Movie Review: Three Wise Men and a Baby

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Sweet, funny, and charming Christmas movie

Cons: Some of the characters are on the stereotypical side

The Bottom Line:

A sudden baby

Brings three brothers together

Charming Christmas film

“We’re Family.  If It Happens to One of Us, It Happens to All of Us.”

So, apparently, this year I’m giving in and watching Hallmark Christmas movies.  I’ve got multiple on my DVR.  Who knows if I will get them all watched before Christmas (I’m betting no).  I started out with one that isn’t from the 2024 crop of new movies – 2022’s Three Wise Men and a Baby.

The movie introduces us to three Brenner brothers, all of whom still live with their mother.  The most successful is Luke (Andrew W. Walker), a fire fighter who is trying to build his own house so he can move out.  Meanwhile, there’s Stephan (Paul Campbell), who is a pet therapist and lives in the house behind his mother’s house.  Finally, we have Taylor (Tyler Hynes), the video game programmer who lives in the basement and has just been fired from his job.  Again.

Things change when someone leaves a baby boy at the firehouse with Luke’s name on it, asking to help take care of him for a few days.  Since it’s almost Christmas, the family takes in the baby, at least through the holiday.  But when their mom (Margaret Colin) has to go out of town, the three brothers have to take care of the baby by themselves.  Can they do it?  What will they learn along the way?

Obviously, this isn’t the typical Hallmark movie set up.  So maybe this wasn’t the best one for me to start with since it would be a nice break from the formula later.  But I completely enjoyed it.  There were lots of laughs at watching the brothers try to care for the baby, especially as they started to fall into the typical complaints that parents of babies make.

While the set up might not have been predictable, the plot pretty much was.  I did figure out where most of the storylines were going to go early on.  But, as I always say, I don’t mind as long as I’m having fun, and that was definitely the case here.

On the other hand, I did feel like the characters were a little stereotypical at times, especially the men who never move out thing.  But this is a minor complaint.

Yes, this is a Christmas movie, which means there are quite a few Christmas moments.  There’s even a late breaking Christmas plot that comes into play.  And they completely worked.  I was decorating while I was watching, and this just helped put me even more in the Christmas spirit.

This is a Hallmark movie, which means there are some low budget cheese moments.  But these are kept to a minimum.  The acting and writing are both mostly good and really pull us into the story.  Having said that, there are some pretty big plot holes we have to accept in the premise of the movie.  But if you aren’t willing to do that, then Hallmark Christmas movies probably aren’t for you.

I was curious about this movie since I knew it was getting a sequel (which premiers this coming Saturday).  Having watched it, I can easily see why they decided to revisit these characters.  The story is fun, the characters are charming, and the movie will make you laugh and tear up even when you see those moments coming.

So if you’ve missed Three Wise Men and a Baby, you really should fix that this year.  I’m glad I kicked off my Hallmark Christmas movies watch for the year with it.

Book Review: We Three Queens by Rhys Bowen (Royal Spyness Mysteries #18)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Georgie and the cast; history unfolding

Cons: Mystery is uneven

The Bottom Line:

Film crew on estate

An uneven mystery

History unfolds

An Invasion of Guests

It’s been interesting watching the historical arcs develop in Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness Mysteries. Even knowing what was coming there, I was fascinated to see how it would play out on the page. We get to see the next part of that, along with mystery and mayhem, in We Three Queens, the eighteenth book in the series. 

If you are new to the series, it features Lady Georgiana, a minor royal in 1930’s England. While the early books spent time on her trying to survive even though she was penniless, she is now married with a baby and a stable if still not wealth home. 

When the book opens, it is October 1936, and Lady Georgie is enjoying her life as a new mother. Things have been quiet for a few months, and she’s happy about that. Unfortunately, that is going to change. 

First comes a request from Georgie’s cousin, King Edward, that they host his love, Wallis Simpson, so the press doesn’t hound her while he tries to convince Parliament to change the law so he can marry her. Then, Georgie’s brother and sister-in-law arrive to stay while they try to find a good school for their son. 

