This is my last blog post of 2021! Thanks for joining me on this journey. I have lots more in store for you in 2022, so I hope you'll continue on with me!
You can find links to my reviews of the previous movies in the Hannah Swensen series by clicking or tapping here.
For my last blog post I am reviewing the final movie (so far) in the Hannah Swensen series. I had originally planned on reading the next book before watching its movie counterpart, but I decided to watch the movie first. The reason I did it this way is because so far, all of the books have been so much better than the movies. This doesn't mean they are bad, but I knew I would enjoy the movie more without having the book, which will likely be better than the movie, to compare it to. I wanted to be able to fully enjoy both experiences, so for that reason I felt I would get more pleasure from watching the movie first.
This final movie in the series was released in February 2021, several years after the previous ones. It has a new director and is no longer called "Murder, She Baked". They wanted to slightly rebrand, while still keeping with the general feel of the series. I have to say, their efforts were successful. This was my favorite movie in the series, of all the ones that have been released up to this point.
"Sweet Revenge" is based on the book, "Cream Puff Murder", which I will start reading on January 1st. I'm not crazy about the title of the movie, but it was good. Most of the same main characters were present, except for the sheriff and his wife, who is Hannah's sister. She added a spunky flair to the movies and I really missed her presence in this one. However, some new characters were added and I enjoyed watching all of them. Most significantly, Hannah's younger sister, Michelle, is in this movie. She has been in a lot of the books, so I was already familiar with her character. To my delight, her personality in the movie mirrored her character in the book quite well.
At this point in the movie series, Hannah is engaged to Mike Kingston. I was relieved to see I'm not the only one who prefers Norman over Mike. Pretty much everyone who is close to Hannah prefers Norman. Hannah made it clear in this movie that she wants a long engagement. That means they have time to break up. The character who plays Mike recently left the Hallmark network (for the soap I stopped watching at the end of 2021!), so perhaps that will inspire a storyline where they break up. I don't mean to be mean, but I truly believe she won't be happy in the long run with Mike. I am looking out for her best interest!
Other than this, the movie follows the same basic formula as the previous ones - there's a murder in town, Hannah discovers the body, Hannah casually investigates, and eventually she is the one who cracks the case. As usual, she finds herself alone and in danger with the culprit, and as usual she is smart enough and quick enough to figure out how to survive dire circumstances. Mike finally comes to the rescue and the culprit is arrested. While it's a familiar formula, it's always so different in the way it plays out, which makes it exciting to watch.
One thing that made this movie especially fun for me was that Hannah's mother, Delores, has just published a novel and it's a regency era romance. Cue "Pride and Prejudice"! The movie has a "Pride and Prejudice" flair to it, as Delores's release party had a regency theme. There was even a reference to Jane Austen. By the way, to Hannah's dismay, the novel her mother wrote mirror's Hannah's romantic life. and Delores makes it clear she's "Team Norman". Norman is embarrassed by this as well. I'm not sure how Mike feels about it.
All in all, this was a good way to wrap up the movie series up to this point and I'm excited to read the book.
Have a Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2022!
No comments:
Post a Comment