Lily Zerep

This one of those movies that seems it could be interesting and hilarious but when you actually start watching it, you regret it. There's so many problems with this movie. *Spoilers* Ok first off Graham's family is awful, especially the parents. They are looking forward to seeing their their eldest son Graham and even try begging him to come home for Christmas. Then after one conversation, they decided 'Hey, let's invite our son's ex, Ali to Christmas!" Then they're all "Oh shit! Why are you here? You said you weren't coming!" The who family reveal they've been communicating with Ali this whole time, having inside jokes and praise the hell out of her throughout the entire movie. The mom even has the nerve to defend herself for inviting Ali as she had every right to. None of them try to think how Graham is feeling seeing his ex and dismiss him when he constantly telks them how she ended the relationship and broke his heart. I can't fully blame Graham for acting childish and immature. I felt sorry for him honestly and it infuriated me how terrible his family treated him. They weren't happy to see him, ignored him and laughed at his bad luck such as, the airport loosing his luggage forcing him to borrow clothes.If I were him, I'd leave as soon as I saw my ex and cut ties with them. There was very little about Ali I found enjoyable. I mean really, even if you like your ex's family, why stay in touch with them after you end it? If you want nothing to do with your ex, that includes kissing the family goodbye. The movie tries to make you sympathetic to her by being alone at Christmas because her dad is with his new girlfriend since the wife is dead. Ali through most of the movie is a bitch. She is completely smug about how Graham's family favors her. There was only one time when she stepped out of line with the family but then it was quickly forgotten the next day and the rest of the movie. She tries to be humble but that's short lived when Graham's parents praises her as this wonderful cook who gets reviews from big time reporter critics. She guilt-trips her way into getting to sleep in Graham's room while he's forced to take the couch (the family doesn't care he's sleeping there as they are seen sitting on him or around him watching TV loudly). Ali arrogantly refuses to give the engagement ring back. She believes she has every right to be with Graham's family and always tries to come out on top. Sadly it's true as Graham's family make excuses for her like when she accidentally uses pot in her cookie mix (this is one of the few funny scenes in the movie) and are sad when she leaves. I'd also be lying if I say this movie doesn't poke fun at the catholic faith. The family goes extremely overboard with decorating and there's a life-size baby Jesus figure that keeps getting stolen so they have to settle for two "Jesus" version (a Jesus T-Rex and Jesus duck) and they ignore the religious customs you have to do when at a catholic church. This didn't bother me as much as the main characters. The only thing that saved this movie and made me forgive it was the ending. Good old Karma paid a sweet visit to Graham's sister. It was wonderful. There are a few hilarious moments in the movie and but you're better off watching a Hallmark movie.

This story had so much potential but it seemed like the writers didn't know what to do. The movie felt like it was going in different directions while trying to teach you a few lessons. This time, Kate is the moody teenager while Teddy is more mellow and open minded. But instead of celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts, they're in Cancun México with the mom's new boyfriend and young son (who's I think a couple of years or so younger than Kate). Kate doesn't like the idea of them being in a different place and the fact that there's a possibility her mom and the boyfriend could become engaged. We don't get much about the boyfriend other than he's nice and a widower. He does try to make an effort but Kate isn't warming up to the dude. Maybe if we got to see a little more about him interacting with the others but we don't see much of the parents. The acting seems to be a bit off with some of main cast (not counting Kurt and Goldie). The new kid, I'm sorry he didn't seem at all interesting. He was just a random kid. In the first movie, there was imagination, creativity, amusing characters, witty lines, fun and heartfelt. This one, didn't have that. It was not very funny, over the top, and you could easily figure out where the story was going majority of the time. It was eh. The first movie didn't have a main bad guy which I honestly loved. You didn't need some stereotype bad guy trying to ruin Christmas. Here, we got that. I guess the writers needed something to get the story going but this guy isn't even a good bad guy you can enjoy hating. His motivation is really lame! Seriously. Getting all salty over Santa Clause's and Mrs. Clause's attention going into making children happy on Christmas. What is he, five? His backstory isn't even fascinating. He acted more like a prankster in elementary school than turning "evil". Anything good? The scenes with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are entertaining. Both play their parts well and are wonderful actors so you can't go wrong with them. But sadly, even they can't save this movie. They're really the only reason why I'm giving this movie 2 stars. You get to see more of the North Pole which isn't bad at all. It's very cute and creative. Especially how they work Santa's backstory and the star of Bethlehem in it. There is a really nice little moment Kate has with a character in the movie but I dare not spoil it for you. The only downside is you have to put up with some cliché stuff. For adults you can easily figure out the lessons that this movie is trying to teach people but this movie is aimed at little little little kids. I honestly would just stick to the first one.