But trouble really arrives when Sir Hubert, Georgie’s godfather and the owner of the estate where Georgie lives, returns home with a film crew in tow. They are filming a movie about King Henry VIII, and they think the house is perfect for some of the locations. Georgie’s trying to make the best of it, but when someone vanishes from the house, things really get out of hand. Can Georgie figure out what happened?

As I said, we’ve been following the saga of Edward and Mrs. Simpson since the beginning of the series, and I’ve enjoyed watching it unfold. I was glad to see it as a strong subplot in this book. 

But things really don’t kick off until the film crew arrives in full force. Unfortunately, even then, I found the plot uneven. The story did reach a logical and satisfying climax, but it wasn’t as strong overall as I would have liked. 

The story is saved by the characters. I really do love Georgie and the others, and it was fantastic to spend time with them again. There were a couple of the regulars we didn’t hear from here, but it would have just slowed things down to shoehorn them in, so it works for me. The new characters fit flawlessly into Georgie’s world. 

Fans will definitely enjoy catching up with Georgie and getting a front row seat to a little more history in We Three Queens. If you are new to the series, I recommend you start with an earlier book. You’ll appreciate this one so much more that way. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the Royal Spyness books. 

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book. 

Ornament Review: Merida and Snow White - 2024 Hallmark Release

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good mini ornaments of two princesses, especially Snow White

Cons: Merida’s face missing details; weird characters for set

The Bottom Line:

Merida, Snow White

Combined for this mini set

That’s good overall 

A Mismatched Pair of Miniature Ornaments

Over the last couple of years, Hallmark has been releasing miniature ornaments of the Disney princesses – two a year. This year, they decided to release the two ornaments for the year as a set. It makes for a different pairing since they released Merida and Snow White.

Fans of either Princess will be happy with how they look. Merida is wearing her green dress. She has her arms crossed and she is looking out at us. Her mouth is a thin line, so I will say I find her mouth a little hard to see. Given her size, I get it.

Snow White, on the other hand, looks fantastic. She’s wearing her classic dress. She’s got a slight smile on her face, and she has her dress in one hand to strike a classic pose. It looks like she is dancing a little.

I’ll admit, if Hallmark hadn’t bundled these two together, I probably would have only gotten Snow White. I know I’m in the minority, but I’m not a huge fan of Brave. But I couldn’t pass up Snow White. And neither ornament is bad, so I’m glad I didn’t pass up this set. 

I’ve mentioned these are miniature ornaments. I want to emphasize that again since it is important. The ornaments are each roughly an inch and a quarter tall. That’s it. So keep that in mind when you purchase the set. But given that size, the detail is pretty impressive. 

While the princesses are supposedly standing on their feet, they really aren’t big enough to hold them up if you set them out to be displayed. But when you go to hang them, you’ll be happy to see they hang straight. 

It’s fun to have more Disney characters to put on my miniature trees. I’m happy overall I added the Merida and Snow White mini ornament set to my collection. 

November 17th's Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I'm looking back at my week trying to find something exciting to talk about.  Don't really have much.  Got a couple of things that we are trying to figure out before our fiscal year end (which is November 30), so that's making things more exciting at work.  Other than that, not too much to talk about.

Two weeks ago, I rearranged my living room to start putting up my Christmas trees.  With how late Thanksgiving is and the fact that I'm always out of town with family for both holidays, I really want to be done, or close to it, by the time I leave for Thanksgiving.  This past Wednesday, I finally got the trees out of their boxes.  But that's it so far.  So maybe I should get on with things and gets some lights and ornaments on them.

Joke of the Week:

Shout out to the people who demand to know what the opposite of “in” is.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: The Jungle Book - 2016

Tuesday - Book Review: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Wednesday - TV Show Review: The Amazing Race - Season 36

Thursday - Book Review: You Feta Watch Out by Linda Reilly

Friday - Friday Post featuring Murder at Glenloch Hill

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Ornament Review: Merida and Snow White

Tuesday - Book Review: We Three Queens by Rhys Bowen

Wednesday - Movie Review: Three Wise Men and a Baby

Thursday - Book Review: Murder at Glenloch Hill by Clara McKenna

Friday - Friday Post

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

Believe it or not, I only have one book to tell you about this week.  I know, I can't believe it either.

