What Lisa Watched Last Night #205: Her Deadly Reflections (dir by John Lyde)

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, I watched the 2nd Lifetime film of 2020, Her Deadly Reflections (a.k.a. Shattered Memories)!

Why Was I Watching It?

Well, the main reason I was watching it was because it was on the Lifetime Movie Network and, by this point, everyone should know that there’s no way I can resist a new Lifetime film.

I also really liked the title. According to imdb, this film is also known as Shattered Memories but I prefer Her Deadly Reflections. I mean, “Deadly” is one of those word that, when it appears in a title, you simply can’t resist. Especially when that title happens to belong to a Lifetime film!

What Was It About?

It’s a Lifetime amnesia film!

Kelly Moore (Helena Mattsson) is an artist who has just woken up in the hospital. Apparently, she’s been in a terrible car accident. In fact, she’s lucky to have survived! Unfortunately, she’s also woken up with partial amnesia. She remembers her childhood. She remembers growing up. She remembers waking up in the hospital. But almost everything in-between is a blank. She no longer knows her husband, Dan (Corey Sevier). She barely knows her best friend, Allison (Melanie Stone) or Allison’s husband, Logan (Jake Stormeon).

What she does know is that she keeps having vague flashes of memory that suggest that there’s more to her injuries than just being in an accident. She sees herself falling out of a window and running from an unseen assailant. Who tried to kill her and why? That’s what Kelly has to try to figure out, while also putting together the clues to discover just what her life was like before the accident.

What Worked?

I always enjoy a good Lifetime amnesia film and Her Deadly Reflections contained all of the elements that you could hope for this unique cinematic genre, everything from hazy flashbacks to sudden realizations that neither Kelly’s marriage nor her friendships were quite as strong as she’s originally led to believe when she first wakes up. It’s an interesting dynamic. Because Kelly can’t remember anything that happened before her accident, everyone tries to pretend as if things were perfect before Kelly lost her memory. I imagine that’s what people would do in real life, as well.

Helena Mattsson did a good job in the lead role, capturing Kelly’s confusion as she struggled to figure out who she used to be. Melanie Stone was also well-cast as Kelly’s best friend.

What Did Not Work?

The film needed a few more suspects to really keep us guessing as to who attacked Kelly.. Once we eliminated all of the obvious the suspects, there was only one person left so the revelation of that person’s identity was not quite as shocking as it could have been.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

I’m happy to say that I’ve never had amnesia, though I did once total my car. (In fact, it flipped over and the fact that I wasn’t killed or even seriously injured was something of a miracle.) I could relate to Kelly and Allison’s friendship. I’ve had friends like Allison. I think we all have.

Lessons Learned

Memories are important so don’t ever let go of them.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Four Christmases And A Wedding (dir by Marita Grabiak)

Posted on December 25, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Hi there! So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR. Seriously, I currently have 193 things recorded! I’ve decided that, on January 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not. So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR! Will I make it? Keep checking this site to find out! I recorded Four Christmases and a Wedding off of Lifetime on December 2nd!)

It’s all pretty much right there in the title.

Four Christmases and A Wedding was one of the handful of original Christmas films to premiere on Lifetime this holiday season. As you can guess from looking at the title, it takes place over the course of four Christmases and it also involves a wedding. Can you guess who ends up getting married and when? If you’ve ever seen a Lifetime or Hallmark holiday film, you can.

It’s actually a sweet film, even if it is rather predictable. But, as I’ve said before, predictability is one reason why people love movies like this. There’s something very reassuring about knowing exactly what is going to happen in a movie like this before you watch it. Many of us spend an entire year hoping for a pleasant holiday. If you’re not lucky enough to get one in real life, you can always get one in the movies.

Or, in this case, you can get four.

