Debbie Macomber’s Mr. Miracle comes to Earth to make you love on Hallmark Channel!

November 19, 2014ByTars Tarkas

The entire movie is Michelle Harrison acting out a play using Christmas ornaments!

Once again, angels are mucking around on Christmas for love. Are things really that calm that angels can waste time playing matchmaker when wars and crap are going on? Can I get a little angel love for having me win the lottery? It’s not like you guys are doing anything right now, it’s only November, too early for Christmas matchmaking.

Debbie Macomber’s Mr. Miracle is the latest angel meddling, and Debbie Macomber is a Hallmark Channel regular. Her book series Cedar Cove is one of their tv series, and she’s had three other books made into Hallmark films: Mrs. Miracle, Miracle in Manhattan (based on Call Me Mrs. Miracle), and Trading Christmas (based on When Christmas Comes) Two of those books look to be part of the same loose Miracle series as Debbie Macomber’s Mr. Miracle, but I really don’t know how connected they are, nor how connected they are to this film, especially since it starts a first-time guardian angel.

When guardian angel Harry Mills (Morrow) arrives on Earth for the first time, he’s got a lot to learn about life as a human. But this miracle worker-in-training ignores the advice of his seasoned heavenly mentor, Celeste (Harrison), to eagerly take on his first assignment — helping a young woman named Addie (Irvin) find the confidence to change her life. Addie has always struggled in school and is currently feeling overwhelmed and indecisive trying to live up to her father’s expectations to become a doctor. Now, after her father’s sudden passing, Addie is living with her mom Sharon (Redmond), filled with regret and uncertainty while attempting to finish her degree all while avoiding her childhood nemesis and neighbor, Erich (Francis). Enter Harry, posing as her fumbling, well-meaning new English teacher who takes on the task of guiding her to see the wonderful things she can’t see in herself. With a deadline of Christmas day to change Addie’s perspective, or else say goodbye to his own Earthly existence, Harry is clueless but endearing in his effort to make Addie open up to a life full of promise — and even love — while learning a few life lessons of his own along the way.

Debbie Macomber’s Mr. Miracle is directed by Carl Bessai (that Embrace of the Vampire remake) and written by Heather Maidat (the Mad tv series). It stars Rob Morrow (Numb3rs) as Harry Mills, Michelle Harrison (Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal) as Celeste, Britt Irvin (Bratz Babyz Save Christmas) as Addie Folsom, Sarah-Jane Redmond (Sorority Murder) as Sharon Folsom, Andrew Francis (Slugterra: Return of the Elementals) as Erich Simmons, and Vanesa Tomasino (Chupacabra vs. the Alamo) as Elaina.

Hey, if you are into angel stuff, and you aren’t totally burnt out on Christmas angel stuff, then you will be very excited, so be sure to check it out!

Debbie Macomber’s Mr. Miracle premieres December 6th on Hallmark Channel! It’s one of The 12 New Movies of Christmas as part of their Countdown to Christmas celebration.

Photo via Hallmark Press/Katie Yu/Britt Irvin

Christmas at Cartwright's Hallmark Channle

InMovie News

Christmas At Cartwright’s breaks out the Lady Santa for Hallmark Channel!

November 18, 2014ByTars Tarkas

There were no photos of her actually dressed up as Santa, so have a photo of Wallace Shawn!

Hallmark delivers a bootleg Miracle on 34th Street, where instead of Macy’s being home to Santa Claus, there’s a woman playing Santa at a random department store! The shock, the shock of this not being a big deal at all except in the realm of Christmas At Cartwright’s! Seriously, why is this a big deal? Also, according to what happens in the plot synopsis, Cartwright’s opens themselves up to a seven figure lawsuit that I fully support being filed, because, seriously! But we can’t have lawyers be saving Christmas, so of course there is a real live angel running around. Angels meddle all the time during Christmas, it’s like the end of the year and they realize they haven’t finished things up so are rushing to look good before their yearly performance reviews. Or something like that. Heck, half these Hallmark movie have angels, the other half have dogs.

In another fun aside, the angel, played by Wallace Shawn, is named Harry Osbourne, who we all know is the Green Goblin. Why the Green Goblin is now an angel helping a woman play Santa is anyone’s guess, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.

