Tag Archives: Philippe Gagnon

Lifetime Film Review: Abducted On Air (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Whenever I find myself in need of motivation, I remember the words of Britney Spears:

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati? You better work bitch
You want a Lamborghini? Sippin’ martinis?
Look hot in a bikini? You better work bitch
You wanna live fancy? Live in a big mansion?
Party in France?
You better work bitch, you better work bitch
You better work bitch, you better work bitch
Now get to work bitch!
Now get to work bitch!

As my fellow TSL writers can tell you, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t, at some point, shout out, “Get to work, bitch!”  And while that habit has occasionally gotten me a few strange looks around the office, it definitely works.  For instance, I didn’t know if I’d have the strength to write 24 film reviews in one day.  I didn’t even know if it was worth the trouble.  But I just thought to myself, “You better work, bitch!”

Unfortunately, that technique doesn’t work for everyone.  Abducted on Air is about Sasha Bruder (Kim Shaw), a television news reporter who wants to make it to the top without actually having to actually earn it through hard work.  Unfortunately, even though she has an on-air job at a local news station, it doesn’t seem like she’s heading anywhere.  Her boss, Gavin (Bruce Dinsmore), doesn’t respect her and lead anchor Diane Baldwin (Perry Reeves) is the one who gets all the attention.

But then, one day, Sasha does not come into work.  An investigation reveals that she was apparently abducted from the station and that her kidnapping was caught on video!  For days, Sasha and her disappearance dominates the news.  Where is Sasha Bruder and can she be rescued in time?

Of course, what the public doesn’t know is that Sasha set up her own kidnapping and is currently hanging out in a warehouse.  Even though she insists that her co-worker, lover, and collaborator, Aidan Ferguson (Gord Rand), actually blindfold her and tie her up, that’s just so she’ll be able to bring some authenticity to her story when she eventually resurfaces.

Eventually, Sasha does decide to leave the warehouse.  She emerges with a harrowing tale about how she was abducted and everything that she’s been through over the past couple of days.  Sasha becomes a celebrity and is promoted to co-anchor of the morning newscast.  Diane is not particularly happy about that but Gavin doesn’t care.  All Gavin cares about are ratings and Sasha’s bringing them in.

However, faking a kidnapping is not as easy as it may look.  When it looks like the truth about Sasha’s abduction might finally be revealed, Sasha has no choice but to take matters into her own hands….

I enjoyed Abducted On Air.  Admittedly, a lot of that had to do with the fact that I tend to distrust television journalism,  (In many ways, this was a film that seemed like it was specifically designed to appeal to my every bias.)  This is a film about people obsessively trying to climb to the top of one of the the most superficial professions in existence and the fact that everyone in the movie is so obsessed with finding success in a dying industry actually gave Abducted On Air a bit of a satirical edge.  Perrey Reeves and Kim Shaw both gave good performances as the two rival journalists, making this film a fun one to watch whenever you want to imagine what’s going on behind the scenes of your local news broadcast.

Cleaning Out The DVR: My Husband’s Secret Life (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recorded My Husband’s Secret Life off of Lifetime on March 25th.

Agck!

That looks like quite an accident, doesn’t it?

Lying on the ground is Freddy (Brett Donahue).  Freddy owns a flower store so you might wonder how exactly he ended up lying in the middle of the street, covered in blood.  Some of it could have to do with the fact that Freddy is the husband who is mentioned, in the title, as having a secret.  Freddy may seem like a nice guy but he sure is shady about certain aspects of his past.  For instance, why does he carry a lighter that was made in Russia?  And when he talks in his sleep, why does he speak with slightly foreign accent?  And then there’s his slightly creepy and rather overprotective mother.

As for why he’s lying in the middle of the road, he’s just been run by a man named Arthur (Joe Cobden).  Arthur drinks too much and is frequently a nervous wreck.  Interestingly enough, he once had a respectable job and a strong family.  Whenever Freddy and Arthur meet, it’s on one of those park benches that practically screams, “Secret spy meeting place!”

