Anneliese Altimari
Yay-
As the calendar turns from November to December the Hallmark holiday movie craze grows. There are many classics that all people love no matter your age and that we have all been watching since we were kids, however when it comes to these Hallmark movies people either love or hate them with little middle ground.
These movies are known for their bad acting, cheesy storylines, and cringe worthy dialogue, and I love every second of them.
Even the streaming service, Netflix, in recent years has made their own Hallmark-esque Christmas movies with their two most popular being The Princess Switch and A Christmas Prince. Both had so many watching that they made them trilogies.
Usually people don’t always understand why I love these movies, which I get, because they sound unbearable to watch. But, there’s something about them that makes it feel like Christmas. They’re always set in some small town that looks out of a storybook filled with Christmas decorations and there’s always Christmas activities going on. They resemble exactly what Christmas is seemingly supposed to be about; the things that all people value during the holidays. As much as someone may say they hate these movies there’s no denying that we all can find some sort of relation to our life in them.
Yes, in almost every single one of these movies someone’s a single parent (usually the father) to their only child (usually a daughter) because their partner died, someone is either a baker or works for a local inn, one of the love interests is rich while the other is struggling financially, and the female love interest almost always brings up finding her “knight in shining armor” or her “prince charming”. But, in all honesty all of these cliches are just part of the charm these movies have.
In fact, in a world so full of conflict these movies provide a much-needed break. They represent joy and goodness, people always doing the right thing, or realizing their mistakes and “fixing them,” at the very least. Hallmark movies bring out the happiness that signifies the holidays.
I think every teenager can agree that Christmas quickly became very different from when we were younger. Almost as if the magic of Christmas is gone and it’s just another day for us now. But watching movies of older people emerging themselves in the magic of Christmas brings some of it back for me at least.
Getting to sit down on my couch once all my Christmas decorations are up, in my pajamas with a cup of hot chocolate, and I turn on one of the many cheesy movies that I love is something I look forward to doing during the holiday season.
I agree these movies may not contain the best acting or storylines, but they are so bad that they’re good. You just have to watch them through to see what happens. All I’m saying is, if I’m not pausing the movie at certain moments from second-hand embarrassment it's not worth my time.
Lauren Young
Nay-
When people watch a movie, they want to feel things such as shock, grief, or happiness; if you are able to predict all the plot twists and the ending of the movie, then why watch it? Hallmark movies are known for their easy predictability and cheesy sayings; I don’t know why someone would watch a movie that includes that. The fact that every movie is the same, whether there’s a small town boy that owns a Christmas tree farm or a bakery or a business woman from the big city that goes home for the holiday to see her family.
In order to give a clear and supportive opinion on Hallmark movies, I forced myself to watch The Christmas Train, which is one of the most highly rated Hallmark movies. The fact alone that it took me a week to watch an hour and a half movie shows the pain and struggle of getting through a Hallmark movie. There were too many plots within a large group of characters, along with terrible music, cheesy sayings, and easy predictability. My opinion on Hallmark movies would be very different if I didn’t enjoy Christmas, but the fact that Christmas is my favorite holiday shows that there is no bias towards the holiday. The Christmas Train features a journalist, Tom Langdon, who decides to take the Christmas train to Los Angeles, to see his long distance girlfriend. While on the train he reunites with his ex-girlfriend, where of course, they end up back together. There are so many other characters and background information to the movie that I can’t even write about it.
The fact alone that it took me a week to watch an hour and a half movie shows the pain and struggle of getting through a Hallmark movie. There were too many plots within a large group of characters, along with terrible music, cheesy sayings, and easy predictability. My opinion on Hallmark movies would be very different if I didn’t enjoy Christmas, but the fact that Christmas is my favorite holiday shows that there is only positive bias towards the holiday. This movie well represented everything that Hallmark is: repetitive, with the only used concepts of love, family, Christmas, and luck. When you look at their website, they list their movies in alphabetical order, and you will see two people smiling with Christmas decorations behind them; along with the fact that 27 of the movies all start with the word ‘Christmas’. There’s no originality of their films and it feels like watching the same movie over and over again.
Don’t get me wrong, movies are amazing, and I actually spend most of my free time watching movies. With all the movies I’ve seen, I can easily say this was one of the worst (and I’ve seen a lot of horrible movies). Overall, the movie was way too easy to predict, and I found myself cringing nonstop. I understand that the purpose of the films is to be corny and wholesome but with the film industry today, Hallmark movies cannot compete with their lack of cinematography and creative motifs.
When in the mood to watch Christmas movies, there are plenty of classics that I would recommend: Elf, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Polar Express, The Holiday, etc. These films are comedic, heartwarming, and create great spirit for the holidays. The last thing anyone should ever recommend is Hallmark movies, which I will always consider the worst of all time.