"A Christmas Prince"-- The "Best Worst Movie from Netflix"

[CalMeacham]

As a connoisseur of Bad Films, I now know I have to watch this, which multiple web sites tell me is the Best Bad Film in ages – but I hate Romances and Chick Flicks, which this appears to be one of. Or a parody of.

Does anybody know about this? Even if you haven’t, I figured it deserved to be brought to your attention

"A Christmas Prince" Is So Bad It's Good And Here Are The Tweets To Prove It

13 questions about 'A Christmas Prince,' the only Christmas movie that...

See, it’s about a ~quirky~ woman who is worse at being a journalist than Rory Gilmore, and a guy who is literally every bland, handsome, white, quasi-tortured prince with a playboy reputation and a secret heart of gold you’ve ever watched. There’s a Christmas tree in every scene, in case you forget it’s a CHRISTMAS prince, i.e. the best kind of prince, obviously. I imagine he smells of cinnamon and wrapping paper IRL. And if you love romance clichés, guess what: THIS MOVIE HAS ALL OF THEM. Every single one. There’s even that scene from Beauty and the Beast with the wolves, except there’s just one (1) wolf and instead of roaring in its face, the prince…well, I won’t spoil it for you. JUST WATCH IT.

Basically, A Christmas Prince is simultaneously the best and worst thing Netflix has ever produced. I was so happy watching it and, let me tell you, in 2017 that is no easy feat. But it’s the kind of movie you need to watch with your snarkiest friends and/or Twitter followers because taking the piss out of it is 98% of the fun. Here are some of my fave tweets about it so far…

There are a few things you look for in a good romantic comedy: witty repartee, aspirational home décor, a few “You lied to me!”s, and at least one pretty good smooch. For a Christmas romantic comedy, you need all of the above, but you turn the schmaltz up to 11 and add an engagement ring at the end. Christmas romantic comedies don’t need to be “plausible,” or “well-written,” or “good.” It’s probably better if they’re none of the above. A good Christmas romantic comedy should be so bad that you can make fun of it a little bit in your head and feel smart, but still romantic enough that after a big glass of red wine, you can admit that you’re enjoying it a little bit un-ironically.

By those metrics, A Christmas Prince is an instant classic. It’s a Netflix original movie, but it feels like a violation of nature that it somehow isn’t from Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel. Nathan Atkins is credited with the screenplay, but this film is such a perfect amalgam of established tropes that I am not entirely convinced that isn’t a pseudonym to keep us from discovering that Netflix has created the artificial-intelligence technology to generate a script using auto-complete.

PS – not to be confused with another TV movie from 2015, “A Prince for Christmas”

[El_Kabong]

Can’t be that good. There’s no indication that the main characters get swept up in a sharknado at the end.

[Maus_Magill]

I may have to suggest this to Mrs Magill. She’ll watch the Hallmark schmaltz (mostly) unironically.

[ZipperJJ]

Yeah I had the same thought - I need to see what my mom thinks of this (another Hallmark Movie fan).

[CalMeacham]

@ZipperJJ

Yeah I had the same thought - I need to see what my mom thinks of this (another Hallmark Movie fan).

I may have to suggest this to Mrs Magill. She’ll watch the Hallmark schmaltz (mostly) unironically.

Note, however, that it’s NOT Hallmark, but Netflix. As one of the pieces I cite says:

It’s a Netflix original movie, but it feels like a violation of nature that it somehow isn’t from Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel.

That’s what makes this particularly surprising.

[gigi]

@Maus_Magill

I may have to suggest this to Mrs Magill. She’ll watch the Hallmark schmaltz (mostly) unironically.

My father and I will watch. We watch Hallmark (two channels for Christmas movies!) and have a checklist of every trope they will include. After those are exhausted, we move on to Ion and UP second-tier XMas movies. This Netflix one will be included!

[elfkin477]

I have not seen it, but today Netflix tweeted "To the 53 people who’ve watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?“

Hmm.

[Lightray]

Netflix just sent me a notification recommending this drek. It is like absolutely nothing else I have ever watched on Netflix, ever. I watch a very limited number of genres on Netflix; do they think I just won’t notice it’s not Sci-Fi or a war movie or whatever?

[Go_Arachnid_Laser_1]

@CalMeacham

Note, however, that it’s NOT Hallmark, but Netflix. As one of the pieces I cite says:

That’s what makes this particularly surprising.

