User reviews

I'm sorry, but this felt as if it had been written by a group 16 year olds who couldn't agree on which direction the plot should take. Normally I'd rate anything with Tyler Hynes in it a 9 or 10, but this just was not a fitting vehicle for his talent. His part could have been played by anyone. What a waste of talent. The movie itself was slow, rambling and muddled and not worth the watch for me - though I did watch till the end hoping there'd be some redeeming quality, some epiphany or...something. The characters were lukewarm at best and unlikeable at the worst - not enough interest in any of them to care what happened. Guess I expect Hallmark to raise the bar for Christmas but not this time.

Tyler Haynes and Janel Parrish are of my favorite Hallmark actors and I looked forward to seeing them together in this movie. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. After seeing this movie, I'm actually surprised that with their talent, they even agreed to do the movie. The storyline was a little immature as were the characters in the movie. I kept watching, hoping that it would improve, but, that didn't happen. I watched until the very end and then I deleted the movie from my saved list, it definitely wasn't worth watching again. I hope Hallmark realizes that they have some very talented actors and starts giving them parts more suited to their abilities.

Best friends and successful business partners, Liz (Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes) and Naomi (Janel Parrish), return to their hometown for the holidays, where they run into former high school crush, Chris (Tyler Hynes). Back in the day, they were not on his radar, but now they actually get to know him, and they find him charming. He initiates spending more time together, which fans the flames of ardor, possibly leading to conflict between the two best friends.

While the women deal with old feelings from high school and feel friction from their mothers, they reassess their own relationship.

The strong point of this film is the believable relationship between its two female stars. This is a buddy film of sorts, so thankfully their chemistry is strong. In addition, both of them are excellent actresses with the ability to handle both comedy and drama.

Tyler Hynes is a Hallmark stalwart. Here he gives his usually-dependable performance, though the film focuses more on the females.

This was THE worst movie ever. First premise was stupid and male lead was terrible actor. Every review talks about how great an actor Tyler Hynes is but he totally phoned it in. So wooden, was actually cringeworthy. And what's with the vegan storyline. That just didn't seem to be applicable. Did AI write this? I'm sorry. There's no way that the brainiac girl suddenly wants to hang with the popular kids that ignored her 17 years earlier. She's better than that. This friendship didn't make sense. I kept expecting it to be some odd prank played in the successful girls. And again the vegan story line while he's sneaking fish. Who does that!!!!!

Never Been Chris'd (2023) -

The two lead girls, Naomi (Janel Parrish) and Liz (Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes) were a bit much right from the start, as were Chris' friend group and all of the parents.

Naomi and Liz got progressively worse as the film moved on and I couldn't work out how Chris (Tyler Hynes) would ever fall for either of them. He was far too cool a character to be involved with any of the rest of them. But thank God for him, because we all know that I wouldn't have made it to the end of this film without Tyler's charming good looks and cheeky suaveness. Ultimately he was far too talented to be in this film surrounded by such terrible co-stars too. He was so effortless compared to everyone else's forced enthusiasm and extreme deliveries. They were all "On" all of the time and what I believe the kids call "Extra" and not in a good way.

I definitely thought about turning it off whenever Tyler wasn't on screen.

In the beginning I kept expecting some magic wish granting old lady to appear and give the girls a chance to go back in time and change things, because it seemed to be going that way, so it was a surprise that it ended up being just a constant stream of reuniting with people from high school when the two girls went home (To their small town) for Christmas whilst hoping to hear whether their app would get funding.

I did however like the fact that for the most part it was unclear who the gorgeous Chris would end up with and I was actually hoping that he would turn out to be gay so that the story would be all about the girls friendship being tested instead, just for something brand new from this genre. Although I did appreciate that this was a differently styled storyline anyway.

I also liked the inclusion of Hannukkah celebrations which wasn't forced and explained some of the festival's details and actually helped to make the film more festive and Christmassy somehow, with a generally warm and family orientated vibe of celebration and food.

The two ladies faced some decisions about their future as the film progressed and what they would do about their mutual attraction to Chris. This caused some obvious friction, but actually made the film less silly, because they were finally behaving like adults.

I enjoyed the general premise, but I felt that it could have been delivered a lot better and that some tweaks might have made the story even more solid, but in the end it was Tyler that saved it, because I would never have stuck all the way through it for just the giggly girls.

