Love, Weddings & Other Disasters: Movie Review

Balances the chaos with the right amount of maturity.

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters is a multi-story romantic comedy. Featuring a plethora of characters, some famous actors, it’s a story of people in love and falling in love. Six stories of romance can seem like a lot, but some are more prominent than others, and there is one big wedding which connects all the important characters.		2020 Directed by: Dennis Dugan Screenplay by: Dennis Dugan Starring: Maggie Grace, Diane Keaton, Jeremy Irons, Andrew Bachelor and Diego Boneta

1 Night in San Diego: Movie Review

Directionless comedy and no good jokes.

Starring Laura Ashley Samuels and Jenna Ushkowitz as Brooklyn and Hannah, 1 Night in San Diego is a girls’ buddy comedy, with some not funny attempts at comedy. Brooklyn and Hannah are two Hollywood divas. There's a vague background for Hannah, she’s semi/formerly famous from a New Jersey-set reality show and new to LA. Brooklyn thinks she’s an influencer, but no further introduction.		2020 Directed by: Penelope Lawson Screenplay by: Penelope Lawson Starring: Laura Ashley Samuels, Jenna Ushkowitz

The Giant: Movie Review

A lot of atmosphere, no story.

There feels like there must be a good movie in The Giant somewhere, but good luck finding it in between the blurry shots of street lights, close-ups of her hair and eyeball, and long tracking shots of… the moon. Yes, that’s right, the good cinematography was spent on an astronomical body which cannot emote emotion and plays no role in the movie.		2019 Directed by: David Raboy Screenplay by: David Raboy Starring: Odessa Young, Ben Schnetzer

Midnight at the Magnolia: Movie Review

A cute and charming bundle of holiday joy.

Romantic comedies most often suffer from predictability and Midnight at the Magnolia just may be the most predictable, but in all the right ways. Jack and Maggie form a very cute couple and the charm radiates through the entire story. Even though it feels like it could have been written by a computer, or a thousand monkeys on typewriters.		2020 Directed by: Max McGuire Screenplay by: Carley Smale Starring: Natalie Hall, Evan Williams

Dinner with Friends: Movie Review (AKA Friendsgiving)

Too many unfunny characters spoil the Thanksgiving dinner.

I would like to start with the utter confusion around its release. A Thanksgiving-themed dramedy that was released in the United States as Friendsgiving in October, more than a full month before US Thanksgiving. Then was released in Canada in November, a month after Canadian Thanksgiving and renamed to Dinner with Friends, so it missed out on all the earlier advertising and the actual holiday. That’s a sign that the distributors don’t have faith in the movie.		2020 Directed by: Nicol Paone Screenplay by: Nicol Paone Starring: Malin Ackerman, Kat Dennings

Worst. Christmas. Ever.: Movie Review

Convoluted story and lack of comedy.

Worst. Christmas. Ever. has such a tough hill to climb. It sets some pretty big goals for itself given all the chaos happening in the plot description, but falls very flat. Low production quality issues combined with poorly defined characters keeps the audience too far removed from the action that is supposed to be occurring but never really comes.		2020 Directed by: Johnny Chechitelli Screenplay by: Johnny Chechitelli Starring: Raychael Lane, Leonardo Mancini

A New York Christmas Wedding: Movie Review

A very different kind of Christmas movie.

A New York Christmas Wedding is a very different kind of Christmas movie. It has the look and feel of an indie film (which it is) and, most importantly, it’s inclusive. I am going to try very hard to not give anything away, but I just have to say holiday rom-coms are not just for the straights anymore.		2020 Directed by: Otoja Abit Screenplay by: Otoja Abit Starring: Nia Fairweather, Adriana DeMeo

Blue Ridge: Movie Review

Uninteresting, low quality murder mystery.

Blue Ridge is a murder-of-the-week, made-for-TV quality movie. A woman has been murdered, but we don’t know all that much about her and so the interest in solving the crime is severely lacking. Pretty much everybody in town is a suspect because apparently it’s a town full of bad guys, but none of their stories are interesting either.		2020 Directed by: Brent Christy Screenplay by: Caleb G. Brown, Shea Sizemore Starring: Johnathon Schaech, Sarah Lancaster, Graham Greene

Middleton Christmas: Movie Review

A lot of sweetness, romance, drama and cheesiness.

Middleton Christmas starts out as pure sweetness. Hershey chocolate wrapped in a glittery red bow. You know exactly what you’re getting when you unwrap it, but it’s sweet and comforting, and oh so bad for you, especially in large quantities, so hopefully we can keep these movies to a minimum this year (I say that knowing it’s the first week of November, I’ve already seen two, and avoided another dozen).		2020 Directed by: Dale Fabrigar Screenplay by: Tricia Aurand, Suzanne DeLaurentiis Starring: Kennedy Tucker, Michael Varde

Operation Christmas Drop: Movie Review

No romance but a feel-good finale.

Netflix’s newest addition to the Christmas romance genre starts out very shaky but eventually lands on its feet. Viewers who can get past the unfunny, unromantic, very typical opening with unlikable characters, will eventually be rewarded with a feel-good, inspirational flick. The set-up is awful, but the pay-off is solid especially for movies of this ilk.		2020 Directed by: Martin Wood Screenplay by: Gregg Rossen, Brian Sawyer Starring: Kat Graham, Alexander Ludwig

Wheels of Fortune: Movie Review

An over-the-top trashy comedy that does provide some laughs.

A trash comedy in the vein of Talladega Nights but somehow takes itself less seriously and still has a bit of heart to it. It starts in Tennessee. Bo Jackson is a mechanic for a tractor pull racer and this is because he’s a loser, as he likes to call himself. He has no money and no father, until a big city lawyer shows up with a fancy briefcase and a will from his unknown dead father promising Bo the chance to win money.		2020 Directed by: Shaun Paul Piccinino Screenplay by: John Ducey Starring: Matt Jones, John Ducey, Matty Cardarople, Noureen DeWulf