Latest / Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast / Christmas Under Construction

Transcript

Christmas Under Construction · Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome to the Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast, a podcast where we talk about one thing and one thing only, and that is Hallmark Christmas movies.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Rich, as always.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Join my Christmas cousin Renee.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: How's it going today, Renee?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's going very well.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: A happy day after 4th of July when we're recording.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, to all of our uh American uh fans out there.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we we have fans from all over the world, but to our American fans, happy 250th birthday.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's officially Christmas in July.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I started thinking about Renee.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've never done like a new movie.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've only ever done older movies.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe 2022 might be the most recent movie we've ever reviewed.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So finally we uh we got some new movies to look at.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this next month will be interesting for us for sure.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, you want to get into this one and just uh get it out of the way?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh today's movie is Christmas under construction.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this debuted on the Hallmark Channel.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And for us, it was yesterday, July 4th, 2026.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, this is not a brand new movie.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this movie was originally on Hulu, uh, November 2024.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And under Hulu, the name of the movie was Renovation Romance.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this stars Jessica Lowndes and Daniel Lissing.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have two uh a couple writing credits here.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Story credits for Peter and Julia Benson, and also script credits for Peter Benson and Robin Dunn, who also directed the movie.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And here's our little holiday hook on this one.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: A home makeover brings two couples together with both unsure about their current relationships.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sparks fly when one of the renovators develops feelings for the owner of the log cabin they're fixing up.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: IMDB rating on this one, 5.6 and only 593 reviews on this one, so not a ton.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, most Hallmark movies, you know, have thousands, so a little bit smaller sample size here.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, as we mentioned in the past, uh the average IMDB rating for all the Hallmark movies throughout the year since 2000 is a 6.4.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So quite a bit uh below average in terms of the IMDB rating.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But again, hey, there's IMDB movies that are in the fives that I really like, and some in the sevens I'm not so crazy about, so you never know.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But uh to each their own, everybody can kind of develop their own feelings.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a gauge, a user-generated uh scoring system there on IMDb as to what 593 people thought about this movie.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ready for a few fun facts?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Always ready.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the newer movies, I'm not gonna be able to have as many, although I will tease you guys for the next two movies or doing Christmas in July.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to get a little bit more uh information from one of the filmmakers on those two movies.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll have a few more fun facts.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: But on this one, just a couple.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Daniel Lissing and Jessica Lownds, they were the two leads in this movie, but not their first Hallmark rodeo because they were also the leads in the 2016 Hallmark movie December Bride.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Peter Benson, who has both a story and a script credit on this movie.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've mentioned Peter in the past, he was the character of Mike in A Bride for Christmas, which we did a couple weeks back, and he is one of Hallmark's go-to directors.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But in this one, he wasn't behind the camera.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: He was actually on the computer screen, I guess you can say, developing the story and in some way uh involved uh in a little bit of the script as he does a script credit on this as well.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to find out where this movie was uh was shot, and I couldn't find out, but I'm having a feeling it was in Winnipeg just by looking at some of the secondary and supporting characters.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: If the more movies you watch that were shot in Winnipeg, you will see the same characters because they're all Winnipeg-based.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Adam Hertig, who played Jake in this movie, he's Winnipeg-based.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so was the the gentleman who played Don.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And going back, like I say, if you you can look at movies like Sweet Holiday Romance or The Santa Summit, uh, you'll see the same supporting characters, Lauren Cochran, uh uh John Lowe, who played uh The Santa in A Kiss Before Christmas.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of those same characters you will see over and over again in all the movies shot in Winnipeg.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm 99% sure this was a Winnipeg movie.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it for the fun facts.