Hovering over him is Jennifer Jones (Kara Killmer).  Jennifer is Freddy’s wife and, to be honest, she was a bit concerned about her marriage even before Freddy ended up in the middle of the street.  They’ve been married for seven years and yet, there’s still things that Jennifer doesn’t really known about Freddy.  And when she just happens to spot him in the city, getting yelled at by an angry woman, Jennifer’s suspicions become even stronger.  It gets even worse when she twice tries to call him and, after first ignoring her, he answers the second time and blatantly lies about where he is.

Later, when she confronts him, he admits that he was lying about where he was but then asks her why she didn’t call him out if she knew he was lying.  I mean, how dare she allow him to lie!?  That’s classic gaslighting and enough to make everyone watching the film shout, “Get away from him!”

But, shortly afterward, Freddy ends up in the middle of the street and, suddenly, the whole idea of leaving him gets a lot more awkward.  Freddy’s in a coma now and how can you leave someone when they’re in a coma?  While Jennifer waits for Freddy to wake up, her mother-in-law continues to push her away.  What was Jennifer’s husband hiding and why is his mother searching through his house in the middle of the night?  Jennifer is determined to find out!

In all probability, you’ll figure it out long before Jennifer does.  I mean, honestly, when a guy starts speaking in a foreign accent in his sleep, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s probably not who he says he is.  In fact, it takes a certain suspension of disbelief to accept that Freddy could have fooled Jennifer for all this time.

But — hey, this is Lifetime and Lifetime is all about suspending your disbelief and having a good time!  Kara Killmer gives a sympathetic lead performance and Joe Cobden has a few good scenes as the perpetually shaky Arthur.  At its most effective, My Husband’s Secret Life deals with a question that we’ve all asked (whether we admit it or not): How well do we know the people we love?

My Husband’s Secret Life is also known as Sleeper.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: Sometimes The Good Kill (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Hi!  I’m currently in the process of cleaning out my DVR!  Hopefully, I’ll be done before the next Congressional special election but it’s going to be a close one!  Anyway, I recorded Sometimes The Good Kill off of Lifetime on May 13th!)

I have to admit that when I saw the title of this one, my first thought was, “Since when is Lifetime doing Spaghetti westerns?”  I mean seriously, Sometimes The Good Kill is one of those titles that would be perfect for a Franco Nero or a Tomas Milian (or maybe even a Terrence Hill) film.

But no, it turns out I was wrong.

Sometimes The Good Kill takes a look at the sordid things that happen behind the scenes at a convent, a question that has apparently obsessed audiences since the first time they heard Hamlet order Ophelia to “get thee to a nunnery!”  Someone is killing nuns, but why?  Things get off to a start when the old Mother Superior is found underneath a ladder.  Then another is found drowned in a bathtub.  The new Mother Superior (Allison Hossack) wants the murders to remain a secret because the convent is struggling financially.  So, instead of calling the police, she just puts the bodies in a freezer.  Fortunately, the newest arrival at the convent — Sister Talia (Susie Abrometi) — has a mysterious past.  She knows the streets.  She knows the darkest aspects of human nature.  Mother Superior wants Talia to solve these murders and she even hands her a gun to make the job easier.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?  It does but, once you get over the novelty of nuns hiding guns and solving murders, Sometimes The Good Kill settles down to be a fairly typical Lifetime movie.  The film moves at a rather stately pace and its full of scenes of nuns gossiping in low voices and sometimes, I found myself straining to understand what everyone was saying.  Speaking as someone who comes from an Irish/Italian/Spanish Catholic background, this is a film that I wanted to enjoy more than I actually did.

That said, here are a few words of praise.  While the film’s pacing may have been off, it was relatively well-performed.  My favorite suspect was Sister Jean (Deborah Grover), because she didn’t trust anyone and had no fear of letting people know that.  Even when told that “we’re all Gods creatures,” Sister Jean responded by rolling her eyes. We’ve all known a Sister Jean.  And then there was skittish Sister Mai (Lisa Troung), who was freaked out by the poor people who regularly showed up to ask for food.  Both Grover and Troung did very well in their roles.

