vbacon-111-578329 Reviews

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Not even close to being one of M. Night Shylaman's best

[4/10 · 27 July 2023]

Given the Sixth Sense, Signs and some others, MNS has earned his place in film history as one of the best. Sadly, his bombs are pretty bad bombs and this, in my opinion, is one of them.

The action is there to a pretty good degree so it's not like you're bored during the movie. But the plot seems to go in one direction and doesn't have the unexpected twists and turns that you expect in an MNS movie.

The actors all do a good job with what they're given. A special callout has to go to Dave Bautista. My son was into wrestling so we always kind of laugh at his presence in any movie. But his acting here playing such an odd character shows he belongs in Hollywood.

Nefarious (2023)

Somewhat entertaining, even if you don't believe

[7/10 · 27 July 2023]

I don't believe in demonic possession but I still found the film to be rather entertaining. Did people watch The Exorcist for entertainment or because they wanted to better understand demonic possession? I don't know.

I watch movies about aliens that I find entertaining, even though I don't believe in them either. (Well, I don't believe we know enough about any possible aliens to put them into a movie.)

What I found impressive is that this was rather low budget meaning it relied more on good dialogue as opposed to things like car chases and shootouts. It definitely succeeded in provide captivating conversation.

For me, the ending was predictable. As a result, the movie kind of lost my interest near the end.

Seeing Glenn Beck in the move was a turnoff as I don't like him. I also read that this was supposedly a pro-Christian movie and some reviewers panned it for that. I don't see how this movie would move someone one way or another.

The System (I) (2022)

Tyrese Gibson Makes Mean Faces

[4/10 · 5 November 2022]

Sometimes just sad, but usually mean and you never see him smiling.

Sadly, this movie deserves the 3.5 rating it currently has. I gave it a 4 as I'm a sucker for prison movies. The plot is unoriginal and unrealistic with gaping plot holes. The shocking plot twists are predictable and boring.

Have we ever seen a movie where the upstanding guy ends up in a prison with an unscrupulous warden? But this is no Shawshank Redemption. Have we ever seen a secret fight league run by the guards/warden? Yeah, but I can't even remember those movies names. This is worse than those.

One oddity is that they have the fighters wear body armor. Just weird. One stupid goof is they have Tyrese benching what looks to be 135 lbs. And struggling at it. I'm 5' 6", in ok shape, and I can do that easily.

They pulled in two actors with credible resumes; Jeremy Piven and Terrence Howard. Neither have decent showings. Pivens' fake southern accent and clownish behavior are amateurish. Howard's big brother teacher role is average at best.

Anyway, it was mildly entertaining for what it is.

Remember Me, Mommy? (2020 TV Movie)

Sydney Meyer makes the movie

[8/10 · 10 January 2022]

The plot is about what you'd expect from a Lifetime movie which puts a ceiling on how high I can rate it. But if you're a LMN movie fan like me, you'll find this more enjoyable than most of them.

Sydney Meyer makes the movie. Her role is not as good as in Pretty Cheaters, Deadly Lies but she is definitely someone that LMN should keep giving lead roles to. There's a certain amount of devilishness in her eyes that makes her an enjoyable, beautiful villain to watch.

Natalie Brown also deserves mention doing a good job as the sensible high school teacher.

The rest of the cast doesn't warrant much mention. The three other teenage girl leads don't impress.

Secrets of a Marine's Wife (2021 TV Movie)

One of the best LMN movies

[9/10 · 31 December 2021]

I'm a big fan of LMN movies and usually grade them on a curve. This is actually just a good movie period. No curve needed. 9 stars.

I am a huge fan of Mom. I always thought of Sadie Calvano's performance there a little sub-par. She's definitely improved greatly since then. She shines here and steals the show with some very fine acting. (Well, she has to. She's the star.) Will be interesting to see if she can move out of the LMN genre onto the big screen.

The style of showing the after event interviews mixed in with the storyline can be tricky to pull off. I've seen it overdone on LMN and elsewhere. They didn't do a lot of it here until close to the end and it worked well.

As noted by others, a big goof is the cool-looking 70's haircut on Chris is nothing you would see an active marine wearing. But this hardly ruins the movie.

Apex (2021)

Another bomb with Bruce Willis

[3/10 · 25 November 2021]

While looking for movies I always see a bunch of low budget films with Bruce Willis. I've learned to avoid them as they're usually bad, but for some reason I decided to give this a try. I should've learned my lesson. Bruce was in his element in Moonlighting and the Die Hard series. He's gone way downhill from there.

At least with the second Total Recall they used the same name so as to give credit to the original. This is an obvious rip off of Hard Target and other films but done much worse.

