Chronique des rendez-vous désastreux

The baaaaddd reviews made us wary, but we love the actors and the premise sounded like kooky fun, so we watched it (and it WAS fun!) Not a Hallmark formula film and a lot of laughs and cute situations which ended with an unusual (but happy) denouement. Don't listen to stuffed shirts who aren't ready for a cute movie...

...and we watched the entire movie. Where do I start? Terrible acting, terrible plot, not even entertaining. I can't remember all the bad. criticism I thought of while watching this. It wasn't even filmed in Portland, though the background scenery was very nice. The mustache on the lead actor was pathetic. The lead actress was good. I don't know when I have rated a movie so poorly, but we endured the entire movie. I usually look at the rating while watching a Hallmark movie, but I knew from the beginning this was not going to go well so I waited till the end, rated it and THEN looked at overall rating. I wasn't disappointed.

I enjoyed this movie. It was cute, showed how awkward dating can be. And the fact that they were being sabotaged made their lives harder, and funny at the same time. I think some of the reviews were cruel, maybe they were thinking back to some of the things they did. And the fact that it was not really filmed in Portland, most movies are not filmed in the locations they say it takes place. Weather, budget, and other expenses are the reason. Hallmark movies use a old MGM formula, actors are a group family. They can use them over and over in many different movies and parts. They are actually very good at adapting. Corney maybe, but enjoyable none the least.

I've only been watching Hallmark movies for the past 2 years so I missed this on initial release. But thankfully, if you wait long enough Hallmark will air almost anything you might have missed, or watch again. Look, this isn't an all out original plot, but with Hallmark, it's always about the casting. Merritt Patterson is now a Hallmark regular, and she is climbing my list of favorite actors to watch. The rest of the cast is really enjoyable as well. "Brad" can be kind of annoying at times, but I think it all works out in the end. I will be keeping this one on the DVR for a while to watch again later.

My main reason for seeing 'Bad Date Chronicles' was the intriguing premise, which sounded like the kind of film that would be enjoyable to me. Also saw it because of it being from Hallmark, and have been seeing their work for a while over-time for completest sake. While they have done a fair share of misfires, they have also had a fair share of surprisingly good films. And 'Bad Date Chronicles' did sound like it had potential to be if done right.

Sadly it wasn't done right. Quite the opposite and actually pretty much disastrously. Really wanted to like it, but almost everything is executed badly and at their worst the execution is really quite terrible. Am somebody who is actually usually very encouraging when watching, rating and reviewing films and television and hates being critical, under 3/10 are rare ratings, but 'Bad Date Chronicles' did really annoy for being a complete waste of potential (the worst thing any film etc. Can committ in my mind).

Did think that Merritt Patterson didn't come off too badly in her role, she had energy without being affected.

However, even for a film that was intended to have exaggerated acting, the rest of the acting is so overdone it induces cringing and it was like watching a really bad spoof. None of the characters are interesting or worth rooting for, and there is no development to them whatsoever. The script is also extremely weak, with an over-reliance on cheap juvenile humour that often wasn't necessary.

The story is very dull, even when trying to pack in too many subplots that are done little with. There is no heart or charm and it all felt really forced. Not to mention very predictable, with so many seen it all before elements done in a paint by numbers way. The mystery element is very obvious very early on, while the beginning alone is enough to make one want to change the channel. Then there is the ending, which was indicative of the film completely running out of steam and tacking on a too unrealistically convenient climax and final scene.

In summary, very poor. 2/10.