Il était une fois Noël à Castle Creek

What happens when two tenacious entrepreneurs contend for the purchase of a building to start their own separate business? Well the spirit of Christmas gets hopelessly entangled and you know what that means - love wins out.

This is such a wonderfully pleasant movie by virtue of both main characters charm and sense of light hearted fun. And special praiseworthy mention of how Vanessa Lachey has a captivating glow about her which was impossible to ignore.

A delightfully entertaining flick which will leave you with a smile on your face.

The arrogance of both Amelia and Vic was so strong that I could barely stand the first part of the movie. If I encountered either of these people acting like this, I would do anything to avoid them. One quarter of the movie led up to clumsily contrived premise - the two rivals being thrown together to organize the decoration of Main Street for the purpose of impressing Elder. And the ugly arguing continued well after that goal was established.

Was it funny? I actually laughed a few times when I wasn't cringing over all the meanness.

Then we meet the towns people. More arguing, arrogance and judgmentalism. We're about half way through the movie, and except for a few laughs inspired mostly by physical comedy, everything about it is a downer.

In most of these movies, all the animosity between the leads disappears suddenly and this movie is no exception. It's too bad they extended the negative so long. Finally, Vanessa Lachey and Ryan McPartlin can start to develop chemistry and they quickly do.

The story follows the usual lines and is predictable. The viewer can see the things that are coming as soon as they are set up. Even so I still needed some kleenex for at least one development. The conflict was predictable too, but a bit unusual as a plot device.

This was like two different movies envisioned by different people. I could easily FF through most of the first half, but the second half is worth the wait.

This movie is okay, I suppose. Ryan McPartlin is partly why I gave it 4 stars and not less. I cannot stand Vanessa Lachey's character, it makes the movie difficult to watch. She plays such a condescending little turd in this. Anyway, I usually like most of the cheesy Lifetime Christmas movies, and this one is the typical "bitter to sweet" holiday movie. It would be better with a different female lead or maybe she didn't act like a total jackass the entire movie, it would be easier to watch. I feel bad for people that have to deal with other people that act like this in real life. I know I'd never be able to be around someone like that.

Actors play a good part in this 4 star rate, Ryan McPartlin is one of my fav B stars, and Vanessa Lachey is always cute and decent. Patrick Duffy is very old here, altough I love him in Step by step, but feel like this has been too much for him. Plot is too predictable, first rivals, then... I don't want to spoil it for you. I liked the bickering of main characters, it was fun. Setting could be beautiful, small town, cute houses, but director chose to over do it with fake snow. I mean, you could literally see fake snow cover blankets everywhere. Also, you get the feeling that this town has only 10 citizens. No people on the street, no people in the cafè... Very noticable. Also, one very confusing detail, the owner of cafè who is Indian, says, before, her grandmother was the owner of all year Christmas store. I mean, you could at least pick some other character to say that.

Then you should certainly watch this movie. You will fall asleep during. Most Christmas movies lately are supposed to be about romance. Girl meets boy, they instantly dislike one another but in the end something happens and they fall in love. In this movie nothing happens. All action is feebly. I believe this is the first time I rate a movie so low, but I honestly cannot find one positive thing to say. Everything screams that this is a low budget film. I am starting to miss the 90;s where all Christmas movies were about Santa. That's all folks.. Really? Still haven't reached the required characters?