Neal McDonough adds a bit of solid acting to the film but nowhere near enough to salvage it. His career is going better than Bruce's of late, but he better be careful taking roles like this.

Trevor Gretzky, yes son of The Great One, should maybe try hockey instead of acting. It's funny that Gretzky's brother Brent, and it appears his children, can't play nearly as good as their dad.

The other actors are no names and deserve to stay that way. Alexia Fast, the film's eye candy, just isn't that good of an actress.

The plot is obvious. The attempts to make it something more than that are just weird. The attempts at deep philosophy are lame. The use of holographics is stupid and unrealistic.

Sorry I paid $4 for this.

Break Even (2020)

Gotta agree with the negative reviews

[3/10 · 1 October 2021]

This is a low budget affair and it shows. This plot has been seen before - nice people find bad people's money and the bad people come after them.

The scenes are pretty disjointed and don't fit together very well. There are plot holes at seemingly every turn.

Jaq (Tasya Teles) is the only actor who does a good job with their role. But the script she has to work with is horrible. Her fellow crew members are. Without giving away nything her relationship with the bad guys and other felons is confusing and simply not believable.

Agent Crowe (Joanna Pacula) is a particularly bad actress. As the main nemesis in the movie her bad acting pulls it all down. In her defense, she and most of the other roles are poorly defined.

Most hilarious is what is basically a cameo from Steve Gutenburg who has put on a few pounds. He's the only actor in the movie you probably have heard of before. He is given top billing (?). His acting is pretty bad as he tries to restore the zaniness of his Police Academy days. I actually liked those. Unfortunately for Steve, he could never move beyond that to any other big roles.

The Misfits (2021)

Yes, it's as bad as he reviews say it is

[2/10 · 26 June 2021]

Poor Pierce Brosnan. He could have just gone out as one of the James Bonds' of the world. Instead, he has this movie associated with his name. Giving it a 2 because Pierce did give a good performance considering he had such a lousy script to work with.

The whole thing was just so unrealistic. The prison staff was more inept than that of Hogan's Heroes. There is just no way their schemes would have worked. I still don't understand how Tim Roth's character fit into the whole thing.

Without trying to give anything away, let me just say there's not much to give away. The plot is entirely predictable with nothing to grab your attention. The big surprise at the end is about as stupid as it gets.

I like good crime movies which led me to go for this one. I should have checked IMDB before starting it.

Inconceivable (2016)

Natahsa makes the movie worth watching

[8/10 · 12 June 2021]

Grading on a curve because this is a Lifetime movie. If you're into these like I am, you should find this one of the better ones.

The plot is pretty standard for LMN movies so there's not much to say there.

Unlike many LMN movies, all three of the main actors give solid performances. Surprised to see Natasha Henstridge coming down to the level of LMN movies. Her debut movie, Species, wasn't a blockbuster but it was entertaining. I figured that her career would have taken off more after that. Glad to see she's around and still can act well.

I half expected to see her use her alien capabilities to completely kill the guy when they're kissing. :)

Mommy Be Mine (2018 TV Movie)

A little less formulaic Lifetime movie

[8/10 · 4 June 2021]

The plot here is a little different than your typical LMN movie which makes it worth watching. But it's nothing to write home about (nor worth writing a review about it).

This was supposed to be the big debut of Ava Locklear, daughter of the Heather we all grew up admiring. Sadly, she fails the test and her inability to get big roles after this movie shows that others agree with me.

Ava doesn't have the stunning looks her mom does. Her eyes seem misplaced. It's also obvious she's not a natural blonde. I know I shouldn't focus on people's looks, but when your only claim to fame is your hot mom, it's appropriate. This is the first time she uses her mom's last name and not her dad's. Obviously, she's looking for some kind of bump. Her acting skills are quite poor as well.

Sierra Pond on the other hand is drop dead gorgeous and she plays the villain here quite well. I'm really surprised we haven't seen more of her on LMN.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999– )

Try some plots based on Car Shield

[26 April 2021]

With Ice-T hawking Car Shield they should do some shows where the plot revolves around the dangers of car breakdowns. Maybe the detectives could fail to show up to a crime scene because their cars had mechanical failures and they had to delay getting them fixed. Or someone could get really upset with their mechanic because of the cost of their repairs. These things just write themselves! Ice-T could end each episode saying "If these people just had Car Shield none of this would have happened."

Next we could work in people using too much hot water while washing because they haven't switched to Tide cold wash.

Deadly Excursion (2019 TV Movie)

Lifetime misses the boat here

[5/10 · 25 March 2021]

While this had all of the trappings of a routine LMN movie, what really offended me here was just how poor the decisions were of the two lead actresses. It's an insult to women to think that two people could act as stupidly as they act. Normally in an LMN movie it's always the woman who makes the final heroic move.

