Embarquement pour Noël

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.

There is a cute little Walt Disney book titled "Button Soup" It is a 1975 Disney's Wonderful World of Reading storybook featuring Daisy Duck and Scrooge McDuck. In this book, Daisy tricks her stingy Uncle Scrooge into making enough soup for the whole town -- using just one button.

Using a similar approach to the Disney book "Button Soup" a pretty writer named Maddie Contino (Jen Lilley) begrudgingly agrees to go on what's called a Tiger Cruise with her mother Elizabeth (Barbara Niven). A Tiger Cruise allows a naval officer to take their family to work and in this case Maddie's sister is stationed as a fighter pilot named Lt. Amelia Breslin (Stefanie Butler) on a ship. Lt. Amelia Breslin, her sister Maddie, and their mom Elizabeth receive a dinner invitation from the ship's captain who invites his own son, Lt. Billy Jenkins (Trevor Donovan) to join them for dinner and reminisce about Christmas's past when the ships Captain Chet Jenkins (Brett Rice) used to work alongside Maddie and Amelia's father who is now deceased. As Captain Jenkins discusses the very first Tiger Cruise he lights a spark in Maddie's desire to write about a long forgotten romance of a couple who first met on that very first Tiger cruise.

Captain Jenkins assigns his good looking fighter pilot son Billy to assist Maddie in researching her story by accessing the ships archives, and Billy initially wants nothing to do with Maddie's research or with the Christmas spirit. But as luck would have it, with every stone Maddie over turns (just like in the 1975 Disney book Button Soup) she draws the unwilling Billy closer and closer into the research and into falling in love with one another.

Maddie and Billy's research leads to good things happening which I don't want to divulge and ruin it for any interested viewers but suffice to say the story took a lot of hard work, push and pull, and convincing but all works out in the end for all parties.

I give USS Christmas a decent 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

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...!

Expectations were a bit mixed when sitting down to watch 'USS Christmas'. There are a fair share of good Hallmark Christmas films, and there were some surprising near-gems in 2020. The plot did sound sweet though not overly exciting. Jen Lilley and Trevor Donovan are a bit take and leave for me and it is dependent on the characters they play, Lilley in particular has had characters with very exaggerated character flaws which she can over-compensate.

Was a bit mixed in regard to 'USS Christmas'. Hallmark did do better in 2020, both of the Christmas films and and in all their seasonal blockings combined. They also did worse on both counts, as there were a small batch of below average efforts. 2020 was a very variable year for Hallmark (not surprising) but considering the circumstances the films generally could have turned out a good deal worse than they actually did. 'USS Christmas' is worth a one time watch but not in my view enough for repeat viewings.

Did feel that the two leads were on the uneven side, both not immediately settling into their roles and taking a while to warm up. Lilley does have another one of her characters that has exaggerated character flaws, the pushiness especially is excessive, and Lilley does at first tries too hard and comes over as neurotic. Donovan does relax into his role later, but when in Grinch mode he did come over as very stiff and bland.

Although their chemistry is there eventually, it does take too long to develop and when it does start to it feels underdeveloped and underwritten. Would have liked more development to the characters in general, not enough of them feel fleshed out enough.

Both Lilley and Donovan do fare much better though later. Lilley does tone down and becomes charming and not too sugary. Donovan loosens up later too, like his character who is the most developed of the characters, and is understated and easy going enough while having the right amount of command for the job. Their chemistry becomes warmer and more natural later, just wish that it was more consistent and that it occurred earlier. The supporting cast are solid.

Furthermore, 'USS Christmas' is a pleasant looking film with the scenery standing out in particular, while the soundtrack matches the spirit of the holiday and the film's themes very well. The script is neither too corny or over-serious, and doesn't come over as muddled tonally. Really liked its sincerity and heart. The quite gentle story is very heart-warming and moving with a warm glow later, even if it could have been tighter pace wise to begin with.

Concluding, a little above average that takes a while to find its feet in some areas but becomes pleasant enough. 6/10.

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.