When Sparks Fly (2014) Reviews

• Cute, but nothing special

  tashinaknight2014-06-29

  This was a little dumb but cute enough to be worth your while if this is your genre. The character of Sammie was way too over-the-top and she wasn't believable as a person you think would exist in real life. The female lead was not bad but not very memorable. Also, the way the script is written makes it a little hard to like her - she makes a few questionable decisions. Lochlyn Munro wasn't your typical romantic male lead, but did a really good job in this and was easily my favorite. I don't remember having seen him before, but looking at his IMDb profile, he's a busy guy and I can see why. He was very believable and likable. Overall, not a movie I'll probably see again, but worth my time on a lazy Saturday night.

• Terrible, Even for Hallmark Standards

  rafficgi2014-08-13

  Im a movie geek, i watch all sorts of movies, i even have Rom-com periods (going through it these days), but this is one of the worst rom-coms i've ever seen, and i literally mean that. Im not a person that hates on stuff, especially when it comes to hallmark, home of the cheese, but the story and the execution were just absolutely terrible... I mean, just analyze the plot, how can anybody relate to anything thats going on... The main girl living in the big city for 7 years, acts like she just came out from a cave, she grew out in a provincial town, not in a bloody forest... Then she comes back home to find out her best friend blondie is marrying her first love, then this weird love triangle gets created, then phil joins in, and of course another weird love triangle gets created. In all this Blondie does everything so we, the viewers, think shes a patriotist psychopath... So we can feel good at the end of the movie when the 2 main guys get together at her expense... Despite basically everyone breaking up, everyone seems fine, damn, the same day blondie and main guy broke up, blondie makes amend with the person who just ruined the whole thing (main girl), and main guy even immediately proposed to main girl, and she said yes. The dude's a player, i hand him that... Even the very end was terrible, main girl gives up her 'dream' job and basically goes back to living with her parents and having no real job to marry a guy she hasn't seen in 7 years and that she only met again 3 days prior to the actual proposal, the same guy who didn't even have a problem at getting with her best friend. Meaning that from an independent, strong, successful woman she became at the start of the movie, she now became the stereotipical woman and housewife that helps the husband achieve his goals sacrificing her's instead. In all this the main guy hasn't lost or compromised a single thing, if you actually pay attention to the movie, everything goes how he wants it to go, he sees main girl back, starts inviting her places cause he clearly shows feelings for her first. And at the end, when main girl gives up everything, he doesn't even propose to find a solution fitting both, he gets the girl and gets to keep everything he built, while main girl gave up everything she had built over 7 years of hard work. Im a guy, and im all for equality, and this movie definitely sends a great message to all the ladies out there "You never forget your first love, and if you happen to encounter your first love again, do everything in your power, including hurting the people closest to you, in order to satisfy your ego, and do not forget to do all the sacrifices yourself, your other half must not sacrifice anything for you" A relationship should not be about one successful person and 1 that sacrifices everything for the other one, it should be about 2 strong independent people finding a compromise because together they have a great bond and are even happier and stronger than they are on their own. I was really, really close to stop watching this movie, but i have a strict conduct about movies, and its that if i start a movie, i've got to finish it, but the fact that i was so close to actually stop 25 minutes in, shows how bad of a movie this was, even for the basically non existent hallmark expectations i had. Not even going to rank this movie, it does not deserve to. How such scripts get greenlit is beyond me.

• Not good at all

  Rpdsf2014-06-29

  I am usually a fan of these types of movies but this one was not very entertaining to watch. It was almost as if they made it up as they filmed. Not much made sense and was really a stretch almost to the point of unbelievability. For instance, he loves his girlfriend and wants to marry her. He is about to propose with an engagement ring in his hand and says nothing when she says she's going to Chicago even though she says she still wants to stay together. Seven years later she doesn't seem to care much for the city, her job, or her new boyfriend and doesn't make any changes on her own? Her best friend is dating her old boyfriend and is now engaged to him but not many back home seem to know even though it's a small town? Not even her parents? How it ended was really a stretch too. I could go on but it would be a waste of time and I already wasted enough of it watching this movie. Too bad because it was a pretty good premise but ruined by whoever wrote this script. I wish it had been better. Hopefully, sometime down the road, they'll use the same basic idea for a movie and hire better writers.

• Cute movie

  kerrylara-010222018-01-20

  It is a typical movie but I enjoyed the storyline and there was not a lot of over the top drama. It was one you could kick back relax and enjoy. Predictable but I didn't mind and it had a good cast.

• Hallmark movie, nice and sweet and fades from memory quickly.

  TxMike2019-01-29

  My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. We watched it because it features Meghan Markle, now a member of the British Royal Family, but we got to know her from watching her on the TV series "Suits." This movie was made during the several year run of that TV series. Here she is Washingtonian Amy Peterson, recent college graduate, with a nice boyfriend Hank. He is about to ask her to marry him when she tells him she has been offered a journalist job in Chicago. That throws a big wet blanket over everything, he doesn't propose, she goes away. The story switches to 7 years later, she has just suggested a July 4th story about the people who put on big fireworks displays, the business her mom and dad are in. So she travels back home to visit and do a story. So all that is really just setting up the real story, when she gets home she finds that her best friend is now engaged to be married to Hank and Amy is asked to help with wedding preparations. Being a Hallmark movie everything is really tame, everyone smiles, I don't recall any angry moments, however a few tears were shed when things begin to unravel for the "happy" couple. Just a good movie to showcase Meghan Markle and we enjoyed it as light entertainment.