With the holiday season at hand, single mom Nicky Talbot (Witt) is unemployed and struggling to afford a nice Christmas with her 8-year-old daughter. Hearing that Cartwright’s Department Store is hiring temporary holiday help, Nicky rushes in to apply, but is rejected by Senior VP Fiona Aldrich (Gabrielle Miller, “Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas”), who considers Nicky a threat to the relationship she hopes to have with Bill (Hogan), a charming and handsome store manager. In a whimsical turn of events, Harry Osbourne (Shawn), claiming to
be a consultant from corporate headquarters, encourages Nicky to dress up and begin working as Cartwright’s store Santa Claus. With the magical help of Harry, who turns out to be a real-life angel, Nicky keeps the job and despite Fiona’s attempts at sabotage, becomes the most popular store Santa Claus in Cartwright’s history; however, nobody knows Cartwright’s Santa Claus is a woman and Nicky fears she will lose her job if her secret gets out.

Before long, feelings develop between Nicky and Bill, who keeps crossing paths with Nicky when she’s not in her Santa costume. With Christmas a few days off and Harry called away on another “assignment,” Santa’s true identity is revealed and everyone at Cartwright’s is shocked to learn that Nicky is the department store Santa. Fiona fires Nicky on the spot and Bill, feeling deceived, questions whether or not he wants to continue their relationship. With her life falling apart again, Nicky is going to need a Christmas miracle to save the holiday season

Christmas At Cartwright’s is directed by Graeme Campbell (Midnight Masquerade), and written by Margaret Oberman, who way back in the day wrote Troop Beverly Hills, a dumb film I loved as a kid. It stars Alicia Witt (Wiener Dog Nationals) as Nicky, Gabriel Hogan (Heartland) as Bill, Wallace Shawn (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as Harry, T.J. McGibbon as Becky, Linda Kash (Are We Done Yet?) as Peg, and Gabrielle Miller as Fiona.

Christmas At Cartwright’s premieres December 7th on Hallmark Channel! It’s a part of The 12 New Movies of Christmas in their Countdown to Christmas celebration.

Photo via Hallmark Channel Press/Christos Kalohoridis

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S02E05 – “The Weeping Lady”

November 17, 2014ByTars Tarkas

BP strikes again!

Sleepy Hollow “The Weeping Lady”
Written by M. Raven Metzner
Directed by Larry Teng

I’m not crazy, and I’ll eat the liver of anyone who disagrees!

Sleepy Hollow has seen all manner of monsters run around in the small town, every single one of which somehow has roots to the Revolutionary War and Ichabod Crane. Once again that happens, as the angry wet haired Japanese ghost gets a colonial makeover and causes trouble for Abbie, Ichabod, and Katrina.

While the monster gives Abbie and Ichabod something new to fight this week, the reasoning for the monsters appearance cause some unneeded cracks into existing relationships that feel so obviously forced that they are distracting. The ghost lady killing people is an old acquaintance of Ichabod’s, particularly she was his betrothed back in England, though he canceled the engagement upon journeying to America. Mary Wells followed him there, popping up while he was chatting with Katrina (back when she was still engaged to Abraham Van Brunt, Ichabod’s best friend and eventual Headless Horseman), and goes immediately crazy with jealously and throws out stalker vibes. She disappeared the next day, Ichabod thinking she returned to England thanks to a note. But that turns out to be a lie, Mary Wells actually accidentally died in a scuffle with Katrina, and became a vengeful ghost of legend called the Weeping Lady, who has haunted Sleepy Hollow for 230 years.

She is brought back by Henry Parrish and specifically targets any woman around Ichabod, first attacking Miss Caroline – the Colonial fanlady that makes Ichabod’s clothes (and also wants to jump his Colonial bones!), who turns up in the river. Abbie declares that Miss Caroline “had a case of Crane on the brain”, giving a name to the obsession of many Tumblr fans. The Weeping Lady next attacks Abbie, because Abbie is always next to Ichabod and it looks a little weird (even Miss Caroline thinks Abbie was his girlfriend!) Though Nick Hawley is also in the library, because of course he is, and he knows mouth to mouth so can save Abbie, because of course he does. Hawley is basically the guy you get assigned to your group in school who is too cool to do the actual work, but smart enough to already know everything and his lack of helping is more frustrating that if he was just a dolt who tried but knew nothing.

Sexual tension!

