Operation Christmas Drop - A Christmas Romantic Comedy Based on Real Life Humanitarian Mission

As I just finished watching a very long series that ran for 5 seasons (117 episodes), I wanted to look for something light. And I found this movie on Netflix which was released few days ago. It is a movie in the spirit of Christmas which usually translates to a light heartwarming movie. So let's get on with it now.

Brief Story Line

A young woman named Erica (Kat Graham - The Vampire Diaries TV series, All Eyez on Me etc) who worked for congresswoman Bradford (Virginia Madsen - Candyman, Sideways etc) got an assignment during Christmas to review the efficiency of an Air Force Base in the pacific. But her actual mission was to find reasons to close the base to save some government fund.

Meanwhile on the base itself, Captain Andrew Jantz (Alexander Ludwig - Race to Witch Mountain, Vikings TV series etc) was assigned by his superior to accompany Erica and make sure she did not find any fault on the base, in particular during the period where people at the base were busy getting ready for Operation Christmas Drop. It was an operation to help the people inhabiting the small remote islands near the base by providing them day to day necessities which could be the reason to justify defunding the base.

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this nice enough drama comedy.

End of Brief Story Line

I got to admit that in the early part when the movie showed the Christmas ornaments all over the city, I immediately have strong Christmas sense and suddenly I realized that it's really nearing. This year has been a very challenging time for everyone around the world due to the pandemic and I for one could not wait to get pass it. And thus the strong Christmas feel was just what I needed. But then the story continued to the Air Force Base on a place where to be frank, that feeling was not as strong. Even though the island was truly beautiful with lovely scenery, but the film did not feel like a Christmas movie anymore.

However, after watching it a while, slowly the Christmas feeling returned again. Especially when the mission to help people was shown a lot more and those lovely Christmas songs playing in the background. Btw, when I saw the closing credits, I only realized that Operation Christmas Drop was a real life humanitarian mission that has been going one for almost 7 decades. So this movie was kind of an eye opener for me that such thing really exists. Oh there was no mid or post end credit scenes in here but it did show some nice pictures of the operation in real life.

Anyway, the story itself was pretty predictable. We would be shown a city woman who has been cooped up by her job having to go on a mission where she met with a pilot who was totally her opposite and trying to change her mind on her task. We could definitely know what the end would be. Kat Graham and Alexander Ludwig (whom I did not recognize as I only saw him in few movies during his childhood/teen years) did their job adequately, though their chemistry could have been better. Towards the end of the movie, there was a surprise additional sub plot which I thought would make it having an intense climax, but alas it was not to be. Frankly it disappointed me a bit, but then again seeing that this film felt a lot like TV movie, I could understand the reason for not doing it like I wished.

The movie's moral message in here is pretty strong, while the Christmas spirit is quite apparent. Those who love to have a Christmas movie with such attribute would definitely like it. Add to that a real life humanitarian mission to give us perspective on challenges other people had, makes this one a good enough movie. I myself did enjoy this, though not as much as I would have if it has a different climax. So if you want to give this a try, you are welcome to do so. Hopefully it would lift your spirit up.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars