Tonight's Movie: Haul Out the Holly - A Hallmark Blu-ray Review (2022)

One of last year's most popular Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, HAUL OUT THE HOLLY (2023), was just released on Blu-ray and DVD.

Although I've only now caught up with it thanks to reviewing the Blu-ray, I heard a lot of especially good buzz about this film last year, along with THREE WISE MEN AND A BABY (2022), which has just had a DVD release.

HAUL OUT THE HOLLY lived up to the hype, and it's easy to see why it not only rated a Blu-ray release but will have a sequel airing on Hallmark Channel later this month. HAUL OUT THE HOLLY: LIT UP (2023) will debut Thanksgiving weekend.

One of the "Christmas Queens" of Hallmark, Lacey Chabert, stars as Emily. As the movie begins, she's just broken up with her long-term boyfriend (Jake Stormoen).

Emily's parents (Peter Jacobson and Carrie Morgan) encourage her to come home for Christmas while she reconfigures her life...but when she gets there she's floored to discover her parents are on the way out the door to house hunt in Florida.

Emily decides to make the best of things and enjoy a relaxing time to herself curled up with Christmas movies...but the neighborhood homeowners association is not about to let that happen.

The HOA, founded by her parents and now run by her childhood friend Jared (Wes Brown), has incredibly complex rules and traditions concerning Christmas decorating and celebrations, and Emily's going to have to join in right away.

I'll warn unsuspecting viewers that in the first couple of scenes people are terrible to Emily, including her parents. However, that quickly dissipates. The secret to the movie is in the charming Chabert's bemused attitude.

Instead of being insulted by her parents and neighbors, she accepts them as the wacky people they are, even bossy, dour Pamela (played in amusingly deadpan fashion by Melissa Peterman). Emily kills Pamela with kindness, up to and including pressing her own ex-boyfriend for a favor, and is amply rewarded by the payoff.

The neighborhood denizens also include Ellen Travolta -- who discussed her joy at being in a Hallmark Christmas movie last year -- and Stephen Tobolowsky. Yes, Tobolowsky is the very same actor who played insurance salesman Ned in GROUNDHOG DAY (1993), and here he plays a nutty neighbor named...Ned.

In fact, the movie is packed with amusing movie references. When Emily sits down to watch a Christmas movie she expresses the hope that it's the one where the heroine finds out her boyfriend is a prince. That would be A ROYAL CHRISTMAS (2014)...starring Lacey Chabert.

She also makes reference to a different Hallmark Christmas film starring one of her most frequent costars, saying "I love that guy," and when she steals a memorable line from one of my favorite films, NOTTING HILL (1999), I laughed out loud.

Capping things off are fun cameos by a couple more Hallmark leading men who appear in small roles as neighbors.

Brown is perfect as the nerdy, Christmas-obsessed architect, and he and Chabert have a nice understanding chemistry. Emily accepts Jared as he is, just as she does the rest of the neighborhood.

Viewers who respond to the film in Emily's style will be rewarded by a fun 84 minutes.

The movie was written by Andy Sandberg and directed by Maclain Nelson. It was filmed by Newton TerMeer in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I really enjoyed this one, and the very nice-looking Blu-ray should receive plenty of play at our house during Christmas seasons to come.

Update: Here's a review of the sequel: HAUL OUT THE HOLLY: LIT UP (2023).

Thanks to Allied Vaughn for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. HAUL OUT THE HOLLY may be purchased from MovieZyng and other online retailers.

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