Monday, the Kindle version of Always the First to Die by R.J. Jacobs was on sale, so I snagged it.  Sadly, it looks like the sale is over.  It's a bit of a departure for me since the book is more of a thriller.  But it's about real deaths surrounding the production of a slasher movie in the Florida Keys and the lead actress going back years later.  Given my fascination with slasher movies, this seems like something I have to at least try.  Whether I like it or not will remain to be seen.

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I'm typing this on Saturday afternoon, I'm currently between books.

I recently finished Wedding Bride and Doom by Mary Karnes.  It's the first in a series about a wedding planner solving mysteries.  Unfortunately, it felt a bit like a first book by a new author, which it is.  It needed a little more polish, but the biggest issue is that the climax only works because the main character is completely stupid.  But my full review is to come.

Up next will be Ashes Never Lie, the second Sharpe and Walker novel from Lee Goldberg.  Definitely not one of my cozies, this series features two arson investigators for LA County.  I usually enjoy his books, so I'm looking forward to diving into this one.

That's it for me.  Hope you have a good week.

November 16th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Superman & Lois (11/4) – That was intense.  Yes, they lightened it up at times like the last scene with Sarah and the boys.  And how is it she is talking about junior year next year.  I thought they were juniors when the show started.  I realize it’s been TV time vs. real time, but still, I feel like they should be older by now.  Anyway, there were so many moments in this episode.  I realize we are in the final half (already), but they are going for broke.  And I loved that nod to the original comic’s release in the amount Clark owed in the store.

Tracker – And we’re back to the weird.  I really truly hope they get away from this quickly, or I will drop the series.  Honestly, I don’t think I have much more to say about it than that.  Well, it was nice to get a very little background about one of the supporting players.

The Marlow Murder Club – More fun with some interesting twists.  I’ve very confused as to where it is going.  Okay, maybe I’m also missing who a couple of the characters are, but that’s on me and my distracted watching more than anything else.  I’m definitely enjoying watching these ladies solving the murders.  Several more great lines as well.

Superman & Lois – Please tell me they are going to get another season.  Please.  I need to see more of Clark living in a world where everyone knows who he is.  Yes, it was a quieter episode again as far as suspense goes, but it was so powerful.  And that ending!  Yes, I teared up.  Something about the actor they picked for Jimmy didn’t sit quite right for most of the episode for me, but that last scene where he and Clark reconnected?  He was perfect in it.

Poppa’s House – There were some parts I laughed at.  And some parts I really cringed at.  Not sure if I want to be sticking with this one or not.  And, I’m embarrassed to say I had to look at IMDB to figure out that the headmistress was Rebecca Mader.  I knew she looked familiar, but I just couldn’t place her.  And after being a loyal Lost watcher and huge Once Upon a Time fan.

Rescue HI Surf – Just one rescue, and it impacted a lot of the episode.  Enough that the storyline with the two new lifeguards was very much a sub-sub-plot.  I don’t get why the Cap said anything when it wasn’t sounding good for her to get the promotion.  Unless they cut a scene, he had no business saying anything.  And I had to laugh at how the flying scene at the beginning was filmed.  Every trick in the book to keep from showing the stunt people instead of the actors up there.

Dancing with the Stars – Quite a milestone celebrated in style.  I think I would have appreciated the first round a bit more if they had shown us the original version of the dance so we could see how it was changed up.  There have been so many dances (and so many years), it’s hard to keep them all straight.  I also feel like we had something like the insta-dance in the past.  I’ve got to say my hat is off to everyone for pulling those off as well as they did.  I’m surprised Dwight lasted as long as he did due to that height difference.  But they did a great job each week.  Sorry to see him go, but it probably was the right time for him to leave.

Survivor – Well that drama was fun.  But in the end, every single person voted for Sol.  So Genieve could get her revenge.  Very sorry to see him go.  And sorry that Rachel didn’t have his back after he saved her just two votes ago.  But the scramble and drama sure was fun from the couch.

The Challenge – Michelle manages to hang on when she needs to.  I do but I don’t feel sorry for her and Olivia.  I mean, the way they ran things last season (yes, I hold grudges just like they do) was pretty brutal.  And Michelle can be downright mean as well.  But, Bananas has a huge ego problem as well.  I’d be quite happy to see him be brought down a couple of pegs.

Happy’s Place – Sweet episode overall.  I like the fact that they are rounding out Gabby a bit.  Yes, the character is right in Melissa Peterman’s wheelhouse, but it’s nice that she isn’t Barbara Jean redux.  However, how old is the character supposed to be?  Having a baby?  Really?

November 15th's Friday Post

It's been a few weeks.  Time to jump back into doing Friday Posts.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

My quotes for the first three will be coming from Murder at Glenloch Hill by Clara McKenna.

This is the sixth Stella and Lyndy Mystery.  This particular book takes place in 1906, and Stella and Lyndy are traveling to Scotland.

Here's how the book opens:

Aggie Neely lingered in the doorway, the fresh breeze welcome on her flushed cheeks, and watched him go.

How does that tie in to the mystery and Stella and Lyndy?  I'll leave that for you to uncover.  Meanwhile, on page 56, we find this exchange between Stella and her maid, Ethel:

"I met a maid this afternoon at luncheon who seemed to have been..." Ethel bit her lip and she sought the right word. "Injured."
"Oh, no. She's all right, I hope. What happened?"

Want to know what happened?  You'll have to read the book.

It officially comes out November 26th.  I got to read an ARC, and I enjoyed it.  I'll have my full review up early, on the 21st, so I hope you'll come back then to see what I thought.

Meanwhile, here's this week's Book Blogger Hop:

Do you like to annotate your books or leave them untouched?

I leave them untouched.  I even try not to crease the covers when I'm reading them.  I like them to look as fresh as possible for as long as possible.

That's it for me.  Have a great weekend!

Book Review: You Feta Watch Out by Linda Reilly (Grilled Cheese Mysteries #5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Characters we love; Good mystery; Christmas spirit

Cons: I’m not Scrooge

The Bottom Line:

When actor is killed

Carly steps in to clear friend

Strong Christmas spirit

Who Made Sure Marley Really Was Dead as a Doornail?

I hadn’t expected to get a Christmas entry in Linda Reilly’s Grilled Cheese Mysteries this year until You Feta Watch Out crossed my radar. I’m so glad it did since this was a fun entry in the series. 

This Christmas, a theater company has come to town to put on a production of A Christmas Carol. While Carly Hale is focusing on her grilled cheese diner, her friend Gina has joined the cast as a background extra, singing in some of the caroling scenes. Gina’s been excited, so when Carly gets a chance to attend the dress rehearsal, she jumps at it. 

It’s at the dress rehearsal that Carly discovers the flaw in the cast, Preston Lennon, who is playing Jacob Marley. Preston is so disruptive that the production must take an early intermission. But things get worse when Gina finds Preston’s dead body in his dressing room. The evidence seems to point to Gina as the suspect. Can Carly prove her friend’s innocence?

This isn’t the first time I’ve read about a production of A Christmas Carol in a Christmas cozy mystery. I appreciated that it was the actor playing Jacob Marley who was the victim this time. It was a fun little tweak. 

The plot itself is good. We have more than enough reasons to dislike Preston, which means there are enough suspects to keep us guessing. I didn’t figure out what was going on until the end. But the killer and motive made sense when Carly figured it out. 

And the characters are fantastic. I like how author Linda Reilly is progressing their lives in logical ways. The series regulars are fun to be around, and the suspects were believable as well. I also appreciate that, while Carly does get a few warnings to be careful, people don’t pile on her like they did in the previous book in the series. 

