Hallmark Channel likes you Just the Way You Are!

Just the way you are hallmark channel

Will you be my dead husband in Fuller House?


[adrotate banner=”7″]As we all know from romantic comedies, people who set up romances know the least about having stable romances in their lives. Thus Candace Cameron Bure’s character, who tries to reignite her marriage, except her husband is all about his job and not his family, which is really bad as Mother’s Day is approaching AND this is Hallmark Channel, the channel from the greeting card company that made you feel guilty about not buying your mom enough stuff on Mother’s Day. So you know things are going to go down!

When a professional matchmaker’s own marriage loses its spark, she seeks to recharge the relationship by asking her husband out on a blind date. As Mother’s Day approaches and their romance starts to rekindle, she wonders if her career-driven husband will finally learn to put his family’s needs before his job.

Dang it, Ian, get it together!!!

Just the Way You Are stars Candace Cameron Bure (Fuller House) as Jennie, Ty Olsson (Godzilla) as Ian, Farryn VanHumbeck (Big Eyes) as Kate, Natasha Calis (The Possession) as Chloe, and Kristine Cofsky (No Men Beyond This Point) as Donna. It’s directed by Kristoffer Tabori (High Plains Invaders) and written by Harvey Frost and Michael Murray

Just the Way You Are airs Saturday, May 9th on Hallmark Channel!

Photo via Hallmark/Bettina Strauss

Murder She Baked brings the cookies to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries!

Murder she baked hallmark

Forget the murder mystery, there’s a cat in this movie! YES! Must-watch TV!


[adrotate banner=”7″]Murder She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Mystery is the latest of the various Hallmark Movies & Mysteries series the network optioned and has now reached the small screen to delight us all with bakery-themed death and investigations. It’s the first of the book series written by Hannah Swensen.

Not only that, but there are even recipes from the movie on the Hallmark website, so you can bake while you watch to enhance your movie pleasure. Or rage about how your own cookies are better, like my cookies are.

Murder She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Mystery stars Alison Sweeney, Cameron Mathison, Lisa Durupt, Toby Levins, Juliana Wimbles, and Barbara Niven. It is directed by Mark Jean (The Nine Lives of Christmas) and written by Donald Martin (Carnal Innocence).

This freshly baked new murder mystery introduces Hannah Swensen (Sweeney), a creative and bubbly baker extraordinaire in a sleepy town in Minnesota, where everyone knows each other and secrets don’t stay hidden for long. Hannah’s bakeshop, the Cookie Jar, is where much of the town’s gossip percolates along with the strong coffee. But after she finds her good friend and delivery driver shot dead in the alley behind her shop, Hannah’s idyllic world is turned upside down. Her brother-in-law and county deputy sheriff recruits Hannah to help him chase down the culprit, but newly appointed Detective Mike Kingston (Mathison) has other ideas on how to investigate. As Hannah gets close to the handsome detective, she also meets the town’s new resident dentist at the prodding of her matchmaking mother Delores (Niven), and is suddenly caught in an unexpected romantic mystery of her own. Then, as a surprising number of suspects emerge, and motives ranging from blackmail to extortion abound, Hannah is strategically placed in the investigation to hear all as she jumps in as detective. Packed with plot twists and red herrings, romantic entanglements and family shenanigans, this lighthearted Hannah Swensen crime solver will please the palate of any mystery fan.

“Murder She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Mystery,” is a Brad Krevoy Television and Stephanie Germain Productions Production. Brad Krevoy, Stephanie Germain and Eric Jarboe are the executive producers. Mark Jean directs from a script written by Nancey Silvers. “Murder She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Mystery,” is based on Joanne Fluke’s book Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

Murder She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Mystery premieres Sunday, May 2 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries! Hopefully the cat gets a lot of screen time.

Photo via Hallmark Press/Bettina Strauss

Portrait of Love paints a picture on Hallmark Channel!

Portrait of Love Hallmark Channel

That’s not a portrait, that’s a sculpture!


[adrotate banner=”7″]Hallmark Channel’s new movie Portrait of Love (formally known as Heart of the Matter) is that old chestnut about a woman from the big city who returns all successful to her small town and yet suddenly is pulled in by that love junk and may end up throwing it all away for some dude she dated in high school. Just take a look at your high school dates on Facebook and where they are now to see how likely that prospect is (YEESH!)

A prominent fashion photographer returns to her small town roots at the request of a friend. Surrounded by both memories and loved ones, she must consider a choice between a successful future and rekindling both the love of her life and of her home.

Can’t women have both? Nope, you gots to be choosing one or the other, sorry. Them’s the rules!

Portrait of Love stars Bree Williamson (A Beginner’s Guide to Snuff) as April Littleton, Jason Dohring (Prehysteria! 2) as Luke Dwyer, Frances Fisher (Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!) as Doll Dwyer, Ella Thomas (Surrogates) as Julia Robbins, Corbin Bernsen (Christian Mingle) as Tyler Mason, Caitlin Carmichael (Wiener Dog Internationals) as Jess Dwyer, Cassius Willis (Lakeview Terrace) as Frank Robbins, and Cissy Wellman (Jane Doe: Vanishing Act) as Karen Waverly.

Portrait of Love is directed by K.T. Donaldson (High Plains Invaders). It is written by Michael Votel, Jr., Matt Marx (This seems to be the first film written for both), and Jennifer Notas (Christmas Under Wraps) It premieres March 14th on Hallmark Channel!

Photo via Hallmark/Bryan Sheffield

A Gift of Miracles brings the presents to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries!

A Gift of Miracles Hallmark Movies and Mysteries

Hey, Mom had the secrets to find the Holy Grail hidden away in her diary!


