A Hollywood Christmas

First, Josh never removes his shirt. Any movie with Josh where that doesn't happen is already down.

But, the movie kept me guessing just enough to make me keep watching it. Unfortunately, it did not deliver enough surprises, which I guess is to the form on Christmas movies, but again, just 1 surprise might have been nice. Can we not have 1 Christmas movie where it turns out one of the main characters is unknown to be gay, or something. Everyone can still end happy, but some major diversion would have been nice. In this one, maybe the b!tch executive could have wound up with the director in the end and Josh, coming out of the shower in just a towel, could look up and realize he had fallen in love with the all knowing assistant.

This was a Christmas movie around the making of a Christmas movie, which was a clever way to both make fun of the trope and explain why we need it (aka why people like it).

It tells the story of a female director who is directing a Christmas movie and gets caught up in her own Christmas movie as a financial guy shows up from the studio telling her that the Christmas movie division is being shut down and then that they have to cut their budget on this...the last Christmas movie for the studio. The first person to realize that Jessica was in the middle of her own version of a Christmas movie is her assistant Reena (played by Anissa Borrego), who is a real scene stealer.

The two actors playing the lead characters in the movie Jessica is directing where fantasticly over the top...almost cliched version of b-movie actors, but my favorite character was the completely nutty dog trainer and handler (maybe I appreciated that because I know some really nutty dog breeders).

The real story is the romance between Jessica and the studio's finance guy Christopher (Jessika Van and Josh Swickard), these two were just the right amount of sweet and played off each other well.

I enjoyed this more than I expected to and recommend it to Christmas movie fans and romance fans everywhere.

You have to get beyond wanting a 10 out of 10 Hallmark movie. If you want a Hallmark movie go to Hallmark. This is on HBO. I stumbled across this one by accident and was pleasantly surprised. I thought the fact that it played off of the cheesy romcom was perfect. It showed the other side of moviemaking, not the three week perfection that other studios give. There was the main character with the flaw they didn't see, the goofy sidekick, the classic misunderstanding, and the unpacking of feelings. Oh yeah, it also had some romance as well. If you can get beyond wanting the perfect movie, this really isn't a bad movie. There are a few familiar faces as well. Just try it and form your own opinion. As a matter of fact, this movie made me hop on here and look for other movies that some of these characters are in.

I enjoy a cheesy bad Christmas movie, but this one went too far with force-feeding you the "formula." I think if the writers took out the role of the PA spelling out the analogy between the Director's real-life interactions and the happy-ending Christmas movies then it could have really saved the movie. I hate it when scripts are too on-the-nose and GOD that assistants voice was annoying which only made it more excruciating. I think in any real life scenario, if someone behaved like that regarding another persons love life it would have immediately shut down any chance of romance. The second-hand embarrassment I got from her pointing out the chemistry in an unnatural way was out of control. I didn't hate the acting, which is typically the issue with these types of movies, but I couldn't get past how much they shoved the plot in your face. Let me live in the fantasy that the characters have no idea they will have their predictable happily ever after.

We love bad, formulaic Christmas movies, and this is a movie about making one of those bad, formulaic Christmas movies while (mostly) following the formula itself. It's so meta lol!

It was fun to watch and the people leaving low rating reviews don't get that it is SUPPOSED to be a movie that doesn't take itself seriously with bad writing and "flat" acting! The acting actually is great, especially the actors playing the a lead actors in the "movie." It makes fun of itself multiple times, albeit subtly sometimes.

If you realize what this movie is before you watch it, you'll enjoy it that much more!