Chloe (Arielle Kebbel) is an event planner who is lucky in Christmas but unlucky in love. When a small town hires her to plan their Christmas festival, Chloe is overjoyed. As she tells her mom (Markie Post), she’s given up on ever finding love. At least she can find professional success! But then, at the first festival, she meets Evan (Corey Sevier) and it’s love at first sight! There’s only one problem. Evan is about to go overseas.

The years pass. Evan returns each Christmas. Sometimes, he has a girlfriend. Sometimes, Chloe has a boyfriend. Every time, there is something to keep Chloe and Evan apart. Everyone knows that Chloe and Evan are meant to be together, especially Chloe’s mom. Will Evan and Chloe ever get together or will the wedding be for someone else?

Four Christmases and a Wedding is a sweet movie. There’s nothing surprising about it but Arielle Kebbel and Corey Sevier make for a cute couple, even when they’re not together. The idea of spreading the film out over several years is an interesting one and director Marta Grabiak does a good job of subtly suggesting the passage of time. This is a predictable movie but it’s a lot of fun and I look forward to watching it next Christmas as well.

Cleaning Out The DVR: The Wrong Bed: Naked Pursuit (dir by Monika Mitchell)

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Lisa is not just devoting all of her time to horror movies this month! She is also trying to clean out her DVR. She has recorded over 170 movies this year and she needs to watch all of them before January 1st! Will she make it? Keep checking this site to find out! Lisa recorded The Wrong Bed: Naked Pursuit off of the Lifetime Movie Network on June 2nd.)

Now, this is just frustrating!

When you sit down to watch a movie called The Wrong Bed: Naked Pursuit, I think you’re justified in thinking that the majority of the movie is going to take place in a bed (perhaps even the wrong bed, which I guess would mean that it has a lumpy mattress or a lice-infected pillow something). I think you’re also justified in expecting that everyone’s going to be naked for the majority of the movie. As for the pursuit — well, pursuit can mean anything. Maybe the two naked people in the wrong bed are pursuing pleasure or enlightenment. Maybe they’re pursuing the ultimate high of sexually decadent ennui. Who knows?

Well, The Wrong Bed: Naked Pursuit does open with Stella (Jewel Statie) and Owen (Corey Sevier) waking up naked in bed and handcuffed together. However, it’s not the wrong bed. It’s just a hotel bed and it looks like a pretty nice hotel, too! Both Owen and Stella are naked but that only lasts for about ten minutes. Eventually, they get out of bed and manage to get partially dressed. And while I appreciate the fact that the film is honest about the difficult of putting on a bra while handcuffed to another person (because, seriously, it’s not as easy as the movie’s usually make it look), that still doesn’t change the fact that the title specifically promised us a naked pursuit in the wrong bed.

Now, I should admit that the title is honest about the pursuit part. When Owen and Stella wake up, they have no memory of how they met or eventually ended up in bed together. However, they do know that someone is chasing them. They spend the entire movie running around Canada, trying not to get caught by the usual collection of men in suits and uniforms. Occasionally, Stella has flashes of memory. She sees herself strapped down to a gurney with a scientist named Larissa (Lisa Berry) preparing to give her a shot. She realizes that she and her best friend tried to earn some extra money by taking part in some sort of clinical study. However, something went wrong…

Stella and Owen try to retrace their steps. It turns out that they both got pretty wild the night before they woke up in the not-so wrong bed. They ever started a riot at a bowling alley. Even more importantly, they find the time to stop by Owen’s house. Owen, who says that he’s a fireman, lives in an impressively big house. That’s Lifetime, though. Everyone gets a mansion, regardless of what they do for a living.

Anyway, once I got over the misleading title, The Wrong Bed turned out to be a pretty entertaining little movie. It was directed by Monika Mitchell, who has done several Lifetime movies and who can always be depended on to keep the action moving quickly. Things got a little bit silly once Owen and Stella discovered why they were being pursued but no matter! Jewel Statie and Corey Sevier had chemistry and Sevier looked good without his shirt on.

It all worked out.