Candace Cameron Bure Hallmark Movies That Missed the Mark

Candace Cameron Bure was once best known as D.J. Tanner, the relentlessly wholesome eldest daughter on the 1990s sitcom “Full House” and its Netflix sequel, “Fuller House.” Her career took a new turn in 2008, when she starred in her first Hallmark Channel original movie, “Moonlight and Mistletoe.” Though her appearances on the network were sporadic at first, the former child actor eventually became one of Hallmark’s most recognizable stars, thanks to a series of Christmas films and the long-running mystery franchise “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries,” which produced 18 movies.

But the former “Queen of Hallmark” did not win over every viewer. In 2022, Bure controversially left the network for rival Great American Media, where she took on the dual roles of chief content officer and leading actor. Based on IMDb user ratings and reviews, these are 12 of the films some viewers believe she would rather leave off her résumé.

Candace Cameron Bure appeared in at least 18 installments of “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries,” playing the librarian-turned-amateur detective in the screen adaptations of Charlaine Harris’ novels. The films have never aimed for hard-edged realism, but some viewers felt the sixth entry, “A Bundle of Trouble,” pushed the series’ formula beyond its limits.

In “A Bundle of Trouble,” Aurora and her boyfriend, Martin, arrive home after a night out to find that Martin’s visiting niece has vanished. Her baby is in the bathtub, while her husband is discovered dead inside a closet. Rather than leave the investigation to law enforcement, Aurora once again launches her own inquiry, uncovering a convoluted plot involving illegal adoptions, abductions and armed criminals whose motives seem to shift from murder to emergency medical care.

“This low-budget movie displays a glorious convergence of terrible acting, plot holes, curious facial expressions, overly simplistic dialogue, inexplicable animosities and attractions, unrealistic and hilarious reactions to what should be traumatic events,” wrote one dissatisfied IMDb user. Another reviewer was even harsher, declaring, “This is a crock, and Candace Cameron Bure should have reimbursed Hallmark for all production costs,” in a separate review.

The ninth film in the “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries” lineup, “The Disappearing Game,” also received a chilly response from parts of the audience. This time, Aurora investigates after her nephew, Phillip, and his roommate disappear shortly after the roommate’s girlfriend dies.

Once again, viewers questioned Aurora’s willingness to intervene despite having no official investigative authority. “She is surprised and sour every time she is called out — by the police, her mother, friends, and every person she accuses in the show, as if she is some kind of Sherlock Holmes,” one IMDb reviewer wrote. Another pleaded with the writers “to use your intelligence and put together a movie that actually makes me want to believe in the main character instead of hoping she’s arrested.”

“The Disappearing Game” also gives Aurora a new romantic interest: Niall Matter’s Nick Miller, a college professor who lives nearby. Many longtime fans, however, found little spark between the characters and felt Nick did not compare favorably with Yannick Bisson’s Martin, the former CIA agent and Aurora’s previous love interest.

One Letterboxd reviewer offered a similarly unflattering assessment of the very first film, “A Bone to Pick.” “This movie features Aurora stumbling around town, jumping to conclusions, making wrong guesses, being nosy, and getting in the way of actual detective work,” the user wrote. It was hardly a glowing introduction, though the criticism suggested that the franchise established its formula from the outset.

In “A Bone to Pick,” Aurora tries to determine why a recently deceased member of the Real Murders Club left her a substantial inheritance — including a two-bedroom home containing a sofa with a skull hidden inside it. The discovery raises an unsettling question: Was the skull a final message from beyond the grave, or had the elderly woman somehow failed to realize she had been sitting on human remains?

Some viewers on IMDb focused less on the mystery than on Aurora herself. “On a personal front, Aurora is rude, pushy, and inconsiderate to the people around her, and she is more than a little conceited. Any success she has is mostly luck, but also a lot of persistence,” one reviewer wrote. Still, the film became the first of 18 Bure-led Aurora Teagarden movies, indicating that the series found an audience despite those complaints.

The “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries” movies are not the only entries on the list of Candace Cameron Bure films that drew criticism. “Christmas Town,” the 2019 holiday movie released during her years as one of Hallmark’s biggest stars, also left some viewers unimpressed.

