Hallmark Scores a Touchdown and a Foul

         On November 30, 2024, Hallmark Channel released 'Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story', which has earned a mixed reception from critics. In the film, "Chiefs superfan Alana tries to win the Fan of the Year Award as a Christmas gift for her family, falling in love with someone in the Chiefs front office along the way." The ensemble cast includes Tyler Hynes, Hunter King, Mary Beth McDonough, Ed Begley Jr., Christine Ebersole, and Richard Riehle. Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times says, "You might have heard about dueling Christmas TV movies inspired by the real-life romance between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, but while Lifetime’s “Christmas in the Spotlight” is indeed an artificial-tree homage to the Swift/Kelce story, the Hallmark movie “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” is NOT a football player/pop star love story, even though the latter film is set squarely in Chiefs Nation and even features a cameo by Mama Donna Kelce." Adding, "The wonderful Ed Begley is a warm presence as Alana’s grandfather, who was given a Chiefs hat by a local Santa Claus back in 1969 — a hat the family believes has magical powers come playoff time. A handful of former and current Chiefs make brief cameos. When Andy Reid makes a late appearance, the scene is filmed in a way that has us wondering if he was even with the actors that day, or just recited a couple of lines separately. If you’re a Chiefs fan, you’ll probably get a kick of out the whole thing. Not sure how well it’s going to play in Raider Nation."

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Courtesy Vortex Media

        On the bright side, November 29, 2024 saw the release of 'A '90s Christmas', which received rave reviews from critics. In the film, "A workaholic lawyer destined to spend Christmas alone is transported back to 1999 after an unexpected run in with a particularly wise ride-share driver." The ensemble cast includes Chandler Massey and Eva Bourne. Liz Kocan of Decider writes, "There are loads of 1999-specific gags when we go back in time (weirdly generic posters on the wall for a film called She’s All There and bands that look like the Backstreet Boys and Hanson but aren’t), although there’s one based-in-reality joke, as Lucy picks up a notebook where she has scrawled out a love note for Joshua Jackson and sighs, “Oh, Lucy.” I mean, some things actually don’t change, the man is a fine wine. But when the magical Uber driver reappears, she explains to Lucy that this is real, and Lucy gets a chance for a do-over now that she’s back in the time and place where she actually had people around her who she felt close to and didn’t push away. The only person that Lucy can tell about the fact that she’s from the future is her old bestie, Nadine (Jenny Raven), who she’s grown apart from in the 2024 timeline. Nadine is a sci-fi geek so of course she immediately buys in to the fact that Lucy is from the future. Together they deduce that Lucy has been sent back to 1999 to re-do a kiss with Matt that cause things to get weird between them and completely cut each other off." Concluding, "STREAM IT! This film draws most of its humor from the many 1990s references and gags throughout, but ultimately it shines as a warm, time-travel-tinged take on a redemption story where our leading lady realizes that she can have it all, if she just opens her heart a little."