Christmas at the Catnip Cafe: Movie Review

Cats and a good romance make a perfect pairing.

Christmas at the Catnip Café is as adorable as you would expect. Cats everywhere, mostly. While Hallmark surrounds the cats with the usual big city girl meets the good-natured small town boy typical rom-com plot, it also needs such a story. Keeps things simplistic while viewers can just watch cats and the occasional rare dog as the romance unfolds.		2025 Directed by: Lucie Guest Screenplay by: Tracy Andreen, Elena Valdez Starring: Erin Cahill, Paul Campbell

Eternity: Movie Review

A clever, inventive and funny version of a romantic comedy.

Who do you want to spend the rest of your life with? That’s a hard question for some, an easy question for others. But what if it wasn’t just for the rest of your life, but for eternity and you cannot change your mind? That’s part of the basic question posed by Eternity. A romantic comedy which changes the formula up by pitting a current husband vs a deceased husband in the afterlife.		2025 Directed by: David Freyne Screenplay by: Pat Cunnane, David Freyne Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, John Early

The More the Merrier: Movie Review

Finding love and community in the hospital.

The More the Merrier is all about community. A movie about finding the silver lining, using positivity and human connection to get through emergencies. Criticizing a movie that’s trying to do good or make the world a better place feels wrong, but part of the problem is this is often too far from reality to feel a real connection here. It’s a sweet and nice idea, but doesn’t have any real weight to it (save one scene).		2025 Directed by: Peter Benson Screenplay by: Caroline Farah, Zac Hug Starring: Rachel Boston, Brendan Penny

Stone Creek Killer: Movie Review

Slow, interesting, atmospheric thriller.

Stone Creek Killer is a slow-burn, indie thriller about Karl (Clayne Crawford), an alcoholic police chief with a shady past, pursuing a potential serial killer in the small town of Stone Creek, Minnesota. This is just such an all-around, well produced movie that it keeps you watching even when parts of it look familiar or not headed anywhere good.		2025 Directed by: Robert Enriquez Screenplay by: Clint Elliott Starring: Clayne Crawford, Britney Young

Tinsel Town: Movie Review

Funny and heartfelt all thanks to Kiefer Sutherland.

Tinsel Town is a fun, funny, joyous surprise. Making fun of Hollywood action stars isn’t a new formula for comedies, but it is when it comes to Christmas movies and pairing it with British pantomime. Bradley Mac (Kiefer Sutherland) is a Hollywood action star of the “Killing Time” franchise currently onto its 7th instalment. Until Hollywood has had enough of these films and more specifically his agent has had enough of him, and he’s tricked into doing theater in England.		2025 Directed by: Chris Foggin Screenplay by: Frazer Flintham & Adam Brown and Piers Ashworth Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson

Sidelined 2: Intercepted: Movie Review

Relationship growth: More simplicity, less predictability.

Good relationships deserve sequels. There is certainly a simplicity and predictability to the first Sidelined: The QB and Me, but there’s also strong chemistry so it’s easy to see why the movie and Dallas and Drayton are so well liked. The plot of Sidelined 2: Intercepted sounds eerily similar to The Kissing Booth 2 in all the wrong ways, but it sidestepped so many easy mistakes that it’s surprisingly better even though its simplicity is more of a downfall this time.		Year Directed by: Justin Wu Screenplay by: Crystal Ferreiro Based on the story by Tay Marley Starring: Siena Agudong, Noah Beck, and Charlie Gillespie

Jingle Bell Heist: Movie Review

A different rom-com crime caper.

Jingle Bell Heist a rom-com crime caper, deftly combines the two genres to deliver something a little different. It’s not a traditional rom-com by any means and incorporates the romance seamlessly into the heist plot. It’s also not a traditional crime caper since it’s a lot slower with a lot less action than heist movies are known for.		2025 Directed by: Michael Fimognari Screenplay by: Abby McDonald, Amy Reed Starring: Olivia Holt, Connor Swindells, Peter Serafinowicz and Lucy Punch

Melt My Heart This Christmas: Movie Review

Generic romance, insufferable character.

It’s always hit or miss when Hallmark takes on a niche subject and turns it into their typical romance. Melt My Heart This Christmas is an unfortunate miss when they take the world of glass blowing and set a romance around an awful caricature of an evil boss. Ruining a movie with just one character is hard to do, and not helped by having no real details.		2025 Directed by: Amy Force Screenplay by: Ansley Gordon Starring: Laura Vandervoort, Stephen Huszar

Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story: Movie Review

An adorable romance but not the best production.