This is the platform that produced the Full House reboot, you know…

[drm]

I appreciate it this thread because I’ve stared at that stupid picture for a while now and it haunts me. I’m really glad it’s in “so good it’s bad territory”.

As I come from a long line of snarky assholes, I’m going to make my family watch this over Christmas. I"m officially excited about Christmas!

[CalMeacham]

When I mentioned this to my wife and my daughter (Pepper Mill and MilliCal), they eagerly responded that they had both heard about this. Apparently I’m the last to get this news. MilliCal said that we all ought to watch it (but not last night – we were all otherwise engaged). I reminded her that she already put in a vote to watch Love, actually together, and we should probably watch a good movie before a bad one. But we’ll get to it.

[Morbo]

I actually watched this movie with my wife a couple of weeks ago. (Sometimes we watch one of these Grade Z Hallmark movies to riff on them).

The only thing I remember is that it had the Borg Queen and the woman who played General Zod’s henchwoman from Superman II, and was the evil Queen in Conan The Destroyer.

It wasn’t even so bad it was good, like the Groundhog Day one with the guy from Saved By The Bell.

[ThelmaLou]

I just watched it to see what all the fuss was about. I loved it. I loved that when it started, I knew there weren’t going to be any dead bodies, abused children or animals, gunfights (although I was a little worried about the wolf), or any of the “news” I’ve been drowning in recently. It’s the perfect escape movie, if you can put your sarcasm and cynicism (and yeah, your highly developed critical sense) on hold for a couple of hours. I’m not going to watch it seven times in the next 24 hours like one reviewer did, but it was good to get away for a while. And yeah, I teared up at the ending.

[GuanoLad]

@Lightray

do they think I just won’t notice it’s not Sci-Fi or a war movie or whatever?

I would expect Netflix to pull a switcheroo, and promote a movie with a trailer full of the carefully curated level of schmaltz, but 20 minutes in slowly introduce a supernatural element that turns it into an alien invasion movie or something.

With the level of power and control over their product that Netflix can have, that’s what I’d do.

[gigi]

@ThelmaLou

I just watched it to see what all the fuss was about. I loved it. I loved that when it started, I knew there weren’t going to be any dead bodies, abused children or animals, gunfights (although I was a little worried about the wolf), or any of the “news” I’ve been drowning in recently.

It seems that lately, it’s not a matter of whether a movie will feature a nosebleed, it’s when. With Hallmark, I can be sure I won’t see one. It brings a level of comfort.

[ThelmaLou]

@gigi

It seems that lately, it’s not a matter of whether a movie will feature a nosebleed, it’s when. With Hallmark, I can be sure I won’t see one. It brings a level of comfort.

It’s amazing, too, how many movies/series BEGIN with a brutal animal killing or mutilation, usually of a family dog. I believe that is done SOLELY to get the viewer’s adrenaline going. I choose not to be manipulated, so I’m outta there immediately. Gratuitous violence is even more irritating than gratuitous sex.

[WOOKINPANUB]

Here’s a review that appeared in my local newspaper. I’m not sure if I could sit through the movie but this cracked me up.

[Inner_Stickler]

@WOOKINPANUB

Here’s a review that appeared in my local newspaper. I’m not sure if I could sit through the movie but this cracked me up.

Hah, that was great! I think I pulled something stifling a cackle.

[Enright3]

@Morbo

I actually watched this movie with my wife a couple of weeks ago. (Sometimes we watch one of these Grade Z Hallmark movies to riff on them).

The only thing I remember is that it had the Borg Queen and the woman who played General Zod’s henchwoman from Superman II, and was the evil Queen in Conan The Destroyer.

It wasn’t even so bad it was good, like the Groundhog Day one with the guy from Saved By The Bell.

Ahem, that would be The 12 Dates of Christmas. My wife and I watched it last night. I’m pretty sure it’s going to win some MAJOR awards. It was very cute. It stars Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

[Morbo]

@Enright3

Ahem, that would be The 12 Dates of Christmas. My wife and I watched it last night. I’m pretty sure it’s going to win some MAJOR awards. It was very cute. It stars Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

Hah yeah that’s the one. We loved the whole business when he orders her a “lager” and she’s all “I don’t like lager” and we had a discussion about how the screenwriter has never been in a bar in his life.