Five things for a Hallmark Christmas movies book


It's that time of year when people binge on Hallmark's Christmas movies, and the House of Heldenfels is not immune. (There are limits, though. This is an unlikely addition.)
That said, the movies are such easy viewing that sometimes the mind wanders. And this mind has wandered toward the idea of ... a Hallmark Christmas movies book.

Sometimes the idea morphs into three books: the Christmas movies, the non-Christmas Hallmark Channel/Hallmark Movies & Mysteries films, and the classic, broadcast Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. Not that I have time to do any of these. But I have been thinking about what I would want in a Christmas movies book. Including:

1. A map of America with all those fictional small towns where the movies are set.

2. A list of the Canadian houses used most often for movie locations.

3. A list of noteworthy other roles by actors in the films.  Nyssa al Ghul! The Maytag repairman!

4. The time of the near-kiss in each movie. (The near-kiss, for those of you tuning in late, is the moment when the main couple is about to kiss only to be interrupted -- saving the kiss until the very end of the film.

5. Names of all the movies where a person of color is the central character. (There's one this year, anyway.)







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Mission: Impossible -- Fallout"

Image
The latest "Mission: Impossible" film, subtitled "Fallout," exemplifies some issues facing action-moviemmakers, and not necessarily to its credit. First, the success of the "Fast and Furious" movies has made a case not only for big action, but for over-the-top, outrageous pieces so absurd that people cannot help but laugh. I've laughed at sequences in the last couple of "F and F" films, and a recent screening of "Fallout" found people laughing at the end of several crazy action sequences. "Fallout" also underscores how some moviegoers will come only for a grandiose adventure, one suitable for IMAX and 3-D, both of which formats are available for "Fallout." I saw it on a big but not huge screen, in 2-D, and felt as if a couple of the action sequences had been imagined just for the special formats, with no concern about how they would play in less elaborate form. Now, why do these ideas suggest a problem? B
Read more

TV watching, so much TV watching

Image
I still cruise the television offerings, though sometimes not for long. "Blood and Treasure," the CBS summer series, wasn't even worth finishing the first episode, a clumsily forced attempt at clever action. I managed to make it through one episode of Spectrum's "L.A.'s Finest," a gender-reversed visit to the "Bad Boys" formula, but one was enough; again, everything seemed to have been borrowed elsewhere, and not very well. I've seen a little more of the new Netflix-backed season of "Designated Survivor" ; it seems to be trying to be less of a thriller and more of a political tale (including via real-people documentary footage) but it's not very good at it -- at times a blatant reworking of things "The West Wing" did better. And I can say that from current memory, since I've been binge-watching "West Wing," with six seasons done and the seventh to go. The original flaws are still there -- the unk
Read more

Winter reading

Image
When I was in college, between the end of Christmas break and the first-semester exams was  Reading Period, about 10 days where students were given a chance to prepare for their tests. These days, I still have a Reading Period of sorts, between Christmas and the resumption of my teaching at the University of Akron, when I just dive into books. The current stack is above. It's not that I cannot read the rest of the time; before tackling my post-holiday reading, I spent happy time with an advance copy of The Sopranos Sessions , a detailed examination of the landmark series by my friends Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, which is officially available in a week. I also read Thomas E. Ricks 's Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom, and dipped into the Library of America's collection of Carson McCullers' s Stories, Plays and Other Writings, which LOA had made available at a nice discount. For a school project, earlier in the fall, I had read Tara Westov
Read more