I was reading this book at the beginning of November so I’d have enough time to review it around release date. Even so, it put me in the Christmas spirit. I was wishing I had my trees up already so I could be reading it while enjoying them. I’m not sure I’d want to try the new grilled cheese sandwich featured here, but I appreciate the theming there as well. 

Speaking of which, the recipe for that and an appetizer is at the end of the book. 

If you are looking for a Christmas cozy, you’ll be glad you picked up You Feta Watch Out. Grill up a sandwich and enjoy. 

Be sure to savor the rest of the Grilled Cheese Mysteries. 

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book. 

TV Show Review: The Amazing Race - Season 36

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: They go to some amazing places

Cons: The race part is rather boring

The Bottom Line:

South America

Plays host to boring season

For diehards only

The Locations Were Amazing.  The Race, Not So Much

My entire family loves The Amazing Race, so we considered one of the positives from the recent strikes to be the fact that we got two seasons of the show in the 2023-2024 TV season.  Unfortunately, season 36 of the show was a disappointment, especially after the return to Amazing Race form that was season 35.

This season had to overcome the fact that it was filmed in the fall of 2022.  Countries were just starting to really open up again after Covid, so all the filming and planning restrictions we’d seen in seasons 33 and 34 were still in place.  While the show didn’t advertise it, the contestants were all traveling on chartered flights instead of finding their own way.  And the teams were starting each leg in heats.  That meant there was little chance for a team that was behind to catch up.  There were some ranking changes, but they were few and far between.  This was my complaint about the other Covid seasons.  With little in the way of taxis and public transportation being used, the teams tended to go from one task to another without any of the drama that makes the show fun.

This really hurt season 36 since season 35, which was filmed in the spring of 2023, was back to the original format where teams had to book their own flights and had bottlenecks were teams could all catch up.  This season had none of those.

Additionally, the teams weren’t that inspiring.  It was obvious early on who the strongest teams were, and so the show had little in the way of suspense or surprises.  There were several teams I was actively rooting against, but the rest of the teams were okay.  There just wasn’t anything to make us want to root for them.  Once again, the episodes were 90 minutes.  In this case, I’m not sure if that hurt or helped, especially since the season was originally created for the traditional 60 minute run time.

On the other hand, they went to some amazing places.  The season started outside the US, starting in Mexico.  From there, we spent most of the season in South America, wrapping up in the Caribbean before returning to Philadelphia.  There were a couple of tasks that I didn’t quite follow, and the teams seemed to avoid those, so we didn’t get to see how it was supposed to work.  The armchair travel is always fun even if the racing parts aren’t.

My family pretty much agrees with me on this.  While this was better than no season of The Amazing Race, it was definitely at or near the bottom of the show.  If you are a casual fan, skip this one in favor of a more entertaining season.  But if you’ve seen them all but this one, turn it on keeping in mind the weaknesses.

Book Review: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters we come to care for

Cons: Lacks focus, so feels disjointed

The Bottom Line:

Chasing Narnia

But plenty else going on

The book lacks focus

Mixed Journey of Self-Discovery

The first time I read The Chronicles of Narnia back in 3rd grade, I fell in love with them. So when I heard about Once Upon a Wardrobe, a novel about CS Lewis and the creation of the series, I was curious. Sadly, the book tried to do too much and fell short for me. 

The year is 1950, and Megs is in her first year at Oxford. She still goes home on weekends, however, to her small village so she can spend time with her younger brother. George has had a weak heart all of his life, and the doctors can’t do anything for him. 

George’s world has been enhanced by the books he reads, and someone has given him a copy of the recently released The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He’s obsessed, and he wants to know where Narnia comes from. Meg’s will do anything for her brother, so she sets out to see if she can get the answer from C.S. Lewis. But what will she find if she meets the author? 

This book has a lot going on. There’s the story of Megs in the “present,” then there’s what’s going on with George. And, of course, the flashbacks to Lewis’s life. Unfortunately, it doesn’t balance them well. We get some vignettes from Lewis’s life from boyhood to young adult, but many of them are summarized stories for us and don’t really let us get to know much about him. Several of the things that happen in the 1950 storyline are illogical. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them, but they didn’t feel plausible. 

