Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas

Ladies Of The 80's: A Divas Christmas (2023) -

This film wasn't made for me, because I don't like reality shows or soaps and I certainly didn't have any nostalgic feelings towards seeing these "Ladies" all together in one film.

Even in the first five minutes there was a lot of plastic on screen because the women (80's Divas) looked like Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn's characters from 'Death Becomes Her' (1992) AFTER they'd died and Ernest (Bruce Willis) had tried to fix them up with formaldehyde and so on. And they all had to talk through their teeth and noses because they were stretched too much, yet still somehow looked a bit chubby from being plumped up so much.

Of course I realised it's not all about looks, but it definitely said something about the characters they were cast to play and possibly about why they were cast and who they were as real life people too.

Even the men seemed quite fake.

The young love story that was obviously supposed to happen didn't interest me at all either. Alex (Travis Burns) clearly loved himself and Taylor Ann Thompson as Nell seemed really incompatible with him.

After the first advert break, when the Christmas soap reunion episode that they were supposed to be filming didn't seem to be moving forward very far, I realised that the chances of this being the typically Christmassy, warm and loving seasonal film that I like was slim.

Also I'm really not in to the catty, backstabbing, Diva thing. So I turned it off for something more attuned to my tastes.

I didn't watch the soaps that these ladies were in and wouldn't care if I had. The world needs more reality, not reality TV shows, which are the fakest things ever.

Unscored as Unfinished.

I loved Golden Girls. I loved These Old Bags. I would rather watch seasoned veterans instead of nubile youth any day. Except today.

This hurt. I've never seen people try so hard to hold onto the past. These actresses must have had more than beauty and glamour. They basically play older bimbos, not mature interesting women. I know this is fluff, but it isn't fun fluff. It tries so hard to be polite the only catty scene - the food fight - is a big yawn.

All of them seem the same, yet look misshapen, stretched and literally in pain. They seem in pain every time they move. All of them seem barely able to speak from facial surgeries or injections.

I've seen mature actresses in great roles giving great performances. This was just the opposite of life affirming.

I really wanted to like it, as I enjoyed most of the ladies before in iconic roles, especially Morgan Fairchild and Nicolette Sheridan. But this flick suffers from very lame writing, and characters that miss the fire we know from earlier roles. It is like a weak rip-off of THESE OLD BROADS with Joan Collins and Debbie Reynolds, which wasn't perfect but much much better. DIVAS CHRISTMAS has some fun moments and it's nice to see these icons together, but I was hoping for more pizzaz. And, as other reviewers mentioned, the love story of the younger characters is especially weak, and their acting is bad.

Shindler's List this movie is not. Hell, it's not even Devil Wears Prada but it's fun and nostalgic with some sharp pop culture writing zings. I grew up watching all these ladies on TV and VCR'd everyone one of their shows when I couldn't watch it live. Linda Gray was always my fav actress and it was great to see her on TV again having fun. I read a couple of reviews that stated this could be an annual reunion movie with additional diva actresses brought in for new storylines. A future storyline could be a Diva Challenge Special with the ladies of The Great Lakes competing against another rival soap from the 80's The High Hills with Joan Collins, Susan Sullivan, Joan Van Ark, Michelle Lee and Charlene Tilton. Let's see more of these ladies Lifetime.

What can I say except Ladies of the 80s is wasted potential. It has all the right ingredients, mega famous Soap stars from the 80s coming back together in the same vein of These Old Broads from 2001 but Those Broads did it better.

Ladies Of The 80s misses the mark on the writing and directing. Instead of creating something iconic, which it could have, it created something with mediocre writing and even less when it came to the acting.

While I love seeing these ladies again, I wish someone had put more thought into this since they deserved so much more than what they got.

The sub plot of the director and assistant was even more annoying since it was clearly forced sexual tension that was completely un-erotic.

Anyway, I can't hate on it too much since I watched the entire thing but my nostalgia is the only reason I didn't give this a lower store.