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I guess let's jump right into it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Renee, what did you think of this one?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I like these two actors.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: The first hour was kind of slow.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I will say that I enjoyed the last 20 minutes more for sure.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's when everything kind of came together for me.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think this is one I'd come back to very often.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like for most of the people in this in the movie, it was not a happy ending for them.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I had mixed feelings for sure on this movie.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta keep it real.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was not my favorite movie, but uh, yeah, that's about what I think about it.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this was uh this one was a struggle for me as well.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was watching it with my wife, who was she was kind of playing on her phone at the same time with an eye on the movie, and I literally kind of paused it to see.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I was hoping there was only 10 minutes left, and there was still 45 minutes left in the movie.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going, you've got to be kidding me, because it was really slow the first hour or so.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm just gonna come right out and say, Renee, this was this was not a good movie.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I guess if Hallmark was gonna acquire a movie and put it on a night, I guess the 4th of July might have been a good night to put it on because maybe not as many eyes were on it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But a couple things that just kind of hit me uh in terms of this movie, which originally was a Hulu movie, Hallmark didn't pick it up back in 2024.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's the production quality and then the writing of the movie.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's just a big difference.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you see this morning, I had on Newport Christmas, uh, which was the 2025 movie, and right after that, uh Christmas United Stars on the Hallmark channel is just laying around putting it on the TV.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you can just tell the production of those movies is so much better.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: The the camera work, the angles, just everything looks better in a Hallmark movie in a Hallmark original.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the one thing that really caught my eye was was like, remember those night Christmas markets in this movie?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They they they had like these white, easy up pop-up tents that you could buy at Costco or something.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It just did not look as professional as a Hallmark movie should be.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: That was the one, and then the script again.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just found the movie fairly boring, um, very formulaic.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think the dialogue was good at all.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the writer here, Robin Dunn, mostly his I think one Hallmark writing credit he had was back in 2015.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: He mostly writes for some other networks like Lifetime Great American Family.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I there is just a difference between those other networks and Hallmark writers.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the really good Hallmark writers, you know, we had Julie Sherman Wolfe on the podcast two weeks ago, um Joah Botkin, Tracy Andreen, Nina Wyman, Marcy Holland, uh Zach Hug, Russell Hainline, they never ever write a dud.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, now, granted, are all of them uh you know top 25 movie of all time?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, but they're always usually pretty solid.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's like I said, the production, the script, the writing, those are the two things that that kind of stood out.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this just didn't hit home for me.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was one scene where the snow looked so fake.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was really bad.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I wasn't even gonna mention it, but since you mentioned, you know, the production, yeah, I was like, boy, this does not look real.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I get it, it's not meant to look real.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it, you know, I I forgot that it was filmed two years ago, but I was thinking, geez, if this is a Christmas in July, then when did they film this?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like during the summer, because it was just really bad looking.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, obviously, they they do a lot of Christmas movies in the summer.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them are filmed in the maybe the late spring or the summer, and then they do have to use fake snow.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: But like I say, when when Hallmark original movies, they pull it off pretty well.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I'm with you.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the production quality is just something that just caught my eye.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not Hallmark quality.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, but I think uh, you know, obviously we both struggle with this movie a little bit, but I I I don't know about you.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can always find things to like in a movie.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what about you?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I found a few things.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, even though like the snow looked fake, but there was lovely Christmas decorations everywhere.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I like seeing a you know a plethora of of Christmas decorations.
