Once Upon a Christmas (2000) Kathy Ireland, John Dye, Kirsten Prout, Mary Donnelly-Haskell Movie Review

Once Upon a Christmas (2000)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Kathy Ireland in Once Upon a Christmas (2000)

Christmas With Ireland

Christmas is coming and Santa (Douglas Campbell) is feeling despondent especially when the naughty and nice list arrives as it is dominated by naughty names, so fed up that he is ready to hang up his sack for good. But his daughter Kristin (Kathy Ireland - Loaded Weapon 1) tries to persuade him not to and they agree that if she can get a family on the naughty list to appear on the nice list Santa will keep on going. It is how Kristin meets the Morgan family in the hope of turning them from naught to nice, not an easy task as Christmas brings back bad memories for Bill Morgan (John Dye - Best of the Best). And to make matter worse Kristin's jealous sister Rudolfa (Mary Donnelly-Haskell) wants Kristin to fail and is ready to meddle to get things her way.

"Once Upon a Christmas" is one of those movies which is for children and only children because for adults it is a painfully over the top and corny experience. Everything about it feels like it is pantomime like, from Rudolfa being evil to Kristin giving Mary Poppins a run for her money in the being nice stakes. And I mentioned "Mary Poppins" because there is a touch of that about this when Kristin ends up as au pair to the Morgan household.

Mary Donnelly-Haskell in Once Upon a Christmas (2000)

So what does that mean? Well as I said "Once Upon a Christmas" is for children and we have this innocent storyline about being good not just for Christmas to get presents but to be genuinely nice. To do that we have various cliches starting with Santa having become despondent over how many naughty non believers there are and then we have the Morgan's who have issues since the death of their mother a few years earlier and don't do Christmas. We also have the father with a new but not right girlfriend and of course the nicer than nice Kristin turning up to try and fix the family. All of which is fine for young children and the pantomime aspect which includes an appearance from the Tooth Fairy will amuse them but be nothing more than corny for grown ups.

Aside from that well to be honest "Once Upon a Christmas" is all about Kathy Ireland as Kristin being extremely nice. So there is the nice side as she has a heart of gold and wants to save Christmas and the Morgan family. And then there is the nice side which is the fact that Kathy Ireland is beautiful be it in a winter coat messing about in snow or being beautiful just sitting at a table.

What this all boils down to is that "Once Upon a Christmas" is a movie for children and only children with its corny, pantomime style story and characters. And it is inoffensively nice for children but for grown ups it is hard work because there is no let up from all the corny goings on.

Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Santa Claus, Christmas Movies


LATEST REVIEWS