rstricklin

I caught this film -- under the title of "What Lies Above" -- on Lifetime movie network last night, and just had to comment on it. Designed as a resourceful-woman-in-peril, action adventure yarn, it is so unintentionally funny (thanks in large part to Marc Singer's scenery-chewing hammy performance)that I thought I was watching a cross between "Cliffhanger" and "Home Alone 5." Heroine Nicole Eggert makes her devious but dumb as dirt male pursuers look like the Three Stooges succumbing to her ridiculous makeshift booby traps (somehow she manages to devise a swinging battering ram with rope and a log in a matter of minutes, which temporarily takes out one of the knuckleheads who want to kill her). Worth watching for a hearty laugh.

I caught this sharp, clever romantic comedy at the 2004 Palm Beach International Film Festival where three additional showings were added after the film's premiere sold out. I can see why. Based on a true story, this is the tale of a frustrating young housewife (sympathetically played by Tomey Sellars) who toys with the idea of offing her habitually lazy and sloppy husband (hilariously played by Justin Kane). However, before she can call off the contract, she discovers that her "hitman" is an undercover cop and she's busted. Sooner than you can say "media feeding frenzy," the case becomes tabloid fodder, the imprisoned wife becomes a feminist heroine, and her hubby learns a thing or two about growing up in the glare of public scrutiny. All in all, this is a very funny, touching and insightful film that won an Audience Favorite Award at the Festival and deservedly so. It has all the earmarks of a sleep indie hit.