Michael Rady

Catch of the Day

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment
The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: catch.webp

Doesn’t Flounder

**Spoilers Ahoy**

My reaction to this one is similar to last week’s premiere. That is, nothing to write home about, but likable and an easy watch. It managed to avoid the most irritating tropes including the last minute “misunderstanding due to miscommunication”. It hit enough of the usual Hallmark beats to give off that nostalgic comfortable feel. And it lacked anything super annoying, barring Evelyn, the truly awful and mean boss of our heroine, that is. But those over the top meanies can be a good thing if dealt with correctly by the end. I spent half the movie in suspense hoping for a massive telling off/”serves you right!” scenario. I was thinking this movie will rise or fall on what happens with Evelyn. It wasn’t quite the bolt of lightning moment I was hoping for, but it was good enough and at least the big showdown was face to face.

Sophie is a talented chef working at an elite fine dining restaurant in New York City. She is promoted to head sous chef and is one step closer to her dream of being an executive chef. Inconveniently, she receives a call from her sister who is struggling to run the family seafood restaurant in Montauk Long Island. She needs her help to get ready for the make or break July 4th celebration. The restaurant is dying a not-so-slow death, and to make things worse, it just got a bad review from a local influencer who bemoans how far this former Montauk institution has fallen since the death of their father. If Sophie can’t help, they will have to sell, which would make her mother very unhappy. Evelyn reluctantly gives Sophie 10 days off instead of the 3 weeks she asked for on the condition that Sophie prepares an impressive meal for some investors she will be entertaining there in her mansion on Montauk. Evelyn is the typical Hallmark Bad Boss: harsh, unappreciative, entitled, and unreasonable. In case we missed her role in the movie, when Sophie makes a command appearance at her vacation home but with her two nieces in tow and asks for some water for the little girls, Evelyn reacts like they are asking for pints of blood. Her own blood.

Sophie is scandalized when she gets to her family’s restaurant. She rarely visits since she doesn’t get any time off. The decor is tired, there are no customers, and horrors, they are using frozen fish instead of fresh when they are in one of the salt water fishing capitals of the world. Her sister, who doesn’t even like to cook, is financially and emotionally stressed, and even though Sophie is right in her criticisms, you can’t help but feel for both of them. I liked that there were no villains or idiots here. When the sisters said something hurtful to each other or had a disagreement, it was not silly but understandable and they both acted like adults and apologized in a timely manner. And that also goes for Sophie and Cam, the love interest. Sophie decides to shut the place down temporarily and have a grand re-opening on July 4. Whether they sell up or keep on going will depend on that crucial day.

When Sophie goes down to the docks to score some fresh fish, she runs into an old beau who gave her the cold shoulder in highschool, who runs his Dad’s fishing business. They re-fall in love over dinners, field trips, and walks on the beach which serve to showcase the beauty and appeal of Montauk. They seem to have plenty of time on their hands to re-kindle the romance even though she only has less than a week and a half to whip the old restaurant back into shape including a new menu, hiring a manager, establishing a social media presence, and re-decorating. Not to mention planning and preparing a stellar Michelin star level feast for Evelyn’s investors. This is standard operating procedure for Hallmark heroes and heroines when faced with a life altering impossible-to-meet deadline. Thankfully, I no longer get stressed out over the main couple’s poor time management skills and lack of urgency. I just go with it, trusting in Hallmark magic to avoid failure and disaster. At least Sophie comments on how much she has to do and looks stressed from time to time. Needless to say, as we see how wonderful her life could be at home in Montauk it becomes obvious to everyone but Sophie where her happy and fulfilling future lies. Especially contrasted with Evelyn’s unpleasantness and abuse. 

Like last week’s movie, this one was filmed partially in the United States (what’s going on?), but it ups the ante by being filmed right there in Montauk and environs. The show runners took full advantage, and I wish I could go there. Michael Rady, who played Fisherman Cam, and Emilie Ullerup, who played Sophie were a good match. The relationship was built realistically.  Sophie’s overhaul of her family restaurant wasn’t entirely smooth sailing (providing some humor), and the romance with Cam wasn’t either.  It took a while for Sophie to see how happy her future could be running her family restaurant compared with what her life would be continuing to work for Evelyn. Thanks to her heroics planning the meal for Evelyn’s investors, including overcoming disasters not of her making, Evelyn finally realizes Sophie’s worth and offers her the executive chef position at her new restaurant…in Las Vegas. In case it wasn’t obvious what Sophie would ultimately do, that revelation pretty much sealed the deal. Sophie herself doesn’t get it until on the helipad with Evelyn on the way out of Montauk. The confrontation scene was OK even though there was no screaming involved and they both acted like mature adults. Sophie even got back in time to enjoy the 4th of July fireworks with her family and her man.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Where Are You, Christmas?

