Just finished this and have to say, it was a’ight.  Acting was decent, sets and costume decent concept decent, storyline genuinely a bit different. Though I think the concept could have been explored to greater effect (someone waking up in their own ceramic Christmas village), it didn’t push too hard either. Wouldn’t watch again, but cute for holiday filler for aficionados of the B-holiday-movie genre.

#HolidayMovieMusings2019

I am a fan of the previous two movies in the Netflix franchise and was happy to see they had made a third. They made Amber still a bit too ignorant of royal protocol, and in general it was a slow starter, but it improved as it went on and I liked it in the end. Definitely recommend. Further musings if you care:

I think the lingering flaw is they made the assumption we “already know” these characters, and therefore, character development was dead on the table. So they focused on a sort of whodunit storyline. I feel like there is always more we can learn, including seeing evidence of how they got to where they are now. Like, how HAS Amber been getting on? Why is the cousin everyone hates still hanging around? There is a boyfriend kinda in Princess Emily’s life—how did that come about? Ultimately, despite the shrug at character development (or lack thereof), the story was fine, and the ending as happy as one expects.

Also--way too much make-up on Amber, y'all. Way. Way too much.

#HolidayMovieMusings2019

Netflix’s “A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish” was better than I expected. Even the cheesy song and dance portions weren’t too bad. I don’t think there is any such thing as an entirely unpredictable B-level Christmas movie, so ya know...the guy gets the girl. But the acting was good, the music inoffensive, and story was sweet as you’d expect. Recommend.