Christmas on TV: Shelley Long and A Holiday Engagement

Remember this post last year? Well, The Santa Trap wasn't Shelley Long's first foray into the cheesy Christmas movie genre. Nor was it her last. Just see this year's post about A Different Kind of Christmas. In fact, Shelley Long has been quite prolific in the made-for-TV Christmas category, even if those movies haven't always turned out stellar.

For instance, apparently Shelley Long couldn't let Dean Cain keep The Dog Who Saved... franchise to himself. In the newest direct-to-DVD addition to this series, Shelley Long joins the cast. Technically I haven't seen The Dog Who Saved the Holidays, so I won't say anything against it other than IT'S CALLED The Dog Who Saved the Holidays, and that's all I need to know about it.

But there is one Shelley Long made-for-TV Christmas movie I can recommend without hesitation.

A Holiday Engagement (also available on Netflix)

A Holiday Engagement plays as a spin-off of Holiday in Handcuffs, but without the kidnapping of the fake boyfriend. Instead our leading lady offers two airline tickets to a guy willing to pretend he's her fiancé for Thanksgiving. The main love interest in this movie is a guy who looks very much like Kyle Howard, but isn't. Which is strange because Kyle Howard plays Melissa Joan Hart's brother in Holiday in Handcuffs. Compare for yourself.

Despite not having been crazy enough to kidnap her fake fiancé like Melissa Joan Hart did, the lead actress in A Holiday Engagement acts quite crazy at times as if she's forgetting that this guy is not actually her boyfriend. Of course, by the end of the movie he's in love with her and she him, but her crazy does come out in spades.

Shelley Long plays that age-old character, the marriage-obsessed mother who rudely reminds her daughter that her biological clock is ticking in every other scene. But honestly, the first time I saw this movie, I was shocked that Shelley Long was actually Shelley Long--she just looked so much older than her character on Cheers. I have no problem with her aging, but I think the costume and makeup people overdid it in this movie. Tell me if you agree.

Also watch for Haylie Duff as a sister who seemingly has it all and Sam Horrigan, the mean skater from Brink!, as one of the potential fake boyfriends. 

Later this season, keep your eyes peeled for a review of Merry In-Laws, a new Lifetime Channel Christmas movie with a copycat storyline: a girl gets engaged to the child of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.

And yes, that is her Cheers co-star George Wendt as Santa Claus. So this one should be worth a look if nothing else than to examine what would have happened if Diane had returned to be with Norm instead... (Hint hint: Ted Danson would have become a crime scene investigator in Las Vegas.)

Christmas on TV: How Dean Cain Is Kevin Bacon

When you've seen as many made-for-TV Christmas movies as I have, you realize that Dean Cain, a.k.a. Superman from The Adventures of Lois and Clark, is in a lot of them. We're talking almost as many as Shelley Long. We're talking almost as many as puppies. In fact, this year alone IMDB lists him as an actor in two holiday movies, and the kicker is that both of those movies also feature dogs: A Dog for Christmas and The Dog Who Saved the Holidays. But we'll get to those. For now let's review some of Dean Cain's best and worst made-for-TV Christmas movies and discover why I think Dean Cain is effectively the Kevin Bacon of the genre--any actor in made-for-TV Christmas movies could get back to Dean Cain in six degrees or less.

A Nanny for Christmas

As this movie started, I was chanting, "Please do not portray the death of the mother. Please do not portray the death of the mother." I was chanting this mostly because, based on the title, I thought it would be about some lonely single father with two or more adorable or obnoxious children who hires a nanny for Christmas and then falls in love with her. But it's not! The nanny (Emmanuelle Vaugier of It's Christmas Carol) is hired by corporate workaholic mom while she works on an ad campaign for intrepid chocolatier Dean Cain. Honestly, other than his status as a regular in made-for-TV Christmas movies, I'm not sure why he gets top billing in this movie. Because an hour into it, he had only been on screen for three minutes. Having gone in with the expectation that he and the nanny were going to fall in love, I was pretty disappointed. Emmanuelle does a fine job carrying the movie, and the children are surprisingly not overly obnoxious, but it needs more Dean Cain.

The Case for Christmas

A knockoff of Miracle on 34th Street, The Case for Christmas features Dean Cain as a lawyer called to defend Santa Claus when a rich man sues him for emotional distress. Elves and a scheming millionaire bring this one down, and the ending would have more punch if the jury were allowed to vote on whether or not Kris Kringle is actually Santa Claus. And if the girl didn't start flying like a fairy at the end.

