Love Christmas with all my heart. Love the fun and nostalgia it brings, and cherish all the time spent with family and friends every year. Decided in 2019 to see some newly released (at that time) Christmas films to broaden my Christmas film horizons (namely those from Hallmark and Lifetime), this turned into a quest that is still ongoing. Feelings have been extremely mixed doing this and even when trying to take them for what they're meant to be some have been lacking (though there have been some surprisingly good ones too). 'Christmas Ranch' really isn't one of the better viewings. If anything, closer to being one of the worst. Or at least of my recent Christmas film viewings. It is not a complete shambles and has redeeming merits (a few though), but those are vastly outweighed by everything that is done wrong. Which is sadly a lot and these are not minor things and also the important things to get right. The premise is quite a cute and sincere one, but is executed badly, really badly. Am going to begin with mentioning the good things. The scenery is beautiful and is well photographed. Do agree about the horse being the star of the film, beautifully trained, expressive, adorable and easy to root for. Did like Ken Arnold though as well, he played his role with a good deal of charm and had some nice energy. That is pretty much it. Taylor Lyons comes over as really irritating, too whiny and bratty while also coming over as overwrought. Found her character really unsympathetic, rather selfish and treats people badly when she doesn't get her way. Stefanie Smith goes through the motions and speaks too slowly. The chemistry between the actors isn't there and neither is the direction, which is particularly sluggish in the first half. Of the characters, only Arnold's and the horse's had a degree of likeability, but Lyons' completely lack of likeability unbalances the film badly. The dialogue is awkward and goes overboard on the schmaltz, even for a film that one expects to be on the sappy side. Other than Lyons' character, the worst aspects are the story and the pacing. The story is pretty much non-existent for about 45 minutes and even when any signs of plot kicks in it still manages to be thin with no surprises. Everything with the money is beyond ridiculous as well, as was the too pat ending. The pacing is very sluggish throughout, especially in the first half. In summary, very poorly done. 3/10.

I stumbled across it on Prime, I was bored, so I put it on. Sadly I'm a completionist and needed to see how it ended but I wasted an hour and a half of my life. The biggest issue was the terrible acting. I think they all need to go back to acting school, it was that bad. This was followed closely by a terrible plot that was so completely unbelievable. The movie wasn't even enjoyable. There were no redeeming qualities about the characters. I didn't even feel sorry for the grandmother. The granddaughter was so rude and disrespectful but got away with everything she did. Just bad! Oh and don't get me started on the father's acting. Could he have been more robotic and monotone? Every single line lacked no emotion. I found myself laughing most of the time because his lines were so ridiculous. "But Santa doesn't have a pony," was certainly one of the cornier ones. Save yourself some brain cells and don't watch this terrible movie.

source: Christmas Ranch

Moviecut—Christmas Ranch

Terrible acting, questionable story line and just plain bad. Even if you're bored it's not worth it.

Wow. This is a horrible movie. The attitude and disrespect of the granddaughter is insane! I would slap the you know what out of that kid. Just another movie teaching kids how to be disrespectful little brats.

Writing is bad, acting is bad, story holds no value. The most impressive thing about this movie is the refrigerator that's inside the house.

It's true the writing of this story wasn't up to par, and was apparent to me that virtually any and all other problems with the film can be clearly sourced back to the misdirection of its writing. You can clearly tell that the producer intended this for a select niche. At first I believed it to be the equestrian crowd (of which I'm unfamiliar with, but it was evident enough), but I soon realized that the writer must not have been well versed in marrying this plot with professional horse events. I then gathered that its intended audience went more for ambient feel-good Christmas moments for families. It isn't for everyone. If you don't fit into that category, I would move on, but for those that do, go for it! Sidenote: I'm not as ignorant as some of the other posters as to immediately bash the actors. As a stage director myself, I've seen that the performances of my actors can be affected by such things as poor direction given to them, hurried rehearsal times, or even poor craft services and meals provided, as I've seen many low budget sets provide nothing but starchy carbs for the poor actors to load up on. Who if anyone is working at their top game in anything under those conditions. Were they given trailers and appropriate working hours? Smaller budgets are harsh conditioned like that. That's why Union involvement exists. Again it's quite ignorant to attack an actor's performance without knowing their working conditions. As I previously stated, this is for families looking for a feel-good redemptive movie. For those it isn't for - well, the smart ones move on and spend their valuable time watching things that pertain to them, rather than writing a hate review. In summary: Despite its writing, still enjoyable!

Such a horrible movie. Watched it one night because I was bored. Only good thing about it was a cute horse. At one point the granddaughter asks if Hope is too young to compete and the grandmother says "no he will compete against other ponies his age" ponies are NOT young horses! I have no idea what kind of horse shows they compete in that a horse who can trot over a crossrail while being led can win thousands of dollars.... but I would like to find out! A girl that knows nothing amour horses is training a horse One horse living by itself with no issues ... horses are heard animals. Over all, incredibly painful to watch. Actually laughed out loud at some points

The story of our lifetime. Some people may call this a standard Hallmark movie, unfortunately they are wrong. When talking to the critics, some believed the horse was the best "actor" in this movie. But the father of the disgruntled troubled girl and her possible "lover" James, absolutely steal the show. The raw emotion and dedication of their craft bring a whole new meaning to the phrase, method acting. The young man was somehow able to bring his IQ down to 27 in a way that has not been seen in cinema since Tom Hanks played Forrest Gump in the movie, "Forrest Gump." And the father brought a passion that critics have not seen since Napoleon Dynamite brought in the early 2000s. If you find yourself bored with this movie, stop, and take an introspective look into how you would react if you were stuck on a horse farm with a tired, nap ridden grandmother, and a "special" friend who has no room for original thought. Let the Christmas spirit run through you as a family with 2 parents in the real estate market in a big city in 2016 aren't able to loan you even a portion on $3,500 for the debt to keep their home. But luckily show ponies are a treasure trove! See this movie, please!!