you have such aristocratic eyes, even if they are filled with tears

Don't you just wish there were Hallmark movies all year 'round?

Santa's Got Style (2022) - "Madison is a department store executive who takes the idea to hire a young Santa with fashionable style instead of a classic one. She can't find the right model until her best friend Ethan decides to be the Santa of her dreams."

source: Tubi
IMDB: 5.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: N/A%
my IMDB: 1/10 🤶🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 - only because 0 is not possible

MPAA rating: NR

directed by: Amy Force

my notes: Plastic, unattractive people who care only about what's on the surface. Plus, they're really irritating. And the costumes, hair, and makeup are beyond the beyond.

Santa character = Matthew, the gay roommate

overall: not even remotely recommended

A Christmas Carol (1984) - "Made-for-television version of the Charles Dickens classic. Ebenezer Scrooge is a hard-nosed, single-minded businessman in Victorian London. He has no friends, has disowned his only living relative--his nephew Fred Holywell--and generally treats everyone he meets with extreme contempt. He hates Christmas, only cares about making money and only grudgingly gives his clerk Bob Cratchit the day off. However, he is taught the true meaning and spirit of Christmas by three ghosts who show him his own past and present--and what the future holds for him if he doesn't improve his behavior."

source: Tubi
I watched it because: I love the story, and in particular I love this adaptation
IMDB: 7.8/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 75%
my IMDB: 9/10 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

notable quote: "A waste of time, dancing...."

MPAA rating: PG

directed by: Clive Donner

my notes: The snide laughing in the first scene is priceless. I adore this film! (And, to share one awesome tidbit of trivia--in a review online it is reported that "George C. Scott claimed he wanted to play Scrooge as primarily lonely and exhausted rather than miserly."
Emmy Award nominee: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special—Scott
overall: highly recommended

The Sons of Mistletoe (2001) - "A wealthy benefactor of a boy's orphanage dies suddenly and leaves the estate to his heiress daughter. When she returns home for the holidays with no interest in funding the orphanage, the owner and residents must convince her to change her mind. Too late she learns that she has sold a boy's orphanage run by a gentle man who grew up there."

source: Tubi
IMDB: 6.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 77%
my IMDB: 1/10 🤶🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

MPAA rating: NR

directed by: Steven Robman

my notes: dumb, dumb, dumb

Scrooge character = clearly, the terrible Helen Radke (played by the wooden and horrible Roma Downey)

Santa character = Leo the orphan boy

Totally improbable at every level
overall: not at all recommended - not even for the unintentional lunacy

My Foolish Heart (1949) - "After being visited by an old friend, a woman recalls her true love, the man she met and lost years ago."
source: Prime
I watched it because: Dana Andrews is incredibly good looking - and this fits with my noir fascination
IMDB: 6.8/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 49%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "Oh! So that's the way it is!"

MPAA rating: approved

directed by: Mark Robson

my notes: a doozy! A great deal more intense than it originally appeared, this movie really packs an emotional wallop. It is surprisingly modern. 

Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actress in a Leading Role—Susan Hayward

• Best Music, Original Song—Victor Young, Ned Washington, for "My Foolish Heart"
overall: greatly recommended

 

A Very Country Christmas (2017) - "Jeanette Williams is a busy single parent, trying to make the best life for her and her daughter. With no time to follow current celebrity gossip, Jeanette is unaware of when a Country superstar returns to their small town to escape the intrusive paparazzi and the chaos of fame. A chance meeting between the two have them both letting their guards down and opening their hearts to the possibility of romance."

source: Prime
IMDB: 6.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 31%
my IMDB: 1/10 🤶🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

MPAA rating: PG

directed by: Justin G. Dyke

my notes: terrible. Forgettable even as I watched. The best part? The singing is really bad!

overall: not at all recommended

 

A Farewell to Arms (1932) - "An American ambulance driver and an English nurse fall in love in Italy during World War I."
source: Prime
I watched it because: Gary Cooper is a favorite, and I'd never seen a Helen Hayes film from this period in her life
IMDB: 6.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 94% Audience: 53%
my IMDB: 6/10

notable quote: "Tonight, who cares—and tomorrow, who knows?"

MPAA rating: unrated

directed by: Frank Borzage

my notes: That's a very, very young Gary Cooper. He was even more adorable as a young man. And Helen Hayes was incredibly fragile and lovely. Still, not a terribly interesting movie. F'ing Hemingway....

Academy Award winner:
• Best Cinematography—Charles Lang

• Best Sound, Recording—Franklin Hansen
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Picture

• Best Art Direction—Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
overall: mildly recommended

[the title quotation is from My Foolish Heart]