The Three Gifts

Of all the movies on this list, I choose this one as my favorite. I like Dean Cain best when he's in the role of either good-hearted guy looking for love or devoted husband and father. This movie uses him as more of the latter. He and his wife, played by the curly-haired singer from Mr. Holland's Opus, live on a farm that doubles as a homemade toy factory but are struggling to start a family. Three orphaned boys come to live with them during the holidays, and a family is born. This one is also fun to watch for the scenes with the dad from Family Matters.

The Dog Who Saved Christmas, The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, & The Dog Who Saved the Holidays

I'll admit happily that I've never seen any of these movies. I only have to read two words into the title to know they're not my style. But apparently Dean Cain helped launch quite a successful franchise here for ABC Family. Both Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence have done stints as the talking dog in these knockoffs of Home Alone, where Dean Cain plays the Joe Pesci role of conniving thief vent on ruining the holidays. I also don't know where you'll get a chance to see it this year, since even ABC Family has stopped airing them and just started sending them directly to DVD. The first one is airing on Hallmark Channel at some point, but try Amazon if you really must see them.

And speaking of dogs, Dean Cain has made another Christmas movie with dogs entitled...
A Dog for Christmas

I'm not sure when this movie comes out. I'm not sure what channel will air it. I'm not even 100% sure it's even made for TV, except that is has all the right elements: a dog, a Santa character, and several "Where Are They Now?" TV stars in key roles. In all reality, those "Where Are They Now?" actors are the only reason I'd like to see this movie. In addition to Dean Cain, two of the principal actors in A Dog for Christmas are Richard Karn of Home Improvement fame as Santa Claus (which marks the third time a cast member from that show has dressed up in a Santa suit for a movie role) and Dustin Diamond from Saved by the Bell as "Fred." Their Facebook page hasn't been updated in months. Their Twitter account has four tweets; just four. So who knows if we'll ever see this potential gem of a film featuring Dean Cain, the Kevin Bacon of Christmas movies.

And don't forget, the Kevin Bacon of Christmas movies also makes an appearance in A Christmas Wedding.

Christmas on TV: Hitched for the Holidays

Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie 2012 #7

This movie premiered last Sunday, but I didn't get a chance to watch it until today. From the commercials, I had gathered that it was a reboot of A Holiday Engagement or Holiday in Handcuffs and any number of other made-for-TV Christmas movies that feature this basic plot line: The main characters realize that they are single during the holidays. Oh the horror! Rather than spend one more December with friends and relatives barraging them about their single status, they obtain a fake significant other--through the internet, through kidnapping, through wishing on magical objects, etc.--and then proceed to fall in love with that person. The truth about their relationship comes out, everyone objects for some reason, they "break-up," the holidays pass, they realize they still love each other, one or both of them makes a grand gesture, and they all live happily ever after, never to spend the holidays alone again.

It's a great basic plot line, because any number of quirky friends or relatives, oddly themed holiday parties, strange family traditions, or crazy exes can be added to the mix without much effort. Going into Hitched for the Holidays, I figured it would be about on par with the movies I've already seen with this plot line.

Plus, it stars Joey Lawrence, and the commercials for the movie also brought to mind Lawrence's ABC Family movie My Fake Fiancé, a classic made-for-TV film that spawned Joey's current sitcom with Melissa Joan Hart, Melissa and Joey. In My Fake Fiancé, Melissa and Joey meet at a wedding, realize there's a big payoff to getting married, and decide to stage their own fake wedding to collect the gifts and money--and then fall in love and get married for real. It does have a lame subplot about Joey Lawrence owing money to a bookie named "the Monkey" that I think the movie could do without, but other than that I enjoy it. Anyway, the point of all of that is that I figured it's only a few steps from a fake fiancé to a fake girlfriend for the holidays. Because of Joey Lawrence and the typical plot line, my expectations going into this one were slightly higher than normal.

Readers, I have to tell you, this movie made me actually giddy. It was so much better than I expected it to be in every way. Joey and his counterpart, relative newcomer Emily Hampshire, played such a cute couple with real personalities and real problems. When they had that "I'm opening up to you because we're sleeping in the same room because our parents think we're in love" scene, I actually felt like they would have opened up to each other at that moment. Although I normally advocate saving the first kiss until the end, I loved that they kissed fairly early in the movie and kept on doing it because it allowed me to see their relationship keep developing and watch their feelings for each other grow. I loved that she was Jewish and he was Catholic. I loved that she was a theatre critic and he was a freelance advertising designer. I loved that it spanned all the way to New Year's Eve. I even loved Marilu Henner as the crazy, marriage obsessed mother.