Last year, Hallmark had a Kansas City Chiefs holiday love story. I didn’t see it, but I’ve learned that it was extremely successful and was their most-watched movie of the Christmas season by a lot. Unsurprisingly, they’ve added a new movie to that series with Buffalo up this year. Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story just pours on the holiday romance with special guests: past and present Buffalo Bills players, and the city of Buffalo.		2025 Directed by: Dustin Rikert Screenplay by: Vanessa Marano, Danielle Morrow Starring: Holland Roden, Matthew Daddario

The Christmas Writer: Movie Review

Christmas-y, queer, and uneven around the edges.

As gay Christmas romances start to become more common, it also means we can probably start to become a little more critical. The Christmas Writer is unpolished. It hits on many of the traditional Christmas rom-com beats but does so from a new angle and a fresh voice, but also with unflattering lighting, bad acting, and choppy editing.		2025 Directed by: Christin Baker Screenplay by: Christin Baker, Katie I. Williams Starring: Shelby Allison Brown, Callie Bussell

Blue Eyed Girl: Movie Review

Tender, warm-hearted and real.

A drama about life -- real life for real adults. Blue Eyed Girl is a sweet, tender, charming portrait of a 40-year-old woman hitting a mid-life crisis and re-examining her life when she has to go take care of her ailing father, stay with her two feuding and polar opposite sisters, all while reconnecting with a childhood flame and the one that got away.		2025 Directed by: J. Mills Goodloe Screenplay by: Marisa Coughlin Starring: Marisa Coughlin, Eliza Coupe, Beau Bridges and Sam Trammell

The Christmas Ticket: Movie Review

Sweet and cute and hokey.

The Christmas Ticket is a sweet, feel-good, classic Christmas rom-com even if it is a bit hokey and slow. Alana (Violet Bennett) grew up poor with a constantly moving father after her mother died, gradually losing touch with her grandfather. Years later as an adult, Alana might be a bit more settled in New York City but she’s still broke and jobless and then she finds out she’s the benefactor of her recently departed grandfather’s cabin.		2025 Directed by: Vincenzo Conrorio Screenplay by: Vincenzo Conrorio Starring: Violet Bennet, Travis Laughlin

Champagne Problems: Movie Review

A bland Christmas romance showing off how little they know about anything.

Marketed as a Christmas rom-com, the Netflix movie Champagne Problems is a bland romantic drama set during the Christmas holidays but with a plot that could (and arguably should) take place any other time of the year. It takes so many things that romances love: vague business executives, wine, Paris, and… sons who don’t connect with their fathers? It’s hard to tell if it’s trying to be different but falls into formulaic traps, or if it’s trying to be formulaic and accidentally includes non-cliché elements.		2025 Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson Screenplay by: Mark Steven Johnson Starring: Minka Kelly, Tom Wozniczka

Christmas in Mistletoe: Movie Review

Making a worse version of the typical Christmas rom-com.

A Christmas movie about making the cliché Christmas movie is starting to become more common than the actual cliché Christmas movies. Making fun of a movie to then make a worse version of that movie, isn’t all that funny or clever. Hallmark has satirized themselves a few times to better effect than whatever this is.		2025 Directed by: Collins Abbott White Screenplay by: Brian S. Tedeschi, Vicki Vass Starring: Kabby Borders, Tom Gipson

Murder at the Embassy: Movie Review

A murder mystery with no intrigue.

Murder at the Embassy is a sequel to 2023’s Invitation to a Murder, a movie that has stayed with me over the years despite its many flaws due to the strength of the lead character. You don’t often see indies get sequels, but I’m glad this one did. Mischa Barton’s Miranda Green deserves more screen time. If Daniel Craig can keep solving more murders in the 2020s, why can’t she in the 1930s?		2025 Directed by: Stephen Shimek Screenplay by: Mark Brennan, Alex Davison, Douglas Beauvois Starring: Mischa Barton

A Merry Little Ex-Mas: Movie Review

Formulaic rom-com with maturity and gen-X humour.

Kate (Alicia Silverstone) and Everett (Oliver Hudson) are getting divorced. Except it's going to be a friendly, amicable divorce; a "conscious uncoupling" even though all the townspeople make fun of them for using that phrase. They're still going to have Christmas together, a separation isn't going to change the fact that they're still a family (Kate has 'custody' of Everett's two dads). It's their last Christmas with their youngest son still at home before he goes off to college.		2025 Directed by: Steve Carr Screenplay by: Holly Hester Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Oliver Hudson

A Keller Christmas Vacation: Movie Review

Europe without any of the adventure.

A Keller Christmas Vacation doesn’t quite fit any of the typical Hallmark modes. It has a simplistic premise, but does not have a simplistic setting, which kind of makes for an odd mix. A family with three adult siblings are spending Christmas on a river cruise on the Danube. Filmed on location in Christmas markets across Germany and Austria, Hallmark usually saves their more expensive and elaborate productions for a grander story.		2025 Directed by: Maclain Nelson Screenplay by: Maclain Nelson Starring: Jonathan Bennett, Brandon Routh, Eden Sher