Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

I Watched Dangerous Waters (1999, Dir. by Catherine Cyran)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Widow Sarah Slavin (Connie Sellecca) wants to spend the weekend whitewater rafting with her teenage daughter Chrissie (Alana Austin), her son Gus (Anthony DeFilippo), and her boyfriend, Bob Brown (Matt McCoy).  White water rafting probably isn’t the best way to introduce your kids to your new boyfriend but Sarah is hoping they can all bond while trying not to drown.  Instead, they find an injured man in the woods and then end up getting held prisoner by two escaped prisoners who are searching for some money that they claim is hidden somewhere nearby.  If you were in the middle of the woods and miles away from civilization, would you stop to help a wounded man who is wearing a prison uniform?  If it was just me, I probably would.  But if I was looking after two kids, the escaped con would be on his own.

I watched this movie on YouTube earlier today.  At first, I thought it was a pretty obvious rip-off of The River Wild, with a bunch of television actors replacing Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon.  But then, about halfway through, there was a really good twist that totally changed what the movie was about and it actually caught me by surprise.  There’s a decent amount of suspense and some good rafting scenes.

I instantly recognized Matt McCoy as being the goofy spokesman from the insurance commercials that would always air whenever my aunt was watching her mystery movies.  After watching Matt McCoy in this movie, all I can say is that I will never look at a Hartford Insurance commercial the same way again!

 

We Watched For The Love Of Nancy (1994, Dir. by Paul Schneider)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Last night, Lisa and I were looking for something to watch.  She told me that if I let her pick the movie, then she would let me write the review.  I’m not really sure that I got the better end of the deal but I still agreed.  We ended up watching For The Love Of Nancy, a made for television movie about a girl with an eating disorder.

Nancy (Tracey Gold) is looking forward to going to college.  Everyone comments on how thin she is but no one ever seems to notice that she hardly ever eats.  That’s because she’s hiding her food underneath her bed and throwing it out whenever she gets a chance.  Nancy is anorexic but her mother (Jill Clayburgh) and her father (William Devane) are too caught up in their own lives to notice.  Even when a friend tells Nancy’s mother that Nancy is showing all the signs of being anorexic, her mother refuses to believe it.  Eventually, things get so bad that her parents have no choice but to accept that Nancy needs help.  Nancy is checked into a clinic and put on a feeding tube but even then, she still tries to get away without eating.  When Nancy is told that she’s gained 6 pounds, she freaks out.

I’m pretty sure that I saw this movie in a health class when I was younger.  I remember it freaked me out when Nancy tore a hole in a wall just so she could have a new place to hide food.  Tracey Gold also struggled with anorexia and was in recovery when she filmed this movie.  At the start of the film, there are a few scenes where she is so thin that it’s scary.  The movie really got to me when i saw it in class and it still got to me watching it today.  One thing I liked about the movie was that it was pretty realistic when it showed how other people reacted to Nancy’s eating disorder.  Her parents started off in denial, went to panic, and eventually got angry and frustrated that Nancy couldn’t just magically get better.  Nobody was portrayed as being perfect.  I felt so bad for Nancy, who didn’t want to hurt anyone but who also couldn’t defeat her eating disorder alone.

This was a good movie but it was depressing.  Tomorrow night, I’m picking the movie!

I Watched Blood, Sweat and Cheer (2023, Dir. by Traci Hayes)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Divorcee Renee (Tammin Sursok) is so upset when her teenage daughter Cherie (Monroe Cline) moves in with her father that, despite being nearly 40, Renee enrolls in high school and becomes a cheerleader.

PARENTS!  DO NOT DO THIS!

This was based on a true story.  A 30 year-old mother imitated her 13 year-old daughter, enrolled in a middle school and spent a day there, posting to social media.  She was eventually arrested for trespassing and tampering with government records.  She said she was doing it to make a point about school’s not being secure enough and she certainly did that.  But, even if the real mother did make her point, I repeat:

PARENTS!  DO NOT DO THIS!

DO NOT EVER EVER DO THIS!

Your children will never forgive you if you do.  High school is not your place.  Your place is drinking wine and talking to your girlfriends about how much you love Andy Cohen.

In this film, Renee looks a lot older than 30 and she also manages to stay enrolled in the school for nearly an entire semester.  She becomes a cheerleader!  She dates a student!  A teacher get uncomfortable when she flirts with him because she’s too young.  She kills people to hide her secret because she’s having so much fun in school.  But she looks like she’s closer to 50 than 40.  It takes more than getting bangs to erase those age lines.  Is everyone at the school blind?

It’s not a very plausible movie but, when I was a cheerleader in high school, there were a lot of cheer moms who would have loved to have enrolled in the school and taken their daughter’s place on the squad.  None of them were crazy enough to try it, though.  Instead, they would just sit in on practice and make everyone uncomfortable.

Luckily, this movie is a comedy and it made me laugh enough for me recommend it.  Renee just went to such extremes to try to reclaim her high school years.  Cheer moms are crazy.  You have to laugh.