Campfire Christmas

The idea is silly, the cast is mismatched, and the movie is boring! Tried to watch it and could not go far into it twice. I used to long for Hallmark new Christmas movies and some I have viewed repeatedly. Last year productions mostly missed the mark. I dread to think of what's coming this Holidays season!

• It was actually a bit funny, especially parts of the first half. Unlike other reviewers, I actually liked the premise (however well trodden as it may be). But it fell into the Hallmark trap of leaning too much on sentimentality.

• Speaking of which, in order to feel sentimental you have to feel something towards the characters. This didn't work in this movie for two reasons: 1) not enough time getting to know and care about them and 2) there was little chemistry between them. The two leads were miscast.

• I couldn't figure out why the female lead would be so torn up over the male lead. And it isn't just because of looks; his personality was pretty wooden too.

-Other reviewers have commented on the overacting, but I honestly could have used more theatrics from the cast.

I like the premise, but this could have been much better because the acting was particularly good. I like the male lead but not with Tori so again, Hallmark casting is horrific. I will give them a bonus for the side characters because i thought that worked well but the male lead with Tori seemed unbelievable. Maybe i should have gotten into casting because i think the reason Comedy and Romance can't make a comeback is because we don't have a Tom Hanks currently so to speak. Casting is a lost art especially with Hallmark type movies.

Aspiring writer Peyton (Tori Anderson) works at a publishing company as an assistant. Her boss says that she has no personal connections to her writing. Her parents are retiring and giving up their summer camp. They would like Peyton to take over, but she is desperate to be a writer. The camp is throwing one last Christmas in July for the alumni. Peyton is surprised to see her former flame Thomas (Corbin Bleu) attending. She decides to write about the camp.

It's another Hallmark Christmas in July. Tori Anderson is fine as the leading lady with issues. I don't know what happened to Corbin Bleu. He seems to have lost his mojo after cutting his hair. None of the other side characters really popped. The story is bland. The camp itself is a little too clean. It's well-manicured family cottages. A rustic camp is much more charming cinematically and visually. This is Hallmark at its most average.

We started this movie for the idea of a Christmas in July, which was evidently filmed last year to go with the Christmas in July deal Hallmark has done the last couple of years (at least).

We have a young women frustrated by the continual rejection of books (or book ideas) she floats to her boss. Okay, I could get interested in her finding one that works, and her boss tells her the pitches need a 'personal approach'.

So there's two things that could have made this movie a go for me.

The problem is nothing else did. The boss was just flat, with no personality and no upside, and for us, that pretty much applied to everyone in the film, and the otherwise tired romance cliches. We've seen all of them done with more inspired acting and better crafted stories. We gave up a half hour in.