Reviews

The script isn't perfect, but the general plot is good, not normal for Hallmark but a refreshing change, it's real life. Artificial insemination is a reality, kids want to know about their parents and family, if they don't get answers when they're young they'll search for them as an adult. DNA isn't just a law enforcement tool, it's available in limited ways to the public.

Well casted with Juan Pablo Di Pace, Sarah Drew and Cora Bella. The supporting cast was good, I especially enjoyed T. J.'s (Di Pace) extended family and all the different personalities. Ruby loves it (Bella) and Amelia (Drew) warms to them slowly. Beautiful filming location in Utah.

As with many Hallmarks movies, this one has a poor script so it was flawed from the start. Steve Huszar is a known quantity, he's been in many Hallmark movies and he's a good and reliable actor. The lead actress is always the star, but casting Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes was a huge mistake, she's terrible as is the director for not getting a better performance from her.

Puppies are always an attention grabber in movies, but they weren't enough to salvage this film. As always Hallmark locations are great and I've always appreciated their positive movies, but some are better than others. Overall their quality is much better than Real One Entertainment and Nicely films, they are still the gold standard for mass produced rom-coms.

Julian Fellowes who wrote the very successful first series, turned this one over to other writer who created a melodrama that bears little resemblance to the original "Belgravia". Yes the original did have much better actors/actresses and of course Julian Fellowes wrote it. I admit that I was eager for a season 2, but I was looking forward to a season 2 with Maria Grey and Charles Pope and not set 40 years later. The script is really bad. I assume that Julian Fellowes was occupied writing season 2 of "The Gilded Age", so he didn't have much involvement.

I agree that the supporting staff are very good with actors like Sophie Thompson, Gerard Horan, Elaine Cassidy and Liam Garrigan.

Two stars for the actors who tried to do a good job with this mess of a script. A Dublin detective screws up and is banished to her home town, where her family was murdered, that's a recipe for a disastrous plot. I like Irish movies and series, but this one is way below their normal quality. Who cast Lisa Dwan as the lead, she's terrible. There are really good actors like Rory Keenan and Aidan McArdle and then there is Lisa Dwan at the other end. Solving the murder of Roisin Hurley is enough of a plot without complicating it with Fia Lucey's family history. I realize that actors sometimes take any job because they have bills, I assume that's the case here.

Another Reel One Entertainment (ROE) rom-com, apparently made for F&F. They are quickly produced movies with low quality scripts and low quality acting. This is another stupid plot and script.

Making cosmetics in the US is controlled by US states and the federal Food and Drug Administration and involves permits and inspections. It's like setting up a restaurant or a food truck without licenses and health department inspections. They'd get shut down in a New York minute. Same with cosmetics manufacturing.

This isn't the "Little House on the Prairie" era where anyone could open a business and could even call themselves a physician without those annoying licenses.

I had to double check, I thought it might have been a Reel One Entertainment movie or a Nicely movie, but no it's a Hallmark movie. This is one of the worst Hallmark movies I've ever seen. The script is rubbish and the dialog is terrible. It drags on and on with boring subplots. I think the writer must have been tripping when they wrote this script.

The actors aren't totally bad, but even they couldn't salvage a disastrous script. Curses are a cliched plot and add to it the fact that the lead is a risk manager and it was all downhill. I fast forwarded through boring scenes and repetitious dialog.

I liked Marco Grazzini and some of the support staff.

After watching season 1, I can't help but compare it to the series "Montalbano" and "Young Montalbano". Quirky lead characters are fine, but Rocco who continually talks with his dead wife which is morbid, smokes pot in the office and doesn't carry a firearm, makes it hard to believe. Writers love characters who go after the system, go out to avenge a wrong against them and skirt all the rules, but that's not real life it's fantasy. In real life employers weed out problem employees especially ones that act like vigilantes, they are a huge political and financial liability. In real life Schiavone would probably have been retired instead of transferring him to Aosta.

The location is beautiful, the Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps north of Turin. I laughed when his buddies thought he was being sent to Ostia, which is west of Rome on the Mediterranean. I like his odd team, especially Italo who can't stand the sight of blood.

Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano series is safe, this one is good but Camilleri's stories are better. Marco Gaillini is a good actor as are the others. I watched the full 5 seasons and since Montalbano ended it's the only Italian series. They're filming a 6th season.

