Christmas 2018: The Holiday Calendar (2018)

The Holiday Calendar (2018)

Director: Bradley Walsh

Cast: Kat Graham, Quincy Brown, Ethan Peck, Ron Cephas Jones, Genelle Williams, Ali Hassan, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll

A struggling but talented photographer inherits an antique holiday advent calendar, the contents of which seem to predict the future. Will this magical calendar lead her to love this holiday season? – IMDB

I’m going to be honest that I really only gave this one a chance because I really like Kat Graham in The Vampire Diaries. However, I wasn’t as much of a fan of her in Honey 2 so while I don’t know what The Holiday Calendar was about, I decided to take a chance anyways. I do want to say that on one side, I did work for what it was trying to deliver but if you really don’t have much tolerance for these kind of Hallmark films, then it might not be for you. I’m just going to lay it out so you don’t waste your time. I say this because The Holiday Calendar does nothing special. Everything you predict will probably happen right down to who she ends up being with in the end and even how she pieces together the “magic” calendar to the things she missed to leading her to the one. However, while being predictable isn’t particularly a good thing, there is enough fun bits here to make it enjoyable. Its heartwarming and talks about family and dreams and careers and taking chances and not just romance.

While the antique calendar itself has something of a spirit here in the background with a lot of presence because the film flows with what pops up in the window everyday, the movie does benefit a lot from Kat Graham who does a great job as Abby, a girl who is stuck at a day job that pays her bills but scared to live her own dreams. There’s this really fun element to her character and her friendship with Josh (Quincy Jones) has a lot of sweet moments to it also. Surprisingly, the parts that I liked the best are the ones where Abby talks to her grandfather because there is a lot of genuine and good bits to it all. The family moments and the picture moments and those bits also add to the experience.

The only thing I did feel about The Holiday Calendar is that there is this turning point moment in the middle which felt kind of awkward. It was this weird epiphany moment that kind of felt out of spot but it didn’t really last too long before things got back on track. If you like Hallmark holiday films, this one is pretty alright. Its pretty predictable but also has a nice heartwarming element and emphasizes on more than romance but also on family moments and a lot of Christmas-y moments.

Double Feature: Honey 2 (2011) & Perfect Girl (2014)

This Double Feature is a bit of a mix and mash although I guess you could say they are both fairly VOD features. I wanted some easy to pass the time while I was editing videos so I put on these two films. I watched Honey a really long time ago and it is hard to imagine that it took quite a few years for a sequel to come out which worked kind of like Step Up where it used the background of the first movie but with an entirely different cast. More on that in the review portion. As for Perfect Girl, I believe this is a Singapore film. Its pretty much a romantic comedy. I don’t watch a lot of rom-coms of late so let’s see how this one is going to be.

Honey 2 (2011)

Director: Billie Woodruff

Cast: Kat Graham, Randy Wayne, Christophe Shazar, Gerry Bednob, Seychelle Gabriel

Recently released from juvenile detention, talented dancer Maria Bennett finds an outlet for her passion with a new dance crew. – IMDB

I watched Honey a long time ago. The only thing I remember from it was that Jessica Alba was in it and it had a lot of dancing. It wasn’t half bad but then these dance films always are a little generic. But then I like the Step Up franchise so who am I to talk, right? Anyways, I was roaming around Netflix and found Honey 2 starring Kat Graham. Being an avid fan of The Vampire Diaries (well, used to since I need to watch 2 or 3 seasons), Kat Graham being in this peaked my interest. I didn’t have much hopes for it being good or unique but it could have surprised me, right? Point is, it didn’t. In fact, it was packed with very predictable dialogue. The dancing in some parts and the soundtrack was okay but then, it still hits a lot of the generic bits and there wasn’t much to love about the characters since they felt so empty. Maybe its because Kat Graham is such a good girl that its hard to imagine her pulling her serious tough face and then I’m thinking that it looks a little forced.

I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this. I watched it and it was okay. The contingency of this being okay is the fact that I tolerate a lot of dancing films. I like it for the energy and the generic inspiration story of following your dreams no matter the challenges. Its really as basic as that.

Perfect Girl (2014)

Director (and writer): Jason Chan

Cast: Jason Chan, Kahleila Hisham, Christian Lee

Stan and Jenny have been each other’s secret crush since high school. When they meet again years later, the fantasy of first love may keep them apart. – Netflix

Lets just get this out of the way before we begin. I love films with small cast and focus on characters and certain scenarios. With that Perfect Girl was a pretty quirky romance experience. It had a lot of inner monologues of the two characters, Stan and Jenny and their outlook on relationships and the fantasies they had of each other from high school and their fears and doubts of being together now. In fact, it actually is what makes the film more genuine. Think Flipped but a grown up version of it on a much smaller scale.

Both Stan and Jenny standout quite a bit. In fact, they feel very much in their element of wanting to be together. I do have to say that sometimes, the monologue feels like it has a bit of clunkiness to it but overall, the characters build a depth as we know them more. It tells us their back story from both of their point of views and their past crush intermittent to the reality now when they meet again. There’s some odd slides or whatnot that comes in talking about what a Perfect Girl is and that sort of thing which I didn’t particularly think it was necessary but it made it more of a chapter experience from one phase to the next which cut the film down. I love learning about how different people view love and this definitely fit the bill for me. Do I think that it’ll be for everyone? Probably not. There is a ton of finesse to it. There is a lot of inner monologue that could get on some people’s nerves. Honestly, this romantic comedy is about as indie as indie can get and yet the story reminds me of so many people in my life and even myself, not that I had such a memorable first love but the elements of the relationships made me connect to them.

With that said, Perfect Girl had its definite flaws but the story flowed well and it was a genuine experience with characters that I could connect with and it also made me laugh a few times so I’d say it did its job pretty well.

That’s it for this double feature!
A bit of the choices from inner world preferences of Kim right here.
Those choices always can be really good or really bad and I’m usually aware of it before the movie begins.

Have you seen Honey 2 and/or Perfect Girl?