Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Adam and Alison Watch Christmas Movies: THREE WISE MEN AND A BABY

 by Adam Thas & Alison Thas

A movie that answers the question “What would happen if a Christian improv group decided to write a movie?”

Alison: Selecting a holiday movie amongst the sea of possibilities becomes a little difficult as the season goes on. I just so happened to see a headline while perusing Facebook – the most watched holiday movie this past weekend was Hallmark’s Three Wise Men and a Baby. The title suggested an unusual plot – at least for a Christmas movie – so I figured this would be something worthwhile to watch.

We meet the three brothers in the first few moments of the film. While they may all be brothers, they are very different in their personalities and interests. They all still live at home with their mother and so when the eldest brother, a firefighter, brings home a baby that was left at the station, no one panics. The note left with the baby explains that the baby’s mother would return on Christmas Eve, which is only a few days away. Things with the baby go smoothly, with the brothers’ mom taking care of the baby while the brothers continue on with their lives. Unfortunately, a family member has an emergency that only the mother can attend to and so the three brothers are left alone with the baby. Naturally, these three bachelors don’t have any idea on how to care for a baby and the hijinks ensue.

The movie started out strong enough to capture my attention and interest; however, it just didn’t have enough oomph to the story line to maintain it. The magic of the '80s movie with a similar plot line did not transfer to this holiday version. The goofy hijinks weren’t that funny and there wasn’t that much dramatic tension to make you wonder how the movie would end. On a positive note, the movie had enough holiday merriment to help cancel out the plot holes in the story. It gave some good Christmas vibes, which means it didn’t end up at the bottom of my movie list.
Adam: I am pretty sure this movie started with the title and worked backwards. I cannot blame them, though; with now Hulu and Amazon jumping into an already crowded field of holiday movies, the title and banner and concept are becoming more important than what is actually in the movie. In concept, “Three brothers are surprised when they find themselves forced to care for a baby during the holidays” sounded solid enough for us to give it a chance. In reality, it is a series of antics that are barely amusing or funny. In one “hilarious” scene the baby poops and they have to change the diaper. In another, the brothers perform a dance in front of the Christmas tree which apparently is so funny they need to call back the same joke at the end of the movie.

There isn’t any real drama in the movie, but the screenwriters at least have a basic concept of how a narrative works. The writers understand that characters should grow or change from the beginning to the end of the movie, all of which is done through a four minute scene in a car between the brothers, where they tell us exactly how they’re growing. However, if you were not paying attention during those four minutes where the growing is explained, they also add a “One Year Later” scene where we learn that all the couples got together. If you are not a fan of the plot, humor, or characters, some movies have drama or suspense to fall back on. Well, unfortunately the highest level of drama achieved in Three Wise Men and a Baby is that the power goes out.

Three Wise Men and Baby has very little to like. It was not even a “Fun Bad.” It was just bad. Looking at our list of movies it is becoming apparent that while Hallmark made the genre famous, Netflix has more quality in their releases. The best thing that I can say about Three Wise Men and a Baby is that it is insanely short with a runtime of 84 minutes, so while it’s a waste of time, it's not a lot of time.

Adam’s List:
1) Holidate (2020, Netflix)
2) Love Hard (2021, Netflix)
3) Holiday Calendar (2018, Netflix)
4) Snowed Inn (2017, Hallmark)
5) The Princess Switch (2018, Netflix)
6) Falling for Christmas (2022, Netflix)
7) The Knight Before Christmas (2019, Netflix)
8) Midnight at the Magnolia (2020, Netflix)
9) Christmas Under Wraps (2014, Hallmark)
10) The Princess Switch 2: Switched Again (2020, Netflix)
11) The Noel Diary (2022, Netflix)
12) The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star (2021, Netflix)
13) One Royal Holiday (2020, Hallmark)
14) Christmas on the Farm (2022, Hulu)
15) Holiday in the Wild (2019, Netflix)
16) Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe (2018, Hallmark)
17) Three Wise Men and a Baby (2022, Hallmark)

Alison’s List:
1) The Princess Switch (2018, Netflix)
2) Love Hard (2021, Netflix)
3) Holiday Calendar (2018, Netflix)
4) Falling for Christmas (2022, Netflix)
5) Holidate (2020, Netflix)
6) The Knight Before Christmas (2019, Netflix)
7) Midnight at the Magnolia (2020, Netflix)
8) Christmas Under Wraps (2014, Hallmark)
9) Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe (2018, Hallmark)
10) The Princess Switch 2: Switched Again (2020, Netflix)
11) Snowed Inn (2017, Hallmark)
12) The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star (2021, Netflix)
13) One Royal Holiday (2020, Hallmark)
14) The Noel Diary (2022, Netflix)
15) Three Wise Men and a Baby (2022, Hallmark)
16) Christmas on the Farm (2022, Hulu)
17) Holiday in the Wild (2019, Netflix)

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "I am pretty sure this movie started with the title and worked backwards. I cannot blame them, though; with now Hulu and Amazon jumping into an already crowded field of holiday movies, the title and banner and concept are becoming more important than what is actually in the movie."

    Come, now! Let us not succumb to what that great mind of our era, President Dubya, called the "soft bigotry of low expectations." If a cheapo Christmas flick's quality is in large part predetermined by its title and concept, then the titles/concepts should be better! Where's our Karaoke Planet Christmas movie? Or our Werewolf vs. Zombies Christmas? Or A Very Merry Satanic Satanmass? What about Roller Derby Olympus Winter Solstice for the heathens out there?

    As for myself, I eagerly await A Camelot Christmas vs. Land Sharks. If Legends of Tomorrow could put together this kind of spectacle on a modest budget, so can Hallmark and Netflix. :)

    ReplyDelete