​I have watched a lot of cheesy Christmas films in my time, and this is by far the strangest. However, I could not stop looking at it.
 
Cole (Josh Whitehouse) is a squire in medieval Norwich, who, whilst on a quest, goes through a portal and lands in modern-day Ohio. I will never understand why the portal took him to a place that didn’t even exist at that time, let alone the fact that it is in a completely different country. Logistics aside, Cole appears in Ohio and is almost run over by Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens – yes this is a classic Hudgens event). She takes him in, teaches him about the modern world, and then they, of course, fall in love. Cole then has to decide whether he wants to go back to Norwich or stay in Ohio with Brooke. I’m pretty sure you know how this ends!
 
I will be honest, I forgot most of what happened in this movie immediately after I finished watching it, which I think says a lot. However, despite the stilted acting and the very loose storyline, the film definitely has its endearing moments.
 
One moment that does stick out to me, which has sent me down a little bit of a conspiracy hole even though it was literally thirty seconds long, was a scene where they sat down to watch a movie. They were, of course, using Netflix and decided to watch The Christmas Prince – Netflix’s biggest Christmas rom-com trilogy (and one of my cheesy favourites). This suggests that The Knight Before Christmas takes place in our universe as they are watching the same films as us. It is completely ridiculous, but this small detail has actually kept me up at night wondering how all the Netflix originals potentially interact, but that’s for another time!
 
Although this is a bad, bad film, it is not Vanessa Hudgens’s worst (I think we all know which movie that is) and it is enjoyable. Plus the ending is extremely romantic, which is all we really want from films like this.

​This is a bad movie I mostly enjoyed. It has an impressive cast – Kelsey Grammar, Elizabeth Hurley, John Cleese, to name a few – and a great premise. Four daughters, who don’t particularly like each other, reunite for Christmas at their family home where their long-estranged father shows up unannounced. Oh, and their last name is Christmas.
 
There are some fun jokes and scenes in the film, but most happen in the first half and then the last half runs dry. The acting is okay for the most part, although the main sister, Caroline, is incredibly annoying and kept making this strange squeaking noise.
 
The storyline does lose itself slightly along the way. What starts out as four very different sisters trying to get along and then being disturbed by the man that abandoned them, turns into three different twists and subplots in the last twenty minutes. It is quite overwhelming, and very disjointed. Also, all the twists cause a lot of drama that is solved extremely quickly, mostly because everyone overreacted in the first place.
 
This is a classic family disaster Christmas film. It has a good level of cheesiness, and the ending is heart-warming. It’s a great terrible Christmas film that’s a bit of fun to watch on the run up to the big day.

For Christmas, I have decided to watch some terrible Christmas films. I love a bad Christmas film, the cheesier the better, and streaming services mean I can watch all the Hallmark-style ones I want.
 
We’re kicking off Christmas week with Netflix’s new holiday film LoveHard; I did not expect this film to be bad, the trailer made it look great! But this film was frustrating beyond belief.
 
This is all to do with the main character, Natalie, played by Nina Dobrev. I don’t know how, but I always end up hating every character she plays – they are all self-involved, hypocritical, and always manage to make themselves the victim – and this film is no different.
 
I think this is the first time I have watched a rom-com and haven’t wanted the two main characters to end up together. Natalie is awful to Josh (played by Jimmy O. Yang) and manages to completely contradict herself throughout the whole movie. Their relationship starts with her saying she hates Love Actually because everyone in that movie is superficial and only fall in love based on looks (which I completely disagree with by the way), only for her to drop Josh and pursue Tag (Darren Barnett) based entirely on how each of the men look.
 
Now, I do agree with how angry she gets at Josh catfishing her by using Tag’s photo, and I love that they manage to help him get over his insecurities. But during this process he is helping her completely change her personality so that Tag will date her, even though she hates every single thing that he is into.
 
She catfishes Tag, in a worse way than Josh catfishes her! Then gets annoyed when Tag finds out! Only to completely humiliate Josh in the process!
 
So, whilst the acting may not be bad, and the storyline may be fun (and it opens up a larger conversation on catfishing and modern dating), I hated watching this movie. If they removed Natalie I think I may enjoy it more.

Noah is off at Harvard starting is new life as a college student, but Elle is determined not to dwell on that - her and Noah are meant to be, right? Everything is about to get a lot more complicated, though. New student Marco, Rachel not liking Elle tagging along on her dates with Lee, questions about college, and Noah's new friend Chloe, all start to put a strain on Elle and her relationships with the Flynn boys.

I feel so sorry for Elle in this movie, life came at this girl HARD. A long distance relationship with potential cheating, choosing between going to college with her best friend or her boyfriend, and having a tiny crush on new boy Marco? That's a lot for someone to handle during their final year at school. I fully don't understand how she kept it as together as she did. When she breaks down at Thanksgiving, I was not surprised in the slightest.

