Lifetime Film Review: Her Deadly Sugar Daddy (dir by Brooke Nevin)

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that the term “sugar daddy” just amuses the Hell out of me.

Seriously, I can’t hear anyone use that phrase without starting to laugh. I mean, it’s just such a ridiculous combination of words. I remember that Dr. Phil went through this phase where, every week, he did a show about irresponsible millennials who, instead of getting a job, were going online and visiting what Phil called, “sugar daddy websites.” Once you’ve heard Dr. Phil say, “sugar daddy” twenty times, it’s hard to take the term seriously.

Needless to say, when it comes to Lifetime films, sugar daddies are a popular topic. I’ve lost track of the number of Lifetime films that I’ve seen in which a young woman decides that the only way to make ends meet is to start accepting money from older, wealthier men. I mean, it seems like a good idea. You get to dress up and you get a good dinner and you get to spend time in a really nice house and sometimes, you even get to fly on a private plane. But, in the end, it’s never worth all the trouble. First off, your parents and your friends will inevitably judge you and say that they’re ashamed of you. Number two, there’s always a good chance that your sugar daddy will either 1) die of a heart attack at an inopportune time or 2) end up becoming obsessed with you. To quote an anti-meth commercial that I recently watched on YouTube, “Don’t do it. Not even once.”

In Her Deadly Sugar Daddy, Bridget (Lorynn York) gets involved in the world of being an escort not just because of the money ($10,000 a week!) but also because she needs something write about. Bridget and her friend, Lindsey (Aubrey Reynolds), have recently moved over to Los Angeles from Arizona. (This film makes it sound as if Arizona is literally on the other side of the world from California.) The daughter of a famous novelist, Bridget wants to make a living as a writer. However, she doesn’t want to write books, at least not yet. Instead, she wants to blog. Unfortunately, when she goes to the corporate headquarters of Swerve.com, she’s told that she doesn’t have enough experience to be one of their writers. She’s told that she needs to start her own personal blog and build up a following before she can even think of writing for a fine site like Swerve.

(Hey, it worked for that Movie Bob guy.)

A bad date leads to Bridget meeting Anthony (Brent Bailey), a bearded businessman who ends up giving Bridget a job. He needs someone to keep track of his schedule for him. Bridget agrees. He also needs someone to entertain older male clients. After a little bit of hesitation, Bridget agrees to that too. After all, she needs something to blog about, right?

Unfortunately, Anthony has an obsessive streak and some control issues. Add to that, he doesn’t particularly want his employees blogging about his business or, for that matter, taking pictures around the office. Soon, Bridget’s life is in danger. If she survives, she’ll at least have something to write about….

Her Deadly Sugar Daddy delivers what you typically want out of a Lifetime film like this. Anthony owns a big house and he works in a big office and Bridget’s clothes are to die for and an important life lesson is learned at the end of it all. Brent Bailey is properly charming and intimidating as Anthony and Lorynn York (who has appeared in several of these films) is sympathetic as Bridget. I have to admit that, on a personal level, I enjoyed the film because I’m a blogger who has worked as a personal assistant so I could relate to Bridget. That said, I’m not interested in working at Swerve. Through the Shattered Lens is perfect for me.

Let’s Talk About Frenzy (dir by Jose Montesinos)

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Right now, we’re in the middle of SyFy’s Sharknado week. On Sunday night, SyFy will premiering what they say is going to be The Last Sharknado. In the days leading up to that moment, they’ve been reshowing all of their classic shark films and premiering a new shark film each night!

Wednesday night’s premiere was Frenzy.

Frenzy‘s a bit different from some of the other shark films that SyFy’s been showing this week. Make no mistake, the film did feature sharks. In fact, there were three very big sharks who swam through the ocean and ate just about anyone or anything that they could sink their teeth into. Not only did they eat people who were unfortunate enough to be floating out in the water but they also bumped up against boats, the better to knock poachers overboard. These were some mean sharks!

That said, they weren’t ghost sharks. They weren’t zombie sharks. None of them wore a little Santa cap on their fin, like Santa Jaws did. They weren’t mutated by radiation or a Big Evil Corporation. And certainly, they weren’t dropped into the ocean by a tornado. No, these were just normal, very big sharks.

