A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming

source: A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming

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Actually personally wasn't that crazy about the first 'A Very Country Christmas'. Liked the music and Greyston Holt, but disliked Bea Santos, how excessively unlikeable her character was and the lack of chemistry. Not to mention the pong-filled dialogue and over-stretched story. Expectations were not high in all honesty for 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming', seeing as most sequels (with of course some very notable exceptions that are on par or even better) have notorious reputations for being inferior. Luckily, for me 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming' was a lot better (am not sure how well that opinion is going to go down, having a lot of support for the first film here in reviews for this). It wasn't great and had some serious faults still, but it also had two particularly major improvements that were enough to make it superior. There are much better sequels out there than 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming', and there are also much worse. As far as sequels for anything from Hallmark/Lifetime/UPTV go, this is somewhere in the middle. Is it perfect? No. The story here also feels overstretched and has very little new, complete with moments of draggy pacing. Did also think that 'A Very Country Christmas: Homecoming' was marred further by having too much of the truly obnoxious Cake and Charlotte Hegele's increasingly tiresome scenery chewing. Holt however is as appealing and charismatic as he was in the first 'A Very Country Christmas' film. Santos' acting is a massive improvement here, much more comfortable, far less cold and with a lot more charm. Her character is also a lot more likeable, no flaws taken to extremes. The chemistry between Holt and Santos improves a lot too, there is some this time and it is understated but charming. The dialogue is a lot less cheesy, apart from with Cake, and flows more and while the story is far from perfect it is warm hearted, doesn't take itself too seriously while not being over the top. The scenery is picturesque and complemented slickly by the photography and the soundtrack is pleasantly infectious. Concluding, not perfect but superior. 6/10.

I had so enjoyed the first two movies in this series that I bought a US DVD so I could watch it before its wider release. I really like Bea Santos and Greyson Holt and the first movie, particularly had a real spark to it. Sadly, the third one doesn't. It leans quite heavily on the awful 'Cake' which seems to tilt it towards being a comedy, while the introduction of the bereaved Grandfather takes it in the opposite direction. Raven Stewart is cute as ever, and now she can sing, too, but Bea Santos didn't seem to have her heart in it at all, which was the real disappointment because she was so great in the first two. Perhaps she recognised that the theme has run its course. My betting is that there won't be a forth one, however much we fans might have wished for it but I look forward to seeing Bea in something that stretches her undoubted talent next time and may that be soon.