It's like the characters are living in a wonderful world where conflicts and problems do not exist. The main character wants to have a good Christmas but does not want to go Christmas shopping? Are they living in Santa's village where everything is available in just a snap? Even Santa's village need elves to help each other.

"What about those in need?" Ugh. All people need something. You can help the needy while also buying something for yourself. This movie is full of pick-me girls, except for the college student.

In short, full of pick-me people and unrealistic elements. It's already 2023, level up your movies.

Christmas In The Pines (2021) -

The whole concept of this film was daft to begin with and so was Dean Geyer's hair. Who did that to him? They should be found and shot! The role of Mark was definitely not his best yet and the hair among other things made him look and appear goofy.

I was tempted to turn the film off, because it was just so idiotically predictable, with no chances of a surprise, but in the end I did stick with it, mostly for Dean despite that terrible do. I mean curtains for God's sake?

The emotional backstories for each of them were a bit basic and mushy, a bit TOO sentimental. I do like some soul and a sense of loving family, but everything was so saddening or compromising for them both. They make their lives so hard in such an unrealistic way.

I hate the fact that I use the word twee so often, but it really was soooo twee and schmaltzy to boot!

The brother Trevor played by Aaron Mees was cute though and perhaps with his more normal haircut he outshone Dean a tad. I would be interested to see him as a leading man in next years run of Christmas films, because I thought that he could bring something new.

Mark's Dad (Grant Goodeve) however, reminded me of The Red Skull from Marvel's 'Captain America'. Even my Mother said he looked scary, which was a worry with them all out in the wilderness, as they seemed to be.

Ariel's Boss, Jeremy (Joseph Curtis Callender) was really strange too and no magazine would wait until Christmas Eve for an article for that years edition. That would have been wrapped up by October at the latest.

The fall out between the two leads, Mark and Ariel, was really stupid, lame and over the top, it was bad enough that they had behaved like children from the beginning.

I suppose that I shouldn't have expected anything less as a result, but I do believe that the writers need to come up with some new ideas for these films, because I don't think that they're really trying hard enough and the producers are letting them get away with it.

There was a montage towards the end that was basically a recap of the entire film. It was overly long and definitely a way to fill the film out to meet the one and a half hour time stamp that they all have.

Overall it was a stupid situation where two people managed to buy the same house due to some technicality, which didn't come across as Santa's magic, so much as a way to show why they shouldn't be together.

It will not be on my watch again list. Dean didn't even have a moment in just a towel!?? So why would I put myself through it again?

3.75/10.

I'm surprised I didn't see any reviews blasting the setup to the story where both leads must stay in the cottage each is trying to buy since "possession is 9/10ths of the law". That really bothered me and I could argue how impossible it is for several more sentences, but ... get over it. This premise is poorly orchestrated, but OK figure out in your mind something more plausible and move on.

I also thought the animosity disappeared a little too abruptly, but that's OK too.

What was nice about the movie is how most of the story leads into displaying something closer to the real meaning of Christmas which is more about giving unselfishly than about possessions. There is a triple stroke twist, but I saw the first part of that coming since nothing else would make sense. All in all the ending was one that left viewers feeling satisfied.

If it was a "cottage", where did everyone sleep? That many people would stretch some large family homes.

I wasn't impressed with some of the production values. There were some moments of overacting, but otherwise the acting ranged from mediocre to OK. The sets were cheap. But the most annoying was the background music. Background music is just that - background. It should not call attention to itself, and several times it competed with dialogue.