Samaire Armstrong has earned the more exposure on LMN that she's getting. She's the only thing keeping this movie afloat. I blame the writers for the role they created for her.

Sorry, I find Allie DeBerry to be annoying. LMN can find better young actresses than her.

Corin Nemec gets a bit more of a role than his usual uninteresting male role that are a staple of LMN movies. His performance is average at best.

Most LMN movies have a predictable plot but it's a workable, fairly believable plot. This one falls short on this account.

Shark Season (2020)

Agree with the consensus - This was just bad!

[2/10 · 25 March 2021]

I'm a big fan of Lifetime movies. Not sure if this was technically a LMN movie but it played on their network.

The use of CGI and stock shark footage was really bad.

Michael Madsen is one of my favorite actors. I hate to say this to a guy who's only a few years older than me, but I think it's time he retires. As another viewer noted, he literally just phoned in his performance here.

The two women actresses were horrible. If they were trying to play the clueless, dim-witted girl who has no idea what to do when trapped in shark-infested waters, I guess they did ok.

Pool Boy Nightmare (2020 TV Movie)

Jessica Morris makes this watchable

[7/10 · 17 March 2021]

Veteran actress Jessica Morris provides solid acting which pulls together the poorer performances of the others. Was especially not impressed with the young newcomer Tanner Zagarino. He's handsome enough but definitely needs to work on his acting skills. The two young women give average performances.

As for the plot, another reviewer wrote "Nothing new but it's got something". I couldn't have said it better. If you've seen a lot of other LMN movies you won't be too surprised by this one. I am one of those that enjoys these movies and I enjoyed this one so I'll give it a 7.

An Organized Killer (2021 TV Movie)

Slightly above average LMN movie

[7/10 · 17 March 2021]

I was surprised to see this rank a 6.9 (as of 3/17/21) which is well above the mid 5's that most LMN movies will get. I think this is better than most LMN movies but not that much better. The plot is about as formulaic as most LMN movies are.

I will admit I'm quite smitten with Allison McAtee. I thought her bubbly performance here was very good, much better than in Deadly Mile High Club. Hope to see more of her in the future. She fits the rich, attractive, middle-age woman role so often needed in LMN movies.

Was not thrilled with Samantha Cope's performance. I know she played the annoying villain here but I was still annoyed by her in general.

Girl in the Basement (2021)

Wow! LMN hits it out of the park

[10/10 · 17 March 2021]

I usually have to put in the disclaimer that this is an LMN movie and you should adjust your rating accordingly. But this movie is as captivating as any high end film! This may be a low budget affair with low end actors, but the story is so intense you wouldn't realize it.

The subject matter is very upsetting, especially for an LMN movie where you expect to see little more than rich housewives cheating on their husbands. To think that this is based on a true story makes it even more upseting. I was thinking of writing a goof about how unrealistic the plot is, but it actually happened.

I never liked Elisabeth Rohm on Law & Order. She was definitely the worst of the attractive Assistant DA's. One is so taken by the story here that it's hard to tell if this movie was well-directed or not. I'll give her props for the quality of the movie overall.

Judd Nelson has come a long way from the Breakfast Club. His performance here is absolutely creepy. I mean that in a positive way because his character is super duper creepy.

I like watching these hoping that some of the young actresses can break out into bigger and better roles than LMN movies. Stefanie Scott does very well in this difficult role and I wish her the best in her acting career. She definitely deserves it.

The Wrong Mr. Right (2021 TV Movie)

So wrong it's right

[7/10 · 19 January 2021]

If you're watching this movie expecting something different from your standard LMN plot, you need to learn more about LMN movies and Vivica A Fox's 'Wrong' movies in particular. I'd swear there's another LMN movie with this exact same plot (hidden identity discovered by the damsel in distress).

If you're ok with all of the above, then this one isn't bad. I'll give it a 7 mainly because of Anna Marie Dobbins. She does an excellent job here and is becoming an LMN movie regular. Let's hope we see her in more of the same and for her to move on to bigger and brighter roles.

Cheer Camp Killer (2020 TV Movie)

What's there to cheer about?

[4/10 · 16 January 2021]

I'm a huge fan of LMN movies but this is not at all one of their better ones.

The plot is very slow moving and really goes nowhere through the whole film. Sometimes LMN movies will give you some interesting twists and turns, but not here.

The acting here was very amateurish. Even General Hospital / LMN regular Andrea Bogart can't make it work. The only bright spot was Jacqueline Scislowski who should have a future in other LMN movies and maybe a little beyond that. She'll do well if they can get her a decent script and competent cast.

