EXmas

Pretty good Christmas comedy romance, not your typical schmaltzy fodder, made me laugh on a number of occasions. All the actors were great and the comedy never felt forced, good chemistry all round with all the family, if you want something different from the usual Christmas movie crowd give this a go.

There are some adult themes but nothing to outrageous. I was impressed with Robbie Amel and Leighton Messter they worked well together and while the premise was obviously farfetched they made it work. All in all one of the better Christmas movies do far this year, I would definitely rewatch it again next year.

Some reviewers bashed the movie due to unbelievable circumstances, but that's exactly what makes it funny. I was hesitant to give it a go due to the low ratings but am so glad I did. The writing was alright and l the acting pretty good. Some of the ad lib was hilarious, I love watching moments when comedians light up and other actors lose it. This is not an award winning flick, but several moments cracked me up. I especially liked that there were actually some twists in typical romantic comedy scenes which made it more enjoyable. What really matters most to me is that I felt better after watching it.

I am a curmudgeon who doesn't watch many Christmas movies. I have no idea why I watched this, except Amazon kept pushing it in my face on my home screen on my Fire TV. Anyhoo, I'm so glad I did. It was fun, it was cute, it was tingly, it was emotional, it was irreverent, it was well done.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

I wanted to like this, cause it kept coming up on Freevee to watch but no one in this thing is even remotely likeable. I hated them all. They are just all yucky people.

What kind of family likes their son's ex who left him better than him? And why would they treat him so badly and her so good?

The attraction between the leads was not there. They were so awful to each other and just in general that it made no sense for them to want to get together.

I guess it was ok for what it was, but maybe I just prefer older movies that are actually good. But this one is not good, not even sort of good. It's just not.

5.6/10

It's cuffing season and whether cuffed or not it's time to get on the train, sit at the back and observe the cuffed folk.

"Just cause I dumped him doesn't mean I have to dump his family. Besides they love me."

Based on the title alone it's a romantic Christmas comedy movie that goes exactly as you'd expect. The thing that did it for me was the sarcasm. It's not a savage film by any stretch of the imagination, but it gives moments where you think "yes, that is the appropriate response in this situation."

While it does have it quirks and odd moments of enjoyment it truly falls flat on its face. The story is not great by any means. It's mediocre at best. It falls in line with being a Hallmark film without actually being a Hallmark film so there's truly no surprises.

My biggest peeve in this film was the fact that things looked blurry and scratchy for the second half of the film. People and objects looked out of focus. It was weird.

Overall, if you like sarcasm and a little bit of family drama then you could potentially find something in this film. I laughed for a good chunk of it because the jokes and banter weren't bad. The story is mediocre, the acting isn't strong, and the film feels out of focus for the second half.

That's all for now. Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Until next time.... Enjoy the show!