Finally, I liked the look of the film.  Sometimes The Good Kill was full of visual atmosphere and took full advantage of its gothic setting.  The film had a visual moodiness, one that kept me watching even when the story itself was lacking.

That said, my favorite gun-carrying nun remains Ms. 45.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: Girls Night Out (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, before I went to bed, I continued to clean out my DVR by watching a Lifetime film, Girls Night Out.  I recorded Girls Night Out off of the Lifetime Movie Network on January 22nd.  It was the earliest recording on my DVR.

Girls Night Out tells the story of McKenzie (MacKenzie Mauzy) and three of her closest friends.  They’ve been close since college.  They were all in the same sorority.  They have a long history laughs, pranks, fun, and barely concealed resentment.  Now, they have all graduated and they’ve all found individual success.  McKenzie is marrying Reese (Cody Ray Thompson), who is nice but kind of boring.

While her friends take McKenzie out to celebrate, Reese runs into a guy at a bar.  Brandon (Jacob Blair) seems nice but he’s not!  In college, Brandon used to date McKenzie.  But, one night, after getting her drunk, Brandon raped McKenzie.  When McKenzie reported him, Brandon was kicked out of school.  He lost all of his friends at his fraternity.  He lost his chance to play in the NFL.  Brandon wants revenge and that revenge starts with kidnapping Reese.

Brandon announces that, unless McKenzie and her friends follow his every order, he will kill Reese.  He divides the four of them into two teams and then has them recreate extreme versions of some of the pranks they played in college.  One team is sent searching for thrown-away food and used condoms.  One team is ordered to sneak into a morgue and kiss a corpse.  One friend has to strip down to her underwear while her teammate writes on her with a marker.  Meanwhile, the other two friends have to go buy crack.  And that’s only the beginning…

Girl’s Night Out is a film that asks, “How far would you go for your friends?”  That’s the question that I found myself wondering as I watched.  I never joined a sorority but, when I was in college, I had a group of friends who were like sisters to me.  I called us the SBS, which stands for Sexy Bitch Squad.  My friend Lea used to call us the BNC, which stood for Big Nose Crew, which I think was her sweet way of trying to make me feel better about my own nose.  But regardless of what we were called, we were and are extremely close.  So, I could definitely relate to the scenes involving the bachelorette party and the male strippers.

But, I asked myself, if someone’s fiancée was being held prisoner and being threatened with murder, would I go to the same lengths as the characters in Girls Night Out?

Probably not.

I mean, seriously — climbing into the dumpster and looking for a used condom?  Ewwww.  Kiss a corpse?  No way!  But, luckily, I know that none of the members of SBS (or the BNC) would ever ask me to.  They know me well enough to know better.  That’s the great thing about friendship.  You don’t have to pretend like you’d wear high heels in a crack house just to keep your friend’s boyfriend from being murdered.  You can be yourself, flaws and all.

As for the rest of Girls Night Out … well, it took it a while but it won me over.  At first, everyone in the film seemed so shallow that I had a hard time imagining how I could ever have any sympathy for them.  But then Brandon showed up and was such a hateful character (and Jacob Blair did such a good job of bringing this loathsome jerk to life) that I found myself really looking forward to seeing him get his comeuppance.  Let’s face it — we’ve all had a Brandon in our lives and our greatest regret is that we never go a chance to witness him getting repeatedly kicked in his genitals.  Knowing that Brandon would eventually get his ass kicked was more than enough to keep me watching the film.

It took a while but seeing Brandon get what he deserved made the film more than worth watchiing.

Cleaning Out The DVR, Again #27: Running For Her Life (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on 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!)

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The 27th film on my DVR was Running For Life, which originally aired on Lifetime on May 29th.