But honestly the person I feel sorry for most in this movie is Rachel, Lee's girlfriend. Their relationship takes a more central role in this film compared to the first one. I feel like the film tries to make her look like the bad guy in the situation, but I can totally see where she's coming from. She obviously supports and understands Lee and Elle's extremely close friendship, but of course it puts a strain on her relationship with Lee. And then Lee lies about asking Elle to give them space, which creates a whole unnecessary argument between the girls. And he constantly forgets about her. I don't know why she kept that relationship going.

However, the real question at the end of this film is are you team Noah or team Marco? Personally, I'm team Marco. He's basically Noah but better.  Noah was worse in this movie. He kept lying about Chloe, and then got all annoyed that Elle assumed they were sleeping together; if I was Elle, I would have come to the exact same conclusion.

I have so many thoughts about this film, but I will end it here. Besides, The Kissing Booth 3 is supposed to come out this year! If Netflix can do anything, it's a good romcom trilogy.

Elle and Lee were born at the same time on the same day and have been best friends ever since, completely inseparable, and they have a list of rules to keep it that way. Their friendship is put to the test when Elle secretly starts dating Lee's older brother, Noah. He is dark and unpredictable, but is he worth risking the most important relationship in her life? Only time will tell.

Originally a Wattpad novel (officially published when the author was 15, btw), this movie is cheesy, it's predictable and it's nostalgic - if you miss reading fan-fiction, then this is the movie for you. The Kissing Booth is the epitome of everything we ever loved about fan-fiction as tweens (note that this isn't fan-fiction, it's just written in the style of one).

This is your basic high school teen romance between two people who should not be together but somehow manage to find their way to each other. It's comfortable, and it's an easy watch. I honestly don't know what I can say about this movie without giving away the plot too much!

This was released around the same time as TATBILB, and whilst I related to Lara Jean, I do not relate to Elle at all. The only thing we have in common is our height. She's popular, sporty, confident and assertive. This doesn't make her any less lovable though. She's sweet, she's kind and she would do absolutely anything for the people she loves. She's a fantastic heroine.

Lee and Noah, despite having only a year between them, are polar opposites to each other. Noah is moody, whilst Lee is a literal ray of sunshine. I'm never sure if I actually like Noah, but I do love Lee. And I love watching Lee and Elle's friendship play out on screen.

Tell you what's better than The Kissing Booth - The Kissing Booth 2! Look out for tomorrow for the final review and another great sequel.

Jack just wants his sister, Hayley, to have the perfect wedding day. This includes drugging someone who wants to ruin it. He also wants to rekindle the flames of a lost potential love. How many ways can it go wrong? Turns out, a lot.

I have a love-hate relationship with this film. It is basically in two halves. Both halves could be their own movie - it's as if the writers wrote two different stories and couldn't decide which one they liked best, so they smashed them together and added an awkward, sped-up transition scene.

I think the thing that most annoys me about this film is that it has such a fantastic cast who are all clearly passionate about the film, it was just executed badly. The concept of the film is really interesting; playing with fate and chance, what happens at a wedding depends on where eight people sit at a table. The fact that only two realities are shown and the rest are shown in a really weird, fast-paced montage takes away from the point of the film.

I love the first half, showing the first reality. It's so funny, the characters play off each other so well and the storyline is a very classic comedy of miscommunication. It has such a great flow and then, suddenly, it stops, rewinds and we are sent into an alternate reality where everyone gets a happy ending. If only they had put the happy ending after the first reality then this could have been a great, classic romcom. If only they had gone into more of the alternate storylines a little more then they could have made a truly great movie.

But they didn't. There was so much that I wanted from this film. I probably had too high expectations based on the cast and the trailers. It was disappointing, which is a real shame.

The idea of the different timelines still intrigues me, though. Hopefully, one day, someone can make it happen, successfully.

Violet Markey is grieving the loss of her sister in a car accident. She is suffering with anxiety and PTSD from the event and has stopped living. Theodore Finch has his own dark past, but when he meets Violet on the ledge of the bridge where her sister died, he makes it his mission to help her move on and find the joy in life again.

Another stunning movie. Elle Fanning and Justice Smith play wonderfully off of each other. The way they both capture the pain and loneliness that these characters feel individually, and the happiness and completion that they feel when they're together is mesmerising.

Before you watch this film, please make sure to have tissues at the ready - those who have read the book will know why. All The Bright Places deals with grief, loss and heartbreak all at the same time. There are small pockets of pure, unadulterated joy throughout, but it is mostly raw misery -  in a way this makes the joyful moments extremely precious. These teenagers will make you feel things so intensely that it is overwhelming at times.