Bure plays a teacher who travels to the idyllic fictional community of Grandon Falls and meets Tim Rozon’s handyman character. The romance moves at remarkable speed: Before long, the pair fall in love and decide to become parents by adopting the child he has been fostering.

“Isn’t life in small towns just wonderful?” one Letterboxd user asked sarcastically. The reviewer mocked the film’s swift adoption process, convenient job openings and abundance of handsome, single men with beautifully decorated homes. Other viewers objected to what they considered its heavy Christian messaging, conspicuously artificial snow and the suggestion that the young foster child subsists almost entirely on Christmas cookies.

Even Jean Smart’s presence could not rescue “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas” from appearing on some viewers’ list of Bure’s weaker holiday movies. Years before earning an Emmy for “Hacks,” Smart appeared in what was reportedly her first — and presumably last — Hallmark Christmas film.

Smart portrays a guardian angel who tries to reform Bure’s selfish department-store merchandiser, a character modeled loosely on Ebenezer Scrooge. The transformation unfolds with help from a series of magical shoes in this loose adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” One Letterboxd reviewer, however, found the film’s footwear theme unconvincing. “Not a single good shoe in sight, and you cannot call yourself a shoe addict when there’s only one dinky shoe rack,” the reviewer wrote.

Another reviewer directed criticism at Bure’s performance and referenced longstanding public controversy surrounding opinions she has expressed that critics have characterized as anti-LGBTQ. The reviewer objected to the romantic pairing between Bure’s character and Luke Macfarlane, who is openly gay, calling that storyline the movie’s only redeeming feature. The criticism reflects the broader debate surrounding Bure’s public image and her move from Hallmark to Great American Media.

“Switched for Christmas,” released in 2017, gave Hallmark viewers two Candace Cameron Bure performances for the price of one. She played identical twin sisters who trade lives during the holiday season. For some viewers, however, doubling the lead role only doubled their frustration.

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Bure has spoken positively about the challenge of making the movie, in which she also portrays the romantic partners of Eion Bailey and Mark Deklin. “It was such a challenge to play multiple roles and act against myself. It was sometimes incredibly difficult but fun nevertheless,” she told All Mom Does. Audience reactions were considerably less enthusiastic.

“A large part of me felt that she was over-parted and stretched herself too much,” one IMDb user wrote, arguing that the sisters felt too similar and lacked nuance. Another reviewer criticized the scene in which the twins repeatedly praise each other’s looks, joking that fame had left no one on set willing to challenge the star’s “ego.”

In 2015, Candace Cameron Bure, who’s undergone quite a transformation, added to her arsenal of Hallmark festive films. Unfortunately, “A Christmas Detour,” in which she played a bride-to-be who ditches her fiancé for a guy she meets during a shared ride to New York, left many viewers feeling like she’d taken a wrong turn.

“The main character, Paige, might possibly be the most obnoxious, self-absorbed, entitled character ever written,” one IMDb user remarked about Bure’s leading lady. “The world is full of entitled Karens, and I certainly don’t need to relax and watch a Christmas movie starring the mother of all Karens.” There was also questioning of how an actor who, in real life, is so vocal about family values could star in a film that appears to promote and celebrate the act of cheating.

Perhaps the most novel review came from someone on Letterboxd, who described “A Christmas Detour” as “‘Planes, Trains, and Automobiles’ but as a not-good rom-com where Steve Martin and John Candy fall deeply in love with each other at the end.”

“I actually got sick to my stomach on this last Christmas movie that aired in November because I’ve created an anxiety for myself,” the oft-controversial Candace Cameron Bure admitted to “The Call to Mystery” podcast about 2020’s “If I Only Had Christmas.” “Because my movies have been the top-performing movie seven years in a row, and you know, one day you’re going to slide off that pedestal.” Given the scathing viewer response, she was right to worry.

The 2020 original, in which Bure plays a happy-go-lucky publicist who joins forces with Warren Christie’s slightly more pessimistic vice president all in the name of charity, was dismissed as one of Hallmark’s worst that year, with one IMDb user writing, “No story, no conflict, no realism, strained dialogue, embarrassingly awful dancing … I watched it wincing or twitching most of the time.”

Interestingly, “If I Only Had Christmas” tried to stand out from other cookie-cutter yuletide films by throwing in multiple references to “The Wizard of Oz.” For example, the charity was named the Emerald Educational Trust. But even this went largely unappreciated, with one viewer commenting, “In an attempt to parallel some elements of the great film, the storyline became disjointed and too awkward for the viewer to re-assemble.”