Reel One Entertainment (ROE) is known for mass producing low budget rom-coms, that mostly have low quality. ROE, Nicely and others tend to use the Hallmark formula, a female lead with her own business stumbles into romance. Low budget rom-coms seem to be obsessed with apps especially dating ones, maybe to appeal to a younger audience. The "app" plots tend to be duds and this one is no exception, along with a lot of the dialog.

Marlie Collins the female lead doesn't work, totally not believable as a tech exec. I blame the director for not getting a believable performance from her. Adam Hollick the male lead is very good and carries scenes he's in and is believable as a marking guru. The supporting cast was ok.

I didn't read the book, so I don't have any preconceived ideas about what the characters should look like. I gave it a try because the plot was different. It revolves around the Walter family, eight Walter kids (Will, Cole, Danny, Alex, Nathan, Jordan, Parker and Benny), Isaac and Lee Garcia who are cousins and Jackie Howard who is unrelated. Except for Will, they all live in a ranch house with their parents Katherine (a veterinarian) and George (a rancher) in Colorado (actually filmed in Alberta, Canada). The large ensemble should mean a lot of different personalities and interactions, but most of the drama revolves around a love triangle that starts when Jackie Howard arrives and includes Cole Walter and Alex Walter.

I liked the series until it got past episode 5, then it started to become more like a soap opera and I fast forwarded scenes. The early episodes had short scenes mainly with the young actors, the relationship dramas of Will and Hayley and Tara and Nick were boring. The moody jock who is also a chick magnet we've seen before, this was original with all the kids and their relationships through school.

Somethings just weren't thought through, with that many kids they would need more than one refrigerator, they'd need lot of computers mainly laptops and printers, the parents would be doling out money for extra curricular activities and it would take more than three vehicles to chauffer everyone around. And there is poor George trying to run that ranch without any full time help. We know the ranch grows apples, but what else? The Loft was nice but totally unrealistic, a good rain or snow storm and all that furniture would be ruined. Don't they have health insurance that would cover the whole family including Cole's physical rehabilitation and Nathan's neurologist? "Earth to writers", get some footing on earth and not in the clouds.

I really liked the locations in Alberta, the large ensemble, the parents played by Sarah Rafferty and Marc Blucas and stand outs like Ellie O'Brien as Grace, Ashby Gentry as Alex, Noah LaLonde as Cole and Connor Stanhope as Danny. I understand it got renewed for a season 2, so we'll see the Walters next season.

What a disastrous adaptation of a Miss Marple (Agatha Christie) murder mystery. Miss Jane Marple is supposed to be the sleuth and in her place it's a secondary character Luke Fitzwilliam, a former colonial policeman who does the sleuthing. We never see Miss Marple. It's like rewriting an Arthur Conan-Doyle book and leaving out Sherlock Holmes. Once copywrites end, I expect we'll have more and more of these disasters.

The 2009 adaptation of "Murder is Easy" is so much better, this one is a mess. David Jonsson as Luke Fitzwilliam performs poorly compared to Benedict Cumberbatch who portrayed the same character in the 2009 version. A few of the cast are always good: Penelope Wilton, Douglas Henshall, Mark Bonnar, Tom Riley and a few others, but mostly it's very bad casting. Is the BBC so desperate for murder mysteries that they commissioned a disaster like this one.

Julian Fellowes is the creator and writer of The Gilded Age, Gosford Park, Downton Abbey, Belgravia and more, each one outstanding. But Fellowes set all those series in Britain as he's British. I wondered if he could successfully write a series about the US while not being American. We may share the same language, but there are so are so many cultural gulfs and cliffs that have to be overcome. Fellowes pulled it off, I enjoyed Season 1 and just completed Season 2 and I can't wait for Season 3.

The success of The Gilded Age is because of the great writing and the great casting. Fellowes and his fellow writers and researchers have captured that late 19th Century era in the US with it's unbridled capitalism that wasn't a golden era but a gilded one. While focused on New York City's budding war between old money and new money, it also gave a glimpse into the black community. However the series should also give a small glimpse of other minority communities during that period, for example German, Italian, Jewish, and Irish immigrants and more. It's difficult to find a cast member that hasn't gone to drama school and it's reflected in the high quality of the acting. From Jack Treacher and Mrs. Bauer to Church and Mrs. Bruce and of course George and Bertha Russell and Agnes and Oscar van Rhijn, they are all drama school graduates. The cast is composed of American, British and Australian actors who use American and US regional accents.

Fellowes partner in this series and others productions has been Gareth Neame as executive producer. Neame comes from film royalty, his grandfather Ronald Neame directed one of the greatest films ever made, "Tunes of Glory".

Hope HBO keeps producing more seasons.

Stumbled across this movie and settled back thinking it would be another formulaic holiday rom-com. It was very watchable with a script that was good. Most of the dialog was actually good, it wasn't typical sickly sweet Christmas movie drivel. The cast can act, I wasn't familiar with all of them but they can act, especially the leads Josh Swickard and Sol Rodriguez. Josh Swickard is good doing comedy, I'm surprised he's not a Hallmark regular. Omar Gooding was good as Moe Walker, hardware store owner and part time garagiste. The two young actors playing Fer and Santi are very good. The setting apparently is Santa Clarita, CA unlike so many of the holiday rom-coms that are filmed in Canada.

Kudos to the cast, writers and director. It has flaws but it's well worth watching.

What a disaster of a script, it gave me a headache just watching all the back and forth. And the cast was so good, they deserved a much better script. Like a lot of Hallmark films it had exteriors of New York City, but was filmed in British Columbia, which worked

Last year Hallmark released "Hanukkah on Rye" with Jeremy Jordan and Yael Grobglas which was terrific. It was funny with Jewish mothers and grandmothers, a terrific cast and mouthwatering food. Paula Shaw who is always great was in "Hanukkah on Rye" and in "Round and Round". And this year they released this disaster, which really just needed a good script.

A beautiful location in Scotland, but it can't make up for another garbage script from Reel One Entertainment. Their motto is "Quantity over Quality", they just keep churning them out from January to December. A good movie starts with a good script, but that's not a priority for Reel One.

If their writers want to learn something, 2021's movie "A Castle for Christmas" starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes worked because the script was good, along with the acting. It was funny and had some dramatic moments. Hallmark's 2023 "A Merry Scottish Christmas" didn't work as well, but it's still better than this Reel One disaster.

There were some good actors like Lewis Howden, among the leads Watters was much better than Winternitz.

Set in Norway, but not with a Norwegian cast. This is the first Rhiannon Fish film I've seen where she's not annoying, the Australian actress does a fairly good job. Her co-lead is the Dutch actor David Elsendoorn who played Jan Maas in the series "Ted Lasso", he's always good.

This is again another movie that thankfully doesn't have a female lead who owns her own business usually interior design, dressmaker or other similar occupation or she's up for a lifechanging job promotion or she developed a dating or other stupid app. The script wasn't bad, but not the best Hallmark movie I've seen. The location was nice, in Bergen, Norway.

A formulaic Hallmark movie that thankfully didn't include the lead actress running her own business, going for a job promotion or developing another dumb app. The script and dialog weren't annoying and it's set in the UK with a talented cast who acted like they were having a good time. The acting was good except for the lead Sarah Ramos, surely Hallmark could have found a much better actress for the lead role.

This had a bum's rush ending which is common with rom-coms. They waste time with inane conversations where characters talk about being rushed with deadlines, while they stand or sit around just chatting.

Another disaster of a script that's saved by good Irish and British actors/actresses, many drama school trained. There is nothing royal here, the story revolves around Anglo-Irish nobility, they are not royals. No woman curtseys or man bows to a duchess, only to a king, queen, prince or princess. Shows how little research writers do.

A more demure Latina would have worked better instead of a loud Hispanic American, Isabella Gomez's character is a disaster. Ruairi O'Connor is great as the very sexy cad, he's a drama school trained actor to boot. I understand that actors need to earn money so they take parts of less quality, that's the reality of the acting profession.

Beautiful location in Ireland.

I know it's difficult to come up with new Christmas rom-com plots, but it all starts with a great script even if it's repetitive. And it needs good actors/actresses to pull it off. A new young actress who is expected to be the lead and depends on the the male love interest to get through., doesn't cut it.

Hallmark movies are generally more successful, because they have a stable of actresses and actors that they drop into their rom-coms knowing that they can act. This Christmas rom-com suffered because of a bad script and the lead actress didn't deliver. Andrew Dunbar is a known quantity.. Reel One is the king of quantity, but not quality.

