Holiday in Handcuffs (2007) Reviews

• The great American con game.

  lastliberal2007-12-10

  Parents want their children to be successful. Children want to please their parents. Everybody puts on a happy face and are miserable inside. That is Trudie's (Melissa Joan Hart) problem. How to make her parents happy so they will love her. Things are not going her way, so she flips out and grabs Mario López to pass off as her boyfriend. "Saved by the Bell" and soap star Lopex and Hart eventually manage a truce that leads to love, as the rest of the family lets their skeletons out of the closet. Great family interaction, and holiday silliness. Destined to be one to watch every year.

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• Fun and not overly cliché!

  AnnaShade2007-12-10

  As far as ABC Family movies go, this one was at the top! Everyone could act and practically none of the lines made me even close to cringing, which is what normally happens when I watch a TV movie. Miss Hart did a great job and wasn't in the least a cliché character. I was a little dubious at first about Mario Lopez being her love interest in the movie, but it worked out really well. Another thing that I was happy about was that it didn't to the boring, repetitive "Christmas is about spending time with your family" failed plot. It actually had interesting characters and a funny plot line. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to have a good time watching a movie.

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• Dumb, but fun

  MartianOctocretr52009-11-22

  An utterly ridiculous premise. A girl breaks up with her boy friend, and kidnaps a guy with hand cuffs to get him to pose as her boy friend for Christmas with her family. Make sense? Of course not, but it doesn't matter. Even using her Sabrina powers, I doubt the tiny MJ Hart could over power Mario Lopez. Nor is it likely the parents would be fooled by this absurd scheme, especially when the guy starts yelling to them for help! Well, it's a rom-com, so anything goes. On top of that, the Christmas theme demands the exact sentimental outcome you'll see coming more than 50 light years away. Even if you can't give it the poetic license it needs (a lot, lol), you can still laugh at how ludicrous the whole thing is. Silly nonsense, but utterly harmless. For a brainless diversion, this one, believe it or not, works.

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• This one was different... FUN!

  iluvcallalilys2007-12-09

  I love Christmas movies! I watch as many as I possibly can throughout December, but let's face it... the plots can be kind of redundant for Christmas movies. Holiday in Handcuffs presented a NEW story line. While it was a little predictable as plots go, this particular story was new. It was funny, warm, and light-hearted. The story is a "chick flick" but, even my husband laughed throughout. Growing up with Saved by the Bell and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.. it was fun to see Mario Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart "all grown up." If you're looking for fun, light-hearted, holiday fare with an original storyline... I recommend this movie.

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• Nice Surprise

  Christmas-Reviewer2016-12-11

  A friend of mine recommended this film to me. I am glad I took his advice. This film was very good and it's one of the better Christmas Television Films I have ever seen. In this film a Trudie (Melissa Joan Hart) is an aspiring painter working as a restaurant waitress. With the pressure to please her parents (Timothy Bottoms and Markie Post) building, she misses a job interview and gets dumped by her boyfriend just before Christmas, and she has a nervous breakdown. Stressed about going home for the holidays without a boyfriend, she kidnaps David Martin (Mario Lopez), a random customer at the restaurant in which she works and introduces him to her parents as her boyfriend, Nick. Lots of great moments and so well made. If you want a great comedy to watch you won't go wrong watching this!

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