Tag Archives: Barbara Kymlicka

Warm up your ovens for A Cookie Cutter Christmas on Hallmark Channel!

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[adrotate banner=”7″]As we all know, the real spirit of Christmas is beating the crap out of your rivals to prove you are the best at everything! On that note, A Cookie Cutter Christmas comes out ovens blazing, as it’s the tale of two arch rivals that have been at each others throats since they were little kids. Now that they are both adult teachers at a school, it is only natural that they argue about baking and attracting the latest single dad in their small town. I guess A Cookie Cutter Christmas takes place in that same small town that Kindergarten Cop does, where there are no single men until one moves into town and all the ladies line up. Christie Reynolds (Erin Krakow, Army Wives) is the lady who usually loses the competitions to Miss Perfect, aka Penny Miller (Miranda Frigon, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show ), but Christmas is the time for miracles. Throw in some Christmas decoration competitions, baking competitions, man-getting competitions, and A Cookie Cutter Christmas becomes the ultimate competition of wills. Or at least two women. Keep an eye out for Alan Thicke, who is collected a paycheck as a famous chef and choking on bad cookies.

A Cookie Cutter Christmas is part of the 12 New Movies of Christmas, in Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas celebration.

Christie Reynolds (Krakow) and Penny Miller (Frigon) have been archrivals ever since a memorable fight over a coveted Christmas recital solo in elementary school. Now adults, they work side-by-side at the same school where they still constantly compete over everything. As the holiday season approaches, the entire school is getting into the spirit with the annual fundraising festival, which will feature an exciting new event—a teacher Christmas Cookie Bake- Off, judged by a tough five-star chef, Chef Krueger (Thicke). Penny and Christie immediately clash over the contest, both wanting to beat the other to win the grand prize, a free class trip. Christie, however, is hopeless in the kitchen, despite help from her mom, Bev (Laura Soltis, “Hiccups”). She doesn’t think she has a chance—until she meets James, a new student’s handsome and sweet single dad. In addition to running a charitable shelter, James is also an excellent cook. As both Christie and Penny vie for James’s attention in yet another aggressive battle, Christie starts to tutor his precious, kindhearted daughter Lily (Genae Charpentier, “Girl Vs. Monster”) and gets to know James outside of school. As their relationship starts to deepen, and James’ baking expertise guides Christie’s cookie creations, Christie’s competitive edge starts to soften. But at the final bake-off challenge, James is finally caught in the middle of Christie and Penny’s petty feud, and Christie comes to realize life’s most rewarding prizes don’t come with a trophy.

A Cookie Cutter Christmas is directed by Christie Will (Baby Bootcamp) and written by Barbara Kymlicka (Death Clique). It stars Erin Krakow, Miranda Frigon, Alan Thicke, David Haydn-Jones, Laura Soltis (Wedding Planner Mystery), and Genae Marie Charpentier (Girl vs. Monster)

A Cookie Cutter Christmas premieres November 9 on Hallmark Channel!

Death Clique (Review)

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Death Clique

Death Clique Lifetime
2014
Written by Barbara Kymlicka
Directed by Doug Campbell
Death Clique Lifetime
Friends can be murder when you join the Death Clique! A strong Lifetime exploitation flick is torpedoed by the ridiculous conclusion that panders a bit too much to the power of moms. But before we harp on that, Death Clique goes through the steps of the dissolving of a friendship due to the characters branching in different directions in life. Sara is the typical upper middle class girl whose dad is too wrapped up in work to pay much attention and whose mom Lana seems to be a typical stay at home mom who can’t imagine her daughter doing anything bad. By contrast, Jade has no mom, and her dad spends time away for weeks at a time, handing her not enough cash to get food and leaning on Sara’s family for support.

The two main girls, Sara and Jade, would never make it as friends after Sara leaves for college and Jade leaves to flunk out of community college and get knocked up by a fry cook. It’s not destiny that Jade would have a hard life, but the odds are not in her favor. So when Ashley arrives as the new girl at school, mature and as without parental supervision as Jade, it seems like a perfect match. Except Ashley has a very creepy dark side, and stupid Sara just keeps getting in the way as she tries to hold on to her friendship with Jade. Someone needs to take care of Sara, so she’ll stop ruining everything.
Death Clique Lifetime
Said taken care of does happen, thus we deal with the consequences. I wasn’t sure if they’d go through with it, because things go on for a long time before it gets bloody. But it does, and is well done, you can see why Jade would be stricken with PTSD after watching it go down. Now Lana has to figure out what happened to her daughter, and before the end of the film.
Death Clique Lifetime

Ashley Tralman (Tina Ivlev) – The first we see of Ashley is her treating her drunk mom Tina with total disrespect, and she goes downhill from there. Moves to a new school where she becomes obsessed with Jade, and also obsessed with driving off Jade’s best friend Sara. Is she an evil lesbian or just a creep who wants a sister/pet to love to replace the affection she doesn’t get from mom?
Sara Cowan (Lexi Ainsworth) – High school good girl and best friends with Jade, but becomes threatened with bad girl Ashley becomes competition for Jade’s affections. At one point Sara had run away, so her initial disappearance is believed to have been another runaway attempt and not murder.
Jade Thompson (Brittany Underwood) – Girl from a broken home with little adult supervision doing her best, but failing. Best friends with Sara, who has the perfect home life. Finds a kindred spirit (or so she thinks) with Ashley, but Ashley is far more bad girl than she can handle.
Lana Cowan (Barbara Alyn Woods) – Sara’s mom, a typical mom who loves her daughter and is unaware of all the drama going on. But when Sara disappears, she knows something is wrong and is desperate and driven to unravel all the threads.

Death Clique Lifetime
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