12 Dates of Christmas (2011)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

So this movie is basically a remake of "Groundhog Day", but with a female character and on Christmas eve. It's still pretty entertaining, but the parallels to "Groundhog Day" are just too frequent to ignore... Other than that, it's a cute, romantic movie.

The film Twelve Dates of Christmas reminds a lot of people of Groundhog Day, but set on Christmas Eve. Now, 12 Dates of Christmas may not be the most popular Christmas movie, but it gets across the theme better than any other Christmas movie I've seen, the theme of this movie is to treat others the way you want to be treated. What the 12 Dates of Christmas is about, is where Kate (main character) goes shopping for her ex-boyfriend, Jack, on Christmas Eve because she thinks that he is still in love with her. After she gets the present for Jack she decides to go home, now this is where it gets interesting. She has about 10 more steps until she is was officially done shopping for jack, but right when she gets off the escalator to leave she gets sprayed in the face with perfume. This is where some parts get a little too cheesy, the acting is good for the movie and the overall theme they are trying to get across works extremely well. In a review on Letterboxd, user Angie says, "So what if it's not Christmas time? So what if this movie is very cheesy? It's also sweet and extremely cute. It shows me that you can make so many people so much happier if only you let yourself." The theme for 12 Dates of Christmas is that you should treat others how you want to be treated. The reason that the name is like that is because each day after she "wakes up" she is waking up on the ground at the same time at the same place from when she got sprayed in the face with the perfume. The days and how she wakes up become somewhat repetitive, but overall there is a good concept for each of the days, on the first day she is very confused and doesn't know what is going on but she just plays along because she believes it is a dream. The second day she wakes up being very confused so she decides to go to the doctor, after the doctor, she decided to go to her ex-boyfriend's house to try and get him back again. Each day after the second it becomes clearer that she has a problem and she somehow needs to fix it. The problem being her living the same day over and over again, and the only way for her to fix the day is if she makes the day perfect for everyone including her. The last day is probably the most important, on the 2nd day she meets a girl and her boyfriend who were putting up lights, the guy was putting up lights for his girlfriend because that was his gift to her, but Kate ended up making a masterpiece for the guy to show his girlfriend. The next thing she did was help pick out Jack's engagement ring for Nancy, then she sets up her best friend, invites all of Miles hockey team that he coaches over to her dad's house for dinner, and the only way she can "wake" up is if Miles kisses her at 12 A.M. Most of these movie reviews are saying that this movie does get a little repetitive and that it reminds them a lot of a groundhog day, but they are also saying that it does get the theme of the movie across very good. "You probably haven't seen this movie, or even heard about it before. If you like romantic comedies, and Christmas themed ones then you should watch this right now. Now, there are also some negative reviews such as, "While not the first movie to blatantly rip off "Groundhog Day", it might be the worst. It quite horrible, with sub- par acting and sloppy writing. But it's a direct to TV Christmas movie. It doesn't have to be good, as long as it provides a small portion of holiday spirit. And it did."(letterbox)Critics give 12 Dates of Christmas a 3/5, now personally I give it a 4/5 I believe that this gets across the point that everyone should treat others kindly no matter what the cost. Resources Salli Newman, A.A. (Producer), & James Hayman, A.A. (Director). (2011). 12 Dates of Christmas. United States: ABC Family Letterboxd.com (2011) 12 Dates of Christmas. Retrieved December 18, 2015, from https://letterboxd.com/film/12-dates-of-christma

Almost anything with Amy Smart is worth watching in my opinion. While she does not embody the plastic beauty of the typical Hollywood star I find her extremely attractive in her own right. In this film she keeps waking up to a new Christmas Eve day. Now she remembers the previous days but everyone else doesn't. So she goes through the whole scenario time after time except some things change each day. Since she does remember it changes her actions and responses. It is a really nice film. Amy keeps altering the scenes because of her remembering the previous days. She starts out on the first day with a blind date with Myles Dufine played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Then she meets him again and again but in different scenarios. She also runs in to her ex, whom she still has feelings for at the start but as the days repeat she actually helps him pick a ring for her replacement. She meets a black women and they end up at her apartment eating whipped cream and dancing around. Mommy and Daddy show up with Mark while this is going on. So they go walking and end up at the bar. Here Amy runs into a guy who is apparently an angel (?) and tries to get him to fess up. Any way after many different scenarios Amy and Mark-Paul end up together. So all ends well. I have to say that I wished Amy Smart was my girl next door.

I love a great Christmas movie and this year while cooking I discovered the treasure trove of ABC Family Christmas movies. I have no doubt that giving movies like this a high review will bring all sorts of criticism but I don't care. I review films according to how much they entertain me and 12 Dates of Christmas was awesomely entertaining!! I loved it!! I can really only think of a single criticism for the film and that was that it ran just a shade too long. Obviously a film with this type of story, the "Groundhog Day" schtick is in danger of feeling repetitive and it does but just barely. It certainly isn't enough to take away from the enjoyment of the film. It is sort of the perfect "magical" Christmas movie to have someone relive Christmas Eve over and over again until they learn a lesson about themselves and their life. The film has strong morals, it has a strong lead female character with a great message and will make you laugh and even brings tears to your eyes in the end. As far as a great Christmas film this one nails every category you can think of from magic, to romance, to laughs.This is certainly and easily one of the best performances I have ever seen from Amy Smart. I've never really seen her do anything spectacular despite popping up in so many films. She really gets a chance to shine in this film as the focus of the movie. Her character is shy and lost and looking for love in all the wrong places and watching her change throughout the film truly puts the magic into this and she is fantastic. Mark-Paul Gosselaar is absolutely perfect in this movie as well. Him and Smart together are just fantastic. They have the best chemistry of any of the ABC Family Christmas couples I watched. The supporting cast are all familiar character actors and they all do a great job in their parts. Some particularly strong roles were Jayne Eastwood, Mary Long, Benjamin Ayres, and Peter MacNeill as Smart's neighbour, step-mother, ex-boyfriend and father respectively.With a long history in Television director James Hayman clearly knows his way around a good script. Obviously comparisons to Groundhog Day are not unwarranted nor is that a bad thing. The concept is almost identical but the fact that its Christmas Eve and she spends so much time trying to make things go the way she thinks she wants makes for a sweet and heartfelt movie. I would watch this again and again because its a feel good movie with really terrific characters, good acting, a beautiful romance and just a very sweet story that will satisfy any Christmas movie fiend or romance addict. ABC Family clearly knows how to put together these movies and I for one and am a huge fan. 8.5/10