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

It’s Not Always Black and White

This movie is based on a good premise and cleverly executed with a nice Christmas message that unfortunately kind of didn’t quite live up to my high expectations. Lyndsy Fonseca is splendid as our heroine, Addy. I’ve been a fan since 2021’s Next Stop, Christmas. Addy lives and works in Chicago and has not been home for Christmas in 6 years. She works in the Christmas industry year-round and at Christmas, she takes off for the Maldives. The last thing cynical and overworked Addy wants is to be surrounded by her Christmassy family in her Christmassy town at Christmas time. She has agreed to finally come home because her brother called with the news that he is going to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve and he wants her to be there. (Why??? Is that a thing???) Anyway, she agrees. When she gets home, everything is fine with her family on the surface, but she senses that something is a little off. They seem distant,  especially her father. He is constantly making little digs at his daughter and her past absences at Christmas time, if not in body, as usual, then, this Christmas, in spirit. Her mother gives her a list of Christmas errands to run around town. Everyone is super jolly and happy to see her. All Addy wants to do is decompress by herself in her room. She looks at the Christmas app on her phone and wishes there was no Christmas.  She apparently has never seen a Hallmark Christmas movie before because if she had she never would have done that.  Making a Christmas wish can be very dangerous in a Hallmark movie.

Driving around, she has a car wreck and hits her head. When she wakes up, everything is in black and white and her wish has been granted. Hunter, the owner of the auto repair shop rescues her. No one knows what she means by the term “Christmas.”  All the Christmas decorations are gone. All the Cookies and Charity events are gone. Christmas has been wiped out, as well as all of the color in the town and from its citizens. In an amusing meta moment, her Mom mentions “the New Year’s movie marathon”: “Every year they make like a hundred New Year’s movies and they start airing them in June!” Addy, at the end of her rope, declares, “New Year’s movies are NOT a thing! Christmas movies are a thing!!” She runs around town freaked out and trying to figure out what is going on and why. Everyone is really cold and grouchy. It turns out that no one remembers Christmas until they can remember a happy Christmas memory. Hunter is the first to remember when Lyndsey returns his “Pop’s” Military service ring that fell off in her wrecked car. He regains his color and they are now a team determined to get everyone back to remembering Christmas and turn from black and white back to living color. Michael Rady, a favorite of mine, plays Hunter, a veteran of Afghanistan who seems to be suffering from a mild case of PTSD. The promising romance between him and Addy was not engaging to me. Maybe because he was so sad all of the time.  Or maybe because there was too much other more urgent stuff going on. Eventually, starting with a few people and multiplying slowly and surely, the town starts to remember happy Christmas moments and Christmas is well on the way to coming back. At last, there are only two holdouts: Addy and her father.

 There were so many good things about this movie.  The performances were great, especially by Lyndsy Fonseca and Jim O’Heir, Jerry (or Garry ???) of Parks and Recreation who plays her father.   Lyndsy makes her character likable and funny, as we empathize with her frustration both with Christmas and the lack of it. We admire her determination to bring Christmas back. She even made her quick turn from hating Christmas to missing it believable. Addy could well have been too unsympathetic, especially at the beginning. O’Heir takes her father from mild hurt and petulance over Addy’s absence to hostility and even rage as he sees everyone in town remembering Christmas and regaining their joy except him. As the movie goes on, the people who are still in black and white and still don’t get the whole Christmas thing, get more and more hostile and frustrated with being left behind. It was good writing and thought-provoking. The special effects were on point in the tiniest detail. There would be a town scene almost all in black and white but with a few touches of red and green indicating change. There was good balance between comedy and drama, but the emotion wasn’t there for me. I didn’t like the way the romance part was overshadowed (Maybe I like Michael Rady too much?) I think that it’s the type of movie that will definitely improve upon re-watching though.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Unexpected Grace

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

Past is Prologue

When I read what this was about, I started watching it fully expecting to turn it off.  It is about a mother whose teenage daughter has passed away who befriends the daughter of a single widower. Before she died, Toni, the daughter,  released a balloon in the air with a short letter searching for a best friend. It is found by 13-year-old Grace two years later who was forced to move into their new town by her father because of his job. He didn’t consult her about the move, and she is resentful. Their relationship has suffered over and above normal teenager/parent friction. She is having trouble fitting in at school and making friends. When Grace follows the notes invitation to write back, I thought I saw where this might be going. I was on high alert and expecting to pull the plug as I did not want to get entangled in a maudlin grief fest and a mother trying to replace her dead child with a vulnerable live one.