5.59/10.

This is not a typical Hallmark Christmas movie. It is, however, funny. The characters are immature and self centered without the more normal over the top "proof" of immaturity, shallowness and self absorption. They are presented in a "stupid" manner, which is not a failure of the script writing, but it is deliberate. It is comical as it was intended to be. There is no heart warming lesson (or a tying together of the story lines), no typified misunderstanding that gets rectified nor an engagement ring on Christmas Eve. It's comical as we both laugh at the characters and empathize with them. I enjoyed its edge of humor.

Five points for Tyler Hynes, one point for the rest. I will watch anything with Tyler Hynes in it but I probably won't watch this again. I like both of the female leads also but this was an embarrassment to them and an insult to women. They acted like two middle school students with a crush on the star athlete. Women, especially thirtyish successful business women do not act like that. The script must have been written as a school project. Or maybe it was in the direction. The second half was better than the first but that didn't save it. Too bad. The premise was interesting but something went very wrong.

Naomi and Liz have been friends forever, they studied together, live together, work together. They do everything together. They are going home for the holidays where they encounter old high school classmates and among them is Chris, their old crush.

This movie barely had any romance in it. You go into it thinking that this is a love triangle, and he has to decide at the end. And it is, for about 4 scenes but a choice is quickly made. However, this situation carries our leads into uncomfortable moments, making them re think about past choices.

I personally didn't like it that much. I know these situations happen but it wasn't what I was expecting. I want to watch people fall in love, not two friends fighting and questioning the other. There clearly are a lot of unresolved issues.

This also had people who peaked in high school and kind of lived in the past and those are the worst kind of people.

Tyler's character could have easily been removed from this script (and I'm not even going to talk about the fish thing). Is this the only Christmas movie he will be in this year?

I know I push for more diverse plots but this is not what I was talking about. There were a lot of wrong things with the characters AND the plot.

You know what would have make more sense at this point? The girls ending up with each other.

I absolutely love Tyler Hynes and couldn't wait to see this! Now I wonder why he would take this role in such an awfully scripted movie? His acting was fine, but watching supposed 35-year-olds act like 13-year olds - no,worse than 13-year-olds - was painful. (Seriously, hiding behind a clothing rack because your high school crush walks into the store, and then explaining your odd behavior by saying you were playing a game??) The only redeeming factor was that Hallmark hasn't started making threescore part if the plot, because I seriously worried if it was headed that direction. I'll take reruns of It Was Always You any day if this is all Hallmark can come up for new movies.

Man, so that was SO bad.

Hallmark was apparently trying for somethind different but it looked like a bunch of writers tossed partial scripts in a hat and then tried to put them together. Plus borrowing from Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

The female leads (in their 30's) blathered on and on like 13 year olds and acted like them as well. The high school gang schtick was cringe-worthy with charicatures of every type of "never grew up" character. The mothers were both over-the-top caricatures of weird moms as well.

Why everyone was supposedly gaga over Chris is a mystery based on how Tyler portrayed him; he totally phoned in the role. What the whole "I am a vegan" bit was pointless and stupid.

There was no chemistry at all between Chris and the ultimate choice. And Hallmark had the chance to do something different and interesting - ditch the romance and have the two friends part company but remain single - but, as always, Hallmark never fails to disappoint. Gotta have the female paired up because, in Hallmarkia, single women are faiures in life without a man to lean on.

This was so boring that I could barely pay attention. I don't know why Tyler Hines was even in it, except maybe to get us to watch it. His role seemed forced and didn't really fit.

Because it was basically about these two girls that I never really cared about at all. Not their friendship, not their history, and not their present.

And once again, what they showed us this movie was going to be about, never really materialized. Just like a movie with Alison Sweeney, about a card, which was about other characters that I also never cared about. It's the classic bait and switch.

So, I could barely give this movie a three. Even two seems too much.

It's a boring snooze that I will not watch again.

Disappointing waste of one of the best actors (It Was Always You -Tyler Hynes) in this juvenile, ridiculous, petulant movie about 30 somethings acting like16 year olds. The characters were without honesty and there was little to relate to or sympathize with, other than they had to act in this movie. Worse than high school, it felt more junior high school. A script without heart or soul. Even the romance, and I use the term loosely, was empty and unbelievable. Whoever greenlit this has no idea why viewers watch Hallmark. It is not for juvenile and silly. So far the new batch of Christmas movies are mostly unwatchable, unreal, and under par.

