Let's be realistic.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.A Country Christmas is a 2013 made-for-television Christmas movie In the film, a cranky US senator wants to ban belief in Santa Claus and succeeds in passing a law forbidding all images of him. This causes Santa to start losing his powers and he finds himself (and one of his helpers) stranded on a farm in a small town called Hope, Arizona. There he is found by the owner's children, Miley and Zach. Since the rules that govern Santa's existence forbid his revealing himself to the public or interfering directly, he's doomed to cease to exist soon. The children then set out to save him by publicly challenging the senator to an open debate over Santa's existenceThere is a very heavy handed backstory in this film that Caitlin Carmichael proves she is an actress! Bravo to her. Her performance saved this movie. The film was going astray put she elevates the film from a problematic script. Also it looks like the hat that Elliot the elf wares would have been suitable if he was Mary Poppins! The film is worth watching. However in the film we find out the children's mother has terminal cancer. If you just recently lost someone in your family don't play this for them!!!!!

I guess I'm not a skeptic as so many of these reviewers seem to be! I loved this movie. Just take it for what it is - a cute, cuddly Christmas movie that makes kids (and adults!) believe in the magic of Santa. Totally harmless. Yes the acting is not "sterling" but I love the story line. I love the part where Santa says "now you see it; now you don't". At first it works. Then it doesn't! DOH! I just found that humorous. The child actors are "precious" but appealing in their portrayals of the kids who must save Christmas.And I must say I'm a sucker for movies with talking animals, even though their mouths aren't even moving. (See "My Dad is Scrooge") I really enjoyed watching this. Good for all of the family.

When the movie begins, fifth-grader Zach sees Santa Claus deliver his presents on the night before Christmas.Outside of Hope, Arizona, Zach and his sister Miley live at their parents' Logan Lazy L Ranch. Everyone is looking forward to Christmas, but there is a grinch. Senator Max Schmucker thinks it is ridiculous to believe in Santa Claus and he has gone so far as to outlaw belief in this symbol of Christmas. At the kids' school, no one is allowed to mention Santa, and a Santa poster is removed from the wall. Miley brings it home.One day the kids see a suspicious light in the barn, and it turns out to be Santa Claus and his nasty elf Elliot. Santa doesn't know how he ended up in the barn. He and Elliot were doing their rounds to find out who was naughty and who was nice, but something went wrong with the portal that transports them from place to place. Furthermore, he can't seem to return and his magic powers are starting to disappear. He figures out that it must be because people have stopped believing in him. And there are rules: he can't just appear to people. Santa accidentally let himself be revealed to the Logan kids but this can't happen with everyone.Santa and Elliot can turn invisible, at least as long as their powers work. Or they can hide. The kids have to work hard to make sure no one finds out their secret. This is made quite challenging when some of the animals get into the reindeer feed, which leads to some entertaining visual effects. Meanwhile, the kids' mother Renae has a doctor's appointment. this is almost never good.The kids scheme to persuade the senator to debate whether Santa Claus exists. Miley makes a video challenging the senator to debate her, and the kids play hooky from school and sneak it into the local TV station. All of a sudden they are celebrities. Now, will the senator accept the challenge? Will any of this do any good? Will the kids be able to stop Santa Claus from disappearing completely?This is a mostly pleasant movie, funny and appropriate for kids with the usual challenges that they must overcome. But it does get really serious at times.The young actors do a great job, for this type of movie. Abraham Benrubi really stands out with his booming voice, sort of Donald Sutherland trying to be Darth Vader. And Mikey Post offers a contrast with his sour attitude.The edgy "Dr. Quinn" bartender becomes a kind and loving father, and Joey Lauren Adams is so sweet as usual. But there are some difficult scenes, because Renae has to explain her situation to the kids, and the kids have to cope with the problem. Trace Adkins has a cameo as an intimidating cop. He's pretty much what you'd expect. I didn't see how this ended so I can't evaluate how everything turned out. I was recording two movies at once and they both got cut off about 30 minutes early, including commercials.In both cases, a magical fantasy figure who entertains children was in danger of going away, and a child held the key to making things better.But you have to believe everything turned out all right. This was rated TV-G when I saw it, so surely some miracle occurred before the end.From what I saw, this was a nice Christmas movie to entertain the entire family.

The Good: most of this movie is acceptable for small children and there are some lessons learned. The children are reminded that they are disobeying their parents in a way by sneaking out to see and hide Santa and his elf. And Santa pays a price for breaking the Santa rules by stepping in to save a sick woman's life. So there is some redeeming quality.Oh, the cameo appearance of Trace Adkins was cool...gotta love him The Bad: The acting. This movie is so bad regarding the script. Yes, if you want simple minded dialog for a 5 year old, some of this movie works well; the problem is the writers have the children speaking at a vocabulary and structure level way beyond their years...it's simply not believable and especially the little boy/brother is nearly painful to watch speak, it's soooo corny. If you yearn for the days of bad 1950's and 60's series shows, this movie is for you.The reason this movie is PG is because the mother had terminal cancer and Santa cures it...which means Santa broke the Santa Rule by intervening, thus he is stripped of his Santa-hood and made a mortal, and his sidekick elf then becomes Santa. Without the cancer element, this movie is on about 4 to 7 year old mental level, then they throw in such a depressing twist with the cancer and Santa (who is a wonderful endearing character) becoming mortal and replaced by the elf. That is a mental twist for small children.A lot of people love this because it is steeped in religion, which is the reason for the season of course, but Santa, as we see him in the modern world has nothing to do with religion anymore. Our kids are seldom taught the origins of where the fable of Santa comes from and why he is part of our Christmas.Christians are so desperate for anything that frequently refers to "the man upstairs" and entertainment with a thick dose of Jesus in it, they are going to love this movie because Christianity is under attack by secularists in America. This kinda feels like a "Christian" movie but fails to complete the idea properly.I just did not like this movie. I would rather watch something about the ACTUAL story of Jesus including the crucifixion. If we are going to teach kids about death and faith, that would be a good start. Santa is not a healer, Jesus was.