InBad, Movie Reviews

Justice League: Doom (Review)

November 17, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Justice League: Doom

2012
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Based on JLA: Tower of Babel by Mark Waid
Directed by Lauren Montgomery

The Justice League is under attack, except this time it’s by one of their own! Okay, not really by one of their own, but by the very plans Batman developed to deal with members of the Justice League.

Justice League: Doom is based loosely on the JLA: Tower of Babel storyline by Mark Waid, Justice League: Doom changes things up enough to be a different take while providing a nice adaptation of the overall themes. The main villain is changed (from Ra’s al Ghul to Vangal Savage) and some of the Justice League’s lineup is different, but the feelings of betrayal by a paranoid Batman remain.

Doom is not direct sequel to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, but follows it with very similar character designs and voices. Many of the DC Animated films are their own shards of a loose continuity that exists purely to tell that exact tale. It’s a perfectly fine way to operate, allowing the general mythology of the heroes to exist and leaving toom for the specifics needed to make the stories work and be unique. The return of many of the familiar voice actors helps sell the loose familiarity and provides a comfort to longtime fans so they aren’t put off by Batman sounding weird or something.

Justice League: Doom is one of the better DC Animated films, dividing enough characterization between the different members to give each of them their own take, while still keeping a focus on Batman. Switching the villain to Vandal Savage helps push a more minor villain into focus and provides an excuse to make the full range of the plans make more sense than eliminating reading and talking.

InMovie News

The Three Dogateers bring more talking dogs home alone!

November 16, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Can we just admit that “Talking Dog Home Alone” is a legitimate film genre now? Because it has happened again with The Three Dogateers, a film that not only exists, but stars Dean Cain, of dozens of TV movies fame. Prior “Talking Dog Home Alone” we’ve learned of at TarsTarkas.NET are: Bone Alone (Alone for Christmas), Abner The Invisible Dog, and Step Dogs. This makes four, which means you can have an all night marathon!

The Three Dogateers was written and directed by Jesse Baget, the writer/director of Wrestlemaniac. It also stars Richard Riehle as Santa, because Santa is the best friend of talking dogs who are home alone. It’s the law. The Santa Law! If you don’t know if you want to watch the film yet, just know that the dogs drive a car. Now you want to watch it, or you’re crazy! You ain’t crazy, right? Of course not.

Anyway, enjoy The Three Dogateers as I await the confirmation that a fifth movie in the “Talking Dog Home Alone” genre exists. Soon Star Trek will be outnumbered by talking dogs! MuHAHAHAHAHA!!!

InBad, Movie Reviews

The Five (Review)

November 14, 2014ByTars Tarkas

The Five

aka 더 파이브 aka Deo Paibeu aka The Fives aka Deo pa-i-beu

2013
Based on The 5ive Hearts by Jeong Yeon-shik
Written and directed by Jeong Yeon-shik

The Five is a good example of Korean film’s ease of switching emotional tracks like Grand Central Feelings Station. It’s also a good crime film featuring normal people tracking a crazy killer, a good film to watch for fans of shows like Hannibal that regularly depict killers with complicated psychoses and the flawed and broken people who track them down.

The Five began life as a webtoon feature called The 5ive Hearts by Jeong Yeon-shik, who went on to write and direct this adaptation. It’s a tale of desperate people banding together to do a dark task that is much easier said than done.

A happy and idealic family is shattered by a brutal psychopathic killer. Film production team member (and fancy domino effects designer) Ko Eun-a (Kim Sun-a, She is on Duty) has a normal happy life in Korea, but we’d have no movie if bad things didn’t happen. Eun-a’s daughter recognizes the murderer from seeing him with his latest victim, a former classmate of hers, though she thinks he is the girl’s uncle and doesn’t know she’s been killed. Despite their ignorance, the family is now marked for death by killer Oh Jae-wook (On Joo-wan), who tracks them home and begins the slaughter.

By a sort of miracle, Ko Eun-a survives, though a desperate doctor, Cheol-min (Jung In-gi), is willing to declare her brain dead in order to use her organs on his sick daughter. She awakens just in time, but two years later she’s wheelchair bound, and most of her waking hours are spent trying to track down the person who destroyed her family by the only clue she has, her husband’s lighter that the killer stole. After buying boxes full of the specific lighter, there is finally a clue, and an IP address to track down

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