paul_haakonsen

Yup, of course I had never heard about this 2023 movie titled "Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade" prior to sitting down and watching it here in 2024, as part of my sappy Christmas movie marathon here in December.

But from the movie's cover alone, I figured that this would be a run-of-the-mill sappy Christmas movie. But then again, maybe writer Nathan Usher would surprise me and entertain me here.

"Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade" failed to stand out in a vast amount of similar movies, as it just simply was too bland and mundane. So writer Nathan Usher didn't really manage to deliver something unique here, and the movie will just slowly fade into oblivion. Truth be told, I drifted off to slumberland twice along the way of the 88 minutes that the movie ran for.

There wasn't a single familiar actress or actor on the cast list for me. And while the script and narrative sort of was a swing and a miss, then the acting performances were still fair.

Hardly a Christmas classic in any form or manner. And it is not even a movie that will ever land a second playing on my screen, as it was somewhat of a struggle to sit through it the first time around.

I suppose that the diehard sappy Christmas movie fanbase might be enjoying this movie a lot more than I did as a casual viewer.

My rating of director Dylan Pearce's 2023 movie "Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade" lands on three out of ten stars.

Another Christmas movies that I had no idea existed prior to sitting down and watching it.

Writers Brant Daugherty and Kimberly Daugherty put together a surprisingly enjoyable and entertaining script. It was really, really refreshing to see a spoof on the sappy Christmas movies. It was a stroke of genius to have the characters in the narrative end up in a Christmas movie.

I was only familiar with actors Ryan Merriman and Randy Wayne on the cast list. But I will say that leading actresses Lana McKissack and Kimberly Daugherty certainly were well-cast for the movie and put on good performances. The acting performances in the movie were good, no doubt about that.

There is a good Christmassy feel to the movie throughout the course of the 88 minutes that the movie ran for.

The movie was genuinely entertaining and it was a nice change of pace away from the sugar-coated, sappy Christmas movies that are out there in abundance.

The music performance at the end of the movie was insanely bad. The guy was using an acoustic guitar, but the music had drums, bass and such.

My rating of director Brian Herzlinger's 2019 movie "A Christmas Movie Christmas" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Of course I had never heard about the 2023 movie "Christmas at the Holly Day Inn" prior to sitting down and watching it. But I figured from the movie's cover that I would be in for an archetypical sappy Christmas movie here.

20 minutes in and I was ready to give up out of sheer and utter boredom. The movie had absolutely no Christmas spirit or charm, and the narrative was insanely slow paced with characters that were flaccid and one-dimensional. So writer Lisa Chapman didn't exactly manage to conjure up something grand here, and it was quite a struggle to sit through this ordeal of a movie.

The only familiar face on the screen was actor Mark Arnold, and he wasn't a leading actor. The acting performances in the movie were generally half-hearted for the most parts, which made it all the more unbearable to sit through the ordeal that is "Christmas at the Holly Day Inn".

If you enjoy traditional sappy Christmas movies, give "Christmas at the Holly Day Inn" a wide berth, because it just didn't cut it.

My rating of directors Monika Gergelova and Adam Wilson's 2023 movie lands on a two out of ten stars.