Won't You Be My Valentine? — fangirl, interrupted

The Valentines season has brought some lovely memories for us in the past so I was hoping for more this season. Having said that, we are still in this pandemic, so again, expectations have to be calibrated as such and therefore my Valentine-approving heart, made do with what was given.

Beverly Hills Wedding

When small-town wedding photographer Molly’s baby sister gets engaged, she enters the budget-conscious couple in a contest and wins a dream wedding – an all-expenses-paid, celeb-worthy event at a historic Beverly Hills hotel, thrown by “planner to the stars,” Terrence Roquefort. It all seems perfect but when the engaged couple seems uneasy with the new plans, and maid of honor duties bring Molly closer to the best man, her ex-boyfriend Cory, she reconsiders whose dreams she is trying to fulfill. Starring Brooke D'Orsay and Brendan Penny.

This movie had so much potential. I love weddings. I love Brendan Penny. And I do not loathe Brooke D’Orsay. Plus we get Beverly Hills (a big city!) So what went wrong? Well we focused way too much on the sister (aka bride) and the groom that I couldn’t really care less about them.

And yet you wasted the talents of Brendan Penny playing good guy but second fiddle because we barely got any screen time with them and if we did, it felt forced and like, oh yeah, there is a couple here we’re supposed to root for, except you can’t remember, because you’re getting annoyed at the Maid of Honor-zilla of it all.

Kudos to Hallmark though for peppering in more LGBTQI+ characters even if a little cliche. I’ll take this more than nothing.

Rating: 💖💖💖

Playing Cupid

A modern-day EMMA finds David Martinez being secretly set up with his daughter's teacher when the young girl begins a matchmaking business for a school project. Stars Laura Vandervoort, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Mia Quaranta De La Rosa.

Well this was a shocking surprise hit for me. The “Jane Austen” adaptations that Hallmark has done in the past have not been my cup of tea, so I’m taking this one with a grain of salt. But then, it actually blew me away. I had watched it last (because children + Austen adaptation) but I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

I guess I shall preface this by saying that I was PMS-ing when I watched it so maybe I’m a bit more fragile than usual, but Nicholas Gonzalez feels like Eion Bailey and I’m loving it — sad dad just trying to make it work and this time, he’s a divorce! No widowers here! Go Hallmark for being more prgoressive.

Then there’s the lead girl, a teacher, who usually is way too into the kids (obviously, as they should be) but given my non-like for kid storylines, I was actually surprised to see that this one was pretty enjoyable. Also, she broke up with her boyfriend at the start for not being around — rather than getting dumped! Subtle changes but much appreciated. Even the kid-story wasn’t bad!

Over-all, a pleasant surprise! This is how you do a Jane Austen adaptation

Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖

Mix Up in the Mediterranean

A small-town cook impersonates his big city chef twin to compete in a culinary contest and falls for the woman in charge of the event, who thinks he is the brother who is married. Stars Jeremy Jordan and Jessica Lowndes.

Holy shit this movie is all over the place in the best way possible. It’s what happens when the writers couldn’t decide on one plotline and instead give us ALL THE PLOTS. And the craziest part? I didn’t care for the romance at all and I was ok with it. I’ve never been a Jessica Lowdnes fan so the best she could do was not make me hate her and that she did with flying colors.

We get twin chefs, one who is gay and the other straight and a cooking competition and a supportive gay husband played by Callum Blue (oh hello, rejected suitor from Princess Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement). But really, we got the destination movie we didn’t think we needed. Honestly this isn’t a Hallmark movie cliche because they went everywhere and with Jeremy Jordan’s skillfull hands, they pulled it off.

Now if only they could kill the romance storyline altogether and we’d be in business, btu nevertheless, it was entertaining.

Rating: 💖💖💖💖

It Was Always You

Elizabeth's engagement plans are thrown into disarray when her fiancée's free-spirited brother David returns home. David's unexpected influence prompts Elizabeth to question her life decisions. Starring Erin Krakow and Tyler Hynes.

I was expecting way more from this movie considering a) the stars they have in it — I would consider Erin and Tyler to be the A-List of Hallmark’s Cinematic Universe and b) the amount of hype this got on social media. But alas, we flew too close to the sun and it unfortunately did not deliver as much as we had hoped for.

First off, it’s a cheating storyline and with the fiance’s brother so that’s just all over the place gross. And just had way too many plot annoyances (i.e. token Asian forced storyline with the sister just for the sake of; refusing to serve someone dessert unless they order a main course!) for me to just ignore and dive in deep.

It’s really too bad because Erin is lovely (though her character was annoying) and Tyler has grown on me as we all know (even if his haircut was horrid). So maybe next time we’ll do it better? They deserve much more than this.

Rating: 💖💖💖