And while the sharks were undoubtedly important to the story that Frenzy was telling, the film really wasn’t about them. Instead, at its heart, Frenzy is the story of two sisters, Paige (Gina Vitori) and Lindsey (Aubrey Reynolds). Paige has always been the adventurous one while Lindsey has always been the one who rarely takes risks and who tries to play it safe. Paige has found fame as a travel vlogger. Along with Evan (Michael S. New), Kahia (Lanett Tachel) and Seb (Taylor Jorgensen), she travels around the world and she films herself doing dangerous things and having new experiences. When Lindsey joins Paige for her latest adventure, it seems like a chance for Lindsey to not only break out for her shell but to also find romance with Seb as well…

Of course, things never go quite as smoothly as they’re supposed to. In this case, things go downhill as soon as Paige, Lindsey, and everyone else gets aboard a less-than-reliable seaplane so that they can go scuba diving. When the plane crashes into the middle of the ocean, Lindsey and a few survivors are left floating in the water. There’s an island in the distance but can they reach it before the sharks reach them?

Frenzy was definitely a change-of-pace, as far as SyFy shark movies are concerned. While I wouldn’t say that you necessarily have to have a sister to truly appreciate Frenzy‘s story, it undoubtedly helps. The relationship between Paige and Lindsey — made up of equal parts love and rivalry — is at the heart of Frenzy and fortunately, both Aubrey Reynolds and Gina Vitori were totally believable as sisters. Their relationship, with all of its complications, felt real and, on a personal level, there were many lines of dialogue and little actions to which I related. For me, as I watched, this film could have just as easily been called “Lisa And Erin Go On Vacation And Try Not To Die.”

I also liked the way that the film used its flashback structure. With Lindsey continually flashing back between the past and the present, we were kept off-balance as far as Lindsey’s current mental state was concerned. It’s a structure that required us to consider what was real, what was dreamed, and what was just a hallucination.

Frenzy was a nice change-of-pace for Sharknado week.

Cleaning Out The DVR, Again #29: You May Now Kill The Bride (dir by Kohl Glass)

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Lisa is currently in the process of trying to clean out her DVR by watching and reviewing all 40 of the movies that she recorded from the start of March to the end of June. She’s trying to get it all done by July 11th! Will she make it!? Keep visiting the site to find out!)

The 29th film on my DVR was You May Now Kill The Bride! You May Now Kill The Bride originally aired on Lifetime on June 4th, during which time I took part in one of the most epic live tweets ever. This was one of those films that brought out the best in everyone!

First off, You May Now Kill The Bride wins points for having one of the most brilliant titles of all time. Not only does it tell you exactly what the film is about (i.e., weddings and killings) but it sets the tone perfectly. When you see a title like You May Now Kill The Bride, you know that there’s no need to even try to take what you’re about to see seriously. You May Now Kill The Bride says “Sit back and have fun.”

You May Now Kill The Bride tells the story of Nicole (Ashley Newbrough), a 30-s0mething teacher who has yet to get married or have children. Almost everyone has given up on the idea of Nicole ever finding true love. And, really, that’s okay because Nicole has a fun-loving best friend named Celine (Aubrey Reynolds), who is always available to come over to the house and get drunk.

However, to everyone’s shock, Nicole meets and falls in love with the handsome and sensitive Mark (Rocky Myers). Mark asks Nicole to marry him and it’s really great because Mark is not only nice to look at but he owns a really nice house as well. He also has a stepsister named Audrey (Tammin Sursok) and here’s where things start to get a little bit complicated.

Y’see, Audrey isn’t quite sane. Not only is she obsessed with her stepbrother but she’s also interested in being Nicole’s best friend at well. Even though Celine immediately decides that Audrey is crazy, Nicole insists on making Audrey a bridesmaid.

Why not maid of honor?

Well, Celine already has that job. Or, at least, Celine has that job until she mysteriously ends up getting tossed over the ledge of a parking garage…

Now, it may sound like Audrey is really dangerous but actually, I think she was only trying to help out her new sister-in-law. During an earlier scene, Nicole announced that she was going to wear perhaps the least flattering wedding dress that I have ever seen in a Lifetime movie. Celine supported Ncole’s decision. Audrey, however, immediately started to plot to destroy the dress.

Sometimes, a bridesmaid just has to do what a bridesmaid has to do.

It is true that, plotwise, You May Now Kill The Bride may be a perfectly standard Lifetime story. But the cast throws themselves into their roles, the dialogue is full of snarkiness, and Tammin Sursok fully commits to playing obsessive Audrey. This is a film that lives up to the crazy promise of its name.