My Top Three This Week CHRISTMAS PART DEUX
Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. For many of us this can be a sad time of year, remembering past holidays with loved ones who are no longer with us. This year will be a little more than that as most of us can not be with extended families or beloved friends. This is the time to reach out to all of them- zooms, texts, emails, Christmas cards and the most old fashioned one on one experience of yesteryear ,a good old fashioned phone call. Catch up with some classics like Christmas in Connecticut, It's a Wonderful Life , Home Alone and my personal favorite Meet Me In St. Louis. But make room for some new holiday fun.
1) Jingle Jangle : A Christmas Journey streaming on Netflix is film exploding with color, music , dance and a Christmas explosion. This is like a Broadway musical with high production values . Jeronicus Jangle is the most celebrated inventor of his era. His store Jingle Jangles is a magical place full of his inventions - that fly , do feats of magic and fly off the shelfs as the townspeople clamor for his latest toy. He has created his most magical toy yet a talking matador Don Juan Diego (voiced by Ricky Martin) who is a scheming manipulative creature. He convinces Jangle's resentful assistant Gustofson to steal his book of inventions and become the "new" hot inventor. Jeronicus, becomes a recluse without his book and chases away his family and changes Jingles Jangles into a pawn shop because he cannot believe in the magic anymore. The evil Don Juan Diego convinces Gustovson ( the fabulous Keegan Michae -Key to come back and steal secrets again from Jangle but he has an obstacle -Jangle's granddaughter who has moved in with her grandfather and appears to have inherited his inventor gene. Some great actors in this Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and Madalen Mills as the young Journey.
2) The Christmas Setup on Lifetime is a schmaltzy Christmas movie with all of the things we want and expect from a Christmas movie. Beautiful Christmas set pieces, sumptuous food, a crazy family dynamic, a landmark building that needs to be saved and snow falling just when you need it. But this one has a twist. The lead character is gay and it is about his journey to love. Sweet and gentle Hugo comes back home to visit his family and discovers his mother has done a bit of a set up and he reconnects with a high school crush Patrick and they start spending time together. I love this sweet story and the best part is that Hugo and Patrick are Blake Lee and Ben Louis who are married in real life. Fran Drescher as Hugo's mom is just the icing on the Christmas cookie.
3) Feliz NaviDAD on Lifetime starring Mario Lopez falls into the cornball Christmas fare but I liked it. A sweet family story about a single dad (Lopez) who struggles with multiple jobs since his wife died to support his family. His daughter and sister conspire to bring Christmas back to the family and also put him back in the dating game on an app. He meets a beautiful Annalynne McCord and starts a holiday romance. And it all turns out great.
Bonus: Christmas Chronicles :Part 2 is a continuation of the first one with Kurt Russell as the fantastic Santa and this time around we meet his real life love Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus. Christmas is hijacked again by the naughty elf Belsnickel. Santa has to reach to his old friend Kate Pearce ( Darby Camp) again for help. This is a winter wonderland of a movie and is a great sequel.
Bonus 2: Snowglobe (2007) is not new but if you haven't watched it you need to search for it right now. Starring Christina Milian as Angela who is harassed daily by her meddling family and finds a snowglobe outside her apartment wrapped. She finds herself transported into the magical world of Christmas and snow and never ending cookies and skating and presents and a boyfriend who has never lived outside the globe. Things take a comic twist when her globe boyfriend escapes the globe into her world. I loved this movie. Great soundtrack, hilarious performances. A well written movie. Did I mention Lorraine Bracco is her mother!!
Bonus 3: We cannot have Christmas without new Christmas music. Check out the new music from Dolly Parton ( A Holly Dolly Christmas) featuring a duet with Miley Cyrus. Pentatonix - (We Need a Little Christmas) featuring Seasons of Love . and last but not least is Meghan Trainor ( A Very Trainor Christmas) featuring White Christmas with Seth McFarland.
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