I’ll admit it. And so will you, if you’re woman (or gay man) enough. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with watching a sweet, sappy, adequately-scripted movie that gives a fading (or recently resurrected) celebrity a chance to shine again. (Note: It’s only slightly wrong to watch a marathon of them.)
ABC Family has announced that Mario Lopez (pictured) and Melissa Joan Hart will soon start filming the romantic comedy Holiday in Handcuffs. Melissa plays a waitress/painter who’s so desperate to show her family that she’s part of a couple that she kidnaps a customer (Lopez) and forces him to be her bf. I love it already.
The question: Where will it rank among ABC Family’s past offerings? Could it possibly rival:
-I Want to Marry Ryan Banks: Jason Priestley is a bad-boy actor who turns to a Bachelor-like reality show to clean up his image; Alias‘ Bradley Cooper is his manager-best friend who falls for the leading contestant (Buffy’s Emma Caulfield).
-This Time Around: A former ugly duckling (Popular’s Carly Pope) plots to take down the former most popular guy in high school (Brian Austin Green)… but begins to fall in love with him.
-Lucky 7: Kimberly Williams-Paisley is convinced she’ll marry the 7th man she falls in love with, but her alleged Mr. Right (Brad Rowe) is only No. 6. Enter Patrick Dempsey, a bagel shop manager who needs a pretend date for a wedding.
Fess up: what are your favorite ABC Family movies?
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“Holiday in Handcuffs” sounds a little saucy for ABC Family…ooo-eee!
Brandonk – that it does! But in the perrenial battle over UBERcheesy made-for-tv movies, I’ll choose LIFETIME over ABC Family ANYDAY OF THE WEEK. Where else can you get your dose of 1)women with just about every recorded cancer known to man, fighting to be cured and rebuilding their lives. 2) women with abusive husbands, fight to break free, and live their lives in peace. 3)women with highend careers desperately for love, and only finding it with other women. 4)women will ALL the aforementioned afflictions! Now THAT’S entertainment!
i’m gay man enough: the title alone does it for me.
Jeez, I guess I feel inappropriately gay. I’m a straight man, and I enjoy these cheese fests quite a bit. I was fond of Relative Chaos recently, or perhaps it’s just because it included 2 Buffy alums, and the magic that is Terry Bradshaw’s terrible acting.
I love ABC Family movies! They are all so chessy and predictable…I find them extremely comforting!
Other good ones:
See Jane Date (with Charisma Carpenter)
Picking Up & Dropping Off (with Scott Wolf)
Pizza My Heart (w/ Shiri Appleby)
I love Celeste in the City!!
I LOVE the ABC Family original movies!! My faves are See Jane Date and the one with Carly Pope as the food critic and Bobby Cannavale as the chef trying to save his restaurant (I don’t remember the name). I’m also a sucker for a Harlequin romance flick or any Danielle Steele film adaptation that they always show on WE or Oxygen.
They’re my guilty pleasure!!
Roel honey, I’m with you! Mario Lopez and the word handcuffs together are enough for me to start watching ABC made movies.
By far the best one so far has been Pop Rocks with Gary Cole as the rocker in hiding in the subarbs.
Celeste in the City is my favorite thing ever! Ethan Embry is such a hottie! “Ethan Embry” and “hot” in the same sentence … never thought it would be until I saw this. Oh, and Deb(orah)bie Gibson has a minor role. Bonus!
Charlotte, if you like “Pizza My Heart” you must go to televisionwithoutpity.com and read the “recap.”
“Snow” with Tom Cavanaugh
What about the ABC family movie where the plus size girl has the cute guy and wins the beauty contest. I think Fran Dresher was her mom. Finally a girl what actually eats a meal and has hips actually has it all.
I Want to Marry Ryan Banks is one of my favorites – and pretty tongue-in-cheek for ABC Family.
Not sure how I feel about “Holidays in Hand-cuffs” – in defense of “desperate” girls, I hope there’s more to the story.
I love me some Lucky 7. It’s definitely one of those guilty pleasures I watch if I see it on. Patrick Dempsey is so hubba hubba in that.
See Jane Date was awesome.
This time around was definately my favorite! I love these movies. I’ve seen them all but every time one comes on even if it is shown more than once in a night I find myself watching.
love ABC Family movies!
I even love their shows… Kyle XY, Falcon Beach (awful!), and Wildfire.
Bring it, ABC Family!
Not to know ABCfamily’s movies (I did adore This Time Around) but my all-time favorite made for TV Cheesefest has to go to Oxygen’s “Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber”– with Jennifer Love Hewitt.
See Jane Date. Not bad only a little sap (for ABC Family at least).
Not only do I LOVE Lucky 7–I have it on DVD! Great movie!
Lucky 7 and See Jane Date are awesome!
I know these are not ABCFamily movies, but they fit in the genre. I heart both Teen Witch and A Walk To Remember. I also enjoyed See Jane Date. It had that hot guy from All My Children in it. Mmmnnnnn.
It’s my lot in life to get drawn into these cheesey movies. I can’t help it (I have a weakness for Lifetime movies as well). The moment a double entendre about tops and bottoms was uttered in “Celeste in the City” I was a goner.
“the one with Carly Pope as the food critic and Bobby Cannavale as the chef trying to save his restaurant (I don’t remember the name).”
It was called “Recipe for a Perfect Christmas”, and I absolutely loved that movie! Definitely my favorite ABC family movie to date (I am so sad).
I caught “Snow” with Tom Cavanaugh over the holidays. He played St. Nick junior wooing a comely zoo keeper. It was friggin adorable from start to finish.
ABC Family movies are a HUGE guilty pleasure for me and my sister. Usually I pride myself in my good taste in movies, but for some reason I love every beautifully crappy movie they make.
Is I Want to Marry Ryan Banks on DVD? It’s by far my favorite.
“I want to Marry Ryan Banks!” I can hear the theme song playing in my head right now. haha oh man! Those movies suck so bad they’re good!
Aw, I loved “Celeste in the City” and “I Want to Marry Ryan Banks”. I could watch either one all day long (and, sadly, have)…
Celeste in the City, Snow and I Want to Marry Ryan Banks are all supercute (in a non-nauseating way).
RECIPE FOR A PERFECT CHRISTMAS AIRED ON LIFETIME.. AND I LOVED IT TOO! MY FAVORITE ABC FAMILY MOVIES ARE BEAUTIFUL GIRL STARRING THE BEAUTIFUL GIRL MARISSA JARET WINOKUR, SEE JANE DATE WITH THE CHARISMATIC CHARISMA CARPENTER, AND LUCKY 7.