Running For Her Life has a very simple and yet very important message: if you’re going to take part in hypnotherapy, make sure that your therapist isn’t a fucking psycho who is obsessed with you.  Really, that seems like it should be common sense but I’ve seen enough Lifetime films to know that people of a certain age and socio-economic background are often way too quick to enter into co-dependent relationships with people that they barely know!

For instance, Alison Wynn (Claire Forlani) wants to be an Olympic-winning triathlete, despite the fact that she’s still recovering from a major accident, one that caused many doctors to tell her that she would never walk again.  Alison proved them wrong then and she wants to prove them wrong now!  The only problem is that something is holding her back from giving it her all in competition.  Could it be a childhood trauma of some sort?  Could it be her own insecurity over her husband’s attractive new assistant?

What better way to find out than to convince the famous and controversial Dr. Laura Stevens (Michelle Nolden) to take her on as a client!  At first, Laura says that she only works with professional athletes and suggests that Alison just read her book.  But Alison continues to beg and eventually, Laura relents.

It turns out that Laura is a demanding coach.  She pushes Alison to the limit and then demands even more, all the while screaming at her that her mother was right and that Alison is worthless.  But, despite the harsh treatment, Alison starts to get better.  It especially helps when Laura hyponotizes her and implant psychic suggestions in her brain.  Of course, there is a nosy reporter (Arnold Pinnock) who claims that Laura is less of a coach and more of a brainwasher but at least Laura is getting results!

Of course, that’s not all Laura is doing.  It quickly becomes apparent that she has grown obsessed with Alison.  Soon, Laura is breaking into Alison’s apartment and hiding panties behind the cushions of the living room couch.  “THESE AREN’T MINE!” Alison later yells at her husband.

It all leads to a scene in which Alison’s husband confronts Laura and Laura literally smashes a bottle over her head.  Seriously, it’s one of the most batshit crazy scenes to ever show up in a Lifetime film and it makes the entire film required viewing.

Anyway, I rather liked Running For Her Life.  Yes, it’s predictable but it’s also fun.  As well, this is one of the rare Lifetime films where the victims are just as interesting as villains.  Claire Forlani really throws herself into the role of Alison and you actually find yourself hoping that things actually do work out for her (though I have to admit that I’m still not totally sure I understand what a triathlon is).  Meanwhile, Michelle Nolden turns Dr. Laura into a truly classic Lifetime villain.

Keep an eye out for Running For Her Life!

What Lisa Watched Last Night #126: Trigger Point (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, I watched the Canadian film Trigger Point on the Lifetime Movie Network.

Trigger Point

Why Was I Watching It?

Oh, why not?  It was Sunday, I was still recovering from a very active Independence Day, and it was on the Lifetime Movie Network.  You know me.  I can’t resist Lifetime.

What Was It About?

College student Callie Banner (Jordan Hinson) blames a Big Evil Corporation for her father losing his job and becoming an alcoholic.  So, she gets involved in a campus protest group.  Soon, she is ignoring all of her old, apolitical friends and spending all of her time chanting slogans and raising her fist in solidarity.  She breaks up with her old boyfriend and is soon dating the charismatic Jared Church (Yanni Gellman).

However, something strange is happening.  Former members of the protest group are dying and their wealthy parents are being blown up.  The cops call it murder/suicide but could it just be murder/murder?  That’s what Callie has to find out, while still also finding time to paint signs, hang banners, and come up with catchy slogans.

What Worked?

Trigger Point confirmed all of my long-held suspicions about political activists.  Good work, Trigger Point.

What Did Not Work?

I was about to complain about the fact that Callie came across as being a humorless scold but then again, that aspect of her character worked as far as the film’s plot was concerned.  If Callie wasn’t a humorless scold, she never would have gotten involved with the protesters in the first place.  And while it can be argued that the film suffered because Callie is such an unlikable character, I would suggest that Callie being so unlikable actually worked to the film’s advantage.  If she had been likable, you would have actually been worried about her well-being and the film would not have been as much fun.  But since she wasn’t likable, you never really cared how many terrible things happened to her.

