The Santa Squad (TV Movie 2020)

The Santa Squad: Directed by John Bradshaw. With Aaron Ashmore, Rebecca Dalton, Michael Therriault, Hattie Kragten. Allie, an out of work art teacher, has to accept a job with the Santa Squad to help wealthy widower Gordon and his two precious daughters rediscover the magic of Christmas.

“Rebecca Dalton shines as Allie, a good-natured teacher laid off due to budget cuts and ended up employed by a wealthy family to decorate their home for Christmas. While there was the obvious potential for the story to go full-on Hallmark after they introduced Allie to Gordon, the overworked single dad (played by the awesome Aaron Ashmore) who neglected his two daughters, there wasnu0026#39;t enough screen time between the two to flesh out their employer-employee relationship, much less anything beyond. Gordonu0026#39;s two daughters, Allieu0026#39;s best friend Tony, Gordonu0026#39;s butler Daniel plus the old couple at the community centre left very little time for any kind of budding Christmas romance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile the movie adds nothing new to the genre, it was at least warm from start to finish.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe one thing that really bugged me though about this movie was how bad the soundtrack was. While I get that most of these movies donu0026#39;t get enough budget for proper soundtracks, this one sounded cheap and hollow and clashed more than a few times with the pacing and editing, and ruined many pivotal scenes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI hate to say this but had this movie been a Hallmark production, it wouldu0026#39;ve easily gotten at least 7 stars from me.”