User reviews

I remember feeling like last seasons Hallmark Christmas movie lineup was so much better than previous years. Not as many predictable story lines as in the past. More stories were actually very interesting. After watching this movie, it's my opinion they've kept up the new tradition of crafting a story with actual believable events and endings. Both leads were very good and it's obvious that Keven McGarry can actually ice skate (as I imagine lots of Canadians can). I didn't give this a 10 rating since I felt, as with lots of TV movies and especially Hallmark, the actual sporting event scenes are played out in almost slow motion so us viewers can feel te drama and not miss what's happening. That being said, this movie is well worth watching. I'm looking forward to the next countdown movie!

Journeyman hockey player Scott meets Ashley in the airport for their "meet cute". They both flew into Idaho Falls, Idaho which happens to be Ashley's hometown and Scott's new home as he has been traded to the local hockey team...the Fighting Trouts! Scott's frustrated because he really wants to be called up the the NHL, but keeps getting passed over for younger and faster kids. He is in his thirties and trying to come to grips with his dream being unattainable.

His real goal is to be as good as his father a Hall of Fame hockey player, who was too busy playing to be a father to his son and considers his team his family instead of his actual family.

At home, after having her real estate parter and boyfriend betray her and steal her client, Ashley begins to realize how great it is to be in her home town with her warm and loving family and friends.

Hockey, Christmas cider, more hockey, and fishing for plastic fish...this was an adorable holiday romance. I loved the focus on family and it's value. Kim Matula (Ashley) and Kevin McGarry (Scott) were wonderful together. The humor was great and I really appreciated the taxi cab callback at the end.

I highly recommend this Hallmark Holiday Romance to my fellow romantics, especially to those like me who like hockey!

38 year old Kevin Mc Garry plays 32 year old hockey player Scott Briggs. He's stuck playing in Idaho Falls, light years away from the big time he longs for.

Kim Matula is Ashley, a New York real estate agent who is home for Christmas. They have what is pretty much the opposite of a meet-cute, then it is discovered their debit cards were switched at an airport kiosk. Both suffer embarrassment as a result, then discover Briggs is actually staying at her family's guest house.

Matula shines in the Hallmark movies with her strong yet vulnerable characters in addition to her attractiveness. She's every bit as good as she was last year as an angel.

McGarry is well-known to Hallmark fans, but not one of my favorites, although he is good here.

I'm noticing a lot of new faces in the supporting casts this year, probably to fill the gaps of those who have fled to GAC. Some are better than others.

This movie is a step up, if only because Matula is so good. There are some funny moments, especially if you like hockey, and warm ones as well.

It's a 7, but Matula makes it an 8.

It was a little slow to start and the first hour had hardly any Christmas action/activities. Kevin just didn't seem to have his heart in this movie where as Kim was bubbly and bright and definitely had sympathy for her with user boyfriend stealing her real estate clients and not really caring for her needs. I did However like Grandma and her eggnog scene and in the stands at the Hockey game, She was a scene stealer. The scenes with the kids hockey team were cute, and Kevin didn't seem too awkward with them eventhough he towered over them some kids can find It daunting as kid actors doing sports scenes. It was a pretty predictable ending as well.

The 2023 season of Countdown to Christmas kicks off with all the usual plot lines including the predictability of the climax and ending. Both of the romantic leads are in town supposedly to be leaving again soon. Ashley is taking a break from her big city job and bad break-up and flees home to recharge. Scott's story is a bit unusual for a Christmas movie but still it fits in seamlessly. The meet cute turns into embarrassment as each tries to use the other one's switched credit card, but it brings the strangers back together. Scott is forced into holiday projects by his new team's traditions.

Scott is annoying for a while. It's a bit of a contradiction with his character's arrogance vs his seemingly natural ability to coach both peers and kids. Ashley is much more likeable. The subplot of the kids' hockey games adds a good element without making this into a sports movie.

Despite the predictability and tendency to check off the Christmas movie plot lines, the movie had a nice flow. Scott and Ashley develop a nice relationship. The acting is decent as is the dialogue. There are no great highs or lows or surprises, but there is also nothing really negative about the movie. If you are a Christmas movie fanatic, or new to the genre, you will probably enjoy this.