So, though it may not have been due to the intentions of the filmmakers, the entire film works.

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

I imagine if I was the type to get involved in a political protest, I’d probably act a lot like Callie.  I would totally throw myself into it, I’d flirt with the leaders, I would be judgmental towards anyone who didn’t want to protest, and, in the end, I would discover that everyone around me was a murderer.  That’s one reason why I never got involved with the Occupy movement, no matter how many times I was invited.

Lessons Learned

Don’t get involved in any student protests.  Seriously, they always seem to lead to murder.

What Lisa Watched Last Night: Do No Harm (dir. by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, once I had watched the new episodes of Survivor and South Park and the series finale of One Tree Hill (yes, it was still on the air), I decided to watch a Lifetime movie before bedtime.  (And by bedtime, I mean time that I spent in bed because I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.)  Anyway, the movie that I ended up watching was called Do No Harm.

Why Was I Watching It?

Because it was a Lifetime movie, of course!  As if you had to ask…

As well, Do No Harm is the latest made-for-TV Canadian film to make its American “world premiere” on the Lifetime Movie Network.  At times, it seems like every single film that pops up on Lifetime was sent to us by Canada.  Certainly, the best ones do.  Myself, I love watching these films and spotting the scenes where Montreal is obviously standing in for New York City.  I also enjoy how these films always seem to star a vaguely recognizable American TV star and a bunch of pleasant and polite people who all have French last names.  Proud American that I am, I occasionally fantasize about running off to Canada and Lifetime and Degrassi are to blame…

What Was It About?

So, Emily Edmunds (played by Deanna Russo) is a fashion designer who is engaged to the perfect guy but then, a few days before their wedding, her fiancée goes on a business trip and, a few hours after he leaves, Emily sees a news report about how his plane has crashed and there’s no survivors so Emily decides to kill herself but since there wouldn’t be a movie if she died after the first 15 minutes, Emily is saved and ends up getting checked into a mental hospital where she bonds with her therapist Dr. Thorne (Lauren Holly) but — uh oh! — it turns out that Dr. Thorne has some issues of her own and ends up developing a psychotic obsession on Emily and when Emily is finally all like, “Leave me alone, psycho,” Dr. Thorne responds by kidnapping Emily and then murdering a lot of people with a shotgun, poison, and finally some hit-and-run driving.

Hold on a minute, let me catch my breath.

Did you get all that?

 What Worked?

In the great tradition of low-budget Canadian filmmaking, this movie was ultimately so bad that it was good.  It’s hard not to admire how the filmmakers take a genuinely intriguing premise and then portray it in a way that is so heavy-handed and ludicrous that you can’t help but watch. 

Lauren Holly probably gives the best performance of her career as a caring therapist who, oddly enough, turns out to be a pretty efficient diabolical mastermind.  What I love about films like this is how the villain can go from being sympathetic to creepy to brilliant to remarkable stupid depending on how much time is left in the movie.

I also love how, in these movies, nobody will ever believe that main character even if there’s like a thousand reasons that they should.  Emily’s best friend actually leaves a message in Emily’s voice mail while she’s in the process of being killed by Dr. Thorne and yet not even that is enough to get Thorne arrested.  It reminded me of that episode of South Park where Cartman pretends to be a psychic and gets everyone but the actual serial killer arrested. 

That was a really funny episode, by the way.

What Didn’t Work?

Unfortunately, you really can’t have “so bad it’s good” without the bad.  Then again, this was a Lifetime movie and it kept me entertained so, as far as I’m concerned, it all worked.

“Oh My God!  Just like me!” Moments

Needless to say, I’ve seen a few therapists over the years and every single one of them was obsessed with me.

Or, at least, I always assumed they were. 

In reality, it was always kind of disappointing for me to realize that they had other patients who spent just as much time with them as I did.

Bleh.

Lessons Learned:

I may, in the future, spend a year living in Canada but I’ll never see a Canadian psychiatrist.