Hitched for the Holidays (2012)

Watching this movie again five years later, it's striking how sterile and predictable this year's Hallmark movies are.Emily Hampshire is not the usual fake looking blond used these days as the female lead in Hallmark movies. She's cute, quirky and funny as the lead girl. I've never been much of a Joey Lawrence fan, but he's fine here as a decent guy out in a bad spot. The ending is as stupid and contrived as they come, but you really want to see these two together, so it'll do. It's strange home Hallmark movies these days completely avoid any mention of religion, so it's nice to see both Jewish and Catholics portrayed.

This is a bit quirkier take on the plot device where two strangers need to pretend to be in a relationship for the holidays. I enjoyed quite a few laughs as this Jewish girl agrees to this with a Catholic boy.Their first rule is no touching and they break it about 10 seconds later when Julie sees the office creep and grabs Rob and kisses him. In fact this movie probably has more kissing than I've seen in any of these Hallmark friendly movies.They keep getting into little dilemmas where they have to do some quick thinking that usually leads to a "white" lie. At one point, Rob's whole Catholic family pretends to be Jewish because Rob and Julie have told her family that he is Jewish. Admittedly this isn't PC which hopefully can be forgiven, but it is funny.Joey Lawrence and Emily Hampshire are cute together.This story is a nice change on the theme and takes a tiny twist at the end.

In this film two "Thirty Something" adults are both sick and tired of friends and family trying to match them up-especially during the holidays. In this film a commitment-phobic Rob Marino (Joey Lawrence) breaks up with his girlfriend before Thanksgiving, he is criticized by his big Italian family about his inability to keep a relationship through the holidays. Wanting to prove them wrong and fulfill his dying grandmother's (Paula Shaw) wish to see him happy in love, Rob goes online and finds Julie (Emily Hampshire), another single New Yorker who's meddling Jewish mom (Marilu Henner), has driven her to seek a temporary boyfriend. Rob and Julie agree to pose as a couple through the holidays to get their families off their backs. But things get complicated when Rob's Catholic clan and Julie's Jewish family get involved. With Christmas coming and Hanukkah around the corner, they double their efforts to keep the charade going, only to discover their fake feelings may be a little too real. The film does move along at a nice pace. My only problem is that Joey Lawrence is miscast. Since this is a Hallmark movie I am a little shocked that Candace Cameron did not snap up this role (Unless she did not want to play a Jewish Girl) Has lots nice moments. Not perfect but very enjoyable.

Here is yet another Hallmark Channel Made-for-TV Christmas movie, this time starring the awesome (ha!) Joey Lawrence (whooaaa!) He's actually does have decent acting talent and isn't all that bad. Neither is Emily Hampshire, the lead Canadian here. But the movie itself has a dumb, overused premise and is nothing but predictable. Why I'm watching 90 minutes of Christmas fluff each week I am not sure. You'd think more than 1 out of every 20 would be above average but they're seemingly all nearly the same.5.6 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener