A Royal Christmas on Ice

Unfortunately, not a great script; actually pretty horrible or it's that the casting was that bad. Maybe with better directing it might have been an okay movie. Also very little chemistry between actors. Most of the scenes felt forced like the actors were bored with the script. I was unfamiliar with Jonathan Stoddard (Prince John) but felt he was the only redeeming quality about the movie and probably why I kept going back to finish it. For the most part, he seems believable in most of his scenes. Peter Johnson (Al the baker & Santa) didn't have many scenes but I also thought he was believable.

After last week bragging on GAF for stepping up their game this year, we come to this.

Weak dialogue, weak acting, and a contrived and unconvincing story line had us deciding to abandon this film sometime during the Christmas party scene.

Seriously, how long can you milk the angst from a dropped bakery cake? According to these writers, for a VERY long time. There was a bit of self-awareness when the female lead's friend asked her why she was so hostile to the guy (who by the way, SHE bumped into in the action, not the other way around as they continually stated in dialogue) when what happened was an accident and he went well out of his way to make it right.

Exactly.

Dialogue with the ubiquitous 'old boyfriend' was weak and unconvincing. Dialogue back with the male lead's royal family was awkward and glacial in pace.

We could finally take no more, despite the fact we're ice skating fans and were drawn by the premise.

It was nice to hear about, and finally watch, what Fred Olen Ray was filming in our village (East Aurora, NY). Sticking to a tried-and-true formula of "Prince Comes to America and Falls In Love", including bits of area footage of his earlier film "A Price For Christmas", Ray and his team put together a good cast and a comfortable story, with characters worth caring about, on a fledgling network that appears to be accumulating Hallmark talent and movies, which is just fine with me - it's nice to find movies that are worth watching more than once. As far as Hallmark is concerned, they seem to be going into more contemporary stories, whereas the Great American Family channel seems to be more interested in traditional programming; both have their place.

Does "family entertainment" mean it was written by a 10 year old. Perhaps it was written for a younger audience because it lacks the sophistication I would expect for a movie aimed at the usual Christmas romance crowd.

The script is bad. The dialogue is filled with inanities and lacks any sparkle. The acting is mediocre, although Anna Marie Dobbins' Abigail does have some screen appeal. The story is simplistic. I was glad to see that Prince John was not an imminent heir to the throne so a romance with Abigail was not as impossible as is often the case in Royal movies. I understand time compression in movies, but it does make me cringe a little when characters "fall in love" so quickly.

There is some figure skating but the camera work is clumsy with frequent changing angles and closeups that are too close up.

This is not one to watch again.

The story is a spin on the royalty, post-injury ice skater, and failing business tropes, but it works. The acting, with the exception of the small role of Stephen Baldwin and the promising actor in the lead male role, is inexcusably terrible. Everyone either over or under acted. I could hardly get through it, and my expectations for these movies is pretty low.

It also seemed incomplete, because the rest of the royal family was set up to be revisited, but wasn't. That part of the story was just dropped. They rushed to the unrealistic and unbelievable ending.

Not to be picky, but they could have spent an extra 15 minutes to teach them to ice a cupcake. That was ridiculous.

Don't waste your time.