jeffamaillists
So this movie is basically a remake of "Groundhog Day", but with a female character and on Christmas eve. It's still pretty entertaining, but the parallels to "Groundhog Day" are just too frequent to ignore... Other than that, it's a cute, romantic movie.
Abandoned_Moose
12 Dates of Christmas is instantly forgettable. Time is precious and don't waste yours watching this. Groundhog Day did it much, much better. Amy Smart is cute and you may get warm tingles every now and then. However, it's cheesy and the message is more how to avoid spending Christmas alone and get a partner rather than kindness and/or forgiveness. It's also very commercial, schmaltzy, gaudy and lacking in imagination considering where it could have gone with the story line. I'll try and think of some positives: the dog on the bed is pretty good, the baking lady is cool and Amy Smart does have a nice smile. Still, watch something else - like Groundhog Day for the fiftieth time.
steinkels
The film Twelve Dates of Christmas reminds a lot of people of Groundhog Day, but set on Christmas Eve. Now, 12 Dates of Christmas may not be the most popular Christmas movie, but it gets across the theme better than any other Christmas movie I've seen, the theme of this movie is to treat others the way you want to be treated. What the 12 Dates of Christmas is about, is where Kate (main character) goes shopping for her ex-boyfriend, Jack, on Christmas Eve because she thinks that he is still in love with her. After she gets the present for Jack she decides to go home, now this is where it gets interesting. She has about 10 more steps until she is was officially done shopping for jack, but right when she gets off the escalator to leave she gets sprayed in the face with perfume. This is where some parts get a little too cheesy, the acting is good for the movie and the overall theme they are trying to get across works extremely well. In a review on Letterboxd, user Angie says, "So what if it's not Christmas time? So what if this movie is very cheesy? It's also sweet and extremely cute. It shows me that you can make so many people so much happier if only you let yourself." The theme for 12 Dates of Christmas is that you should treat others how you want to be treated. The reason that the name is like that is because each day after she "wakes up" she is waking up on the ground at the same time at the same place from when she got sprayed in the face with the perfume. The days and how she wakes up become somewhat repetitive, but overall there is a good concept for each of the days, on the first day she is very confused and doesn't know what is going on but she just plays along because she believes it is a dream. The second day she wakes up being very confused so she decides to go to the doctor, after the doctor, she decided to go to her ex-boyfriend's house to try and get him back again. Each day after the second it becomes clearer that she has a problem and she somehow needs to fix it. The problem being her living the same day over and over again, and the only way for her to fix the day is if she makes the day perfect for everyone including her. The last day is probably the most important, on the 2nd day she meets a girl and her boyfriend who were putting up lights, the guy was putting up lights for his girlfriend because that was his gift to her, but Kate ended up making a masterpiece for the guy to show his girlfriend. The next thing she did was help pick out Jack's engagement ring for Nancy, then she sets up her best friend, invites all of Miles hockey team that he coaches over to her dad's house for dinner, and the only way she can "wake" up is if Miles kisses her at 12 A.M. Most of these movie reviews are saying that this movie does get a little repetitive and that it reminds them a lot of a groundhog day, but they are also saying that it does get the theme of the movie across very good. "You probably haven't seen this movie, or even heard about it before. If you like romantic comedies, and Christmas themed ones then you should watch this right now. Now, there are also some negative reviews such as, "While not the first movie to blatantly rip off "Groundhog Day", it might be the worst. It quite horrible, with sub- par acting and sloppy writing. But it's a direct to TV Christmas movie. It doesn't have to be good, as long as it provides a small portion of holiday spirit. And it did."(letterbox)Critics give 12 Dates of Christmas a 3/5, now personally I give it a 4/5 I believe that this gets across the point that everyone should treat others kindly no matter what the cost. Resources Salli Newman, A.A. (Producer), & James Hayman, A.A. (Director). (2011). 12 Dates of Christmas. United States: ABC Family Letterboxd.com (2011) 12 Dates of Christmas. Retrieved December 18, 2015, from https://letterboxd.com/film/12-dates-of-christma
Shawn Watson
Amy Smart plays an insensitive woman who only cares about herself who is given the chance to make her life and the lives of others about her happier if only she stops being so self-centered. After falling over in a department store she bumps her head and re-lives Xmas Eve over and over (twelve times, to be precise) until she gets it all just right.Normally I wouldn't bother with such fluff, but Amy Smart is gorgeous and really ought to be in more movies. The score is basically lifted wholesale from A Charlie Brown Christmas and there is not much atmosphere. You could basically transpose the story from December 24th to any other day of the year (Groundhog Day, for example) and it wouldn't be much different.I wasn't once bored watching it though, and it's an acceptable addition to the holiday TV viewing.
