Santa Bootcamp

source: Santa Bootcamp

Emily Kinney was very appealing in this. I really liked her, and she and Rita Moreno kept me watching this to the end. Emily plays an event planner who has snagged a very high profile client which will really help her business. He is very demanding, however, and will only settle for the best Santa in the history of the world for his Christmas party or he will fire her like he fired the last event planner. He is played by Patrick Cassidy of *those* Cassidys. Due to some Christmas magic, Emily finds out about "Santa Boot Camp" which trains Santas and other Christmas Characters. She is correct that this is the best place to find the perfect Santa because it soon becomes apparent that the boot camp is run by the real Mr. And Mrs. Claus, played by John Shuck and Rita. I was very surprised to see John Shuck in the credits. I remember him from Macmillan and Wife. Anyway, Emily has to join the boot camp to earn Rita's recommendation for the best Santa. She has a romance with the camp chef, who is almost too gorgeous. I am floored by how beautiful and full of vitality that 90 year old Rita Moreno is. Short of selling her soul to the devil, she must have the best genes and/or the best plastic surgeon in the world. She looks totally natural, unlike other actors who have had work done. I won't mention another elderly (85 years) actress who graced a Hallmark production recently. Bless her. Ms. Moreno looks like a very believable 65, and could probably pass for younger. And speaking of casting, I do want to give Lifetime props for featuring a deaf actress as Emily's lovely mother. It was no big deal, just normal life. The end was a little ham-handed. The magical mystery part, which was done subtlety and charmingly, including Rita's beautiful wardrobe, was too explicitly revealed and broadly done. To my mind, there should have kept a bit of nuance and mystery about the pair's true identity. Just a bit.

To start I am NOT a lover of Festive/Christmas movies set in hot weather or sunnier climes, it just kills any sense of Christmas for me, I love Snow, Snow and yeah more snow but still decided to give this turkey of a movie a shot. I lasted 20 minutes until I witnessed grown ass adults talking and acting like children in a role play the was just too cringey to bear. The lighting was just way too bright which is typical for these LIFETime Movies but it just looked cheap and drowns out the actors and backgrounds The acting was just terrible and Rita Moreno looked like she ad-libbed a lot of her screen time. Props though for using a deaf woman within the story line with on screen subtitles for the rest of us. I cannot believe that Mellissa Joan Hart Directed this muck!

Many Christmas movies have had retreats and training camps and variations on a theme, but somehow this is different. Maybe it is the fact that Emily played by Emily Kinney gets drafted into it practically kicking and screaming. Or maybe it is the feeling the viewer has that Belle is more than she appears. It becomes pretty obvious that Chris and Belle are some sort of Santa and Mrs. Prototypes. Are they cupids also? Once Emily is firmly entrenched in the bootcamp, the rest of the movie is mostly a chance to watch Kinney and Justin Gaston together. They have good chemistry, but even so, Kinney's character steals the show. The movie and Kinney have plenty of energy, but they are almost too sugary sweet and the story lacks any tension. I cannot say I have ever seen a movie that leaves out such an important plot element as this one does. It is done well with nice results, but many viewers will not like the missing element. There is one things about this movie that really pushes one of my pet buttons. I am a Senior citizen. I depend on closed captions. This movie extensively uses sign language with subtitles. Hey guys. Two problems with the way you did that. The biggest problem is no one watched the end product to see if all the subtitles are readable against the background. Most are, but a few aren't. They blend into it in places. The other problem is that the sign subtitles and any closed captions compete for the same space. Again, it doesn't happen often, but it does happen.