Flying hatchets. Running with chainsaws.

These people will do anything for $50,000. But in this economy, who can blame them?

By Jason Hink

We’re getting serious at Drunk TV, arguing about how much booze to put under the Christmas tree this year (we finalize budgets early in the year), and filing these Christmas movie reviews early! And when I say Christmas movies, I’m talkin’ light, cheesy, romantic Christmas flicks…with a little adventure thrown in from time to time.

For this go-around, it’s a lumberjack competition/romance mashup with a WWE superstar in Christmas in the Rockies, a 2020 streaming TV movie from Brain Power Studio in association with INSP Films and Fox Nation, released on DVD by Imagicomm Entertainment (with distribution from our friends at Mill Creek Entertainment). Starring Kimberly-Sue Murray and Stephen Huszar, with some added juice from Trish Stratus, everyone’s in peak physical condition for this holiday treat!

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It’s Christmastime in Homewood in the snowy Rockies. Katie (Kimberly-Sue Murray) is your typical overachieving, Hallmark-movie small-town girl, and she’s moving away from the sticks (and the family lumber mill) to NYC for a white collar job in a high rise, working to (what else?) save the environment. Her dad, Gordon (Mike Shara), doesn’t want her to go and makes sure we know it, giving her the cold shoulder just before Grandpa Sam (Nigel Bennett) drives her to the airport.

But things don’t go as planned. As Katie and Grandpa are en route, they spot trouble in the form of emergency vehicles heading in the opposite direction. A cellphone call to her dad goes unanswered and Katie immediately tells Grandpa to turn around and head back to the mill. There, she finds what she dreaded; there has indeed been an accident. Her father has been badly injured and is being loaded into an ambulance with unknown injuries. Of course, among the paramedics is tall, handsome Harrison (Stephen Huszar), who catches Katie’s eye and is traveling an opposite trek having moved to Homewood from NYC (he wants to start an outdoors camp for the less fortunate, of course. These people are the best).

With Katie’s dad now recovering and wheelchair-bound, her ex-boyfriend Jake (Carlisle J. Williams) takes over running the family business, much to Katie’s dissatisfaction (she thinks she’s capable of running it, and she’s put her position in NYC in jeopardy by delaying her move). When ex beau Jake slips that the mill is in trouble and an influx of cash is needed to avoid its closure, Katie happens upon the perfect money-making scheme at the local bar while pounding some brews with her friend Amanda (Paniz Zade): she’ll enter the annual town lumberjack competition and win its $50,000 grand prize. While discussing this plan with Amanda, EMT Harrison walks into the bar…and in a movie like this, you know what that leads to.

Gordon, Katie’s dad, was a longtime champ at the lumberjack competition, and Grandpa Sam before him. Grandpa begins training Katie as Marie (WWE star Trish Stratus), one of her dad’s old friends and a former lumberjack champ herself, returns to town to help organize the event and show the locals how to look sexy at 45. Will Katie break herself juggling all this stress? Will she (as the back of the DVD box states) choose the contest, her dream job, or her heart? Do you think you know the answer? (Of course you do.)

The TV rom-com template is solidly in place here. If you’re into these romance cutefests with story beats you can see coming from a light year away, you’ll be right at home with Christmas in the Rockies. And if you’re not a fan of modern cable TV rom-coms, why are you reading this right now? Director Justin G. Dyck knows the gig; his IMDB lists directorial credits of around 20 similar TV Christmas films dating back to 2014’s My Dad is Scrooge. Similarly, screenwriter Neale Elizabeth Kimmel has racked up the light-Christmas and romance movie credits, including 2022’s Love in Wolf Creek.

One thing I enjoy about the actors in these films how relatively unknown they are, and seeing if they ever break big. Many don’t even have a Wikipedia page, and their IMDB listings often look self-authored. They’re hustling, getting work, and making it happen…and I find it fascinating. Frankly, if I were an actor, these professionally produced (but under-the-radar) films would be my favorite way to make money, pay the bills, and stay out of the Hollywood crapshow spotlight.

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Among her many film credits, Christmas in the Rockies lead Kimberly-Sue Murray is also a prolific series TV actress, with episode credits on shows such as Rookie Blue, Shadowhunters, The Wedding Planners, and the 2015 miniseries The Lizzie Borden Chronicles. Canadian co-lead Stephen Huszar has starred in many of these Christmas-themed TV movies with many having aired aired (or streamed) on Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and Netflix. He also appeared as the villain Plunder on The CW’s DC Comics-based series The Flash in 2017. Meanwhile, the most recognizable face here is professional wrestler Trish Stratus, one of WWF/WWE’s biggest superstars, whose peak years were roughly 2000 to 2009. Her role here is largely cosmetic, but the name recognition alone helps sell the film to additional viewers who otherwise wouldn’t be interested. (Trust me, I’ve watched a lot of silly Hulk Hogan movies over the years for this very reason.)

Most of these Imagicomm releases I’ve seen and reviewed originally aired on the cable/digital networks INSP TV or UPtv—two outlets that specialize in “inspirational” and “uplifting” (get it?), family-friendly fare. But the pre-home video production and release history for this title is more interesting. In November 2020, the subscription-based streaming network FOX Nation announced Christmas in the Rockies as the service’s first holiday-themed original scripted production, and was exclusive to the platform in the United States through video on demand for a full year, until November 2021. In a cross-promotional nod to the streamer’s parent network, TV personalities Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt have cameo appearances in Christmas in the Rockies. The pair were then co-hosts of FOX & Friends, a program on cable’s FOX News Channel.

Your enjoyment of Christmas in the Rockies will hinge on whether or not you like these cheesy cable quickies…but I’ll go out on a limb and say that this one is less cheesy than most, with strong performances from the leads along with director Dyck’s cutting out some of those schmaltzy, awkward glances and stares between lovebirds that so often take me out of the moment in similar films. Also enjoyable is the batsh*t crazy and dangerous events at the lumberjack contest! After the more straight forward wood-cutting events (which would be enough for me), there are hatchet throws and races with chainsaws (while balancing on elevated beams)! It’s all well staged, with good stunt lumberjack work from Clarke and Jaclyn Ellah.

Of course, if I ever tried it I’d put myself in the hospital from a self-inflicted mishap. But thankfully, this DVD release from Imagicomm and Mill Creek gives us a safe way to enjoy the danger.

Jason Hink is a writer, editor and content producer. Sign up for his Email Newsletter here. For more of Jason’s reviews, visit here.