Brant Daugherty is always good, I especially enjoyed him in the "The Baker's Son" and "Just for the Summer". I've seen Jaicy Elliot in a few rom-coms which have been hit and miss. Brant and his wife Kimberley wrote the script and I give them credit, it's different in a good way. At this time of year when Hallmark cuts Autumn movies short and rolls out Christmas movies that aren't very original, it's refreshing to watch one with a different plot.

The slow pace could have been deadly dull, but the leads and the supporting cast kept it interesting. It wasn't the ending we anticipated but it wasn't a cliched ending of "they lived happily ever after". Don't know where it was filmed, on a soundstage in the US with European exteriors, the old City of Quebec in Canada, Belgium or France, but nice locations.

A weak script and a bum's rush ending, it deserved to have an ending that went beyond Jam Fest. I liked the leads Langford and Starkey, but there was too much time spent on roommate Elle and her love interest Diego and too little time on Zoey's love interest Zach. Amnesia is a formulaic plot and love apps are so overused in rom-coms.

Andie MacDowell is a acting veteran, good in anything she's in. The rest of the cast was ok. Due to the strike we haven't heard from the leads or the writer and the director. Why didn't they interview cast and crew right right after the shooting, so they had something for previews and to generate interest in the movie? If Netflix was looking for filler content, this was filler.

Nicely Entertainment/G It's Entertainment productions have to be the most amateur of the rom-com production companies. You can tell that there isn't much money for locations and actors. Probably little time for rehearsals and direction is minimal. Poor scripts and painfully poor acting are hallmarks, quantity over quality,

Hallmark rom-coms aren't perfect but they're a thousand percent better especially with the acting. If a script is good, viewers will overlook some of the bad inexperienced acting, but when the script is also bad it's doomed.

Giovagnoli has been in a number of films, but she always plays basically the same character, no range in acting. Looks like cast and crew work as cast or crew or both depending on need.

After watching some of the "behind the scenes" of this film on Youtube, I had a good idea it would be a dud. And the finished product proved me right. I guess there must be a teen audience somewhere for this film, but is it enough to recoup their expenses and actually make money. It amazes me that films like this get funding, maybe Seligman the writer/director is independently wealthy.

I know humor is different for different groups, but I didn't see anything remotely funny in this film. The off color language doesn't bother me, but it appears to be only used for shock value as it doesn't make it funny.

Another "Reel One Entertainment" production, it's a company that churns out rom-coms that are of questionable quality - quantity over quality. They make films that are bought and marketed by companies and networks and include actors of lesser quality than those that appear in Hallmark, Great American or Lifetime networks. The writing is usually mediocre or bad and the acting is usually the same.

It's escapist drama, when people want to get away from the too close to reality dramas. If the story is plausible and the acting isn't horrible, viewers will suspend some belief. When the script is bad along with the acting, then the film is doomed like this one.

Very addictive, I watched all four episodes in one sitting. An amazing pursuit of the truth by Steve Johnson of his brother Scott Johnson's death. As others have mentioned, Steve Johnson had the money and resources to pursue leads that others don't. I also understand that there was probably resentment in Australia of an American going there and trying to get media attention for his brother's case over unsolved Australian cases.

Initially it was botched by an inexperienced investigator and the case was closed, like most of the other gay murders in Manly. That suicide location appears to have been a murder location and it looks like nationalist groups just ran wild in that area.

I was struck by how naïve DCI Pamela Young was of the sensitivity of media interviews and attacking politicians. She spent time bashing the Johnson family instead taking leads and giving the family updates. DCI Yeomans was a professional, thankfully he was assigned the case and selected stellar detectives.

Not a full life sentence for the perp, but some justice for the victim.

This is typical New York humor and it was probably directed at upper middle class professionals like the couple we see in the film. The humor evaded me, it was just boring. Support vs honesty in relationships is a cliched film and TV plot, as a subplot it might have worked here but not enough to carry this film. This was another case of decent actors in search of a decent script, but the decent script never arrived.

I've never been a JLD fan, but I do like Tobias Mengies. I kept waiting for something to free this script from its catatonia, but it never came. It was a parade of boring characters after boring characters.