Mind Games (TV Movie 1998) Poster

(1998 TV Movie)

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5/10
Therapist from hell
sol-kay21 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Having both marital and children problems especially from their mischievous and arsonist 10 year old son Luke,William Greenblatt, the Berricks Doug & Hannah, Kyle Secor & Jayne Brook, go for professional help. Assigned by the head of the mental health clinic's head man, or shrink, Dr. Ryan, Michael Tomlinson, to the Berricks is his top therapist Karen Sorenson, Lindsey Frost. It soon turns out that Karen needs far for help for her severe and uncontrollable mental problems then both the Berricks,and everyone else that she treated, put together!

Karen for twisted reasons known only to herself tries to destroy both Doug and Hannah's marriage by using each of them to cancel out themselves in things that they did, behind their backs, in the past to each other. Finding out that Hannah had an affair in NYC with a doctor while her husband Doug was back home with little Luke she urges her to come clean with her husband and tell him all about it! It will be the best for both her and Dough Karen insists.

This insane proposal on Karen's part has an outraged and humiliated Doug move out of the house and become paranoid in who the actual father of his and Hannah's daughter Amy, Hayley Lochner, whom she became pregnant with after the affair, really is; Him or the guy who Hannah had a one night stand with some seven years ago! To make things even worse Karen induces Doug, whom she later meets at a local watering hole, to have an affair with her thus, with Doug admitting the affair to Hannah, making a reconciliation between the two almost impossible.

Not satisfied in the damage that she already caused Karen goes so far as telling Hannah, who was still on speaking terms with her, that Doug is molesting their six year old daughter Amy that has Hannah throw her out of her house and threaten to have Karen disbarred from the medical profession. It later turns out that Karen did the same kinds of underhanded acts before where it lead to the death of collage student Jimmy Hart, Gordon Michael Woolvett, whom she drove to kill himself by having an affair with him and then breaking it off.

We finally get the lowdown to Kare's weird behavior from non other then her kid sister Anna, Stephanie Morgenstein, who's been in hiding from her deranged big sister for years. Anne is so afraid of Karen that she hired private detective Wexford, Peter MacNeil, just to keep her informed on Karens whereabouts at all times of the day or night. That's in order to be a step ahead and keep Karen from murdering her, Anna, and her two young children.

***SPOILERS*** It turns out that Karen being the psychotic personality that she is hates everything that's good and beautiful in he world and will go out of her way, even to the point of murder, to destroy it! Like the Berrick's whom she supposed to help!
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4/10
I may need therapy after this... no, not from HER. Warning: Spoilers
Another one of those melodramaic made-for-TV movies with an interesting concept but completely overblown delivery.

This particular flick features a psychotic therapist who ends up tearing an unsuspecting family apart by making the wife confess to an affair she had years back, sleeping with the husband while wifey is outta town, pretending hubby abuses the daughter when he rejects her later, manipulating the son into setting fire to their house, then later murdering anyone who steps on her toes.

You know, the usual. Maybe it's time to find a new specialist.

Discard all pretensions that this might be an intimate study of her mental illness at the door, everything here is simply done for cheap thrills... mentions of the psychiatrist's childhood abuse at the hands of her dad are slightly touched on, but are swiftly swept under the carpet as she spins her web of seduction and lies. At times it's fun to watch, but you'd forgive your brain for shrinking considerately whilst you feed it this trashy junk food passing as entertainment. You should feel bad, I know I did.

What really sinks the movie though, is aside from the ever-growing sensationalism which becomes more and more grating as it carries on, is how stupid it treats it's audience. This therapist is supposed to be pretty smart, right? Well, how come the mother is able to break into her house to discover evidence of her past crimes... by finding a KEY hidden underneath an ornament outside?! Who even DOES that anymore? Probably a dumb scriptwriter desperate for a ciggie who couldn't think of a better way to get from point A to B. Hey, at least he didn't write that the therapist left the door unlocked. That would've been REALLY stupid...

Oops, sorry I forgot... he saved that 'gem' up for the climax, when our insane psychiatrist just strolls into the remote log cabin where the family are hiding from her. They know they're in danger... it's the middle of the night... and she's allowed to waltz in to steal their little daughter. And frankly, what happens next is beyond belief... the psychiatrist spends all night dressed up in the mother's clothes, then waits until the crack of dawn to steal the daughter, then she takes off in the family car... which promptly crashes. The family rescues their daughter from the burning wreck, but the therapist obviously decides to kill herself for some reason so stays behind to die in the explosion. Umm...

It's the kind of conclusion that gives the term anti-climax a bad name. We've suffered all the way through this drivel... for THAT?!

Maybe the ones playing the true 'Mind Games' here are the makers, to see how we'd react. Only, instead of giving us a twist ending, they decided to throw us the stupidest one ever.

Well guys, if you're reading this right now and it was your stated aim to tick me off something royally, then congratulations! Mission complete! Now go out there and complete your paper, because I'm sure you'll pass with flying colours.

You utter gits. 4/10.
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3/10
Bad TV movie
Mickey Knox24 July 2002
This is a really bad TV movie. A couple that seems perfect is hiding big secrets from each other. They are all revealed (the secrets) after they meet a psychotic psychologist... Imagine that!

Mind Games is a low budget, ordinary, un-interesting and predictable B-movie. The plot is so obvious from the beginning that you don't even have to use your brain to figure it out. There are no twist and turns, nothing interesting, just your ordinary stupid TV movie.
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