Gracie Hornbaker
Features Editor
With the holidays coming up, hunkering down to watch a good holiday movie–or five–is a great way to get in the spirit. Every year Netflix releases several new holiday movies. In the winter, as students get some extra relaxation time, it is important that their time is not wasted on less than joyful movies. I have spent time watching the new Netflix holiday films, so you don’t have to. There were movies that were better than others, so here is everything you need to know about them.
The Knight Before Christmas is where I started my movie watching extravaganza. This movie stars Vanessa Hudgens and Josh Whitehouse. Hudgens plays a teacher, Brooke, in a small town in Ohio. She feels down on her luck after a breakup and is starting to believe that soulmates don’t exist. Whitehouse’s character, Cole, is very different. He is a knight in 14th century England who devotes his life to becoming the best Knight he can be. They both live separate lives until Cole gets transported in time to the current day.
I was rather disappointed, and not excited to watch more movies after having watched this one. The entire movie was very predictable and disappointing. Cole had to learn about the modern world while Brooke helped him. Since Cole was staying with Brooke, it was just a matter of time until they fell in love. As a whole, The Knight Before Christmas did not have to be a holiday movie. Holiday magic nor stress was not a major theme in the movie. Overall, this was the least enjoyable of all the Netflix movies I watched.
Let it Snow was the next movie on my list. With high hopes, I dove into a story of high school students and their lives around the holiday season. This movie is three tales combined into one movie. All characters that are focused on life in the same town and are faced with the issue of an unexpected snowstorm. The group of typical teens won’t let a snowstorm stop them from completing the tasks they set their minds to.
Addie, Julie and Tobin are the main characters whose stories are followed throughout the film. Addie is worried that her boyfriend is losing interest in her, yet she is pushing her best friend away without realizing it. Julie runs into a famous singer, Stewart, while on a train to get out of town. She learns that he has more feelings than she expected. Tobin’s story relates most to typical teenage drama. He spends the whole movie trying to tell his long-time best friend that he likes her more than as a friend. Through all of these stories, Tobin’s friend, Keon, is trying to throw a giant holiday party.
Although I enjoyed the concept of the movie, I was constantly rewinding and trying to get the jumble of characters straight. There was a lot going on in each of the characters’ lives at a time and following each of the characters’ lives was confusing. I wished that the stories had been split up into a multi-part series. With one episode devoted to each character’s story and a finale where the characters come together in the end at Keon’s party. The organization of Let it Snow was poor which wrecked the potential of the plot.
I ended my movie-watching binge with A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby. This movie was the third in a series that Netflix has been releasing for the past few years. The focus is on the kingdom of Aldovia where Queen Amber met King Richard on a reporting job. In the first movie the two met and fell in love, the second movie was when they got married and this year they had their first child. Things did not run too smoothly though because of the need to renew their treaty with another kingdom, Penglia.
The major conflict in the film came from tension between Amber and the queen of Penglia. The queen of Panglia is very traditional, and Amber is trying to modernize Aldovia. The treaty signing gets put to a halt when the treaty goes missing for days. The treaty must be signed before midnight on Christmas Eve.
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby was my favorite movie to watch. Amber is the polar opposite of most other characters, and watching her journey to fit in is engaging. Throughout every conflict that arose, I was unable to predict the outcome. Unpredictability made the movie much more interesting to keep watching. I highly recommend this movie to anyone trying to find a good holiday movie on Netflix. The movie would have been easy to follow without seeing the previous two films, which makes it a great movie to watch with family and friends on a cozy movie night.
Winter break and various breaks in January are going to open up extra movie-watching time for students. If you are looking for a holiday movie, other than the beloved classics, try watching one of these Netflix films.