Despite this, you are left with a message of hope. Although this film is filled with darkness, the characters' journey to find the most meaningful places to them in Indiana shows the audience that there is beauty and light to be found even in the smallest of moments. Violet makes reference to a quote  that her sister would always say to her when she had a bad day, from her favourite poet, Cesare Pavese; "We do not remember the days, we remember the moments".

There's nothing else I can say about this film without ruining it! It's engaging, it's simple, it is beautiful. I urge you to watch it.

Ellie Chu is shy and introverted. She's also a fantastic writer, and other students pay her to write their essays which, in turn, helps her keep the lights on for her dad. One day, Paul Munsky asks her to write a love letter for him to the beautiful Aster Flores - except he doesn't know that Ellie likes her too.

This is such a beautiful film. There are so many themes which are covered so well; the overwhelming nature of teenage love in high school, the complexities of LGBT love when you're young and still trying to figure out who you are (and living in a small American Christian town), and the hardship that immigrant families face in America, specifically Chinese immigrants. At its heart, this is a story about soulmates and whether you can find them at such a young age.

Unlike a lot of teenage romance films, each character is so complex. They aren't just assigned "jock" or "nerd" or "popular girl" - the film may introduce them this way, but as it carries on you get shown all these tiny details that make each character real and unique. Yes, the popular girl is pretty, but did you also know that she is a great artist and she adores books? Yes, the jock is good at sports, but did you know his passion lies in inventing new foods? Yes, the nerd is intelligent and can write a great essay, but did you know she can write a beautiful song too? You get to learn so much about these characters in such a small space of time that you almost can't believe this film is less than two hours long.

​This film made me feel so many emotions. It's funny, it's sweet, it made me cry a lot. It is wonderful.

Netflix got it right with this one.

Jodie is 6'1". Which makes her the laughing stock of her school. No boy will go out with her because she is so tall. Then an exchange student arrives. A tall exchange student. Jodies desperately wants to be with him.

This Netflix Original came out in 2019 and I have actively avoided it since. I was never going to try and attempt to watch this film. But I am loyal to the challenge so I gave it a go.

I wish I hadn't. Jodie is a whiny and unlikeable character. It's sad that she has been bullied for her height her entire life, and it has clearly given her many insecurities. But she acts as if she is the only person in the world who deserves to feel sad. Yes, it's frustrating that both her mum and sister are multi-award winning beauty queens who were both insanely popular at school, whilst she is called a freak for being tall. She makes hating her height her entire personality.

Then there's the people in her life that she takes it out on. Her dad, whilst he is overbearing and slightly paranoid, recognises her insecurities and tries to help her as much as he can to become more comfortable. In return, she shouts at him and slams doors in his face.

Jack is one of her best friends since childhood, and it's very clear he has a massive crush on her. This boy worships the floor she walks on. Not that this means she has to date him or return those feelings, and he doesn't expect that from her. The minute he decides to try and move on and not make her the centre of his world anymore, she rejects him and makes him out to be a horrible person.

Then there is Fareeda, the only character I actually liked. She is Jodie's other best friend and she spends all day snapping at people for bullying Jodie. All Jodie does is complain to her about how hard her life is and doesn't leave Fareeda any room to vent about her problems (if she even has any, this girl has next to no screen time). There is even a section where Jodie, then Jack, have lunch with her and she makes the comment that neither of them have time for her problems. I want a movie about Fareeda, it would be a lot more interesting than this.

​This is not a movie that is worth a watch. Netflix really missed with this one.

Danny realised a long time ago that newly-divorced men do the best with the ladies, especially if the divorce is messy and the man is still sad. So he carries around a wedding ring to con women with. However, he never expects to fall for one of them. He pays his assistant and her kids to play his ex-wife and family, and, before he knows it, he's in Hawaii with them all desperately trying to push his lie into a relationship.

Adam Sandler makes a lot of movies. Pair him up with either Drew Barrymore or Jennifer Aniston and it will be a good one.  They have an unexpected chemistry that really works, especially with this kind of storyline.

I have a love-hate relationship with plots like this. They are funny and interesting, and they always bring people together who never thought about the possibility of a romantic relationship between them before. I am also shocked that these characters really believe that a lengthly, complicated lie is the correct basis to build a relationship on. It's extremely frustrating. I'm constantly commenting throughout, questioning the plausibility of the lie long-term. How do they possibly think they can keep it up? The most important thing though is that it shows them who they really have a connection with and who truly matters.

This movie is fun, it's heartwarming, and there's a few good laughs in it - granted, some of them are overplayed but not for too long, thankfully. The only thing I hated was the character Eddie, who was annoying and didn't add much to the story at all. I'm not entirely sure why he was there. If I were you, I would just ignore him when you watch it. It's an enjoyable, lazy afternoon watch.