Counterpunch (2013, directed by Kenneth Castillo)

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Emilio Manrique (Alvaro Orlando) was born in the part of Miami that is never featured in any tourism commercials. With an absentee father (Steven Bauer) and an addict mother (Yennifer Behrens), Emilio struggled while growing up, getting in trouble and spending time in a mental hospital before he was given a good home by his uncle (Oscar Torre) and grandmother (Ivonne Coll). Boxing provides an escape for Enrique, a chance to make something out of himself. But few promoters are willing to take a chance on him, not with his criminal background and rumored mental health woes. Only Talia Portillo (Camila Banus), who is eager to prove herself as Miami’s first female boxing promoter, is willing to support Emilio but can even she get him a fight against the champion (Jilon VanOver).

From what I understand, Counterpunch was inspired by Alvaro Orlando’s actual life story. (Along with director Kenneth Castillo, he’s credited with writing the film’s screenplay.) Almost every boxing cliche is present in Counterpunch but I appreciated that the film took a look at not just how Emilio’s childhood set him on the path to becoming a boxer but also at what it did to him mentally. As fearsome as Emilio’s opponents are in the ring, the greatest threat to his success of a boxer comes from his own inner demons. Alvaro Orlando is believable as Emilio, which makes sense since it’s his story! Danny Trejo and Steven Bauer both show up in small roles. Trejo plays Emilio’s counselor and he gives a heartfelt performance, playing a character who doesn’t seem like he’s too far off from who Trejo actually is.

Counterpunch is a good boxing movie, even if it doesn’t exactly rewrite the rules of the genre.

Lifetime Film Review: Fatal Fiancé (dir by Ben Meyerson)

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It should be the perfect wedding.

The location is beautiful. The weather is nice. The romance is in the air. The bridesmaids dresses aren’t hideous. The groom, Mark (Greg Perrow), is handsome and charming and no one seems to be too concerned with his mysterious past. In fact, Mark is such a romantic that he even insisted on not seeing Leah (Brittany Underwood) the night before the wedding. He is that dedicated to making sure that they have both the perfect wedding and the perfect honeymoon! Even his future mother-in-law likes him, though that seems to have more to do with his abs than his romantic nature.

Again, it should be the perfect wedding. There’s only one problem. No one can find the bride! Leah has yet to arrive for her own wedding. Is it possible that she got cold feet and hopped on a plane for tropical island? (That’s what her father suspects, as Leah apparently has a history of doing impulsive stuff like that.) Or could it be something more serious? Leah’s friends are concerned enough to call the police.

And, indeed, Leah has no absconded to the tropics. Instead, she’s being held prisoner by Faith (Camila Banus), a mentally unstable woman who insists that Leah is making a mistake by marrying “Brian.” But wait a minute …. Leah is marrying Mark! Who is this Brian that Faith keeping going on about? Has Leah mistaken Mark for another ex-boyfriend or is there something more sinister going on?

Well, you can probably guess the answer to all of those questions. Apparently, this film was originally entitled A Deadly Bridenapping, which is a bit of unwieldy title but which, at the same time, doesn’t reveal as much about the plot as a title like Fatal Fiancé does. As you can guess from the new title, Mark does have some secrets of his own and there’s a bit more to the kidnapping than just Faith being hung up on an ex-boyfriend. You’ll figure all of that out long before Leah does but that’s okay. That’s one of the pleasures of watching a Lifetime film, after all. We always want to be a step or two ahead of the leading character, the better for us to our shake our heads whenever they make a big and obvious mistake. Leah makes quite a few of them over the course of Fatal Fiancé.

Fatal Fiancé was a fun movie to watch. If the best Lifetime films can be described as being about beautiful people finding themselves in ugly situations, Fatal Fiancé delivered. Leah’s wedding dress was to die for and so were all the houses. There was plenty of melodrama and plenty of eye candy and really, what else do you need? Brittany Underwood was a sympathetic main character and Camilia Banus did a good job as the unstable Faith. Greg Perrow was both charming and menacing as Mark and he got to deliver a rant about pine nut allergies that really had to be seen to be believed. All in all, this was an entertaining movie about a wedding gone wrong.

What Lisa Watched Last Night #186: Killer Caregiver (dir by John Murlowski)

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime movie premiere, Killer Caregiver!

Why Was I Watching It?

Why not?

What Was It About?

While visiting one of her clients, Mariah Wilson (Nicole Hayden) is shocked when an accident leads to not only his death but also to her breaking her arm. With months of physical therapy ahead of her, Mariah hires a home caregiver. Tara (Camila Banus) seems like she’s perfect. She gets along with Mariah’s estranged husband, Greg (George Stults). She helps Mariah exercise her arm. Most importantly, Mariah’s son, Jacob (Jaeden Bettencourt), loves her!

It all seems perfect, except … uh oh! It turns out that Tara is the daughter of Mariah’s dead client and she’s out for revenge!

What Worked?

Oh my God, the houses were to die for! Seriously, one of the things that I love about Lifetime films is that they always take place in these huge houses, the majority of which have a pool in the back yard. But, even by the standards of Lifetime, this film featured some nice houses. In fact, Greg and Mariah’s house was so nice that I was half expecting Greg to reveal that he worked as a money launderer for the mob. But no, Greg’s job had something to do with computers. Having seen this film, I’m now encouraging my boyfriend to get an IT-related job because I could have a lot of fun with a house that big.

However, it wasn’t just Greg and Mariah who had a nice house. Tara also had a really nice house, too. For that matter, when Greg, Mariah, and Jacob were forced to stay in a motel for a night, the motel looked really, really good.

From her first appearance, Tara established herself as being a classic Lifetime villain and Camila Banus really threw herself into the role. From the minute Tara showed up, she was like, “This is my film and now, everyone’s at my mercy!” A film like this is only as good as its villain and Tara was a great one.

What Did Not Work?

What happened to Eugene? The well-meaning but intellectually disabled groundskeeper (played by David Meyers) seemed like he was going to be an important character but then he just kinda disappeared. It was hard not to feel that the character deserved a resolution to his subplot, as minor as it may have been.

Other than that, it all worked! I mean, I could sit here and wonder if perhaps Tara could have come with a simpler revenge scheme (spoiler: she could have) but that would be kind of silly on my part. Melodrama is one of the reasons why I love Lifetime movies! Besides, how can you go wrong when you’ve got a great psycho and a big house?

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

While I personally would never plot anyone’s downfall, I still found myself admiring how organized Tara was about it. You could tell that she probably made out a To-Do List before she set about destroying Mariah’s life: