Movie Review #12 - "The Wishing Tree (2012) -- TV Movie"

Movie Review #12 - "The Wishing Tree (2012) -- TV Movie"

All right ... Before you get started on me for reviewing a TV Movie ... It was on Sunday morning ... I was half asleep at 6:30 AM when I got up ... After breakfast, I woke up and watched some other nameless "Hallmark Channel" Christmas Movie with Tammy (my wife) ... Then, I fell asleep again and started watching this Christmas Movie ...

Me, watching a Christmas movie before Thanksgiving ... That's almost sacrilegious ... But Tammy and I were watching it ....

On IMDB:  "The Wishing Tree (2012) -- TV Movie"

Benny's Tabasco Rating:  1 / 10 Tabasco Peppers (I was close to 0 peppers .. but it allowed me to spend time with my wife.

Synopsis:  First, this movie was on the "Hallmark Channel" ... So ... Don't expect much ... It's a story about a trio of rich prep school kids that are stuck on school grounds during the Christmas break ... Professor Evan Farnsworth (played by Jason Gedrick ... you know him from the 1st and 2nd Iron Eagle movies ... wait .. that's a long time ago ... Maybe his character role in "Backdraft" ... Wait, that's old too! ... He was on "Desperate Housewives" ... any better? ) is recovering from the death of his wife from two years ago and is stuck babysitting the trio of kids at the school ... Along comes "The Wishing Tree" ... It's a fundraiser for the little storybook town ...   Long story short, Professor Farnsworth has dreams about his dead wife ... One of the three kids is a trouble rich kid ... One lacks confidence ... and the other is a kid who lacks acceptance by his classmates in general ... (I feel like I am writing a review for "The Wizard of Oz" (which, by the way, comes on TV on Sunday on TBS on your TV :)  ...

Characters:  Professor Evan Farnsworth is the lead character played by Jason Gedrick.  The character is developed well, but it is SO PREDICTABLE ... You basically can do the dialog without the volume turned up.  The three students, Andrew Breen (played by Richard Harmon ... who?) is the troubled rich kid searching for love from him parents, Juliet Espinoza (played by Emmalynn Estrada ... no relation to Erik Estrada) is the singer who lacks confidence, and Albert Nevins (played by Amatai Mamorstein) is the nerdy kid that no one likes but becomes a great leader, are SO laughable in the acting ... I giggled a lot at the "sad parts" ...

Writing:  It's so predictable that you can look at the title and figure the movie at before watching ... Yes, it's that bad ... No offense to Michael J. Murray, the principal writer, but ... please ... make it interesting ... There are so many cliches in this movie that you have time to fix breakfast and not have missed a thing ....

Cinematography:  Not awful. However, your personal video camera or the one on your phone could do just fine for this movie.

Location:  Not bad for the film.  Set design was decent ... But the writing just dragged the whole movie down.

Direction:  I think that they should have fired both the writer and the director ... Direction was weak at best.

Overall Review:  If it's a Sunday morning, you are half-asleep, and nothing else is on TV, please do the following:
- Change into your pajamas (if you were pajamas)
- Set the thermostat on your heater or air conditioning to the optimal level of comfort
- Dim the lights or close the curtains
- GO BACK TO SLEEP ... 

This movie is not just bad ... It's like a bad dream ...