For me, this movie was unexpected. A bit different from the usual, which made me want to immediately watch it again to see what I missed. Tender and sweet, yet with very funny moments. The goofy family was delightful and relatable. Romance shown differently, with the conflict being within each character; not between the characters. Love how the individual storylines weaved together. The cast was lovely, the scenery beautiful, shot from many locations, the facial expressions were the best. Love how the beginning and end cab scenes book ended the movie, and how the Actors handled those scenes! Great chemistry between the leads, and hope to see them paired together again. If you want to watch a movie that does not gut punch you and leaves you with warm feelings, this is the movie to watch!

Kim Matula kicks butt. If there is a penalty shot where a goal was needed, I would pick Matula every time. She's been a great addition to the Hallmark roster.

This movie was fun and funny. The hockey scenes were kind of hilarious in that they were bad but it added to the charm.

So watch this movie, it's awesome, it is an absolutely stellar start to the holiday cavalcade of Christmas movies. I can't wait for the rest.

And just because extra words are required to get a review posted, please be kind to yourself and other people and just remember the more we work together as people, the better we will all be.

Best, John.

This movie was great! The story had both the leads struggling with their futures and what they really wanted in life, instead of just the female lead typically deciding between city and small town life. Kim Matula is a breath of fresh air as the female lead, and Kevin McGarry was excellent, as usual! They both have expressive faces that add a lot to their acting abilities. So many funny moments, which made the movie even more entertaining! The egg nog scene was especially funny, and the movie is almost worth watching just for that. I truly loved this movie and I have watched it more than once already. I highly recommend it.

This movie is probably typical Hallmark fare if you've never been to Idaho Falls, but as someone who grew up there (and someone who's watched plenty of Hallmark movies), I gotta say that this movie exemplifies what people don't like about the genre. They make Idaho Falls look like a blend of Jackson Hole and Park City with the giant hockey arena and people who have a guest house. Neither of those things exist in IF (except maybe at Frank Vandersloot's house). If you're gonna set a movie in a real place, don't just throw a dart at a map-use its actual character. If you set a movie in New York City, you don't keep referring to a Griffith Park; that's essentially the setting sin this movie makes, the kind that fully takes you out of it. If they set this in a fake place, most of that problem takes care of itself. Also, for all the Idahoans out there, can we learn to say Boise correctly? Pretty please?

Kevin McGarry has mastered the role of an easy going and likeable male lead in a slew of Hallmark movies (although here the first impression of his impatient bell ringing character Scott Briggs is awful).

Scott arrives in Idaho Falls (a real town with 68,000 people) around the same time as Ashley Durreau, played effectively by Kim Matula. She learns, at the airport, that her boyfriend poached one of her clients (she's a commercial real estate broker) and learns he is not joining her for the holidays. Thankfully, we only get exposed to the boyfriend for the minute it takes Ashley to break up with him. I've grown tired of the ex showing up unexpectedly later in the movie to make some misguided grand gesture. Not here.

I didn't know Kim Matula until I watched her in one of Hallmark's top tier movies ("Ghosts of Christmas Always" which came out in 2022). She's quite lovely and was as engaging in this movie as she was in "Ghosts." Ashley and Scott have some good "getting to know you" scenes and, refreshingly, never fight with each other. They're both at a crossroads in their respective lives/careers and it all seemed believable (although it sounds like Hallmark blew it on accurately depicting Idaho Falls). I just wish Hallmark didn't always force their stories to fit into an unrealistic compressed time frame. Hallmark couples invariably meet, hang out, fall in love, overcome a huge obstacle, and make life changing plans all within a week. Ugh.

Kevin McGarry actually starred in a rare deviation from the compressed time frame formula last year in "My Grown Up Christmas List" (with his fiancé Kayla Wallace). But that movie was a rare exception to the "jam everything into a week" rule. This movie would have been better if it covered two holiday seasons (with one of those "One Year Later" transitions).

Aside from that pet peeve, the only other glaring contrivance was the credit card incident. Most people have more than one bank card and cashiers never do two transactions at the same time. I also noted a filming error when Ashley brought her luggage to the car at the airport. No one puts her luggage in the car before closing the back hatch.

