CHRISTMAS CAPSULES: Operation Christmas Drop (2020)

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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CHRISTMAS CAPSULES: Sweet Mountain Christmas (2019)

Director: David Weaver
Writer(s): Brian Sawyer and Gregg Rossen
Starring: Megan Hilty, Marcus Rosner, Teryl Rothery, and Kate Isaac

What’s with the sudden influx of music-themed holiday movies? Or have they always been around, and I’m just starting to notice them all at once?

Laney Blu (a name more befitting of a porn star than a country musician) is a former country star whose last two albums have flopped; as a result, she’s being “rebranded” as a pop star, in a desperate attempt to reconnect with her dwindling audiences. Given the fact she appears to be pushing forty, it’s both sadder and more pathetic than it probably should be. She wants to visit her mother—whom she hasn’t seen for quite some time—for Christmas, but her strict schedule only allows for a single night stay a couple days before the holiday. Oh, and of course, it’s in a very, very small town.

While there, she bumps into an old flame, who now pretty much happens to run the entire village, and learns the hard way that true love never peters out. Conveniently—and despite no actual footage of falling snow to be found anywhere—a massive snowstorm renders an escape from her past impossible…but also threatens to derail her hopes to stay relevant in the music industry. Will she forego all the fame and stardom for another chance at love? Or decide that…eh, I’m not even going to waste the time coming up with another option.

This one doesn’t have the required laughs and charm contained in the “best” examples of these kinds of movies, but the two leads are cute together, and—in an absolute rarity—there aren’t really any characters that are super annoying (save for Janine, who basically despises Laney just for being successful, but is thankfully rarely around). Even the two ones that would have some reason to: Lori, Laney’s former singing partner (and the love interest’s sister), who Laney suddenly left once her own career started taking off; and Danny, Laney’s long-time manager, go against type, and are surprisingly warm-hearted characters who both genuinely seem to care about Laney, albeit in different ways (what, no love triangle?).

The “side” plot where Laney decides to find talent for the local talent show, which not only happens to be taking place while she’s staying there, but also in an apparent snowstorm so bad that she can’t even leave the city, adds an unnecessary layer of absurdity and ridiculousness to a movie that already had plenty of it. In other words, this one is as stupid as the rest of them, at least from a writing perspective. And it seems to take itself way too seriously, which is a dangerous game when it comes to these types of movies, where most people are just going to pick it apart to make fun of it.

But these issues aside—which are typically fatal flaws in the hands of other movies—still take a backseat to the cast, who are competent—and believable--enough to inject the film with a contagious sense of holiday happiness, despite being caricatures caught up in one big, all-too-familiar cliché.

RATING: 6/10

TRAILER

NOTE: Literally no trailers of this movie exist, so here's a video of the stars attempting to see who can create the cutest holiday wreath.