A Christmas Murder Mystery: Movie Review

A Christmas Murder Mystery is a poor man’s version of Lifetime murder-of-the-week movie. Most people don’t think that there is a lower production of a movie but this is it. Lighting and filming are soap opera level, editing is worse, and dialogue and acting which naturally go hand-in-hand are atrociously bad and unnatural. This could have been directed by a computer in addition to being written by one.		2025 Directed by: Peter Sullivan Screenplay by: Jeffrey Schenck, Peter Sullivan Starring: Morgan Bradley, Vivica A. Fox

My Secret Santa: Movie Review

Utterly charming in the silliest of ways.

My Secret Santa plays up the finding love at a Christmas ski resort by combining it with a She’s the Man type of gender swap. The plot of a single mom pretending to be a man to get a job as Santa Claus may sound implausible or even stupid, and yet there’s a genuineness to Alexandra Breckenridge’s performance and the heart shining beneath all of it that makes this silly movie utterly charming.		2025 Directed by: Mike Rohl Screenplay by: Ron Oliver, Carly Smale Starring: Alexandra Breckenridge, Ryan Eggold

Oh. What. Fun.: Movie Review

A family of chaos without the comedy.

Oh. What. Fun. is for the unsung moms as stated in the opening scene highlighting all the many classic Christmas movies led by men with barely a mention of the wife/mother. But what undermines this point is that this is directed by a man, and they conveniently left out the (admittedly) few female-led Christmas movies like The Family Stone or the more recent The Best Christmas Pageant Ever both of which are better than this.		2025 Directed by: Michael Showalter Screenplay by: Chandler Baker, Michael Showalter Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Denis Leary