Director: Martin Wood
Writers: Gregg Rossen and Brian Sawyer
Starring: Kat Graham, Alexander Ludwig, Trezzo Mahoro, and Bethany Brown
Part U.S. military propaganda, part (well, mostly) cheesy
holiday romance, Operation Christmas Drop tells the (true) story of the
Department of Defense’s “longest running humanitarian mission, in which
military personnel and civilians come together to gather supplies for people on
isolated islands, and drop off large wooden crates full of food and other
necessities. It provides a rather curious backdrop for a gag-inducing holiday
romance in which Kat Graham (one of the most naturally beautiful actresses in
Hollywood…or anywhere for that matter) plays Erica, a career-focused (!) woman
trying to work her way up in Washington D.C.
She is sent on a mission from her superior, with the
potential for promotion should her mission be successful: go to a beachside Air
Force base, and—though it’s not really directly “spoken”—find enough reasons to
justify shutting it down. Of course, this is over the Christmas holiday, which
means she won’t be able to spend Christmas with her family; in a rare twist,
she doesn’t really care, as she’s not too fond of her father’s new wife (of
course, since parents can never just get divorced or separate in these
movies—because that wouldn’t be Christian enough—her mother died three years
ago).
Confident and hellbent on achieving her mission, she is
caught off guard when her “escort” around the base is Andrew, an
equally-confident, Christmas-obsessed Air Force captain who helps to oversee
the annual Christmas Drop. As per usual, the two trade barbs at first, that
quickly turn into sparks of romance; but will she choose to fight for what’s
right, or phone in a report just to stay on the track to promotion?
Actually, fans of this type of cinematic endeavor might be a
little disappointed, as the romance takes a backseat to Erica’s frantic
attempts to save the campaign. Of course, the two do end up falling for each
other, despite their initial misgivings, but chemistry-wise, they feel more
like good friends rather than lovers destined to be together. And Erica’s
sudden change from seeing the Christmas Drop as a waste of government
resources, to being the main champion of the cause, is laughably abrupt, even
for this kind of movie.
If there’s one thing we can count on from Netflix-produced
romances, it’s that the acting will at least be above-average; Operation
Christmas Drop doesn’t disappoint in that regard. The leads are charming and,
even though I would say Alexander Ludwig (as Andrew) is not a very
conventionally-attractive looking guy, he wins the viewer over with his
laid-back personality. As I said, I don’t think they really explode chemistry,
but they’re likeable and flow well together, even if it’s not in a lover kind
of way.
Can I come back to the sustainability of Netflix as a whole?
They’re dropping billions of dollars worth of money on content every year, but
pulling in around $500 million in subscriber fees. There are no
advertisements…how is this a sustainable business model? Just this movie alone
cost $24 million to make—outside of the salaries for the cast and crew, I don’t
see much more than $2 million on the screen.
At any rate, this is a rather ho-hum exercise in genre
clichés that mostly manages to be cute, but does feature some anger-inducing
clichés that would have been best left out. If this is your type of movie,
you’ll probably find enough here to like. But thanks to its focus on an actual
story rather than the relationship between its two main stars, this certainly
won’t win over any Scrooge-types, and might not even win over most of its
targeted demographic.
OVERALL RATING: 5.5/10
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
- The random computer-generated gecko is probably the worst example of CGI since the early 2000s; clearly not enough was spent in areas where it was most needed.
- The “miracle” that occurs to save the day feels more like a quickly written cop-out, rather than an actual miracle.
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