In short, watching Hitched for the Holidays reminded me why I love these movies. All of them may be cheesy, and many of them may not actually be worth my time, but when I come across a gem like this one, the entire genre is justified. This is my favorite new made-for-TV Christmas movie of the season (so far), and I can't wait until next year to watch it again.

Christmas on TV: Home Alone, the Holiday Heist

ABC Family's first addition to the made-for-TV Christmas genre this year is a not-needed addition to the Home Alone franchise. My first reaction to that news looked kind of like this:

I think most people can agree that this series should have stopped after Macaulay Culkin was no longer attached, but  I will put in a good word for Home Alone 3: I remember liking it when I saw it as a child in the theater, the writers managed to come up with a new reason for the kid being left home alone that wasn't too contrived, and it features a super young Scarlett Johansson.

Home Alone 4, made directly for TV, is where the franchise really took a wrong turn. They tried to make some unknown kid into the new Kevin McCallister who is trying to reunite his divorcing parents, also not played by the same people. It takes a special kind of kid to be a smart aleck the audience can root for--Macaulay Culkin had it; the new Kevin did not.

After watching Home Alone: The Holiday Heist with my little brother who is 11 and probably a member of the target audience, I can say that it was definitely better than Home Alone 4, about on par with Home Alone 3, and clearly a knock-off of the first two.

The smart aleck main character this time actually wasn't that much of a smart aleck, which made him a more watchable lead. His main hang-up is his unhealthy attachment to video games, but that reminds me of the original Kevin's attachment to his cassette recorder in Home Alone 2, so I didn't find it a problem. And to be honest, in fifteen years people will still be playing video games but I don't know anyone who still uses cassette tapes, let alone cassette recorders.

As far as the other elements of the movie, the trio of art thieves breaking into the home were okay and the hijinks they faced were creative if unbelievable as always. The parent and the teenage sister didn't add much to the story, but the next door neighbor in the snowman hat was funny. And Ed Asner is looking older and older. It makes me want to go back to 1970 when he was simply Mr. Grant, boss to everyone's favorite young, single professional gal, Mary Tyler Moore.

All in all, I think ABC Family made a pretty good move with Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, a surprising result since I thought this movie would be one of this season's worst. All I have to say is, if they ever make a sixth one (which I don't think they should), let a girl be the one to defend her house this time. Give girls a chance.

Christmas on TV: A Boyfriend for Christmas

I'll be honest. I wasn't paying that much attention while I was watching this one. I'm usually trying to blog at the same time, and some movies become more like background noise if they don't have big name stars or a unique plot line. But I did make several personally meaningful observations about this one in the midst of my typing.

About 30 minutes in, I looked up to see the Salt Lake City skyline, complete with the temple. Having lived near SLC for a large portion of my life, I recognize it almost instantly. Plus, it only has a few skyscrapers condensed into a small area and backed by mountains--it pretty much gives itself away.

Watching movies that are filmed in Salt Lake City brings me a special kind of delight because I spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out if I've been to the various locations where scenes are being filmed. The skating rink downtown, the parks nearby Salt Lake City. (Interested viewers can also watch Everything You Want/Love Surreal, available on Netflix and starring Nick Zano, and plenty of Disney Channel Original Movies for more of Salt Lake City on the small screen.)

About halfway through A Boyfriend for Christmas, Holly and the boyfriend Santa gave her for Christmas--who calls himself Doug Firwood--are sitting on a bench overlooking the Salt Lake Valley, and I think to myself, "I've been on that date!" Sure enough, I recognize the views from a hike I went on last summer with a guy friend from high school who was attending the University of Utah.

Even weirder--that's not the first time I've had that thought while watching a movie. The same overlook is featured in My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, an independent movie available to watch on Netflix. It stars Alyssa Milano and Christopher Gorham and has a surprise twist ending that even I didn't fully see coming.

But back to A Boyfriend for Christmas. In the end, Doug Firwood reveals that his real name is actually Ryan Hughes, she decides she loves him more than her old boyfriend who's been hanging around for no apparent reason, and they share a final kiss on the same bench overlooking Salt Lake. Based on plot alone, I can't really tell you if you should watch this one. But Santa Claus is played by the great Charles Durning. And just maybe, like me, you get a kick out of seeing on screen places you've also seen in real life.