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Welcome to FHC Forever Hallmark Christmas, the Hallmark Movie Review Podcast, where we talk about one thing and one thing only.
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That is Hallmark Christmas movies.
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My name is Rich, joined by my Hallmark partner in crime.
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Renee, how's it going, buddy?
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It's pretty good, Rich.
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We survived the weekend.
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We did, and we've survived week number three of Countdown to Christmas.
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Hard to believe.
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We've had nine movies so far.
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Renee, we thought it would be kind of fun to do a quick little recap of what we've seen for so far in weeks one through three and then preview the next couple weeks, weeks four and five leading up to Thanksgiving week, which is too massive to even think about right now with seven movies.
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But it'd be kind of fun just to talk about what we've thought so far in Countdown to Christmas and what we're gonna think about for the six movies coming up in the next, I don't know, 14 days.
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You ready?
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Ready as I'm gonna be.
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All right.
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So in week number one, we had Tizeth's the season for setups, holiday touchdown, a bear's love story, and Mr.
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and Mrs.
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Christmas.
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Week number two, Winter Wonderlands, followed by Forgotten Holiday on the Saturday night, and then the Sunday night movie that week number two was What If Christmas.
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And this past week we had Who's Coming for Christmas?
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Adopting Saint Nick and A Danish Christmas.
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And Renee, overall, I think this is kind of what I expected.
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I we'd heard there was gonna be a lot of kind of that old formulaic stuff from you know eight, nine years ago, very romance forward.
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Uh nothing too crazy out of the box.
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And I think that's what we've gotten so far.
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I think there's been a couple standout movies that have really hit me that's like that is a great, great movie, a couple that fell a little flat, and then a whole bunch just enjoyable middle of the road.
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What about you?
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Yeah, that's exactly it.
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Like two of them for sure were really standouts, maybe even three standouts, and one or two that I thought I'd hoped they would be a little bit better for me, but uh and the rest, as you said, you know, average middle of the road, which is it's okay.
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We like that.
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Yeah, I mean, that's kind of that's the Hallmark's bread and butter.
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You that feel good, maybe it's a little bit predictable.
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Comfort food, I always say, you know, this is a Costco chicken pot pie, you know, that big giant chicken pot pie that weighs about 10 pounds.
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Yeah, uh, that is so comforting.
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And yeah, we we look forward to those good, comforting Hallmark movies that we know is gonna happen.
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We know we're gonna get a very cute romance with really good chemistry, and we've got a bunch of those this year.
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So all right, let's talk uh any of these movies that we've had nine so far, any kind of like really exceeded your expectations from when you first read the synopsis of the movie to like saying, wow, that just kind of blew me away versus what I expected.
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Like I think Forgotten Holiday really I figured it was a good be a good movie.
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You know, it's a good writer, good character, good uh good actors, but that movie really surprised me at how much I really like that movie.
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So far, that's been my favorite out of the year that we've seen, you know, these first uh three weeks.
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So Forgotten Holiday really was a standout for me.
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Yeah, I think you hit it spot on.
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When we did our Hallmark movie draft, kind of fantasy football style with Gary and Amy from Poor of the Wine, it's rom-com time.
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Go back and listen to that episode, it's a lot of fun.
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I put Forgotten Holiday right in the middle, kind of like 17 or 18 when I kind of made my draft list.
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Didn't know what to think about the synopsis.
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I knew it was gonna be an amnesia movie, and sometimes those can go right, sometimes they can go a little sideways.
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But then once we knew that Tracy Andrine had written it, it's like wow, Daniel listening to no incredible performances.
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Yeah, that to me that was the one that just blew my expectations out of the water.
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So yeah, I think if we knew uh Tracy Andrine had written, I didn't know at the time.
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Like if I had known that she'd written it, then I I always hold her to a higher standard because she's just hits the standard every time.
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So she's amazing.
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Yeah, and you know, right behind it, Julie Sherman Wolf, we knew she wrote What If Christmas.