I really enjoyed this movie, it was fun and nostalgic. It felt like it had more meat to the story than your average G-rated holiday movie. I appreciate the touches of realness in terms of dealing with family members and found family.

I very much was rooting for this to actually be a throuple. The real chemistry, in my opinion, was with the besties Liz and Naomi. I admit I was hoping they would end up together. I felt some serious queer coding at the Hanukkah party and they were each wearing half of a pants suit.

Also, Chris is a low key villain here. He's totally playing both ladies. Not cool.

For me the worst part of the movie is all the vegan stuff. Sorry to my fellow millennials, but I'm a Dairytarian so the idea of vegan eggnog, hot cocoa and cheese bummed me out.

What a disappointment. This movie had an ill conceived plot and no chemistry between the actors. None of the characters is charming. Even halfway through it's still unclear who we should be routing for. This Lead male actor usually is fun in Hallmark movies but here his portrayal is wooden. You don't want either woman to end up with him! I also strongly disliked the underlying premise of rivalry between women friends over this MEH guy. Painful to watch. I Missed the usual Hallmark portrayal of warmth and support. Skip this one! No romance or holiday good cheer in this movie. Overall, a downer.

I have never written a review, but I chose to with this because it was so disappointing. The two lead actresses weren't bad, but their story was the most interesting part and I actually was hoping Liz and Chris would end up together. I couldn't get into the storyline they came up with at all. I agree with another reviewer that they wasted the talent of Tyler Hynes. Anybody could have played that part. I like to watch these movies to relax and not watch filth in a romance. I don't feel like there was any romance in this. I couldn't care less if they got together and as a matter of fact, I hoped they wouldn't because there was more chemistry with the other leading actress. It could have been great. The lead actresses were good. The plot not so much. It just wasn't very good, sadly. I expected to love it. Disappointed in the writers. And why did they not use the talent they were given here??

Normally Hallmark movies with Janel Parrish and Tyler Hynes are very good to excellent, but I can't say the same about this one, though it wasn't their fault. The storyline was very ill conceived and sophomoric, as many reviewers already stated. Naomi (Parrish), Chris (Hynes) and Liz (Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes) are high school classmates, and Naomi and Liz have remained close friends and business partners and both had a crush on Chris back in the day. Fast forward to present day, a high school reunion is about to take place and both of the women find themselves in a quandary over their feelings for Chris. I felt embarrassed for the actors because they were too old for a juvenile storyline like this. One thing I found sort of interesting was the storyline regarding both women's relationships with their moms. Beyond that, I did not enjoy this movie at all.

If you're looking for a fun class-reunion type of movie, I suggest Christmas Class Reunion with Aimee Teegarden and Tanner Novlan. The storyline is much more well conceived, the characters are better written and it's much more enjoyable. If you're looking for a really good holiday movie featuring Janel Parrish, watch Holly & Ivy because it's very well written, well acted and very touching. And if you're looking for a fun holiday movie featuring Tyler Hynes, watch An Unexpected Christmas.

Do I love all things Tyler Hynes? Yes.

Never Been Chris'd did not disappoint. The whole cast did a phenomenal job. I loved the storyline of the high school reunion among the holiday celebrations. The movie was full of Christmas fun and I loved how they incorporated Hanukah as well.

The movie reminded me of when I go home for the holidays and I wonder if I will run into my high school classmates.

I like how Hallmark has been approaching their movies lately. We don't just have a story about someone falling in love, we have a spotlight on friendships being tested and strengthened, as well. I will definitely be rewatching this one over and over.

This movie was a big disappointment for Tyler Hynes fans. He did his best as usual but the storyline stunk! I'm not a fan of the actress that played Naomi anyhow. I watch everything with Tyler Hynes in it so they had me watching it regardless. I just think his talents were wasted on this piece of fluff that was more a teeny plot than an adult thing. Tyler Hynes is Tyler Hynes so you had me regardless of how bad it was. The two girls act like they are still in high school and Tyler's character was the exact opposite of his high school character. Who came up with this fluff?

I just hope his next project will showcase his talents better and have a little more umph to the plot! Love you, Tyler!