source: The Santa Stakeout

7/10 - this is so far the 2021 Hallmark Christmas movie to beat with a nice mixture between romance and mystery which will be sure to thrill fans of the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries offerings throughout the rest of the year.

I am absolutely in love with Christmas movies and I loved it 😍 it is definitely a must watch! I absolutely love Tamera in it too would love to see her in more Christmas movies!

Well this was a great way to kick off the holiday season for me I loved the banter between the two leads. The humor and chemistry felt natural. The movie had more of solid storyline and I plan on watching this again. Would love to see these two in another movie!

I really enjoyed this movie; it wasn't cheesy, it was actually really funny and had a good storyline. I will be watching this again for sure, my father in law even gave his two thumbs up.

Is this a great hallmark Xmas movie no it's not but it's different from all the rest. The plot is actually good even tho hallmark did a bad job at it but it's different from all the other hallmark films which I really enjoyed. I loved the chemistry between the leads also. It's not the best film but it has its moments and becomes it's different from the rest it's one of the better ones.

This movie was awesome!! The entire cast was amazing! This is a new classic for your Christmas movie archive. This movie has a lot of funny moments which made it really fun to watch with the family.

She is very... unpleasant. Cannot watch it more than 10 minutes, my time is very precious. Fortunately, i didn't payed for it. When you watch a movie, you have to be attracted by the main characters, else it's a waste of time. Just another movie when they choose the characters based on the woke culture. A total failure.

The premise sounded really fun and have always liked the mix of Christmas and mystery (and mystery of any kind, not just murder) in film and television. Hallmark has always varied with their festive output, and 2021, in both the Countdown to Christmas and Miracles of Christmas/Hallmark Movies and Mysteries blocks, was very hit and miss. When they hit, the results were surprisingly very well done. When they missed, they missed big time. For me, 'The Santa Stakeout' is neither one of the hits or one of the misses overall, though it is closer to the hits category. It is far from perfect and it isn't my definition of great, with a few big things that stopped it from being potentially one of the best of the festive season. But 'The Santa Stakeout' was clearly having a lot of fun with the premise, how could anybody not have fun with it, and doesn't waste it at all. Also think that it is not as cheesy as it sounds from reading the title. A lot is good. Paul Campbell carries the film incredibly well, he has great comic timing (have not seen him show that before to the extent that he does here), he looks very relaxed and like he was enjoying himself and he doesn't overdo the egotistical aspect of the character, by the end of the film the character managed to be likeable. A lot of the playful banter between him and Tamara Mowry-Housley is very funny. Personally found much of the story very engaging and that the mystery intrigued, don't agree that it dragged. It doesn't come over as too complicated but it isn't too overly simple either. The supporting cast are solid and deliver with gusto, with Joe Pantoliano really brightening things up in a performance on Campbell's level. It is pleasing visually and the audio doesn't overbear. The script is on the most part smart and very amusing. Mowry-Housley is less consistent. She does have sparkling moments where she is funny and she certainly doesn't look bored, but she has a number of instances where she overplays and it comes over as forced. It also made me find it difficult to get behind her character when she was abrasive and over-bearing. She and Campbell do have chemistry and at its best it's playful and sparkling, but in their more antagonistic moments the writers go overboard and it was like they were straining too hard for laughs or something. While the supporting characters are a colourful lot, there perhaps could have been less of them so that we could have gotten to know them more. While the story always engages and the clues are neat, the final solution was not really a surprise with it being considered strongly quite some way before the end. Concluding, good fun and while my recommendation is not of the ecstatic kind it is not the dithering kind either. 6/10.

I really like this movie. Enjoyable from start to finish. It is great seeing Joe Pantoliano in this movie. He is the heart and soul of the story. Interestingly, my other favorite Hallmark Christmas movie, A Season For Miracles, also revolves around a police department. Maybe the police angle gives these stories a little more gravity so they're not too saccharine. I also like the pace of the movie. The romantic evolution really takes its time and feels a lot more natural. This movie is excellent throughout.