In 2014, Candace Cameron Bure played Lauren Burnell, a wannabe surgeon who, after being rejected for a big city fellowship, accepts a general practitioner position in a small town. Did anyone say “Hart of Dixie?” Of course, “Christmas Under Wraps” differentiates itself from the Rachel Bilson vehicle with its Alaskan setting and a reindeer-owning, cookie-eating factory owner purported to be the very real Santa Claus.

As it turns out, that was the most believable part of the whole thing. Indeed, many viewers took umbrage at how the fictional town of Garland bore no resemblance to anywhere in Alaska, especially given its climate. “Every morning, Miss Bure awakens at 6:30 to a sun high in the sky in an Alaska December,” one IMDb user pointed out. “The grass is bright green, and you can see some weedy young maples wearing their summer leaves in town.”

Others questioned casting David O’Donnell as the romantic lead, noting that he looked significantly older than Bure. (In real life, he’s actually only two years older.) Others also criticized how Lauren, like so many Hallmark women before and after, gave up her career aspirations on a whim for a man she barely knew.

They say never work with animals or children. Yet Candace Cameron Bure, who lives quite a lavish life, did both in a Hallmark film many consider one of her worst. In “Puppy Love,” she plays a professor and single mother who, to cheer up her young daughter after a cross-country move, agrees to adopt a dog. Unfortunately, the chaos-causing sheepdog they choose already has an owner. And wouldn’t you know it? He happens to be a dashing Major League Baseball player — played by heartthrob Victor Webster — who’s also single and ready to mingle.

While many viewers applauded the 2012 film for promoting animal adoption and the cuteness of its four-legged star, some still criticized how the characters didn’t always seem to have the canine’s best interests at heart. “They pit the dog against each other by teaching the dog to act out whilst in the other person’s custody, and the tussle leads to heartbreaking scenes of goodbyes with the dog over and over again,” noted one IMDb user.

And there weren’t many kind words for Bure, either. “I find [her] one of the worst actresses out there,” another commenter remarked. “She overemotes every scene that I have a headache from rolling my eyes so much.”

When asked by Suzee Behind the Scenes about her favorite Hallmark movie, Candace Cameron Bure revealed it was 2015’s “Just the Way You Are,” adding, “It’s from a while back, not very well-known. But I just love it because it’s soooo romantic. It’s about a couple that rekindles their relationship. It’s just such a good movie.” However, that doesn’t appear to be a viewpoint shared with the network’s viewers.

Perhaps this is because “Just the Way You Are” is a little different from the Bure norm. Instead of watching her fall head over heels for a complete stranger, we see her trying to reconnect with her husband of 15 years — played by Ty Olsson — by pretending they’ve only just met. “I understand the premise that the woman feels like the romance is missing from her life, but the idea that she is supposedly making her husband go through the process of trying to date her again is nuts,” remarked one IMDb user.

Even those who could buy the premise found it hard to relate to their struggles. “Perhaps if the characters weren’t so successful and perfect, I might have cared more about them and their ONE problem,” another viewer commented. “I mean, really, I rolled my eyes at these two so much while watching. ‘Oh no, my life is only 85% perfect instead of 100. Woe is me.'”

“The Christmas Contest” was Candace Cameron Bure’s final festive film for Hallmark, and her penultimate film for the network. But viewers say she didn’t save the best for last. In fact, viewers widely consider the 2021 picture her worst.

Here, Bure stars opposite John Brotherton as two ex-partners who battle each other in a yuletide competition to raise funds for their respective charities. No prizes for guessing that by the end of the film, the couple has also won back each other’s hearts. Due to their immaturity, however, few were cheering them on. “The constant bickering between the two of them was childish and petty,” one IMDb user complained. “Not the way [two] adults would behave in public. This was preschool behavior and painful to watch.”

On Reddit, a longtime Bure fan started to realize the actor was coasting. “They have to be competitive, high strung, athletic, etc., and there always has to be a dance number,” they said about the string of similar characters she’d recently played. “It always has seemed like she churns out Christmas movies … just to hold onto her Queen of Christmas title, and the quality suffers.” Perhaps the time was right, therefore, for Bure to seek pastures new.