I have to agree with the other reviewer who noted that the moves the cheerleaders were doing were incredibly amateurish compared to real competitive cheerleading (which is a thing).

Glass Houses (2020 TV Movie)

One of LMN's Best

[9/10 · 15 January 2021]

Very happy to give this movie a great review. The story involves a lot of intrigue and mystery that leaves you guessing until the end.

Great acting all around. Bree Turner plays the snobby suburban housewife very well. Zoie Palmer has a strong supporting role too.

The standout is clearly the young Aviva Mongillo. Her attitude and demeanor is so typical of millennials today. Her smarts and confidence shine through making her the heroine you're happy to root for.

Deadly Sorority (2017 TV Movie)

A fairly good murder mystery from LMN

[7/10 · 15 January 2021]

When reviewing LMN movies I tend to use the word formulaic a lot. I'm debating writing a software program that could generate plots en masse. :)

So yes, this follows a standard LMN formula but it does manage to make things somewhat interesting so I'll give it a 7.

I'm usually easy on LMN actors because, well it's LMN. But this one was noticeably worse than than average. Chloe Babcock (Jubilee) was oddly robotic. The professor couple was sub-par.

And then there was Greer Grammar. I'm harsh on Actors who obviously got their chances because of their parents (Kelsey Grammar in this case). Greer is definitely not ready for prime time. I don't see her getting very far in the industry. BTW, why would you go by the odd middle name of Greer instead of her formal first name - Kandace?

Maternal Secrets (2018 TV Movie)

A good thriller from LMN

[9/10 · 5 January 2021]

As usual, I can't stand the reviews that put this and other LMN films down. If you set your expectations right you can learn to like these films as much as I do.

I was thrilled to see Kate Mansi come to LMN movies. She's not only gorgeous she's a seasoned actress and her performance in this movie demonstrated her experience.

I would agree with some others who said the plot was a little confusing. I had to rewind a couple of times to figure it all out. But I got it without too much effort. If anything, this movie is as formulaic as many LMN movies.

Killing Mommy (2016 TV Movie)

Yvonne Zima Excels

[9/10 · 26 December 2020]

Yvonne Zima has been one of LMN's young standouts with performances playing the bad girl in Killer Prom and The Girl He Met Online. Here she plays the bad and good girl and does it very well. She has seen success outside of LMN and let's hope this continues.

The plot here is formulaic and not very surprising. But it's what you should expect from a LMN movie. I find the better LMN movies where they delve into seedy people and their environments as opposed to rich people's lifestyles. This one visits both sides of the tracks.

Cheerleader Abduction (2020 TV Movie)

Excellent LMN Movie

[9/10 · 26 December 2020]

For now, this gets a 6.5 rating while most LMN movies never get above 6. Indeed, this is one of their best ones.

Jerni Stewart is a new face for LMN movies and she doesn't disappoint. I could easily see her taking on a lot more in the future. She deserves some good roles.

However, I would agree with some others who note that major plot hole that no one has noticed she is pregnant. One could hide a pregnancy for a few months, but for as long as happens in the film.

One Nightmare Stand (2018 TV Movie)

Your standard LMN plot line and nothing more

[6/10 · 19 December 2020]

I'm a big fan of LMN movies and understand that there's probably a software program that writes half of the plot line (friend figures out real villain, friend gets killed by villain before they can tell them, man tries to save the day in the end but fails, woman lead finally saves the day). The better LMN movies manage to add at least something unique, some kind of plot twist, to make the movie a little different. This one doesn't.

Gina Holden isn't one of my favorite LMN actresses and doesn't shine here. The guy who plays her husband, LMN regular Corin Nemec, is even worse. The handsome Johnny Jay Lee, the chief villain, might have a future if he could tone down the overacting. I don't see much of a future for the young Alexandria DeBerry either.

Come on LMN. Hire some more writers to spice things up a bit.

Secrets in the Snow (2020 TV Movie)

Lifetime Movie Staple But With Interesting Family Drama

[9/10 · 19 December 2020]

As someone who loves LMN movies, I was really pleased with this one. The plot line wasn't that much better than your average LMN movie, but the addition of the family drama leads me to give it a 9.

The quirky father was one of those odd family members that makes dramas like these funny and realistic as we all have that weird relative. The acting of the mother was a weak point but the others gave decent performances.

Aubrey Reynolds does well as the lead. She seems new to LMN and I hope this can be a stepping stone for her to move on to bigger roles. Or at least would love to see her in more LMN movies.

I will agree with the other reviewer who noted the fake snowfall in the background was so bad it almost qualifies as a goof.