Mark Lutz – Through the Shattered Lens

In 2020’s Killer Prom, Yvonne Zima plays Sienna. Poor Sienna is desperately struggling with her life. She has a cheap apartment that she still can’t really afford. Her mother wants nothing to do with her. She hasn’t had much of a romantic life since missing her high school prom. She’s very jealous of her distant cousin, Hannah (Megan Vincent). Hannah is married to Dr. Tony Wilson (Mark Lutz), a man on whom Sienna has always had a crush. So, Sienna drowns Hannah at the family reunion and then moves to Texas so she can be close to Tony and his family.

Sienna not only wants to marry Tony. She also wants to help Tony’s teenage daughter, Maya (Erica Anderson), have a great prom night! In fact, Sienna has it all perfectly planned out. While Maya is off at prom, Tony will be so moved by his love for Sienna that he’ll ask her to marry him. The only problem is that Maya instantly notices that something is off about Sienna and she really doesn’t want her anywhere near her prom or her date, Jake (Kyle Meagher). Meanwhile, Tony is too busy mourning his wife to fall in love with anyone. And even if Tony was going to fall in love with anyone, it would probably be his assistant, Lauren (Brianna Barnes).

Oh, Sienna hates Lauren. When Lauren shows up at a barbecue, Sienna has to duck into the bathroom so she can ask her reflection, “Who wears a red dress to a barbecue!?” Really, Sienna? Who wears a red dress to a barbecue? I WEAR A RED DRESS TO A BARBECUE! You have a problem with me!? That said, Lauren’s dress is a little bit too expensive for a barbecue. Barbecues can get messy as anyone who has seen that picture of James Talarico sinking his teeth into those ribs can tell you.

Anyway, it’s a Lifetime film so Sienna loses it. She goes from wanting to marry Tony and become Maya’s stepmother to wanting to kill them both and does it pretty quickly. Of course, it’s up to Maya to save the family, even if that means missing her own prom. Don’t count on Tony to do anything. Tony is bizarrely clueless, even though it’s pretty much obvious from the start that Sienna has some issues. Men in Lifetime films never stop to think that the attractive woman who was the last person to see their wife before her mysterious death could possibly be a troublemaker.

I really enjoyed Killer Prom, mostly because I went to prom every year that I was in high school and I had a blast each time. Movies like this pretty much live and die based on how effective the actress playing the psycho is and Yvonne Zima gives a wonderfully unhinged performance as Sienna. She’s just so incredibly excited about the prom! It’s hard not to feel bad for her when it becomes clear that she’s going to end up missing another one.

It’s disaster time!

In 2001’s Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534, a plane is making its way across the country. The pilot is the arrogant Jack Brooks (Kevin Jubinville), who is convinced that all a pilot has to do is let the instruments and the plane’s computer run the flight. He has total faith in technology. His first officer is Mike Hogan (Eric Roberts), a veteran pilot whose career went downhill after he was unfairly blamed for a crash in Boston. Mike is old school. He doesn’t have much use for all this technology nonsense. Mike thinks that a pilot has to listen to his own instincts and be willing to improvise. That sounds dangerous! It’s a good thing that Jack’s in charge of this plane!

Unfortunately, turbulence and a concussion temporarily puts Jack out of commission. Mike is going to have to conquer his own fears and insecurities to land this plane. Fortunately, he has the support of the head flight attendant, Katy Phillips (Alexandra Paul). Also, one of the passengers has some flight experience! Grant Blyth (Dean McDermott) is willing to help out. Of course, Grant is also a convicted murderer who was being flown to prison but whatever. I just find it interesting that, in the movies, convicted murderers and their handlers are always put on commercial flight. That seems kind of irresponsible to me.

Rough Air is a throwback to the old disaster movies of the 70s. The airplane is full of people who have to set aside their differences to work together and try to avoid a disaster. There’s a soccer star (Mark Lutz) and an engineer (Russell Yuen) and a rich guy (Carlo Rota) who only exists that he can be told to shut up whenever he doubts Mike. Unfortunately, this film isn’t quite as fun as any of those old disaster movies. There’s one funny moments where Jack wakes up and deliriously demands to be allowed to fly the plane but otherwise, this is a pretty boring flight. Not even Eric Roberts giving a typically committed performance can save this flight from being forgettable.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed: