It’s hard to believe, folks, but Christmas is just under two months away now, and as such, it’s not too much of a surprise to see the Christmas movies come out in full force. And we’ve got a look at just one such early riser with Dear Santa, a movie that should leave you feeling your Christmas spirit just a little early. The folks out at Image Entertainment sent over a copy for us to review, and this one will tug all the right heartstrings.

Dear Santa follows Crystal, a go-nowhere socialite whose wealthy parents have just about had it with her constant shopping and layabout lifestyle. They plan to cut her off unless she can show some change in her life, either finding a good man or finding a good job. And since Crystal and work go together like matches and gasoline, she’s planning to go with plan B: find a man. But about that time, she finds a letter from Olivia, a little girl who’s got one special Christmas wish, for a new mommy to replace the one that died two Christmases prior. Crystal gets to thinking that she might be said little girl’s wish come true, which would also keep her in cash from her own, somewhat more live, mommy. But it won’t be as easy as Crystal thinks, no, nowhere near.

Dear Santa watches a lot like a movie you might see on Lifetime, except there, the roles would be reversed, with a little girl writing for a new daddy for Christmas and an irresponsible womanizing jackass gets his life changed by the ultimate virtuous force of a single mother. Here, the woman is the hopeless slackass and the man is the virtuous force, which is totally not what you’d see on Lifetime. But at the same time, it’s great to see lives changed in such a significant fashion by what looks like a whole lot of coincidences combining.

And indeed, from a narrative sense, this is a big pile of schmaltzy sludge that’s got all the structure of pudding. But then, it falls under that grandest of all umbrellas: the Christmas tree. Yes, it’s a Christmas movie in most every sense of the term, and it will behave much like one. Basically, as long as you don’t look too closely at it, you’ll find that the end results are tolerable, at least somewhat heartwarming, and manage to tug the heartstrings in the standard, most efficient way there is.

The Screenhead Ten Scale in turn gives Dear Santa the mark of reasonably good quality, a six out of ten. Nothing special here…nothing even particularly new or interesting…but still, a Christmas movie in every sense of the term.

Screenhead picked the winner of Lifetime’s Army Wives giveaway that includes Army Wives Season 4 DVD.

DJrnewcastle is the winner!

Army Wives follows the struggles, dreams and friendships of a diverse group of women – and one man – living with their spouses and families on an active army post.  The series stars Kim Delaney, Sally Pressman, Brigid Brannagh, Brian McNamara, Sterling K. Brown, Wendy Davis, Drew Fuller, Terry Serpico and Catherine Bell.   The most successful series in Lifetime’s 27-year history, Army Wives’ fourth season averaged 3.2 million total viewers.

It looks like an awesome show!

Way back in the early nineties, a television show for Western buffs and women’s rights advocates alike emerged called Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. and it managed to hold viewers’ interest for six seasons. The folks out at A&E sent over a copy of Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman the Complete First Season, and now we get to see why.

When Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn, who somehow managed to get a medical degree in the 1800s despite the fact that she was a woman, heads out to answer an ad about a doctor for a doctor in the then-small frontier town of Colorado Springs, she discovers that most of the townspeople don’t much like the idea of a lady doctor. But Quinn’s competence and caregiving wins a lot of people to her side, and begins a six season long journey through the West.

Okay, so this sounds more like the kind of thing that belongs in heavy rotation on Lifetime than anywhere else–I mean, a woman doctor in the 1800s? That’s insane by any real historical standard.–but that’s what we’re dealing with.

I remember my grandpa watching this show almost every Saturday night when it was on, and he couldn’t get enough of it. So it’s got a little bit of an emotional connection for me. Aside from that, this is a fairly deep show, as cast members will die off with little or no advance warning. There will also be laughs, romance, action and most everything else a Western buff might want.

The strange thing about the first season of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman is that it’s a very relaxed series. It’s got an oddly slow pace that’s greatly at odds with large chunks of modern era television, and while I find that abundantly strange, I’m not going to complain too loudly. This gradual nature works well for the series, providing an effect that’s actually rather soothing, which isn’t the kind of thing you normally hear about a television series, but it’s really oddly calming.

