Reviews

I had to suspend far too much disbelief while watching this episode.

No officer would let a kid hold onto a gun for his own comfort after a standoff. I understand that this matter was designed to make the new character endearing, but there are ways for a writer to do that without being absurd.

Then there's the plot device. The New York agents travel to DC because one of the victims there is a federal officer ("moonlighting" at a hotel), but I couldn't fathom that there would be no local FBI agents to investigate the crime, considering where FBI headquarters is located. At least show the New York officers working with them for the sake of believability.

The performances were as good as ever, and I certainly like the newcomer Gaines, but the issues with believability were distracting.

I liked this at first. I enjoyed the visuals, the family story line, the acting (particularly that of Skarsten and Rose), and the whole idea of Bruce Wayne's female cousin finding the cave and taking over in his absence. The effort was there.

Unfortunately, the lack of logic kept pulling me out of the story, as the writers had to make their heroes conveniently stupid in order to keep the antagonist on the run. Without getting specific, I often found myself asking, "Why don't the heroes just bring the villainess to justice RIGHT NOW?" Instead, the protagonists waste time talking to her, letting her bait them, or backing down when they don't have to.

Even worse, Batwoman goes easy on the villiainess for personal reasons, putting selfishness ahead of public safety. How in the world is the audience supposed to root for a hero who does that?

Not recommended.

I was looking forward to this one for a while. Unfortunately, the execution is way too clumsy. The mother's quest to find her daughter was mostly dull, Morgan Obenreder and Monroe Cline were wasted, and the film has too much illogical content: a captive apparently doesn't need to use the bathroom, a certain culprit conveniently goes down with little evidence of wrongdoing, daylight appears during a night scene, and someone says "I love you" to the last person she should say it to, in about that order.

I thought that the film could've benefitted from more focus on Rebecca Marshall's character and her motivations, as she's the only real standout.

'A Daughter's Deception' has some decent moments and some very illogical ones. In a nutshell, a young woman calling herself Bree claims to be the long-lost daughter of our heroine Laura.

Silly points:

* Laura immediately believes the claim without proof.

* Laura's nosy friend Gareth somehow, someway learns a big secret about Bree through "the Internet" (has she conveniently left this info online?).

* Laura's younger daughter, Skylar, and a detective become super suspicious toward the end without much reason offered in the script.

* Some of these contrived developments are just thrown into the story to make Bree lash out, which feels forced when they're not realistic.

* Someone's status at the very end isn't the least bit believeable.

With all that being said, the performances by Kennedy Tucker and Jade Harlow are excellent. Jade is great as the shaken, loving mother. Kennedy is a model who can actually act, and she plays the role of cocky psycho very well.

The tale also includes an interesting twist that I certainly didn't see coming, though it seriously makes you wonder why one character didn't just target a certain someone else from the start. Overall, this remains watchable all throughout, if a little illogical at times.

The way that this film plays out is ridiculous. A woman wrongly hides the fact that a man has a CHILD for 17 years, places the blame elsewhere, doesn't immediately tell him when they reunite, and then (minor spoiler), all is conveniently forgiven when he finally finds out. I don't know too many decent people who wouldn't be outraged if they were in this man's shoes. If the situation was reversed, and the king had kept the daughter from her mother for years, we'd be calling him a cad.

I like all of the lead actors, having seen most of them in other projects. I wouldn't say that Reid and Rademacher have great chemistry, but they work well enough together. Still, I couldn't get past the absurd scenario, and therefore couldn't enjoy the film as much as I wanted to. In my opinion, it would've worked better if we'd learned that the mother had at least TRIED telling the father about the most important part of his life, repeatedly. As it stands, it simply isn't as moving as it could've been.

The third installment in the 'Stalked By My Doctor' series is probably the most engaging one yet, largely by virtue of being the nuttiest. Sure, there are some thought-provoking parts here and there, but by now it should be clear that these tales aren't really out to enlighten or move you; they're mainly just around to provide some thrills.

In a nutshell, the vindictive Sophie Green (a riveting Brianna Chomer), original target of the wacky Dr. Beck, flips things by stalking him this time. Standing in her way is Beck's newest love interest, Melissa, a smitten student at the school where Beck now teaches.

One of the most jarring things about this film is the rise of psycho Sophie. Gone is the meek girl from the first tale. In her place is a cunning vixen who'll stop at nothing to take Beck down. This is a nice bit of character development that leads to some fun action scenes, especially during the clashes between Sophie and Melissa (who's well played by the talented Anna Marie Dobbins). Plus, Eric Roberts is always excellent in the role of Dr. Beck, a complex guy who seemingly wants to reform, but still has a few naughty tricks up his sleeve.

Naturally, certain parts were less impressive than others. Without giving too much away, the ending disappoints due to the creators teasing a twist that they ultimately don't have the guts to go through with. Instead, we get an entirely different twist, via some exposition that, frankly, comes across as absurd (even for this series). This actually reminded me of a similar ending in an unrelated 'Stalked By' film, which also pretended to be chaotic, then went conventional. Simply put, conventional gets dull sometimes.

Still, this is a fascinating addition to the series, and an intriguing tale overall.

A policewoman takes in a teenage witness and bonds with her during the investigation.

Being a fan of relationships like this, I was pretty excited for the film, but I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. The problem is that, for the most part, the kid lacks likable qualities and the relationship feels rushed, as the girl is an extreme crybaby who clings to the heroine from the very start. Perhaps this can be called realistic, but the creators forget to make it engaging. In other words, I need more reason to sympathize with a character than the mere fact that they've endured trauma, and I usually prefer to see a relationship develop in phases. A good example of what I'm describing can be found in the film adaptation of Iris Johansen's 'The Killing Game,' a somewhat similar tale which handled its characters and their bond in much better fashion.

The action and the conflict driving it are decent. High points include nice performances by Laura Mennell as the dedicated detective and Marcus Rosner as her teammate.