Change Your Image
JerseyGirl50
Reviews
Everything Puppies (2024)
I Wouldn't Do Business With These Women
...and I'm a woman. They are so completely unprofessional. Screeching and giggling when they get an order from the pet food store right in front of the person giving them the order.
Hallmark - have you gotten new writers recently? This is the second review in a row of your new movies that I've written that is negative because of the way the women are portrayed.
I agree with the other reviewers in that I don't expect serious movies from Hallmark, but can we at least make the women not seem like complete idiots?
And my husband's contribution: "This is not on my list of the top 1,000 Hallmark movies."
A Whitewater Romance (2024)
Ugh. Scenery's pretty.
She's a businesswoman in line for an executive position? So glad I never had to work for someone like her. She gives women a bad name - she acts like an idiot. No one would show up on a trip so utterly unprepared - regardless of the short notice (and seriously, no outing would be set up on that time schedule giving their employees so little time to clear their schedules so they could be gone for 4 days). Who in their right mind thinks a manual can opener is a good substitute for a Swiss army knife, or perfume a substitute for bear spray? I mean, even if you've never heard of either of those things what she came up with would be so far out of the realm of reality.
If it weren't for the scenery, this movie would be unwatchable. And this is coming from someone who loves Hallmark movies. Sorry, Hallmark. Do better. Make stories about competent wormen. This behavior isn't cute, and it doesn't make the movie a 'rom com' because there's nothing funny about it.
English Estate (2022)
Couldn't Get Through It ...
She complained about her boyfriend on his phone but couldn't put hers down during the start of dinner. How about both of them turning them off or putting on vibrate? The dueling constant ring tones was annoying.
The squealing when she hung up the phone after hearing she had inherited an estate was annoying.
She owns her own business but thinks she can get money from a sale of an estate in another country within a week? Rather naive...and annoying.
Acting as her own solicitor/real estate agent (whatever the correct term is in England) was idiotic. And annoying.
Her attitude towards anything that differed from what she was used to in the U. S. was annoying.
I rarely turn off a movie - even when I don't like it I watch it in case it improves - but I couldn't make it through this one. It made her appear shallow and stupid and as I've gotten older I've gotten a lot less tolerant of things that make women look like incompetent morons.
The Love Subscription (2023)
Painful
This was hard to get through. I wanted to like it but there was no chemistry between the main characters, the acting seemed forced at best, and the story was, well, not great.
When Lillian first showed up at the small company, she was there because she was evaluating them to see if her company should invest, not because they asked her to come and invest, but she was just so whiny and off-putting - I couldn't get past her attitude. The rest of the story was trite. What office workers line up for office supplies? Who wheels their chair around to wrap gifts? Who rides the world's slowest bicycle around to deliver gifts? While the idea behind the company was cute, there is no way, being run like that, it would have lasted more than six months, never mind being the target of an investment firm.
We usually watch these movies more than once and enjoy them, but this one won't get a second watch from me - that was not time well-spent. If this comes across your suggested watch list, just say no.
New Amsterdam: Maybe Tomorrow (2022)
Missing A Major Critical Point
There was a lot of fear-mongering in this episode. I greatly appreciated that they tried to present both sides of the issue by having a patient who didn't believe in abortion make a decision that would affect the rest of her life because she wouldn't have one (many shows wouldn't bother). But this story is based in NY - a state where abortion is legal up to 24 weeks (!) and later if the health or life of the mother is at risk or the fetus isn't viable. That was never mentioned.
Roe v Wade being overturned put the decision back in the hands of the states - it did not carte blanche take away the right to an abortion everywhere in the country. There are clearly some states where that right will be taken away, but there are others (NY, NJ, etc.) where the right to an abortion has been codified into law.
I realize that the show is seen across the country, but it takes place in a state that has protected that right and that was never mentioned. There is so much misinformation surrounding this issue - adding to it by omitting an important fact doesn't help. This country has so many divisive issues right now it's discouraging. And for the record, my opinion is that this should be a decision between a woman and her doctor. Period. My religious beliefs should not infringe on yours and vice versa.
Where Your Heart Belongs (2022)
Do Better, Hallmark
I came to read the reviews on this one because neither my husband nor I liked this film even a little bit and I thought maybe we were just missing something. Nope - our opinion is in line with the other four reviews here.
I'm not sure what happened with this movie. As others stated, Jen Lilly's character is one of the most annoying 'heroines' in any movie I've seen. She has no redeeming qualities and I'm surprised her friend put up with her as long as she did. I normally like Jen Lilly's performances, and perhaps it was a combination of the writing and directing, but she was completely off-putting in this one.
I'm on the fence about Christopher Russell in general, but in this movie there was absolutely zero chemistry between his character and Jen Lilly's.
The writing tried to stay true to Hallmark's formula (someone from the big city comes home to their small hometown, reconnects with a high school sweetheart, gets along well until 20 minutes remaining in the movie, has a major misunderstanding that would have been avoided had the main characters just communicated instead of jumping to conclusions and then with five minutes remaining a magical resolution occurs with no hard feelings on either side and everyone lives happily ever after) and don't get me wrong - I like the formula - it's nice to know you're going to have a happy ending. These movies aren't meant to be anything more than a couple hours of escapism from reality. But the writers here missed the mark and there was conflict/miscommunication all the way through due mostly to Jen Lilly's character's inability to see a topic of conversation through (usually topics she brought up to begin with).
I won't be watching this one more than once. Sorry, Hallmark. Do better.
Nature of Love (2020)
Just Okay
I like Emily Ullerup, but I wasn't that fond of the character she played in this movie. As others have pointed out, it seems her character did zero research before setting out for her first writing assignment which is odd considering she wanted to be a writer so badly.
Christopher Russell was disappointing as the 'rugged outdoorsman and nature guide.' I know it wasn't his fault - he was just delivering the written lines - but a naturalist would be able to correctly identify the first sparrow they saw on their bird walk as a white-throated sparrow, not a golden-crowned sparrow. To the writers - just take a minute and ask someone who knows anything about birds to validate your guess at the species before filming.
The scenery is beautiful.
This one didn't make my top 100 list for Hallmark movies...