CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE

Name: CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE
Item: CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE
Author: Review

"Derailed by Pagan Superstition"

Family Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE is a romantic comedy on UPtv (UP Faith & Family). James, a soldier at Camp Pendleton near Los Angeles, suddenly shows up at his childhood friend, Tiffany’s, doorstep in Los Angeles. She thinks he’s going to propose, but he tells her he’s going to propose to this other girl, Ashley, and needs her to return his grandmother’s engagement ring he gave to her for safekeeping 10 years ago. To get the ring, however, James has to drive with Tiffany on a four-day Christmas road trip to her family’s home outside Chicago where she left the ring.

CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE starts out really funny. Also, brief Christian lyrics are heard to two Christmas carols. The humor continues, but, sadly, the Christian references regarding Christmas seem to drop out of the movie entirely. Even worse, people make references to false religious ideas, including astrology and a reference to “the universe” determining something. Thus, the happy ending is more the actions of an impersonal universe rather than God. However, CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE does promote family, marriage and patriotic ideas about serving one’s country and helping veterans.

Content:

(PaPa, CC, FRFR, BB, PP, L, V, N, A, M)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan worldview overall with overt Christian references in one scene and multiple references to Christmas, but marred by false religious references to astrology, the activity of an impersonal universe and a reference to your “subconscious” revealing your true desires, but saved by strong pro-family moral elements and strong patriotic ideas about serving your country and helping veterans transition to civilian life

Foul Language:

One light but muffled profanity

Violence:

A sudden unexpected comment from her long-time friend causes a woman to swerve a car into a snowbank on the side of a road, and woman accidentally startles her father one evening as he raids a container of cereal where he’s hidden a sugar cookie, causing him to spill the cereal

Sex:

No sex, two kisses during the final scenes

Nudity:

Upper male nudity during a morning scene when man does morning pushups and then puts on a T-shirt

Alcohol Use:

A comical toast is made suddenly during an awkward dinner

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Some lying, people hide secrets, and two women admit to being jealous of the other.

More Detail:

CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE is a romantic comedy on UPtv (UP Faith & Family) about two childhood friends, a man and a woman, who have lost touch with one another while the man served 10 years in the Army, when the man suddenly tells her that he wants to propose to another woman he met six months ago. CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE is a funny comedy of errors, with some heartwarming pro-family and patriotic moments, but the movie’s positive Christian and Christmas references are rather undeveloped and marred by some godless false religion.

The movie opens 10 years ago. A woman puts an unopened letter with a red envelope into a canister, along with a beautiful engagement ring. She writes, “Do not open for a decade” on the outside of the canister.

Cut to 10 years later. James, a soldier at Camp Pendleton near Los Angeles, has decided to leave the army and take a civilian position with the military. However, he hasn’t told his current girlfriend, Ashley, who’s an Army brat, or his childhood friend, Tiffany, who works as a product critic in Los Angeles. Tiffany is the girl with the time capsule in the prologue.

Later that day, James suddenly shows up on Tiffany’s doorstep, even though they haven’t; seen one another for months. He tells Tiffany he has something important to ask her. Tiffany gets excited, because it’s clear that she’s loved him for years. She’s bitterly disappointed, however, when he tells her he’s decided to ask Ashley, a girl he’s only known for six months, to marry him. Ashley’s father and grandfather have a tradition of proposing marriage to their girlfriends on Christmas, and Janes would like to follow in that tradition. Especially since Ashley’s father is

his military mentor, and every Christmas plans a Christmas celebration at Pendleton or any other place where he and his family is stationed. So, can he please have his beloved grandmother’s engagement ring back ASAP?

Now, it’s James’ turn to be disappointed and more than a little upset, when Tiffany tells him she doesn’t have the ring, because it’s back home with her parents, who live in a small town outside Chicago. Tiffany also tells him that she put the ring in a 10-year time capsule in her parents’ house.

Since Tiffany is afraid of flying, James will have to go with her on her four-day Christmas road trip back home, then fly back to California on Dec. 21 when she gives him the ring.

Thus, begins a comical journey, a comedy of errors that culminates with a series of twists and includes some heartwarming moments and plenty of laughs.

CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE starts out really funny. Also, there are brief lyrics heard of the Christmas carols “The First Noel” and “Silent Night.” The humor continues throughout the rest of the movie, but, sadly, the Christian references regarding Christmas seem to drop out of the movie entirely. Even worse, there are several references to false religious ideas, including a mention of astrology, a reference to “the universe” determining something, and a comment about “the subconscious” revealing your true desires. Thus, at the end, the resolution of the movie’s conflicts and its plot problems is more the result of an impersonal universe working things out rather than the result of God’s Providence. That said, CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE promotes, family, marriage and strong patriotic ideas about serving one’s country and helping veterans. So, the movie’s worldview ultimately is mixed.

The negative content in CHRISTMAS TIME CAPSULE is rather disappointing, though, because this is one of the few Christmas romance movies on television that really is a bonafide romantic comedy, and a well-made one with lots of humor to boot.