★ 10 / 10
This was such a welcome delight from the
erwin c
This was such a welcome delight from the normal schmaltzy Christmas fare dished out year after year. Adam Rodiriguez and Jessica Camacho have such great…
This was such a welcome delight from the normal schmaltzy Christmas fare dished out year after year. Adam Rodiriguez and Jessica Camacho have such great chemistry. The story grabs you from the get-go and takes you on a fun unexpected ride until the very end. Great supporting cast with some great laughs and smart dialogue throughout. What a welcomed holiday retreat!!
★ 3 / 10
A Film Plagued by Numerous Faults and Errors
This film opens with a young Marine named "Jason" (Joshua T. Shipman) being approached by an officer who tells him that a transfer request he submitted several…
This film opens with a young Marine named "Jason" (Joshua T. Shipman) being approached by an officer who tells him that a transfer request he submitted several months earlier has been approved and that he will be going to Japan in a few months. The problem is that he submitted the request when he was angry with his girlfriend, "Carla" (Lily Nicole). Now that they have patched things up, he regrets his decision and fears losing her while he's assigned overseas. Not knowing what else to do, he asks his cousin, "Earl" (Josiah Bennetone), for advice, since Earl knows how women think. Armed with this newfound wisdom, Jason sets out to propose to Carla on Christmas, with the deliberate intention of not telling her about his overseas assignment until after she agrees to marry him. Utterly oblivious to the hole in this logic, Jason also has to navigate around "Carla's father" (played by David Perez), who already doesn't trust him around his daughter. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film could have been a really good comedy if the director (Nakia T. Hamilton) had paid more attention to detail. For starters, in the first scene where Jason is informed of his assignment, both he and the officer are outside. However, neither Jason nor the officer is wearing headgear. Additionally, as the officer approaches, Jason doesn't render a hand salute. Upon closer inspection, I also noticed that Jason's uniform has no name tag or other insignia; it's completely bare. That's unheard of in the military. Likewise, nobody in their right mind would suggest that an overseas assignment would last 15 years. That's crazy. Needless to say, these are rather apparent discrepancies that anyone who has ever served in the military could easily point out. Unfortunately, simple issues like this recur throughout the movie to the point that they undermine the entire film. On that note, although it's tempting to criticize the actors, I actually believe most of them did pretty well, given the obvious errors and weak scripts they were given, with Joshua T. Shipman and Lily Nicole standing out the most. But that's just my opinion. Be that as it may, although I initially looked forward to watching this movie, the faults were just too numerous, and I have rated it accordingly.