Christmas Belle (2013) Reviews

• Noise complaint

  krystalmg2015-12-23

  I love cheesy love movies but this, wow somebody turn that music off...not up, off! It really ruined it. The running with the shirt off takes up half the movie. But the music takes up 99% of the movie. Who the h decided on this? It could be in the musicals genre. You try to turn up the volume to hear them talk and instead you get this crappy music blaring. My suggestion. ...mute and put the subtitles on. I can put up with a lot...matterr of fact im still tolerating the movie cause I have to finish but I did create an account cause I feel people need to know about it. What do I not want for Christmas? The worlds longest movie soundtrack ever.

• Make the "music" stop... please, make it stop.

  flackjacket2014-12-14

  This movie is one-of-a-kind, in that it's the only movie I've ever watched where the "music" never stops and is far too loud to be background music. If you love listening to painfully sad slow piano and strings while trying to watch a movie, you'll love this film. It's like having the radio tuned to the easy listening station with the volume on 11, while watching a poorly scripted movie on the TV with the volume on 1. Here's a basic rundown of the storyboard... 30 seconds of stale uneventful dialog (with loud background music) followed by 5 minutes of location shots and actors giving thoughtful heartfelt looks or running shirtless through the field (with even louder background music). Repeat throughout the rest of the movie. On the good side, it would be useful for inducing a coma.

• Bad acting & unbelievable script destroy this movie.

  stephenabell2016-12-23

  I like holiday movies and I like "Bad" movies as most have redeeming qualities. However, this slice of festive fun is neither festive or fun. The story is loosely based on Beauty and The Beast. Sadly, when The Beast isn't a Beast, just a man whose beastly, then it becomes difficult to have the love interest fall for a man, who shouts at her, degrades her, and lashes out at her. However, this gaping whole in the script isn't the only let down. The acting is below average. Even C Thomas Howell cannot lift the cast... to be truthful he takes it a bit further into the quagmire; his high-pitched effeminate portrayal of the father is cringeworthy. It made me smirk the first time I heard it, but by the end of the film I'd had enough. Which is a shame as I think C Thomas Howell is a pretty decent actor. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

• Cute plot - unnecessary scenes and bad use of music

  eastercarol2015-12-08

  While the acting was great, the actual making of the movie wasn't. If you have seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast, you know EXACTLY everything that goes on. It is essentially the same plot down to the characters and scenes except everyone is human, there isn't a curse and a more modern take on the story (although there is a less violent ending to the male "bad guy"). The music is rather annoying after the first few minutes (and it continues through the rest of the movie) and the plot goes SOOOO slow! Also the music is very depressing - ruined the whole romantic feel. There could have been much better crafting of the film itself. There are many scenes that just seem redundant and unnecessary. The actors seem to be perfect for their roles. They did a great job. The set is also very pretty and fits well for the premise of the movie.

• Torture

  utgard142015-12-06

  I'm not someone who rags on TV movies. I enjoy them most of the time, despite their flaws. But this one is absolute garbage that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. For starters, the other reviewers were right about the music. Oh my God the music! It's this cheesy canned e-card piano music that never ever stops for one single second. It will drive you insane! I cannot stress enough how awful it is and how it ruins any chance this movie had of being a good experience. However I did try to look past it and see if there was anything of worth in the movie that the ear-bleeding music was hiding. Sadly, there was nothing. The story is a flimsy take on Beauty & the Beast. The Christmas part is irrelevant. Haylie Duff is the beauty and, while she's certainly giving it her best, after awhile you get tired of her character being a doormat for every man in the movie and you just give up caring what happens to her. Nicholas Gonzalez is the beast, a jerk with few redeeming qualities who seems to suffer from an unfortunate shirt allergy. His character's tragic backstory does little to make us care about him. We just want him to shut up and (some of us) want him to put on a shirt. He also "gets the wrong idea" repeatedly just to give the movie some manufactured angst. So annoying and yet another character trait you'll find yourself asking "Who wants to deal with that?" It's nonsense like this that makes it hard to root for the main characters to get together. Supporting cast is not much better, led by a supremely annoying C. Thomas Howell as the worst dad ever. Then we have Mark Famiglietti as one of the most despicable characters I've ever seen in one of these TV movies. He's the 'other guy,' the one the girl is never going to end up with and we all know it from the first minute of the movie but have to suffer through feigned uncertainty for the sake of the predictable plot. This guy is given no positive traits and, as the movie goes along, you begin to wonder if there's some kind of fake-out going on and this is actually going to be a thriller where he kills Haylie Duff and the beast guy must solve her murder. At least then some of the movie would have made more sense. Anyway, avoid this trash at all costs. It's poorly acted, written, and directed. It's sappy, schmaltzy, corny, cheesy, dumb, obnoxious, and offensive to the senses. That music! That *expletive deleted* music!