• 8:19
  unknown: Uh-huh.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And going a little bit deeper, like I like Bethany's comments.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I thought she was funny and spot on some of the comments she would say to Chelsea.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when Chelsea said, Hey, I'm you know, I'm here to fix relationships, and Janice looks at her and says, Who's relationship?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I like I like a there's always like a good best friend or character who knows the the lead better than they know themselves sometimes.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she's she she's obviously seen uh you know Chelsea and Jake through their through their years probably understands you know their their relationship and maybe it's not all scrapped up to be Yeah.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I liked when uh Cooper says, you know, like after they kind of re before they did a final reveal, but where she's painting and showing him the green and stuff in the house, Cooper says, Hey, I have to live in this house all year, and it feels like Christmas 365 days a year.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Chelsea said, like, that's a bad thing.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was cute.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one of the things I really liked this thing called a Christmas fun fundoozal.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Fundozel.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Fundozel, a funnel cake, donut, and pretzel.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: All these things individually are awesome.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to try them.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Does it exist?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I need one.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the last, you know, kind of a to not go on too long, is the moment when um he dropped her off at the B and B and she's walking to the door, and you can tell she was thinking, you know, they they go and she goes and closes the door and she leans up against the door, and you can tell she's starting to think about things, and he's walking away and he pauses and kind of thinks, looks back at the at the B and B.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you can tell he's also thinking, you know, like that's the moment I saw, okay, this is when they were starting to have a little bit deeper feelings.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were friendly before that.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can just say, well, they're just being friendly, but this was the moment that kind of hinted to me like there's more to the to what's going on.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we know that's gonna happen, but that's the indicator for me.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, like you, I there's a couple things that you like that I I guess we were on the same page.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was number one, the decorations, um, the Christmas trees everywhere uh lit up beautifully.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it must be a Winnipeg thing, because you and I we called out the Christmas decorations as being incredible in a kiss before Christmas and also crashing through the snow.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Those both had incredible decorations, and this is another Winnipeg movie, I'm pretty sure.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Winnipeg does a really good job with their uh their decorations for sure.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I also called out the Fundozal Funnel Cake Donut and Pretzel.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, I wanted to try it.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm what I'm upset about is that we never got to see it really.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of curious, was it like one big kind of funnel cake with all those different flavors, or did they chop up each individually put in a big bowl with toppings on top?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because they because he because uh they were eating it out of a bowl, and I just they just never showed it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I and I wanted to see what it looked like.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was upset, I was genuinely upset that we didn't get to see it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite parts about the movie was Jake and all of his grooming and face masks and uh tweezing his uh you know, little every little hair on his face.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jake's a good looking guy.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but every time Jake was on, he kind of cracking me up with all of his uh his grooming products and making sure he looked absolutely perfect.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Daniel is singing Jessica Lowndes.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I thought their chemistry was okay.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not great, but it was okay, good enough in this movie.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's always going to be awkward when both have another boyfriend or girlfriend, you know, in their lives um to try to build that chemistry.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I think considering that they they did pretty good with their chemistry.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that's that those are those are some of my likes.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And now uh now we have the tough part, uh things we fixed in a rewrite.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you mentioned one already.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Things I'd fixed.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, show me the fundozel.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: That was my number one fix in a rewrite.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when they were doing the work on the house, that sort of montage they were doing, I wasn't sure if they were, I mean, I assume they were being filmed, not just working on the house, but they are dressed nicely.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you and I, we're not construction workers, but we we know that if we're doing any kind of work around the house, she's not wearing that nice outfit, especially if they're sanding and staining wood.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Their clothes was way too nice to do that kind of a work.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't, I said that makes no sense to me.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're renovators, any show you watch with a renovator, you know, they get into overalls or they get into something more appropriately.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I had a hard time with uh both the couples breaking up on the same day, right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then kissing each other on having the kiss and get back to the kiss later, I guess.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that was kind of an insane thing.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think I would have liked to have seen more time or something, but I don't know how to fix that in the rewrite.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just maybe it's just something I didn't like in the writing at all.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I thought that was really weird.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And for a while I wasn't sure, I maybe I wasn't paying attention.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are they renovating or just doing a remodel?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it looks like they were just doing a combination of both because they didn't seem to do much work, they were supposed to take down a wall.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it didn't make sense to me.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that was it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's more stuff, but I don't want to nitpick it all to death.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I don't know how nice I should be here with this one.