Those are all relatively minor complaints. This was a very pleasant and enjoyable movie with an appealing couple to root for. I was also intrigued by the story of 32 year old Scott Briggs going to Idaho Falls to play for a mid-level minor league team, while living in the shadow of his estranged NHL legend father. I thought the hockey part of the story was especially well written and, at times, quite heartbreaking.

This was a better than average Hallmark Christmas movie enhanced by good acting all around. And I really like Kim Matula.

Now that the Christmas season has begun, I'm hoping we'll get a new lot of romance movies. This just came out and the first is many season movies I'll be seeing. This movie captures the same old formula, but it's an interesting and new plot. Not typical for this genre. I think the beginning was cute, the middle was a little thin and felt drawn out, but it's got moments of developed background history, which add to its charm. The lead female is a fresh personality on the stage and we always love this male lead.

Because this movie steps out from the cookie cutter mold enough to catch my attention, I've rated this Hallmark romance movie a star higher than most their movies.

Super cute, def usual predictable Hallmark fare. But it caught my attention that the main character says 5th Avenue isn't real. I replayed the scene because I did not believe I heard that correctly. I think all the folks who live and work and own shops on 5th Avenue might be surprised to learn it doesn't exist. WWTT??

I very much enjoyed that so many of the characters looked less than shiny perfect, like normal humans. Hair was imperfect, makeup was light, and there was some nice humor. Also the sequin Santa hat one of the guys wore was EVERYTHING. Also nice to see a China pattern besides Old Country Roses used.

Scott Briggs (Kevin McGarry) is traveling to Idaho Falls to join the roster of a minor league hockey team. Commercial realtor Ashleigh Durreau (Kim Matula) is traveling from New York City to her hometown of Idaho Falls for the Christmas holiday. They briefly meet in the airport, where their debit cards are switched by a clerk.

They arrange to recover their cards, then find that they will be living in close proximity. Scott, who has dreams of playing in the NHL, adjusts to his new teammates and the small-town way of life. Ashleigh settles in with her family and finds herself loving life in the town she had been so determined to escape. And the two of them spend some time together.

This is a very enjoyable film. The two stars have a wonderful chemistry that feels organic. The expected Hallmark trope of small-town bliss does not grate; it grows out of the family dynamics and the personal growth of Scott and Ashleigh. And small-town value is not the moral of this story. It has to do with expectations that can limit one's ability to see options---a lesson for us all.

7.9 stars.

I'm having a bit of difficulty pinning down 'Checkin' It Twice' into a standard rating scheme. In other words, it's overall a great experience full of entertaining interactions and a really nice family feeling like any Hallmark, but I get the feeling there is more to the story. The whole big extended family of hers is present throughout and they make him feel at home. He is staying at her families' spare cottage on the property while he plays hockey for the local team, hoping to someday make it to the NHL. She is a big shot real estate agent in New York City, come back home for the holidays.

Of course the leads fall in love, it's not rocket science. The key question: how original and imaginative is the writing that takes our leads from acquaintances to falling in love? It was a slightly different sort of journey for me, the ride is not the usual one. I think the acting was different somehow, as if the director allowed them to go off the main path or something. There is a lot to the story, many people are involved in the journey, from his teammates to extended family and friends...

It's a refreshing movie, that's for sure. I will watch it again possibly next year. This has a lot of potential for a sequel and you won't catch me complaining about it if we see another one on the horizon. The cast are wonderful together, it just feels right.

This is a very well-done movie from a variety of standpoints. Kim Matula (one of my very favorites) and Kevin McGarry are both well-suited for their roles. They have very good chemistry, and even many of the supporting cast members play quite endearing personalities. The hometown feeling was very well created overall, and made the story that much more believable.

The plot, in essence, revolves around both characters who have invested much time and energy into their long-term goals. But as they approached the culmination of their efforts, they start to realize that they maybe should have put more energy into formulating their original goals more carefully in accordance with their own desires, as opposed to some false sense of duty or tradition. It's a common theme among such movies of course, but it's a bit more subtle here.

There are a lot of fun situations throughout the film, and I learned quite a bit about hockey and some of the culture. Overall, it felt like I was immersed in the spirit of the story and the town, always a good thing for a Christmas movie.