A Castle for Christmas

[KillingMeDeftly]

I'm not the biggest fan of the cheesy Netflix Christmas film but I quite enjoyed this one! Brooke Shields is charming and Cary Elwes does well as the curmudgeonly duke. I had a massive crush on him in his Lady Jane/Princess Bride heyday!

And Scotland looks gorgeous, though I'm not sure how realistic the depiction of the Highland village is! In fact I suspect it wasn't even filmed in the Highlands, but it's a fun way to kill 90 mins on a cold night.

@middleager

Also watching for Cary as he was so dashing in The Princess Bride.

My daughter (13) said 'oh crikey, he's aged a lot and not well!'. She also said it was was a terribly cliche'd film. Unfortunately I had to agree with her on both points but whiled away 90 mins!!

@middleager meant to say The Princess Bride is our all time favourite film ❤️

[quote SummerSazz]@middleager meant to say The Princess Bride is our all time favourite film ❤️[/quote]
I saw it at the cinema and loved it, but I don't think it has much to compete with here!

@CuriousBogInTheNight

Did anyone else notice the random scene with mark Fleischman and evil lady checking into the pub. Then never referenced again. What was that about?

Yes that was odd. I was convinced they'd turn out to be villains who'd try to swindle the leads out of Cas Castle but nope, they just disappeared!

It's so bad. So so bad. Having Scottish characters say "cell signal" and "escrow" really annoyed me!

This comment made me laugh because on one hand it annoyed me too but as a Scottish author who writes Scottish books and sells 90% to the American market I do it too 😂!! You have to or they just DO NOT UNDERSTAND. And they are very vocal about their lack of understanding. So I add in wees and ayes, and I slide in as many words as context lets me get away with, but sometimes you have to use American words despite knowing it's going to rile your fellow Scots.

I hate myself daily 🙃.

The film was decent, kinda one of those so bad it's good type things. I did find it funny that there's "3000 castles in Scotland" and they filmed the thing in a house 🤔 also the random village pub and their ultra representative knitting group including a teenager who cuts about with shortbread. I think I maybe go to the wrong pubs 😂.

Liked the two MCs and nice to see characters who are divorced and past their 30th birthday.

Thought it was better than the Emilia G.O.T actress one (Last Christmas?).

@CuriousBogInTheNight apparently they are crossover characters from another Netflix Christmas movie

I love a cheesy Christmas film. But when I saw the trailer for this I was cringing so much at the terrible accents and Scottish stereotypes. Do you soon get over this when watching it?!

@laaldy

It's so bad. So so bad. Having Scottish characters say "cell signal" and "escrow" really annoyed me!

This comment made me laugh because on one hand it annoyed me too but as a Scottish author who writes Scottish books and sells 90% to the American market I do it too 😂!! You have to or they just DO NOT UNDERSTAND. And they are very vocal about their lack of understanding. So I add in wees and ayes, and I slide in as many words as context lets me get away with, but sometimes you have to use American words despite knowing it's going to rile your fellow Scots.

I hate myself daily 🙃.

The film was decent, kinda one of those so bad it's good type things. I did find it funny that there's "3000 castles in Scotland" and they filmed the thing in a house 🤔 also the random village pub and their ultra representative knitting group including a teenager who cuts about with shortbread. I think I maybe go to the wrong pubs 😂.

Liked the two MCs and nice to see characters who are divorced and past their 30th birthday.

Thought it was better than the Emilia G.O.T actress one (Last Christmas?).

Yes I noticed they referred to 'foreclosure' too, which I rarely hear in the UK.

[quote escapingthecity]@CuriousBogInTheNight apparently they are crossover characters from another Netflix Christmas movie [/quote]
Yes, there’s a link with Princess Switch I think?

I quite enjoyed the film - didn’t realise it was Cary Elwes at the time; great to see Brooke Shields in a leading role again

I was also curious about the line "she left me for someone with a bigger title". Cary's character was already a Duke - did his ex leave him for Prince Charles??

I can't
I can't
I can't
The random only taxi in the village being a hackney
The accents
The knitting
The cobblestone streets
The knitting
Lee Ross' too short kilt.
The Scottish words used wrong
Dear god it was bad. Nice to see a middle aged actress without botex etc though
Ach, I'll probably watch it again. Just like you keep picking a scan

*scab

@Riverlee

Quite enjoyed the film earlier this afternoon, about a journalist looking for the Christmas spirit.

I watched that too! Christmas Train I think. Lovely bit of Christmas cheese.

Need to watch this one now, clearly.

Really liked it

Went from that to Last Christmas, which I’m not at all sure about. Ruined my festive buzz.

I can also recommend A Crown for Christmas with Rupert Penry Jones and the girl who was in The Wonder Years all grown up.

I laughed through the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed how bad it was. Total fluff, just what I wanted!

The American terms such as "foreclosure" and "escrow" were jarring, but not unexpected. Was very surprised when the taxi driver called Cary Elwis "ya dobber" which is one word that clearly got lost in translation!

The knitting group man - Angus was it? He was supposed to be mute with grief for his dead husband, but was merrily chatting at the bar, at the ceilidh, whilst decorating the bedroom etc!

I love these cheesy Christmas films!

Now moved on to 'Father Christmas is Back' with Liz Hurley, Caroline Quentin (playing Liz's mother. She's only 5 years her senior!!).

Just finished this, oh it wasn't very good! It cannot be compared to The Holiday or Last Christmas. The taxi man shouting 'ya dobber' out of nowhere had me howling, same as at the end with 'I love you too ya dobber' 😂😂 what on earth?? And she hit out with 'walloper' at one point too. I also liked when the taxi man said 'nae bother' and the subtitles said 'it's not a problem' The accents are terrible and the acting wasn't much better, think Hamish the dog put in the best performance.

Oh yeah, were the subtitles because the taxi guy had a strong accent or because he was actually speaking Scots? If the latter then why was he speaking it to an American??

@KillingMeDeftly Cos that's how he'd speak. It's more of a dialect although I think Scots/Doric are recognised as languages (but he wasn't speaking Gaelic, if that's what you meant). Could you not understand what he was saying? It was like 'naebdy telt me that' and 'faraboots de ye bide?' so not totally unrecognisable.

No I didn't mean Gaelic, I meant Scots.

I've been saving to watch this movie a bit closer to Christmas

I love movies like this. My secret guilty pleasure. I watched the Holiday in Africa. one the other day. Dont get me started on the title when it is clearly set in Zambia. With Rob Lowe and her from Sex & the City.

Nope hated it. Saying ya Diddy and ya dobber....... about as Scottish as Brigadoon.

Dalmeny house is an absolute treasure of a house and set in stunning grounds. The Roseberrys must've needed the money fir it to be filmed there!

*for

Watching it now. There are far worse in this genre - Father Christmas is back springs to mind.

Is the pub / pub set the same as in Falling for Figaro ? Now I did quite enjoy that.

But for ultra cheesy Christmas films hard to beat the Knight before Christmas, for which I'd have though a sequel would have been made by now.

Hang on Princess Switch people have just turned up I mean I'm told they are from another Netflix film called that, never watched it of course