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I'm not gonna say that really tweaked my expectations either way because I expected it to be good and it was
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really good.
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But yeah, I think Forgotten Holiday, I think that was just a sleeper hit for a lot of people this year, going, you know, they said, Okay, wow, it's let's see what this thing's all about, and then all of a sudden, boom, it hits you, and that's gonna be one of the best movies of the year.
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Any movies that you had a little bit maybe higher expectations for, but ended up falling a little flat for you.
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I hate to do this, but we can't we keep it real, we keep it real.
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Yeah, I expected a little bit more from a Danish Christmas.
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I I love the actors, uh I love the setting.
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It's a really good idea.
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Uh this is playing after we give our reviews, right?
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So I can tell you what we scored it or not to correct.
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Yeah, yeah, we can talk about what we scored, yeah.
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So I mean we can I gave this a 3.5, which is a solid to me, that's like the middle of the road, kind of a standard rating.
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I was hoping to get this into the fours when I first heard about it.
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So this one kind of surprised me.
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And I think The Winter Wonderlanes as well.
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I mean, I think I thought that one was kind of silly.
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I actually kind of did expect it to be on the on the lower end, but uh so it did outperform, but still compared to the rest of these films, it underperformed for me as well.
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Yeah, for me, it's Who's Coming for Christmas?
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I saw Rihanna and Fish, Jake Foy.
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Uh, I was reading the synopsis, you know, kind of a dinner feast on Christmas Eve.
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I really want Rihanna and Fish to get some better scripts.
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I I thought the script was just a little bit thin on this one last year.
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She got the Christmas cup.
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Don't even get me started on that movie.
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I don't think I'm alone in saying that was the roughest movie of Countdown to Christmas 2025.
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Because I love Rihanna Fish.
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She is so bubbly, that such a great personality just lights up the screen.
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I want to see her get some better scripts, but the movie just it was slow, and I just the plot fell a little flat for me.
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I was really wanted to like that one.
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It went really high in our in our draft.
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That one fell a little flat for me.
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There's someone that kind of just didn't quite meet up to my expectations.
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It was Who's Coming for Christmas?
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All right, so that's kind of weeks one through three.
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Let's talk about what we have coming up, Renee.
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Uh, this coming weekend, I think maybe even the day we drop this episode, uh, we'll have Merry Memories.
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This is with Lindura and Brendan Morgan.
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It's kind of a scrapbooking, is the central theme of the movie.
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It's got a military angle to it.
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That'll be the Friday night movie on November 6th.
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The following night on Saturday, we have Holiday Unplugged.
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This is with Nikki Delosh, uh, Juan Pablo De.
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I hope I said that right.
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I heard Pace Depache.
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I'm not sure which way goes.
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I've seen some interviews and heard of both ways.
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But Nicki DeLosh, we know that's written by Zach Hugg.
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And then on Sunday night, November 8th, we get a season of promises.
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This is Brooke Dorsey, Ali Liebert, and one of your favorites, James Denton.
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Oh, yeah, love him.
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Any of these movies that you're really looking forward to more than the others?
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Well, I know that a season of promises is going to be one that, like, you might have to have a box of tissues next to you because James Denton just he picks emotional movies and he's always like making me cry a little bit or wanting to cry.
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And Two of Strange Sisters reunites, like, oh, it's just a beautiful, like anything that's a reunion and people making up is just wonderful.
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So I think that one really stands out for me, a season of promises.
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So yeah, I was kind of going back and forth.
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I'm really looking forward to a season of promises as well.
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And by the way, I drafted both the Saturday night movie, Holiday Unplugged, and a season of promises in our draft.
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So of my seven movies that I've chosen, those are two of them.
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So I'm obviously have high expectations for both.
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I'm really curious about Holiday Unplugged on Saturday night.
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Nikki Delosh is one of the queens of Hallmark.
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She's on the Mount Rushmore, probably of our actresses when it comes to Hallmark, incredible, you know, stuff that she's done in the past.
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I'm a huge Zach Hugg fan and in
his stories, his scripts.