Ultimately, this is a coming of age tale for Megs. Again, I liked where it ended up, but it didn’t quite feel like it worked from what we were being given. 

I think part of this is that the basic premise, where did Narnia come from, is a weird question. Especially since the novel kinds of skirts around, giving us all the answers without giving us any definite answers. Trust me, this makes sense when you’ve read it. 

Ultimately, I feel like this is a book where the author had a grand theme planned, but she couldn’t quite pull off her vision. I’m not quite sure how it could have been fixed. Maybe cut out so much about Megs and her personal life? But that was a storyline I really enjoyed. 

Because, don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the characters. And the book did make me cry a few times. There is something good in here, but it doesn’t work like it should. 

In the end, Once Upon a Wardrobe is a book you should pick up if you are curious about it. I’m not sorry I read it. But I wish the author had focused just a bit more on a core story. It would have helped cement things. 

Movie Review: The Jungle Book (2016)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Mostly enjoyable; amazing visuals

Cons: Christopher Walken, darker tone

The Bottom Line:

New take on classic

Adds some interesting parts

Darker overall

Disney’s Newest Jungle Book Remake Offers a Slightly Different Take on the Tale

Near the beginning of Disney’s recent live action remake craze came The Jungle Book.  No, I’m not talking about the ones they released in the 1990’s (which I never have seen); I’m talking about the one from 2016.  Unlike the some of the other early ones, this one stuck close to the animated original, but made a few tweaks to the story.

The set up is definitely familiar.  Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is a man cub raised by wolves.  Despite his best efforts, he has never been able to quite fit into his pack because, well, he’s human.  However, when Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) shows up planning to kill the boy, Mowgli gets off with Bagheera the panther (voiced by Ben Kingsley).  What will happen to them along the way?

As I said, if you think you know the story, be prepared for a few surprises along the way.  I appreciated many of them as they helped flesh out Mowgli and especially his relationship with the wolves a bit more.  Shere Khan is a much more fearsome and present villain in this take on the story, another change I appreciated.

Of course, there was the time I spent expecting certain events or characters from the animated film to pop up.  I kept having to remind myself that this was a different take on things and it was okay that it was different.  It’s not like Disney didn’t really change things around when they made the original animated movie based on some unconnected short stories.

I’ve fallen into Disney’s trap so far by referring to this as a live action movie.  It really isn’t.  Mowgli is real, but everything he is interacting with, including the sets, is computer generated.  They do a marvelous job.  It’s easy to turn off your brain and believe that everything you are seeing is real.  The animals do have just a hint of animation to them, making their speaking seem more natural than in the computer animated The Lion King remake.

And I have to give praise to Neel Sethi.  He was interacting with nothing as his part of the film was made, but I believed his performance completely.  It’s real and helps ground the movie for us.

The voice cast is good.  I enjoyed Bill Murray as Baloo.  Scarlett Johansson was fun as Kaa.  I’m realizing I’m not really a fan of Christopher Walken, and that didn’t help me enjoy his take on King Louie.

The movie does incorporate some of the songs from the original, but not all.  They aren’t a big feature of this film, and maybe that’s why a couple of them seemed out of place.  (See once again, King Louie.)  But it’s hard to go wrong with “The Bare Necessities,” and I certainly enjoyed that scene.

Parents of young kids should know that there are some intense scenes.  This movie is rated PG for a reason.  Most kids will probably be okay, but sensitive kids should still with the animated version from the 1960’s until they are ready for something more intense.  I’m sure parents will be able to judge that for their own kids.

I think that darker tone was what bothered me the most about this film.  It felt like they went needlessly dark, keeping some of the humor and fun from the original out.  That doesn’t make this film bad, but I think I prefer the animated original over this one.

I enjoyed most of what the new material added to the story, but overall, I found the newest version of The Jungle Book a little dark for my tastes.  I’m not sorry I finally watched it, but if you want a fun story, it’s best to stick with the original.