Touches You

Pretty Good

Powerful

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

Regardless of the critics, this movie has become one of my top five Christmas movies--we watch it every year.To start with, I dislike TV movies. The budget is low. The acting is somewhat cliché. So they ripped off parts of Ground Hogs Day. The storyline in Ground Hogs Day was so shallow and irrelevant that it needed to be done over.Christmas Do Over resonates with one basic truth--that each of us must get up everyday and try and improve on the previous one. Except in this one, he keeps waking up to a Christmas disaster of his own making. Its real. It moves. It teaches. It is squeaky clean. Its awkward. It feels good. The story has so much potential that I wish they could do it over with more money. I don't mind the actors, but it could have been done better. I would rewrite certain parts like the Christmas fair. Who goes to a Christmas fair on Christmas. But it worked into their characterizations and plot.Notwithstanding the flaws, the movie is a hidden gem and everyone should see this movie. At least once. A year.

Sure, we've seen Ground Hog's Day before, but isn't it always a case of the "Emperor's New Clothing." The casting is great. Jay Mohr is acerbic, endearing and flat out funny! Daphne Zuniga is always a treat. And great to see supporting cast with Tim Thomerson and Adrienne Barbeau. Again, you've seen it before, this time more funny! The blend between humor and drama (there are moments between Jay and Daphne that have you in tears laughing, then crying). Kudos to ABC Family for not giving us the same, saccharine sweet, dramatic Christmas movie we see every year. Definitely better than everything I have seen this year (did you see "Deck the Halls" which requires paid admission). Save your money and tune in. This one has attitude. All and All a 9/10. Well done!

Take the plot of GROUNDHOG DAY, in which Bill Murray has to do the same day over and over again until he finally gets it right, remaking himself, in the process, from a surly lout into a genuinely caring individual. Change the setting from a real Punxatawney, Pennsylvania to a stand-in-for-everywhere, ill-defined location. Replace brilliant comic lead Bill Murray will talented Jay Mohr and some good supporting actors like Daphne Zuniga and Ruta Lee. Sprinkle liberally with many of the identical incidents from the original movie, changed slightly to fit the different holiday and avoid lawsuits and replace top comedy director Harold Ramis with someone I've never heard of before and you get a dull TV movie. Don't bother with this one, folks.

I really enjoy many of the low budget, made for TV Christmas movies. ABC Family, Hallmark and Lifetime are a few of the networks that have produced some very special, heart-warming stories. Right now I envision an executive at ABC Family who is in fear of not having a job at the turn of the New Year.Yeah, it was that bad. Jay Mohr had a few okay moments, but overall he didn't provide much of a performance. Combine that with the script and (non)supporting cast and you have a long, dull two hours that could have been better spent shoveling snow.Peas on Earth! Jesus fighting! Easy Bake Oven! A BRAND New Car! The winning lottery numbers! Belching Christmas carols at the dinner table!The movie tries quite a few outlandish style gags and goofs but the cast simply fails to back any of it up with any sort of reaction worthy of the stunts.This movie isn't worth a whole lot more, but I do have to ask just where in the name of all creation did Todd disappear to when Jay Mohr and his ex-wife finish the movie playing tonsil hockey? One would think that a guy who started the day by buying his girlfriend a new car and planning a huge moment to ask her to marry him in front of the whole family would only vanish into thin air after he hid the bodies!