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um you'll hear Hallmark writers, like your really you know, well-known Hallmark writers, the ones I mentioned before, talk about a page one rewrite where someone's written a script that has maybe a decent idea, but they're just not on the spot with Hallmark writers, and they end up doing what's called a page one rewrite, where basically they're taking it from the first page and just kind of giving it a full overhaul.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I almost think that's what's needed in this movie to make it work for Hallmark, is picking the idea, which wasn't necessarily bad.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hallmark's done renovation movies in the past that have worked.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Santa tell me a couple years ago, this exact same year, and Daniel Lissing was in that movie as well, was a fantastic renovation movie.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So to be honest, this probably could have used a page one rewrite by one of the really good Hallmark writers.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the the only thing I guess I probably looked, and I'm sure Willby you thought about this as well is do Jake and Janice end up together?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: They obviously had their own kind of flirtations, kind of that couple switch where then it gives Chelsea and Cooper, once they find out that they're you know having feelings for one another, it opens them up to start having a little bit more feelings for one another.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably the one thing that I if I was gonna rewrite this in its current ways, I probably would have somehow rewrote that little storyline into the into the script.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was unresolved for sure.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I thought about that too.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that don't like okay, I get I mean these guys are kind of perfect for each other, and they're both in New York or wherever they are.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, but that didn't resolve.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there there was a little moment where Janice and Chelsea were together, and in they kind of looked, Chelsea or Janice said something, and Chelsea kind of looked at her like, Yeah, you have something like feelings for Jake kind of thing, and uh, but it was yeah, you're right, it was never resolved.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, all right, favorite moment.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I had to think hard, flung hard on this one, but uh, what do you got for a favorite moment?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, my favorite moment, I I I looked at this.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: This was a moment that made me laugh so hard that I re I rewound it twice because it just made me laugh.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I got it's it's a dumb moment.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's when they're doing sort of uh the interview at the end, the live, the live show, and Jake asked Janice if she's ready to move you know to the cabin from New York, and she says no.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you can hear the crowd go in the background.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: It just killed me.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was so hilarious to me that that became a silly little scene like that.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Just like these people were so invested in that moment, it just made me laugh.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: I rewound it two, three times, kept watching it, made me laugh more and more.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: That was my absolute favorite moment.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: I know it kind of has really I mean it's an important part of the story, but it was just a scene that made me laugh so much.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I as I mentioned I wasn't really crazy about the the dialogue in this movie, I found it very boring.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, the the one scene that I thought had pretty good dialogue, and god, I can't believe I'm using a breakup scene, but the Chelsea breakup scene had some really good dialogue behind it, those two kind of talking about how they they weren't right for each other.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Jake was still kind of trying to hold on to it, but Chelsea knew it was over.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've used a breakup scene before back in uh the Nine Lives of Christmas, but obviously that was a much different, much needed breakup scene.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I I did like the dialogue in this one scene, considering I I wasn't crazy about the the dialogue for most of the movie.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I guess in the end, that's probably my the the one moment or the one scene I'm gonna go with here.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have that many characters in the I think believe there's only eight speaking credits in this entire film.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're a little bit slim pickings here for best supporting character who deserved more screen time, but let me know what you got.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I went with Don.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh his name is Paul Asembir Assembre?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: E-S-S-I-E-M-B-R-E.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea how to say that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um I thought he was so funny.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: He liked to me, he stole every scene he was in.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: He was wound so tightly and focused on the TV network.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Every scene he was in just made me laugh.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I love that character.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted I couldn't get enough of him.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Supporting character.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Janice was lovely, of course, but Don for me just made me laugh.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Don, another one of those Winnipeg supporting characters I mentioned before that you know a movie shot in Winnipeg when he's in it.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm yeah, I'm the one who I think got the least amount of screen time, and that is Eden, Tom's mom, who owned the inn.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I guess I'd kind of like to have had a little bit more of uh of Eden, just find out a little bit more about her.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other seven kind of had their time.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: She just needed a little bit more.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: She was cute.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so I'll go with Eden.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Good call.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so we always uh call out some Hallmark logic checks here.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: We obviously suspension uh of disbelief is something that we have to put aside in every Hallmark movie, but if anything's way too obvious or caught our eye, we need to call it out and uh let me know what you got here.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So just a few.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, could a cabin be restored so quickly by just two people?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: The remodel or renovation that they were doing.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: No way, no way a table gets done that fast as well.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody who's worked on any sort of wood or all knows that those things need to take time, they need to sit overnight and maybe sand a couple times and stain a couple times for it to be just right.