Well, it didn’t go that way at all. The mother,  Noelle, does respond to Grace’s letter, but under her own name. It is true that she does not tell Grace that Toni has died nor that she is her mother but I felt it was out of empathy and sensitivity and that she did not want to hurt or discomfort Grace. She responds to Grace’s emails a couple of more times, but, realizing that this is heading down a dangerous road, tells Grace the truth about who she is and kindly tells her that there will be no more emails.  She thinks that is the end of it, But to Noelle’s consternation, Grace shows up at Noelle’s door still wanting to be friends with Toni.  Noelle still can’t bear to tell her right then that her daughter has passed away. But shortly thereafter, along with Grace’s dad, Jack (Michael Rady), who she has gotten to know and like thanks to a series of coincidences, does tell her the truth about Toni’s passing. This decision of not to prolong the misunderstanding flies in the face of how things usually go with  Hallmark stories. Grief is to be wallowed in, and open communication is to be avoided at all costs.  So instead of the plot getting stalled over a prolonged deception and lack of truth-telling, the plot explores other aspects of the characters’ progress toward peace and happiness. We follow Grace’s path towards success in school and making friends, Her father’s possible romantic entanglement with a neighbor, Jack and Grace’s continuing frustrations with each other and how they resolve them, and Noelle coming to terms with her imminent divorce.  And of course Noelle and Jack possibly making a romantic connection. There is another crisis later in the story where it looks like Grace and Michael may have to move away again, negating the progress toward healing that, together, all three of the main characters have made. How it is all resolved brings all of the threads together in a touching way.  It hints that it was more than just coincidences that brought these three together for their own good and the good of the community. Perhaps a little celestial magic and angelic guiding hands were at play as well. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” There is a lot of Shakespeare in this as well.

All of the actors did a wonderful job, but special kudos go to  Erica Tremblay, a serious young actress who has appeared in several other Hallmark movies. I’ve always liked Michael Rady. Erica Durance not so much, but she is a good actress.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

The Christmas Bow

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Not Just a Cut Above, But Leaps and Bounds Above

Wow! This one was great! How did that happen? Two attractive and appealing characters were played by two attractive and appealing actors who did a wonderful job. The acting, particularly on the part of musician, not actress, Lucia Micarelli, was so so good. I hope she continues to add “actress” to her impressive musical resume. The chemistry between the two leads was strong. I loved that she did not have the cookie-cutter “Beauty Queen” looks, but was appealing in her own unique way. She was well matched with Michael Rady, who is handsome, but in a “normal guy” kind of way. He is usually serious and mature and one of my favorites.

The story was excellent and avoided the Hallmark tedious and corny set pieces that their Christmas movies are known for. The introduction of a woman bravely struggling with a largely unknown disease that rendered her dependent on a wheelchair and a grandmother with Alzheimer’s was laudable and affecting. The fact that they did not milk this for cheap tears is a wonder. Along with Kate’s brave fight to regain 100% of her violin skills after her accident it really made this movie both interesting and moving.

And just for the star on top of the Tree, we had the wonderful music. You made a terrific movie, Hallmark. Was that really so hard?

Rating: 10 out of 10.

November 12, 2020

You’re Bacon Me Crazy

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Mismatch

I don’t feel this couple was very well matched. Besides looking very much younger than Michael Rady, the character of Cleo acted like an immature and spoiled High School girl as opposed to Gabe, who responded to her antics in a mature level-headed way. She pulled a dirty trick on him by ordering all that food she didn’t need while she could see that he was being slammed. What a brat! And then, when he successfully delivered it, he didn’t even charge her for it. Did she even apologize? I don’t remember. And then, when he offered to drop out of the competition, she had a tantrum because he was being egotistical instead of taking it kindly the way it was meant. Was he being egotistical? Maybe. but so what? That was his problem.

I’ve always liked Michael Rady, but have been unimpressed by Natalie Hall. So far, she has brought very little to the table except a pretty face with too much make-up for conditions and a lot of pep. The story was actually pretty interesting and I did like that there were no big misunderstandings. A nice epilogue at the end further justified the half-hearted “7” that I gave this effort.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

April 8, 2020

Love to the Rescue

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Started off Great but Kinda Fizzled.

