USS Christmas

Maddie is tired of being the one to deliver bad news on the newspaper she works at, specially now at Christmas time. So, her sisters convinces her to go in this "Tiger Cruise" a four day cruise for military families. There, she meets Billy, a lieutenant who doesn't appreciate Christmas.

You know exactly how this goes from the first scene. Maddie and Billy embark on an adventure. She decides to pursue a story about a couple, Dorothy and Sam, a "story about love and war". They have their own problems. She doesn't want a military life and he wants her/is nick-named "the grinch". But while they are together they have a great time.

My take of both Jen Lilley and Trevor Donovan is the same. I may love their performance of a movie and hate it on the next one. But I liked both of them on this one. They had good chemistry. I found myself rooting for them.

I also liked the pace of the movie. The couple of last movies I watched were unbearable, and I kept pausing them every 10 minutes but I didn't with this one. The story grabbed me from the first moment (even knowing how it would end). Not being American has its advantages, I did not if technical/navy things were accurate or not and I didn't care either.

Overall, it's a nice movie, it's exactly what the plot promises.

In the archive room Billy sees a photo of what I believe was the A1 Skyraider but he identifies it as a B-29. Other than that, I enjoyed this one more than most. But I'm a sucker for anything that flies. Some cool footage of the cats at work.

I was in the Navy, so I noticed quite a few things that weren't exactly accurate, not the least of which was the sister Navy flyer proudly showing off her plane which clearly said "Marines" on it. Well, he did teach her to go down a ladder correctly. The story itself was ok, if typical Hallmark. You know how it ends before it even starts, so the rest is a ride you choose to take. Always like Jen Lilley, she's very pretty, but somehow two hours of her is enough. The chemistry was a little iffy, I thought. This is not the best Hallmark movie this year, but it's not the worst either, and anything beats the news in 2020...!

6/10 - following the new trend of mixing a new and old romance, this Hallmark flick is pleasing if forgettable

This is a warm and gentle Christmas movie. It is a bit slow at times, but, overall, a decent film. It is a romance, mystery movie, which makes sense as it is a Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel original. The plot has been done often before: i.e., the lead or leads find love letters, photos, a ring, or some other object from a past great love, which they then try to solve. That said, there is a unique element to this story: the movie is set on an aircraft carrier (which I enjoyed). There are some very nice shots of the crafts and ship; I especially like the ship lit up in Christmas lights. I did not know what a Tiger cruise was; it is a very nice concept. Hallmark always has at least one military-focused Christmas movie each year; I read in the news that they have a good standing relationship with the military, meaning, I think, they got to use their ship in this one. As another reviewer on here discussed, this one has some similarities to those past military-focused Christmas films. The acting was good. Jen Lilley, a Hallmark regular, performs well in this genre of film. She had a very convincing performance here as Maddie. Trevor Donovan's portrayal of Lt. Billy Jenkins (aka the Grinch) was decent. To be honest, I sometimes find his performances to a bit stiff. That said, he has had some very good performances in, e.g., Love on a Limb and Love, Fall & Order. Here he was a bit stiff as well, but his character was a military man with the call-sign the Grinch. So, it worked for me. The chemistry between the two was underdeveloped, I thought. The writer could have done more in this regard; I think, Donovan too could have given a bit more, romance wise, in his performance. The scenery, props, and sets were well-polished and festive; the latter is toned down a bit in this one. Overall, it is a fairly good movie. It might not be for everyone, but fans of Hallmark's mystery movies and movie series will no doubt enjoy this new edition to the 2020 Christmas movie lineup.