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Made no sense to me.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I you know, I was kind of surprised that Chelsea was so flirty as well, like on camera with Cooper.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe she's just being a nice host, and that's how you know Hollywood is or how you know TV stuff is.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: It seemed a little bit um a little bit uh too much, I thought.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then the big one, it's like, are we sure Jake would propose even for the after the breakup?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he knows that they're broken up, but he's just saying, just do this for the show, just do this for the show.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Did he not just hear her talk about you know all things about trying to be real and all that?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and he just proposes on the on the live show.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that made that was so crazy to me that he would do that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: That was those yeah, I had that.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I read that on my list as well.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's it for me.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of are we sure is, but I'm gonna keep it short today.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are a bunch.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sure we could we could go on, but uh the first one are we sure we says are we sure that the airport where they landed New Hampshire would be called the New Hampshire regional airport?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a big giant sign.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: New ham okay.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get into geography here, but New Hampshire is not a region, New Hampshire is a state.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're not gonna have the Oregon Regional Airport or the Arizona Regional Airport.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, come on, seriously, we can't get something simple like that, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's so funny.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Big one I had really this this cabin looked pretty darn nice.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are we really sure this thing needed renovating at all?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was it was beautiful.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: How I mean, I I mentioned Santa Tell me from 2024.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: That house was a disaster.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they that house needed to be renovated, it was all dusty and dirty and cobblers inside.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: This thing looked immaculate.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are they doing here?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think they wanted to like you know make it more for uh Janice, more like you know, more contemporary, more modern, but I didn't really see that many changes besides the table, and supposedly they knocked down a wall just to open up a space.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Painting a new wall green.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't think a renovation show would ever go into a house that that beautiful and and say, like, yeah, let's start tearing down walls.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful home.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then my big one, I mean, are we sure that both I mean we have both Chelsea and Jake and Cooper and Janice?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: None of them are happy.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're all smart people, they're all good looking people.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are we sure these four would be together as couples, or Chelsea and Jake would be and Cooper and Janice would be?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody seems to really be into their relationships, and they haven't been for quite a while.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's my last are we sure is are we sure that uh both of these couples would actually be a couple?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so we got Cooper and Chelsea here.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna make it 12 months?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: They both just jumped out of one relationship into potentially another.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're not technically in a relationship, but they're kissing and liking each other.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is gonna be, I don't know how many times I've said this, but I don't think so.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know each other really at all.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: I said no, no way.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: All right, well I went harsh, but it's just like they don't know each other.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan, I I honestly didn't know what to say here.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually gonna go opposite you because really I like so little about this movie.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say sure.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go, let's have a little Christmas cheer.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have one positive thing about this movie, and let's let them end up being together for the long run.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I really didn't know which way to go on this one.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I go, you know, I I gotta I gotta find some positives in this movie, and and it is Christmas in July, the first movie of Christmas in July.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna give them the 12 months and and go from there.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I usually go like, hey, I believe in the hallmark love.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in it, right?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So normally I say yes, but I don't know.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think the whole movie got me soured on on the on their relationship.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Cypher the mistletoe meter, we g we rate the kiss uh letter grade, A to F, and we kind of had two kisses here.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what do you think of these?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the first kiss was a C for me, like barely a C.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that good, and it was quick, and she pulled away right away, maybe because someone was coming.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't quite sure on on that scene if she heard the person coming or not.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the last kiss was like I was.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like C plus or B minus.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think I ended up giving it a B on the final kiss.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, overall, the kisses in the movie were B minus, but if you said C plus, I wouldn't argue with you too much.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're very similar here.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was really hoping that after this movie at least a kiss would help make up for it, and no, it really didn't.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I gave the first one a C plus.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it kind of started off good, but you're right, like it within just a couple seconds, they like pulled away from each other like really abruptly.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like they didn't, you know, most of the times they kind of slowly finished their kiss, but they just kind of pulled away, and then like a second or two later, Dawn walked up to started talking to uh to Chelsea and and stuff.