Steve and Cynthia Faber
(Dillon Casey and Susie Abromeit) are a newlywed couple celebrating their first
Christmas together who inexplicably invite their families to join them for the
holidays, but when Steve is laid off just before Christmas and Cynthia
discovers that she's pregnant, they both keep their news secret in hopes that
the celebration runs smoothly.
The film moves along
at a lively pace aided by a good supporting cast and it’s a fun film that’s
well worth a watch.
Con-woman Trish (Mary
Stuart Masterson) and her niece/ward Patsy (Lauren Pratt) are caught in the act
of trying to steal from a department store right before Christmas, by a
“by-the-book” department store security guard, Bert (Mark Ruffalo).
With the holidays so
close, Bert, a loyal store employee is assigned as the custodian of a
pickpocketing duo, and reluctantly agrees to be responsible for the pair so
that Patsy need not spend the holidays in social services.
Obviously as it’s a
Christmas movie so Romance ensues.
Medical resident
Nathan Andrews (Neil Patrick Harris), goes back home to his small town after he
loses a teenager on the operating table.
He joins his dad Jack
(Hugh Thompson) and his mechanic's business and becomes a basketball coach to
some young people, which is where he meets Charlie Bennett (Angus T. Jones) and
Meghan Sullivan (Rebecca Gayheart).
Nathan falls for
Meghan but she thinks he’s a mechanic and he neglects to tell her that he’s a
surgeon but then Charlie is taken ill, the truth comes out.
Sarah (Ann Jillian) is the Veterinarian and part-time mayor of St. Nicholas, which is a town that is big at holiday time.
Unfortunately, the
Town is rather remote, and the town's doctor has just passed away so Sarah and
the town council are desperate to find a doctor to keep open the small town's
clinic.
With simple cases,
Sarah has been helping out in medical emergencies, but she can't truly practice
human medicine.
They fear that without
a doctor families will move away, and the town will die, but their hopes are
raised when older resident Bob (Jack Palance) announces his widower son Michael
(Robert Hays) and granddaughter are going to visit for the first time in years
for the Christmas holiday.
The significance of
the that news is that Michael is a surgeon but the mayor's attempt to recruit
Michael is complicated by their history, or more specifically their high school
romance, and his secret shame that he has lost his confidence in his surgical
skills to the point that his big city hospital is kicking him upstairs to an
administrative position.
So the question is,
will he overcome his crisis of confidence because Michael truly is going
through an emotional crisis that has to be dealt with.
As to filling the
vacancy at the clinic Sarah isn’t certain she wants him back in town, as she is
afraid her heart may be broken again so will there be a rekindling of their romance?
After the terrifying events in LA, NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) is about to go through it all again as he goes on another Christmas vacation to meet his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia).
He is in Washington
where he is at the airport meeting Holly off the LA flight.
But while he is
waiting a team of terrorists, led by Col. Stuart (William Sadler) holds the
entire airport hostage, while they plan to rescue a drug Lord, Esperanza
(Franco Nero) from justice.
As part of that plan,
they have seized control of all the control systems affecting all aircraft,
with no runway lights available, and no means to contact them all aircraft have
to remain in the air, with fuel running low, so if McClane is going to save the
day again he will need to be fast.
Glenn Barrow (Dean Cain) is a widower who lost his beloved wife in a car accident about a year ago and he and his three children, Elliot (Jet Jurgensmeyer), Phoebe (Meyrick Murphy) and Janey (Jamie Dudney) are doing okay, give or take some tearful memories.
But with Christmas
approaching what the kids wanted most of all was a puppy and they see a the
perfect one at an adoption event, where beautiful Kate Rivers (Hayley Duff)
suggests that the family give Belle a permanent home, but Glenn says no, at
first, but he soon weakened.
However, Glenn had
just started dating gold digger Dani Downey (Kristy Swanson) who turns out to
be allergic to dogs.
Glen is unsympathetic
as the three kids were so happy with their pet, which was obviously helping to
heal their hearts.
But they all
underestimate two faced Dani who isn’t going to allow a dog to come between her
and the prize so she kidnaps Belle and dumps her at the pound.
When the kids discover
Belle has been nabbed by the beautiful gold digger on Christmas Eve, the kids
recruit their neighbourhood friends and set out on an adventurous rescue
mission to save her.
And when Kate Rivers
steps in to help Glenn when he discovers that the children have gone AWOL as
well as the dog they find more than they were looking for.
Workaholic FBI agent Jake Cunningham (Shawn Christian) fears his case against investment fraudster Scott Shift (Cameron Bancroft) may not stick without the testimony of cocktail waitress Brandi O'Neill (Jami Gertz), who naively believed herself to be more then Scott's latest throwaway flirt.
Then Jake is tricked
by his “Ma”, Anne Cunningham (Tyne Daly) to spend Christmas with his “seriously
ill” dad, Judge Joe Cunningham (Winston Rekert) and is ordered by his bosses to
take Brandi into protective custody.
Jake didn’t regularly
visit his family, so he passed off Brandi as his steady date and his mum is not
impressed and there follows a humorous posh versus working class seasonal
culture clash, but there is a dark side to the tale when Jakes dad discovers
the true identity of his girlfriend and sympathizes with the Shift family and
unwittingly informs the corrupt family lawyer of her location.
