Review: Hallmark’s “All Summer Long”

“All Summer Long” aired August 24, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel.  This summer offering starred Brennan Elliott and Autumn Reeser, two Hallstars that never fail to deliver the goods with their performances. The movie was filmed in Canada (obviously), along the Sunshine Coast in Gibsons near British Columbia. And yet again the Hallmark location scouts did a lovely job in finding a suitable location.  Even though the area did not look anything like San Francisco, I didn’t care!

In a nutshell

I had such high hopes for this movie.  Brennan Elliott is one of my favorite Hallmark leading men, and Autumn Reeser just might be top 10.  But despite great lead actors, beautiful scenery, an amazing looking boat (that creamy yellow color of the ship was striking), and a promising story, this one failed to win me over.

Plot

Tia (Reeser) is a lawyer at her father’s firm in Seattle, but she gets the opportunity of her dreams when her uncle offers her the opportunity to pursue a life long passion: captaining a small ship.  The ship hosts dining cruises on the San Francisco bay, but things go awry when she discovers that the onboard chef is none other than her ex-boyfriend, Jake (Elliott).

Actors

As I said already, Brennan Elliott is one of my favorite Hallstars – in fact, he’s in my Top 3, sharing the honors with Kris Polaha and Paul Campbell.  At any given time they all swap out in the top spot.  In fact, Elliott actually stars in my number one Hallmark movie of all time (“All of My Heart”) on my Hallmark movie ranking spreadsheet.

Reeser is also a favorite – she actually stars in my third favorite Hallmark movie of the year, “Love on the Menu“.  So I’m not lying when I say I really like these two.

As for the six degrees of Kris Polaha, Brennan Elliott is two degrees away.  I find it hilarious that he was in “Curse of Chucky” in 2013.  In that film he co-starred with Danielle Bisutti who went on to co-star with Polaha in “Back in the Day” (2014).

Chemistry

You would think that with two very likeable Hallstars pairing up, that the chemistry would be a no brainer.  Unfortunately, I felt almost no chemistry between these two characters.  I wanted to feel chemistry – I was rooting for these two actors so much – but it just wasn’t there.

Feelgoods

I only had one feelgood, and that came in the first minutes of the movie where Tia, when discussing her upcoming plans, talked about taking the boat over to Whidbey Island.  As regular readers know, I just mentioned the other day about how I was born on Whidbey Island.  So that little shout out to my very small birth place made me happy.

Tropes

I didn’t notice many tropes this time around.  The biggest one was that the two main characters were former partners.

The only other one was the return of the dreaded empty coffee cup.  Reeser tried so hard to make it look like the cup had actual liquid in it when she took a sip of coffee, but she so clearly didn’t.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

I only have one major moment that confused me.  There were probably more, and there were definitely a couple general dialogue issues that I had.  But the main nonsensical moment came after their late-night stargazing.  They get back to the marina and tie up the boat, ostensibly no earlier than 1:30 a.m., and her dad has just sent her some text messages offering her a partnership at the law firm.  Seriously?  At 1:30 a.m.?  Now, it’s possible that he sent them earlier but for some reason there was no available data service the 5-6 hours Tia and Jake were out watching the meteor shower. But I have to believe that she DID have service that entire time.  She even said they were only a couple miles off shore.  Surely 5G can cover that distance out at sea.

Re-watchability

Sadly, this one will not be re-watched.  Even despite the handsome and funny Brennan Elliott and the lovely and charming Autumn Reeser at the helm.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings? For the Hallmark Summer Nights movies, it’s in the middle of the pack with one more to go.  But overall for the year, it is in the bottom third for the year.

1. Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
2. Love to the Rescue (air date: March 23) – 679 pts – weighted score: 115.4 (80.9%)
3. Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
4. Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
5. Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
6. Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 pts – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
7. Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
8. The Last Bridesmaid (air date: June 22) – 643 pts – weighted score: 109.2 (76.6%)
9. Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
10. My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 (air date: June 8) – 635 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
11. Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
12. Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
13. A Summer Romance (air date: Aug 17) – 577 pts – weighted score: 103.7 (72.7%)
14. True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
15. The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
16. A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
17. Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
18. Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
19. Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
20. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
21. Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
22. From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
23. Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
24. Love and Sunshine (air date: Aug 3) – 504 pts – weighted score: 91.7 (64.3%)
25. Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
26. Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
27. Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
28. Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
29. All Summer Long (air date: Aug 24) – 512 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
30. Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
31. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
32. Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
33. Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
34. A Taste of Summer (air date: Aug 10) – 403 pts – weighted score: 70.9 (49.7%)
35. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
36. A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
37. Love in the Sun (air date: June 1) – 361 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.8%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “All Summer Long”?  Comment below and let me know!