Jane Seymour does  a terrific job as Dr. Quinn, and everyone else will turn in a surprisingly thorough and seemingly accurate performance. In fact, most of this series seems like at least a close representation of what life was like back in frontier times, although most of what we know about frontier times is largely hearsay.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman: The Complete Season One a seven out of ten for putting up a nice start, and setting up a beginning that will hopefully make the remaining seasons as worthwhile as the rest.

Screenhead is hosting an awesome giveaway from Lifetime’s Army Wives! The all new season kicked off on Sunday, March 6 at 9/8c!

Giveaway:

Boot Camp Prize Pack Includes:

• Camo Gym Bag
• Gaiam Yoga Mat/Bag
• Padlock
• Dog Tag
• Water Canteen
• Tank Top
• Terrycloth Sweat Towel
• Messenger Cap
• Yoga Ball
• Jump Rope

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner March 13, 2011.

U.S. winners only, please!

Relativism is a funny thing, folks. It takes things that might ordinarily be good and makes them bad with the force of sheer comparison. And it also works in the reverse, which is just what we’re dealing with today with The Capture of the Green River Killer, a copy of which the folks out at Lifetime sent out for review. And it’s going to be one of the better things they’ve sent out. Not that it’ll be perfect, of course, but it will be watchable. And for Lifetime, that’s a rarity.

The Capture of the Green River Killer is pretty much exactly what it says on the box, the pursuit and eventual capture of the Green River Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the Seattle area in the early eighties. It’s a long and tortuous journey, and the whole thing will be brought to a close thanks to the unlikely combination of the county sheriff–a man who’s losing pretty much everything as he focuses on the Green River Killer–and a young runaway who came in contact with the Green River Killer, and survives.

You’d be surprised at the sheer amount of destruction the Green River Killer causes, and not just to the victims, either. There’s a whole lot of fallout here: the sheriff’s family, the runaway’s friends, and all of it at least somewhat related to the Green River Killer.

But this is what gets me; it’s a fairly decent movie. Oh, sure, there are some clunkers in the dialogue in here, and some parts that don’t make a whole lot of sense. The whole thing is a little on the longish side–it was a miniseries, rather than a movie–but still, it’s really rather well put together. It manages to hold attention at least passably well, and frankly, for Lifetime? That’s unparalleled genius.

And that’s where relativism comes into play. This is great stuff for a Lifetime movie. For anything else, it’s passable. And that’s what you need to take away in the end: this is watchable. If you’re looking for a long date movie, guys, this one should be prime. She’ll probably like it, you can stomach it, and the end result is a decent piece you can both agree on. It’s got some really nice parts to it, too–I love the bulletin board approach to tracking the Green River Killer’s body count.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Capture of the Green River Killer a surprising seven out of ten–I never really dare to expect a good release from Lifetime, and this is one of the rare ones.

Having seen a lot of Lifetime movies before, especially a lot of Lifetime horror movies, I can tell you that they’re a totally different breed of horror. They like the cat and mouse game, the slow building of tension, and they’re not very big on gore. They also seem to emphasize personal relationships, and what happens when those relationships go horribly wrong. This is a look at a movie that probably will end up on Lifetime before too much longer, The Roommate.

The Roommate follows pretty much exactly what it says on the box, as Sara, a college freshman from Des Moines (which is actually a lot bigger of a city than most give it credit for) who’s going to school in some kind of fashion design capacity. Her roommate, Rebecca, is an artist who’s just a little on the creepy side. She’s very protective of Sara, constantly calling and following her around and doing little things to make Sara’s life better. Oh, and of course, there’s the death threats and the animal murder and the blackmail…it’s clear, Rebecca will do anything for Sara. Anything. Legal or otherwise.

Of course, guys watching the proceedings will find Rebecca ragingly creepy and wonder, why doesn’t Sara just, you know, move away from the lunatic before she goes all ground-zero on whoever happens to be standing by–which will actually happen toward the end in a grand scene of mayhem contained in a space about the size of a larger than average bedroom. But this is not a universe ruled by logic–this is a universe ruled by emotion and caring and sensitivity, not a universe in which people act in their own best interests. That makes the whole thing a little on the strained side–Sara’s clearly not acting in a fashion that promotes staying alive–but once you accept the fact that Sara’s priority is to not hurt Rebecca, the whole thing at least makes sense.

