Moving on with the Christmas movie marathon, we hop into another TV movie of the romantic comedy variety. It seems like this is most likely the theme of this year. Hopefully as Christmas approaches we’ll be checking out a few. 2017 has been a bit of a tough year personally and even if you look at the world that these movies come incredibly needed to just be in a positive story even if its slightly predictable and formulaic. However, as I always start these movie reviews, romantic comedy TV movies of this variety are really for those who appreciate it for it sfeel good value and I am one of those people who do.
Next up is Naughty & Nice! Let’s check it out!
Naughty & Nice (2014)
Director: Sam Irvin
Cast: Haylie Duff, Tilky Jones, Maureen McCormick, Eric Petersen, Tyler Jacob Moore, Terrence Carson, Catriona Toop
A cynical radio host is banished to Colorado, where he has an on-air spat with a hopeless romantic. Soon, their antagonistic relationship sparks the interest of the whole town. – IMDB
Haylie Duff, Tilky Jones and the rest of the cast here are completely new to me. Naughty & Nice is one of the TV movies that seem to betray its title a little early. The bad boy gets sent to a small town and its wildly predictable in the sea of movies in this genre that already are in that category. This one is definitely a little lower on my list. The dialogue feels a little forced and the chemistry between them also leave more to be desired. Its a great start but tries to wrap things up before they actually do pad out these characters too much.
Naughty & Nice doesn’t sit too well with me mostly because of its writing. There are some rather cringey moments and some moments that it was hard to truly feel that these two did need to be together. In normal circumstances, would the situation have progressed like this? I honestly don’t think so. Of course, this is my personal feeling about it. The crowd here doesn’t seem really into their roles as well and other than Haylie Duff, who plays small town radio host Dr. Sandra Love, who did a pretty good job at delivering her role, although you will see that I preferred her in the Christmas Belle (upcoming review). I couldn’t quite place where I stood for Tilky Jones who plays the LA host Pepper who gets banished for going over the line. He definitely has the appealing bad boy look but something about him doesn’t quite convince me and it doesn’t help that his role turns nice really fast. But, to be fair, some of the moments here were quite nice, particularly the chopping the tree and decorating the tree moment. Yet again, he somehow finds a mistletoe to chop down so that he can get a kiss with the girl he likes. A bit forced but they deliver a good kiss.
Of course, there are other cast here. The station manager is played by Tyler Jacob Moore who I can’t say I’m particularly fond of, mostly because his role felt disposable. While Eric Petersen is the station engineer Jonah and stands in as the comic relief in this. It did bring in a few laughs. Maureen McCormick plays as Sandy’s mother, Kate who is the wise person to help bring them together and help guide Sandra and Pepper a little. She was alright especially as the final scene to the big finale turned out to be somewhat funny as you see Pepper struggle a little and get discouraged easily.
Naughty & Nice is pretty average. There are some good and some bad here. Its very predictable and lacks the chemistry that I’d like for Sandra and Pepper to have although they are good looking people and very good kissers so those moments worked well. A few laughs to be had but the ending also felt a little weird. But then, it always goes back to how 2 weeks makes you want to propose to someone right away. That is movie magic that you just have to suspend your belief every once in a while. Some decent performances here and more of a script problem for myself as I liked Haylie Duff and Tilky Jones and their performances.
Tranquil Dreams 