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: rescue.jpg

This one started out great. I don’t remember Nikki Deloach being such a good comedienne. She was hilarious in some of the scenes. Michael Rady was a great foil for her, and the chemistry was good. Nikki played a free spirit-type animator who has committed to staying away from romantic entanglements for the sake of her very serious daughter. Her daughter wants a dog and Nikki agrees because she feels her daughter needs to loosen up a little and a dog will help. Rady plays a government executive who is very anal retentive and buttoned up and also president of the PTA. Rady’s son is a bit of a dreamer and loves superheroes. To make a long story short, the two pairs decide to share a rescue dog which brings them together. They are real opposites and of course, they clash and then attract. It was funny that Nikki’s daughter related to Rady more than her mother, and Rady’s son was closer in personality and interests to Nikki. I like that Nikki’s ex-husband was a good dad and good friend to her, and Rady’s girlfriend was a nice woman who realized first that they weren’t a good match. Unfortunately, all of the laughs and romantic tension were on the front end of the movie. After the two became friends, everything kind of fizzled out. Still, it was still good enough to win an *8* from me.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

April 8, 2019

Christmas at Pemberley Manor

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Shameless Exploitation of Pride and Prejudice

Christmas at Pemberley Manor is a shameless attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Jane-Austen-based contemporary romances. Unlike Unleashing Mr. Darcy, however, the story and the characters have nothing to do with Pride and Prejudice. Zip. All the writer did was tack on various names from P & P onto the main characters. Sometimes quite randomly. For example, Elizabeth’s old boyfriend was named “George” and was a nice guy, the mayor of the town, and trying to win Elizabeth back. The doofus assistant to William Darcy, who wins the heart of “Jane” Elizabeth’s last-minute assistant, was named Travis. Why not “Charles?” It was insulting to the intelligence.

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: pemberley.jpg

If you can set that aside, however, this was not a bad Hallmark Christmas movie. At least I stayed awake. I am not usually a fan of Jessica Lowndes. Her looks are usually too jaw-droppingly glamorous for the roles she has played. In this one, however, they were toned down somewhat, so she looked like a relatable woman. Her acting, as usual, was not the best, but at least she didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Also, I loved Michael Rady, the actor who played the hero. He had a lot of charisma in this role. The young actress who played Jane had appeal and had a secondary romance of her own. The villain in the piece was “Elizabeth’s” boss who was played by the same actress who did such a great job as the prospective evil stepmother in Lindsay Lohan’s Parent Trap. Although the script and the director in this one did not make use of her comedy chops, it was nice to see her again.

Burning questions: Why would the board of directors of a worldwide corporation want to demolish the CEO’s beloved home? Surely it’s but the teeniest fraction of an expense against the mega corporation’s humongous assets? Why would a festival that has attracted press from all over the country and is a mainstay of the town’s budget and beloved tradition, have only 20 people attend the climactic event? These questions will remain unanswered. The former is the fault of the writer the latter is the fault of the director. Maybe my 6 stars is a bit too generous. Yep, down to 5. I just remembered the magic Santa Claus, the most tired Christmas cliché ever.**5 out of 10 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 10.

November 4, 2018

Christmas in Homestead

/ Rebekahrox / 3 Comments

Dull.

As in no spark or bright spots. This one is an amalgam of Hallmark’s Fish out of Water, and Country good, city bad. It had nothing to lift it up above the plethora of Christmas movies out there and make it worth your time to watch it. Sometimes you find little pearls to give a Hallmark movie watch-ability, or, very very rarely, re-watch-ability. An appealing hero or heroine, or actor or actress with a way with a line or comic timing; Good dialogue, some chemistry between the principals, an evil villain, a truly hard conflict to overcome, A plot that engages and keeps you watching in even a tiny bit of suspense (You know what’s going to happen, but how will they get there?), A heart-tugging moment or some funny situations.

Taylor Cole is undeniably beautiful, but I didn’t find her appealing. I guess I like the girl next door type that one can relate to. Even beautiful actresses can achieve that quality with good writing or good acting. The character was just boring. The hero was played by an actor who might have some potential* (Michael Rady), but he was also just commonplace, and at times acted very churlish and stupid. The daughter is a talent. She was good.

The premise wasn’t bad: A movie star coming to a small town to play a movie star coming to a small town. But it just collapsed from lazy writing. They did themselves no favors by riffing on one of the most stellar romantic comedies ever made: Notting Hill. Inviting comparison (by the hero coming out the door to a storm of paparazzi and the daughter posing and mugging for the cameras)was not wise. **3 stars out of 10**

Rating: 3 out of 10.

December 18, 2016

*Michael Rady has since become a favorite