I’m just kind of happy that there are actually some guys who play the hero in this one, not just exist to be evil and creepy (like Sara’s design professor) or as faceless ciphers or victims (like everybody who isn’t Sara’s boyfriend Whatsisname, who’s basically only here to keep Sara from getting killed outright).

Still though, clearly, a horror movie geared toward the Lifetime crowd can still do a pretty nice job of being scary. Though it takes it a while to get started–this one’s going to spend probably a lot more time than necessary setting things up–the ending will prove to be sufficiently satisfying to make it worth the cost of a ticket. It’s not the greatest of horror movies, sure–those hoping for hot naked horror babes will be sorely disappointed here as this is a PG-13 title (an ominous development for many horror fans)–but it will cover the basics at least passably well, and likely be a great way for horror movie buffs to get their girlfriends involved by giving the ladies a scary movie they should be able to relate to.

I’ve seen better, in all honesty–you want a scary movie you’ve got bundles of them to enjoy at home–but you’ll do all right with The Roommate. Because while I’ve seen better, I’ve also seen vastly, vastly worse.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this admittedly rather tepid horror romp a six out of ten for doing better than many, but not nearly as good as the best.

The half-hour unscripted series “Seriously Funny Kids,” hosted by supermodel and supermom Heidi Klum (“Project Runway”) will debut on Tuesday, February 1, at 9 pm et/pt with back-to-back episodes. Lifetime has ordered 20 episodes of the program. “Seriously Funny Kids” will feature Klum interacting with children and bringing out the hilarious and often insightful things they say.

“Someone once said ‘Never work with children and animals’ … so I decided to drop the animals and stick with the kids,” says Klum.

A major star in the fashion and entertainment world, and mother of four children, Klum hosts Lifetime’s Emmy Award–nominated series “Project Runway.” Named last week to Forbes Magazine’s “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list, she also hosts “Germany’s Next Top Model” and wrote the lifestyle book “Body of Knowledge: 8 Rules of Model Behavior.” Klum designs an activewear collection, “Heidi Klum for New Balance,” available on Amazon.com, and maternity collections for Destination Maternity.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner February 7, 2011.
Prize Includes:
One Seriously Funny Kids Poster, Signed by Host Heidi Klum

Check out this Seriously Funny Kids video – cute!

Enter to win: Be a Mommy in Style with the One Born Every Minute Gift Set!

About One Born Every Minute

In eight hour-long episodes, the hospital docu-series “One Born Every Minute” takes an in-depth look at life inside the maternity ward at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, as expectant mothers enter their final stage of pregnancy. From the delivery room, to the operating room, to the front desk, to the nurses’ station, 40 cameras roll 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to capture the high drama, humor and overwhelming emotion of childbirth as new lives begin and others change forever.

Based on the popular U.K. format, “One Born Every Minute” is produced by Reveille Independent, with Elisabeth Murdoch (“MasterChef”), Howard T. Owens (“MasterChef”), Daniel Soiseth (“America’s Next Top Model”), Robin Ashbrook (“Live to Dance”), Shelley Schulze (“Trauma: Life in the ER”), Sanjay Singhal (“The Event: How Racist Are You?”), and JoAnn Alfano, Gena McCarthy and Sandy Varo Jarrell of Lifetime Television executive-producing.

To enter the giveaway post your name and we will pick the winner February 19, 2011.

Prize Pack Includes:

One ISOKI Diaper Bag: Since launching in 2007, ISOKI has established itself as a multi-award winning brand and leader in the baby bags and accessories market. ISOKI’s stylish designer range of reversible baby bags offers two bags in one by simply reversing to reveal a whole new look. Inner components of the bag include a double-sided storage satchel, insulated cooler bag and large padded change mat, all of which can be used individually or as a complete set.

One Baby Gund Comfy Cozy
One Baby Gund Stuffed Animal

U.S Residents Only Please

Well folks, Christmas is only hours away (about sixty of them, in fact), and just in time too, because we’re about to wrap up our coverage of the Lifetime Christmas movie extravaganza with Recipe For A Perfect Christmas, which they sent out for us to review right here.

