Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas

Lots of hating reviews on here, and I'll agree - don't expect a lot going in with storyline, character development, production quality, etc. But it's worth watching at Christmas. Get a glass of egg nog, a few cookies, and soak in some Dolly for a couple hours, it will warm your heart. When I visited Dollywood, my review was "Not enough Dolly." This is lots of Dolly. The parts with Miley, Jimmy Fallon, Willy, Billy Ray were kind of disjointed, but it was nice to see them perform with Dolly. And the closing number is still in my head the next day. I loved it, I'm glad I watched it, and you should too.

Seeing Willie Nelson is always a treat. I'm not like a lifelong Dolly fan club member or anything but I tell you what, she showed optimism, thoughtfulness and talent. Much respect for the way of life that Dolly presented and the joy and fun that she brought to our home. The kids watched it too, not knowing who she is but just being avid consumers of streaming family content and now Christmas themed shows in particular. Not to spoil anything but I have to say it got better as it went and climaxed at the end with a song I am still thinking about the next day. Glad we came across this one. God bless Dolly Parton! Also was introduced to a new singer Zach Williams who sounded great I am planning to find more of his music.

I know everything on screen isn't expected to be real, but watching the Dolly stand-in dancer being flipped around & doing high kicks in Red's Diner was totally weird and comical. You can freeze frame at 21:39 and clearly see it's not even Dolly or Jimmy Fallon. Also, the Jimmy Fallon autotune was distracting when accompanied by Dolly's magical voice. Dolly has great success off playing both sides of the fence, i.e. Talking about Jesus and the Devil, but then singing about being whatever you feel like which this movie also does. She's made a point to cater to all audiences which after all, she is an entertainer, not a preacher. If it was not for the Dolly Parton singing, this would be a 1 star movie!

Who ever had this idea, wrote, and directed this should have rethought it! Dolly usually has heartwarming shows during the holiday but this seemed like a neverending ad for dollywood. The acting was horrible and the songs strange. After 30 minutes I had to turn it off. Would have been much better if she was just giving an actual concert instead of a movie about trying to make a concert. Don't waste your time! It was hard to watch and I can't get those 30 minutes of my life back. Stick to your regular concerts and your heartwarming stories Dolly! This was so fake and disingenuous it's a complete waste!

The Miley Cyrus and Jimmy Fallon segments were great. My only complaint was half the songs were not very Christmasy. One was about Satan. 'He's Alive' sounded like an Easter song. It's a Christmas special, so in my opinion every song should have been a Christmas song. There are plenty of them!

The acting segments were also a bit much. I don't really want to watch Dolly Parton acting like a diva or "boss" in a Christmas special. I get she probably wanted to show another side of herself, the "business side." But in a Christmas special it was distracting and a bit jarring.

Overall I would recommend it.