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This is kind of putting technology aside for a time, putting, you know, throwing phones in the bag and just kind of being in touch with everybody else that you're around.
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I think that's kind of a unique kind of concept that we haven't seen before.
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So I was going back and forth.
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Season of promises, holiday unplugged.
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I'm going to Holiday Unplugged is the one I have expectations for that.
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I really want to see how they do that, what Zach Hug writes about that script.
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So yeah, I'm going to go with the Holiday Unplugged as the one I'm looking forward to the most.
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Yeah, Zach Hugg, like, rarely disappoints.
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So I'm stoked with him.
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All right, and right after that, we have on November 13th, boy, this is a big weekend, Renee.
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We have My Christmas Cowboy, Hallmark favorite Luke McFarlane, and Amy Acker making her first return to the Hallmark channel since Crashing Through the Snow in 2021, a movie that we reviewed.
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Obviously, we know we're going to have Cowboys, we're going to have a ranch setting, probably going to get some country Christmas music involved.
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So that should be a fun one the following night.
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Boy, this is a big one, Renee.
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November 14th, the nights before Christmas.
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Tyler Hines, Lacey J.
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Maley, kind of a groundhog style Christmas movie written by Russell Hainlein.
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That's going to be a big one on that Saturday night.
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And then following that Sunday night, another big one: Mistletoe Mimosas, Chris Balaha, Tamara Mowry Housley, again written by Russell Hainlein.
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And you can argue the past few years, there has been no hotter Hallmark writer than Russell Hainlein.
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Although Tracy Andreen with Grand O'Loppery last year and Forgotten Holiday this year, she might make a strong case as well.
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But three really big movies coming up on week number five.
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Which one of those three are you most excited for?
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Every time I see a movie with Tamara Maori, Housley in it, I don't expect much.
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And it always, always exceeds my expectation.
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I always like her movies.
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I enjoy that every single one that I've seen.
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And Christopher Palaha's fantastic.
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So while I would normally be like, okay, let's give me like I like Amy Acker and Luke McFarland, awesome.
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Tyler Hines, like the king, Lacey J.
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Maley, awesome.
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But mistletoes and memosas, I think is gonna be the one I'm most excited about because Tamara always, always surprises me in a pleasant way.
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And I have a feeling she's gonna do so again for everybody this year.
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Yeah, I think that's the movie you predicted would have the best food and beverage as well, Mistletoe and Mimosas.
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Obviously, we have the name Mimosas in the title, so it should be a good one.
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I I gotta go chalk here.
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I had the nights before Christmas.
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I mean, Tyler Hines, Lacey J.
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Maley, Russell Hainlein wrote the script.
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Oh, you know, we got a kind of a groundhoggish day kind of movie.
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Yeah, it's it's tough to pass.
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So I all three are so good, though.
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I mean, how can you go wrong with any th any one of these movies?
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They're all gonna be great.
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This might be, if not the best weekend of the movies, like, you know, top bet weekends for sure coming up.
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Yeah, and we know the following week, we know Thanksgiving.
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That is when Hallmark usually puts some of their biggest ones, most anticipated movies on.
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So we're gonna have a couple big weeks in a row.
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You and I can't even start thinking about Thanksgiving movies yet because we have so many to watch before Thanksgiving even rolls around.
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But yeah, so we got uh three fun movies coming up here uh in Mary Memories, Holiday Unplugged and a season of promises, probably debuting the night that you uh hear this podcast with Mary Memories on Friday, November 6th.
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And then, of course, the following weekend we just said My Christmas Cowboy, the nights before Christmas, mistletoe mamosas, huge weekend.
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So six really fun movies coming up, and it's gonna be uh a lot of fun to break them all down here on the podcast.
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Oh yeah.
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All right, Renee, that's it.
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So uh follow us on Instagram, Forever Hallmark Christmas, Gmail, Forever Hallmark Christmas at gmail.com.
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Renee let's keep it for the love of Hallmark.
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For the love of Hallmark.