Recipe For A Perfect Christmas follows J.J. Jenner, the twenty four year old assistant at Glow Magazine in New York who has just come up in the world–she’s been promoted to the food critic at the magazine. And now, she’s out cruising all the restaurants and living the life of a young woman’s New York dreams. But when her mother shows up, getting any work done suddenly becomes a difficult prospect. But J.J.’s got an idea–there’s a local restauranteur that wants a review to save his restaurant from closing, and he’s just hot enough to keep mom occupied. So J.J. strikes up a deal–the hunky restauranteur takes out mom and keeps her busy long enough to get some work done. But when the restauranteur and mom get a little too close, J.J.’s starting to reconsider the whole thing. Will it all come undone?

Why, oh why, must we have more Lifetime-brand misandry here? Why must every guy be a jerk or a loser and sometimes both? And this one will also bring in a large quantity of gay guys for reasons that puzzle me. Lifetime movies is utterly beyond me. Is Lifetime so very threatened by men that they can’t make a guy that isn’t some kind of flawed character? It’s horrifying.

It’s about par for the course for Lifetime, really, in most every sense. They’ll put together a halfway decent story that’s preaching to the choir: the plight of the aging dancer, the motivated young woman who forgot to make time for love on her dash to the top, and of course, the occasional man who’s really only here because we can’t make a complete story without them. They’re almost an afterthought, almost begrudgingly present.

The story is set up in such a way that J.J. really isn’t in any danger here–there will be lots of rules being bent, lots of “oh by the way, we told you this but we’ve completely changed our minds at the last minute because of your sheer force of will and pluck”, not to mention a little “oh by the way, I know exactly how to solve pretty much every problem that shows up”. It’s a very weak story; it’s heartwarming, it’s pleasant, but from a sheer narrative point of view, it’s a complete disaster.

But the Screenhead Ten Scale is never without its capacity for averaging, and as such, it hands Recipe For A Perfect Christmas a five out of ten. It tried, it really did, but it just didn’t have the right blend of story and presentation to be as tasty as it could have been. Cooking metaphors having been thoroughly abused, it’s a great example of a full-on Lifetime Movie, in which those who enjoy Lifetime fare will love what they have here, and those without will likely not.

The folks out at Lifetime sent over a copy of Comfort and Joy as part of their surprisingly large slate of Christmas movies, so we’re tucking in, and interestingly enough, this will manage to do something unsettlingly original…for Lifetime, anyway…so brace yourselves, because this should be good.

Comfort and Joy takes what so many Christmas movies before it have done…and then does the exact opposite. Instead of starting out with a mother / housewife / family gal who longs to have all the great creature comforts in life, then suddenly gets them, and discovers that she’d rather have the love of a family like she once knew instead, Comfort and Joy starts us out with the powerful single lady, Jane Berry, who has it all…and then discovers that that life was a dream, and she’s actually been a mother / housewife / family gal all along. And the more time she spends with her new family, the more she likes it. But she can’t quite remember just how she got there…and the more she finds out, the stranger things get.

I have to give Lifetime some credit–I’ve given them plenty of abuse here–they’ve actually done something halfway original here. I never would have thought of taking the old Christmas cliche about “the love of family is so much more important than things” and upending it to show the same basic lesson, just in a different direction. It’s a fairly clever move, and given that I haven’t seen a whole lot of clever moves come out of Lifetime, it turns “fairly clever move” into “epic move of catastrophic brilliance”.

And as strange as things are in this alternate universe, it’s actually rather surprising noticing how many things stay the same. Strange and puzzling phenomena, they just abound out here. The strangest things keep cropping up, and it’s actually interesting to watch Jane try to absorb these new shocks. New shocks will hit Jane semiminutely in this little universe.

Though this risk Lifetime has taken is not without cost: they’ll get better than halfway through the movie and we’ll have no clearer understanding of how Jane got into her alternate universe than we did before she even got there in the first place. By the time the two-thirds mark hits, we still have no clue what’s going on. It’s downright bewildering. But then, this time, it’s not just because Lifetime can’t make a good movie to save its own life, but rather, because the main character spends the entire movie bewildered, and we’re sharing in the confusing experience.

And no, we’ll never found out how Jane slipped into her alternate dimension. But Lifetime buffs won’t care in the slightest, because they’ll be too busy enjoying the funny, romantic fare set before them to notice that the plot’s got more holes than cheesecloth.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, does care about such things but rewards a chance taken, and thus gives the somewhat unique for Lifetime Comfort and Joy a six out of ten for doing a decent job and taking risks, even if they don’t exactly end well.