Lifetime of Love

Greetings friends. I know that everyone's talking about something called "The Oscars" this week, but I'd like to take a look back at one of the most meaningful holiday weekends ever: Valentine's Day weekend!! Even better, the weekend began with Friday the 13th. What better way to celebrate than a combination of feature films and made-for-TV movies? Unfortunately, Friday the 13th was sold out, so I had to make up for it with a slew of other films. Friday night I saw Coraline and My Bloody Valentine, both in real 3D. Then, Lifetime celebrated the holiday with a Sunday filled with movies about abuse, murder, abduction, and rape. Hurray!

Coraline
Those who know me know that I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton, particularly The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I was really looking forward to this one. I was fairly disappointed. The film started strong, with creepy animation and a weird robot hand sewing a creepy looking doll together. The movie took a negative turn later on when it began to feel more like a weird, interactive computer game than a movie. I was also somewhat confused about the intended audience. Whereas Nightmare Before Christmas was enjoyable for adults and children alike, Coraline seemed too creepy for children but too boring for adults. Overall, I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I'll be seeing it again anytime soon.

My Bloody Valentine 3D
This is probably the least frightening horror film I've ever seen, and I had to close my eyes throughout most of Dead Silence, so that's really saying something. It was, however, terribly good, and Jack from Dawson's Creek (Kerr Smith) was one of the main characters. From the opening sequence of frightening newspaper headlines flying at me in 3D, I knew I was in for a treat. The plot twists, characters, and effects were just ridiculous enough to make it an entertaining hour and a half, though I think that about 30 minutes of plot explanation (we didn't really need any explanation) and flashbacks at the end could have been cut out. I actually managed to fall asleep for awhile, and when I woke up I was ready for things to be wrapped up. The final twist also didn't make a lot of sense to me, and the flashbacks that explained what had "really" happened felt like cheating, since these flashbacks added things that weren't actually there the first time around. The stupid ending didn't really take away from my enjoyment, though, and it was definitely my favorite film of the evening.

No One Would Tell
Did anyone else have to watch this movie about an abusive relationship in their middle school health class? No? Just me? This classic 1996 made-for-TV release, starring television favorites Candice Cameron and Fred Savage, tells us what happens if we get into an abusive relationship, or if we let our friend stay in an abusive relationship. Someone ends up dead. I can't think of a better way to end Valentine's Day weekend than a friendly reminder about the deadly side of love. Cameron's character gets herself caught up in an abusive relationship with golden boy Savage, and when her friends and mom start to notice bruises and even public aggressive behavior, they decide not to get involved. And what happens to Cameron? Well, when she finally decides that enough is enough and breaks it off with Savage, he murders her and dumps her body in the lake. So, the other lesson learned is that once you're in an abusive relationship, you'd better stay put, because being shoved around is probably still better than being dead. Though, he does end up going to prison for life and Sally Jessy Raphael, who plays the wise judge who convicts him of murder at the end of the movie, reminds all of us that if we witness an abusive relationship and don't do anything, we're all guilty of murder. As an awkward 12-year-old who was mostly afraid to look boys in the eye, this film was extremely relevant for me and not at all a waste of two class periods.

Taken in Broad Daylight
Another Dawson's Creek star, James Van Der Beek, makes his triumphant return to television (no, I don't really care to see whether he's done anything else on TV since Dawson's was on, and I'm sure that none of you really care) in this Lifetime Original Movie which premiered on February 15 on Lifetime Movie Network. And man, was he creepy as ever! This time he plays a villian (quite a stretch for the old acting muscles!) who kidnaps a young girl in, you guessed it, broad daylight, and takes her with him on a weird cross country trek. The girl tries to outsmart him and alert local and FBI authorities to their wherabouts throughout the kidnapping and ultimately survives the horrific ordeal. Now, I can kind of see the connection between No One Would Tell and Valentine's Day--at least that one deals with a romantic relationship, albeit an abusive one. But a movie about kidnapping? Really? Lifetime advertised the weekend as "Love him/love him not," airing the "love him" movies on Saturday and leaving the "love him not" for Sunday. Even with that theme, I think a film about a random kidnapping (he wasn't even a deranged ex-boyfriend or obsessed stalker) is a pretty big stretch. I guess it was a comforting way to end the weekend however, since it is probably safe to say that no matter how crappy your Valentine's Day was, it was still better than being kidnapped by James Van Der Beek.

Happy Oscars everyone!!

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Thursday, February 19, 2009. You can leave your response.