2021, Mike Rohl (Royal Matchmaker) -- Netflix
Tangent: Maybe more torturous for Kent, as you may have noticed him doing fewer actual Hallmarkies during this run. Maybe because he started so early this year and already sated his True Hallmark capacity? What say you Ken't of Planet Earth?
Sorry, I digressed. I was trying to comment on the royal nature of these movies. I didn't really know how prevalent the royal bit was until this year, when I grabbed a new "channel" on my Amazon streaming service, and it suggested at least 5 related, royal-based, legit Hallmark movies. And those are just Xmas ones. I cannot imagine how many outside-the-season Hallmarkies must be about some commoner hooking up with a Prince or Princess.
Anywayz.
Here we are in the third of the other royalty driven Netflix holiday movie franchise, that we caught up on and even began before "the xmas event" (sans red dress) even began. This is the finisher. To catch the uninitiated up, Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical) was a baker from Chicago who was coerced into attending baking competition in a fictional European country the week before Xmas. She bumped into a Duchess who was going to marry a Prince, and they looked remarkably alike, so much so that Duchess Margaret (Vanessa Hudgens, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody), Who Wants a Day as a Commoner switched places with Stacy and STACY got to experience full on Prince-ness. Naturally Stacy and Prince Edward fell in love, and she became the Princess instead of the Duchess, who in the second movie, became a Queen of her homeland. In that movie we met a third doppelganger, Fiona Pembroke (Vanessa Hudgens, Sucker Punch), a Cruella ripoff chav with blonde hair and a perma-duckface, who tried to steal the throne from her cousin. The movie ended up with her heading to jail/community service.
We begin the third again in the week before Xmas. Montenaro, the Queendom of Margaret, is doing a big foofaraw (TIL it wasn't foo-for-all) which will culminate in their town tree being topped with an extra special star tree topper delivered all the way from The Vatican by Cardinal Aked Amoah. Aaaand its immediately stolen. But rather than involving the Swiss Guard or the police or someone qualified, they decide to spring Fiona from the nunnery where she is doing her community service, and doing it in pure Fiona Fashion -- badly, impeccably dressed and with a great deal of 'tude.
Fiona is grateful, and willing to help, so she enlists an ex of hers, Peter Maxwell (Remy Hii, Harrow), a once agent of Interpol but now a manchild living in a gaudily decorated castle working as a security consultant. He immediately points Fiona at another another of her ex's, gaudy manchild illegal art collector Hunter Cunard (Will Kemp, Reign). And they all decide that they have to plan a heist to get the fancy tree topper back from Cunard.
At this point, I thought I might be watching another Ryan Reynolds Netflix franchise piece, but without the wit, skill and charm of Reynolds. But nah, the Disney-style Princess Hallmarkie-lite movies just decided to add "caper" to their style attempts. And to be quite honest, they have a ball doing it. Not an Xmas Ball; that's later.
There are some fun comparison to Entrapment and all the other caper movies involving laser beams, and lots of sexual tension between Maxwell and Fiona, and even more fun to be had between Fiona's henchmen and Prince Edward's man Frank, as the henchfolk bond over their support roles in the escapade.
Switching is to be had, of course, this time focused around Fiona being the best choice for caper activities, BUT having to be present at the Cunard Ball (that sounds dirtier than it is) to distract our Bad Guy. So, Margaret be-wigs up and does a rather steamy tango (red dress!! rawwwwr!!) while Fiona dons the catsuit and Tom Cruise's into the secret treasure vault.
MEANWHILE the authorities have pushed up the date of Fiona's parole hearing (?) so Stacy also has to become Fiona and convince the authorities she has reformed. Well no, not really, as Fiona doesn't believe that, while Prince Edward actually does say some nice things about her. In another movie, there might be something going on in Edward's mind regarding his ... affection for Fiona. Maybe a, "No, leave the wig on, Stacy...." No, NO definitely not here in the chaste Disney-ness that are Netflix Princess franchises!
After a bit of misdirection and possible complications, but not really, the tree topper tops the tree and Xmas is saved! And Fiona is released early from her not very punishing community service to finally admit she has real feelings for Peter. And they all live Happily Ever After.
Rewind: I know I said I wasn't using the template for this one, BUT this was too noticeable to miss. In many scenes, Prince Edward (Sam Palladio, Nashville) never sits or we just see his arm & shoulders, and if the scene widens out he is missing entirely. And the lighting/colour is just slightly off. Someone seems to have Prince Switched Edward out of most of the movie, and they CGI inserted him back in later. There are some legit Sam Palladio scenes, and he makes a proper appearance for key scenes, but for the most part he seemed to have been absent during the bulk of shooting. Digging around on the interwebs only revealed others with the same suspicion, so likely it was just a COVID thing. But it was weeeeird.
How does it movie? It definitely attempts to be a more legit move than others of this ilk, going so far to have real music. I even Shazam'd the techno music chosen for the caper/ball scenes, as all good heists benefit from some electronic music. Gimme Some by Weval, in case you were wondering.
Also. entirely out of character, they run the credits with the entire cast and crew dancing to the closing number. And they all look like they are truly, really having fun.
I did watch a LOT of Hallmark movies in November, but I think I've drifted because, come December, there is a lot more competition for Hallmark so I start sample around. Only so much time in an evening. For the Advent Calendar I figured I would give a more diverse sampling of things this year other than just Hallmarkies. Nobody wants to open up their Advent and just see different portraits of lambs every day. You want a couple camels in there, maybe even a wise man or three.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the dancing sequence at the end is what the cast and crew did to keep loose as VanHudg would have to run off and do her costume, hair and makeup change to shoot the scene again another character.