enough surprises, which I guess is to the form on Christmas movies, but again, just 1 surprise might have been nice. Can we not have 1 Christmas movie where it turns out one of the main characters is unknown to be gay, or something. Everyone can still end happy, but some major diversion would have been nice. In this one, maybe the b!tch executive could have wound up with the director in the end and Josh, coming out of the shower in just a towel, could look up and realize he had fallen in love with the all knowing assistant.

This was a Christmas movie around the making of a Christmas movie, which was a clever way to both make fun of the trope and explain why we need it (aka why people like it).

It tells the story of a female director who is directing a Christmas movie and gets caught up in her own Christmas movie as a financial guy shows up from the studio telling her that the Christmas movie division is being shut down and then that they have to cut their budget on this...the last Christmas movie for the studio. The first person to realize that Jessica was in the middle of her own version of a Christmas movie is her assistant Reena (played by Anissa Borrego), who is a real scene stealer.

The two actors playing the lead characters in the movie Jessica is directing where fantasticly over the top...almost cliched version of b-movie actors, but my favorite character was the completely nutty dog trainer and handler (maybe I appreciated that because I know some really nutty dog breeders).

The real story is the romance between Jessica and the studio's finance guy Christopher (Jessika Van and Josh Swickard), these two were just the right amount of sweet and played off each other well.

I enjoyed this more than I expected to and recommend it to Christmas movie fans and romance fans everywhere.