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, it was just kind of awkward how the I don't know if it was the camera work or whatever, but they literally just were going the next thing you know, boom, they just kind of separated without kind of you know having that a little finish to the kiss.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave it a C plus.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the last kiss I gave a bite B minus to it it was okay, nothing fantastic again.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was really hoping that uh a really good kiss would help make up a little bit for the movie, but yeah, I'm gonna go B minus overall.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it's just kind of lackluster, nothing great for sure.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all right.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Another one that I struggled with who or what won the movie.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: This was kind of a challenge for me as well.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I've never kind of quite said this as winning the movie, but I said the last 20 minutes of the movie is what won the movie for me.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's when it all came together.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's when I started enjoying it more.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I enjoyed this last section quite a bit.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there was some funny parts in there, there was emotional parts in there.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess I would have to say the writing of the last 20 minutes of the movie is what won the movie for me.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Aside from that, really, you know, I could set decorations, but it seemed like an easy cop-out on this case.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the writing for the last 20 minutes.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I went on to IMDB Pro this morning and looking looking for who the set decorator was.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't even find one.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if if somebody else, one of the producer or on the production team or somebody or costume design, somebody doubled as set decorations.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't find any set decorations on this movie.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta assume there was one, but uh, the set decorators did do pretty well with this movie.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm gonna go with Adam Hertig, who played Jake.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I guess if there was one character who made me laugh throughout the movie, it was Jake.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I I thought he had some really good comedic timing.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mentioned all of his kind of crazy grooming habits that he was always so uh involved in himself and a little bit superficial in a way.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if there was one character I liked the most, it was Jake.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go with Adam Hertig, who I I really like.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I loved him in the Santa Summit.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, good character actor when he gets one's one of the one of those guys who does a lot of Winnipeg movies.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna go with Jake and Adam Turtig as my MVP.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Good call.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're gonna do something a little bit different uh when it comes to our rating moving on.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of just, you know, I've heard we've heard other podcasts out that they'll do, you know, three cups of cocoa or Gary Name from Poor the Wine Stromcomp time, they'll do four wine decanters or something to break, you know, to talk about their ratings, instead of just giving a boring number.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna start that as well, but we're gonna change it every movie and find some kind of uh uh object or whatever, you know, that uh that relates to the movie.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna do sledge hammers on this one.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Renee, how many sledgehammers are you gonna give to Christmas under construction?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as we're talking about this, this one could have been also how many fun dozels as well.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: It created by fun dozels, yes.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but uh sledgehammers, I gave it 2.75 sledgehammers.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I did that is because I looked at my lowest rating, which was a royal corgi Christmas, and that was three.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, a royal corgi Christmas I liked better than this movie, so I went with 2.75 sledgehammers for this movie, or my lowest rating so far.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I feel awful, but I have to keep it real.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, my lowest rating has been a 2.75, and that was for Christmas and Evergreen Letters the Santa.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And how dare you, you know what?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: That was a way better movie than this movie.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um I went back and looked in in 2025 at my my all my ratings for that movie.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, The Christmas Cup was my lowest rating at a 2.5, and that movie was way better than this movie.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going two sledgehammers and even two.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just just everything the production, the script, there's just nothing.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me to find really an MVP of this movie.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm going in even and even two sledgehammers.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's I gotta keep it real, my man.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think at the end of the year we need to we need to do like an award show, like highest rated, lowest rating movie, something I think would be hilarious, but we can talk about that later.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, two sledgehammers.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know what the next movies you want to be.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You want to call it out?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: You want me to call it out?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, it's uh O Little Christmas Market, if I have that right on my list.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Caparel and Steven Huzars.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it should be uh should be an instrument.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I like a good Christmas market.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love a Christmas market, all for it.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully we'll have uh uh more than two or two point seven five sledgehammers uh next week.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope so.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely looking looking forward to it.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: This was a rough one, but uh I I guess it's it's it's it's good to get it out of the way first for our first Christmas in July movie, and and we'll uh we'll hope we uh do a little bit better next week.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and if you disagree with our ratings, uh write us on forever hallmarkchristmas at gmail.com.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or you can jump onto our Instagram page and and leave us uh leave us a message on uh Forever Hallmark Christmas.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Renee, I don't know what else to say, but other and other than this, until next week, let's keep it for the love of Hallmark.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: For the love of Hallmark.