[adrotate banner=”7″]Mysteries aren’t just figuring out who killed the person in town everyone wants dead, sometimes the greatest mystery is just life itself. Or, someone else’s life, and what they make of it. Citizen Kane became one of the greatest movies of all time based on the back of a mystery about the titular character’s life. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries brings a similar theme to play with A Gift of Miracles, as a daughter gets to know the mother she never knew by going through her belongings and returning “borrowed” items. The premise is intriguing and sounds like a fun distraction from a never-ending stream of mystery procedurals while still fitting into the concept of the channel theme. Outside the box thinking like this should be rewarded, and hopefully the movie lives up to the tiny hype I just gave it:

A pragmatic PhD candidate must let go of her logic when she finds a list of items to give
away written by the late mother she never knew. With the encouragement of her enthusiastic new mentor, she attempts to return everything on the list and begins to encounter unexplainable coincidences that lead her to understand the world’s smallest marvels have the greatest meaning.

A Gift of Miracles stars Rachel Boston (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) as Darcy Miller, Rita Moreno (West Side Story) as Beverly, Jesse Moss (Iron Golem) as Nathan, Andrew Airlie (Look Who’s Talking Now) as Frank, and Sarah Jane Redmond (Sorority Wars) as Kathy. It is directed by Neill Fearnley (Daydream Believers: The Monkees’ Story) and written by Bart Fisher (How to Fall in Love)

A Gift of Miracles premieres Sunday, February 15, on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel! It will be a nice cooling off movie after seeing 50 Shades of Grey at the theaters and the resulting action…

via Hallmark Movies & Mysteries/Bettina Strauss

All of My Heart is Hallmark Channel’s Valentine’s Day mega movie!

All of my Heart Hallmark Channel

This story is about our love affair…..with ice cream!!!


[adrotate banner=”7″]Lacey Chabert is the hardest working woman in direct to cable movies, and she once again has a starring role with the new Hallmark Channel movie All of My Heart. It’s one of those opposites attract romance movies, this time the twist being they live in the same house. This twist is sort of odd because that’s the plot of these weird anime games I see trailers for occasionally, about secretly having a powerful male roommate who may or may not become more than just a roommate. I’m not sure why I keep getting those game trailers as ads, perhaps due to my long history of living secretly in other peoples’ houses. Right now I am living in this family’s crawlspace and they are none the wiser!

A young caterer’s life suddenly changes course when she inherits a country home and learns she must share it with a career-obsessed Wall Street trader. At first, these opposites do not attract, but feelings begin to change when they find themselves having to work side-by-side to restore their newly acquired home.

Ed Asner should totally be playing his character from Up, just because I demand it. All of My Heart is the last of the five new romance movies Hallmark Channel is putting out for their Countdown to Valentine’s Day event, but don’t fret just yet, because I’m sure they’ll have a Countdown to St. Patrick’s Day event just next month! Or not. But when will we get leprechaun-themed romance movies???

All of My Heart stars Lacey Chabert (The Tree That Saved Christmas) as Jenny, Brennan Elliott (The Nanny Express) as Brian, Greyston Holt (She Made Them Do It) as Daryl, Daniel Cudmore (Warcraft) as Tommy, Ed Asner (Up) as Vern, and Heather Doerksen (Pacific Rim) as Casey. It’s directed by Peter DeLuise (Zapped) and written by Karen Berger.

All of My Heart premieres Saturday, February 14, on Hallmark Channel!

via Hallmark/Bettina Strauss

Cloudy with a Chance of Love makes me rain on this Hallmark Channel parade!

Cloudy with a Chance of Love Hallmark

How can she find love with glasses and a ponytail??? Impossible!!!

[adrotate banner=”7″]Before I talk about Cloudy with a Chance of Love, I must talk about Not Another Teen Movie, because there is something to discuss. One of the plot points of NATM was that the main character was unattractive because she had glasses and a ponytail, yet the second she removed those objects she became the hottest girl in school. This parodies She’s All That, in which we were to believe that the uber-hot Rachael Leigh Cook in the prime of her uber-hotness was somehow not attractive or popular, until she removed her glasses and ponytail. Why am I bringing this up? Because Cloudy with a Chance of Love features the main character, Deb, being described as “quirky”, who suddenly gets a makeover of removing her glasses and ponytail and becomes belle of the ball. The TV meteorologist ball. So, uh, I hope the film ends up being better than it looks based on my memories of films from years ago pointing out plot absurdities. The fact that Stacey Dash also pops up is another negative in my book, as she’s sort of gone right wing crazy the past few years. But, hey, who knows? Maybe it will be good. We won’t know until the movie actually premieres!

Quirky meteorologist Deb spends most of her time finishing the passionate pursuit of her Ph.D. in meteorology. The wind of change starts blowing, however, when a handsome news director recruits her to fill in as an on-air weather personality. While the new job comes with a glamorous makeover that catches the eyes of both viewers and her handsome colleague, it also takes her away from her studies at a critical time. When her TV job, academic commitments and new romance swell into a perfect storm, Deb must decide if her future will be spent studying the sky, or broadcasting over the air.

At the very least, I would enjoy more terrible weather-related movie titles.

Cloudy with a Chance of Love stars Katie LeClerc (Switched at Birth) as Deb, Michael Rady (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) as Quentin, Stacey Dash (Clueless) as Grace, Meredith Giangrande (Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star) as Vera, and Floriana Lima (The Mob Doctor) as Fran. Cloudy with a Chance of Love is directed by Bradford May (Madonna: Innocence Lost). The story is by Margot Leitman and Daniel Curry (Sweet Surrender), with the teleplay done by Todd Mattox

Cloudy with a Chance of Love premieres Sunday, February 8th, on Hallmark Channel

via Hallmark/Carin Baer