Okay. This is a pretty good nail biter even though it has all the stereotypes of the genre...perfect housewife...sexpot villain...good looking but shallow and sneaky husband...predictable ending. Gone With The Wind it ain't but it still was better on a snowy Sunday night than ploughing the driveway. But once again we have a film made in Canada and subsidized by the Canadian, Ontario and Quebec governments that is set in Philadelphia.(!!!) We prostitute ourselves repeatedly this way because with the remarkable inferiority complex of the Canadian film industry, we convince ourselves that nobody will watch a movie set in Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver or wherever. We create a few jobs for Canadian film editors, honey wagon drivers and second rate actors that way, but do nothing to enhance our national image. As a taxpayer in Ontario, why am I promoting Philadelphia?
12 Reviews
Lifetime Women Are Tops
wes-connors13 August 2013
Model-perfect blonde Brook Burns (as Suzanne) drives her car into a woman riding a bicycle, sending her to the hospital with broken bones. As it quickly becomes evident, Ms. Burns wants the woman's job as hostess at "Michael's Bar & Grill". Dressed for success and seduction, Burns crashes the interview sessions and is immediately hired by handsome Philadelphia restaurateur Tim Rozon (as Michael Miller). Burns lets her boss know she's available for sex, also, but Mr. Rozon declines. His wife Ashley Jones (as Catherine Kearney) is taking a year off work to stay at home and raise their newborn son Evan...
This being a "Lifetime" TV movie, you might expect a devious woman plotting against a hapless male. You won't be disappointed...
Rozon tells Burns he's going to be faithful to his wife, but she won't take "no" for an answer. Friends at work wonder how Rozon can "keep it at half mast." Things get wild. Although it's fun to watch director Curtis James Crawford and his team deal with the assignment, poor Rozon really should have taken action after either the handcuffs or blackmail incidents. Also, the sex tape looks like a drugged man is being sexually assaulted. Credit writer John Serge with having Rozon ask, "Why didn't I just tell her the truth from the start?" You've got to appreciate lines that that in movies like "A Sister's Revenge".
***** A Sister's Revenge (4/27/13) Curtis Crawford ~ Brooke Burns, Tim Rozon, Ashley Jones, Joe Marques
This being a "Lifetime" TV movie, you might expect a devious woman plotting against a hapless male. You won't be disappointed...
Rozon tells Burns he's going to be faithful to his wife, but she won't take "no" for an answer. Friends at work wonder how Rozon can "keep it at half mast." Things get wild. Although it's fun to watch director Curtis James Crawford and his team deal with the assignment, poor Rozon really should have taken action after either the handcuffs or blackmail incidents. Also, the sex tape looks like a drugged man is being sexually assaulted. Credit writer John Serge with having Rozon ask, "Why didn't I just tell her the truth from the start?" You've got to appreciate lines that that in movies like "A Sister's Revenge".
***** A Sister's Revenge (4/27/13) Curtis Crawford ~ Brooke Burns, Tim Rozon, Ashley Jones, Joe Marques
Evil but
nightroses25 June 2021
The villain was evil but so cartoon evil. There was nothing even about her that seemed real. Her motive for ruining this man's life, her victim, is just too ridiculous. She grieved the loss of her sister to suicide, and seeks revenge on the boyfriend. Not only does the villain target him, but also his innocent wife and child. The film dragged on a bit and that police detective has such a cool voice that it was a shame he didn't have a bigger role in this!
O.K. but pretty typical Lifetime fare
mgconlan-128 April 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I watched a Lifetime movie that was having its so-called "world premiere" last night: "A Sister's Revenge," a pretty standard-issue bad-girl thriller for the Lifetime channel that shows how much Christine Conradt has set the format for these things and essentially become Lifetime's auteur, to the point where a film that she had nothing to do with (this one had someone named John Serge as the writer and Curtis James Crawford —though IMDb.com leaves out his middle name — as the director) nonetheless hits all the major points of her formula. It begins with a woman in a light SUV running down another woman riding a bicycle; we don't know who either of these two people are yet but the woman in the SUV runs down the woman on the bike and she ends up
well, we presume she's badly injured and is going to be laid up for quite a while. Then the scene cuts to a restaurant called Michael's Bar and Grill, which despite the unassuming exterior and the proletarian name is really a pretty upscale place once Crawford's camera dollies us inside. The proprietor is Michael Miller (Tim Rozon, not exactly drop-dead gorgeous but a good deal handsomer than a lot of Lifetime leading men), who's happily married to a woman named Catherine (Ashley Jones), though she's getting restive because their son Evan was just born and Michael has insisted that Catherine take the first year of Evan's life off work and mother him. Unfortunately, Michael needs to hire a new hostess because his previous one was in an unexpected accident and is going to be laid up for a while (and if you're a veteran Lifetime movie-watcher you don't need two guesses to figure out how that happened), and after turning down the first applicant (she tells him, "I can bench 250 pounds," which makes me think she'd have been a good candidate for the job: with that amount of strength, she could be both a hostess and a bouncer) he hires Suzanne Dunne (Brooke Burns), a blonde who walked in on the job without bothering to turn in an application first but because she's flirting with him (just because he's married doesn't mean he can't look!) and his gonads are in play he hires her anyway.
At first I thought this was going to be another one of Lifetime's "Perfect" movies, in which the unscrupulous bad girl goes after the good guy's money and/or his bod and doesn't let the fact that he's already married to the good girl stand in her way one bit. Then we get a scene of Suzanne at home with her boyfriend Jimmy (Joe Marques) and it appears that they're in some kind of plot to scam money out of Michael. Suzanne does everything she can to sabotage both Michael's restaurant and his life, and it's not until about two-thirds of the way through the movie that we finally learn what this is all about: before moving to Philadelphia (where the film takes place), marrying Catherine and building the restaurant, Michael lived in San Francisco and had a relationship with Suzanne's sister Ariel (Allison Busner). We've only seen Ariel on computer videos Suzanne obsessively watches when she's alone at home, and we weren't sure who she was — and for that matter we weren't sure whether these were old tapes or they were Skyping each other in real time (one nice thing about this movie — which hasn't always been true of Lifetime — is at least the communications technology is up to date; there've been Lifetime films set in high school in the mid-2000's which asked us to believe that none of the students had a laptop, a smartphone or a Facebook account). Now we find out through some exposition from Suzanne and a few flashbacks (in which Tim Rozon actually does look credibly younger than he does in the main part of the movie) that Ariel took the relationship a lot more seriously than Michael did. When Ariel got pregnant she expected Michael to marry her; instead he rejected her and went to Philadelphia after leaving her the money for an abortion, and instead of having either the baby or the abortion she committed suicide. That is what Suzanne has been bent on having her titular "sister's revenge" on, and in the film's most chilling scene Michael pleads with her and asks what he can do, to which she replies, "Suffer." "A Sister's Revenge" is one of those obsessive Lifetime movies that isn't terribly good as a movie but is redeemed by a marvelous villainess performance from Brooke Burns, who makes her twisted psyche believable and even a bit understandable (her background is that both she and Ariel were molested as children by their father, and when she saw her dad raping Ariel she killed him and got three years in a mental institution for her pains), but she can't undo the effects of slovenly writing and by-the-numbers direction that portrays Michael's Kafkaesque fate in all too matter-of-fact a manner.
At first I thought this was going to be another one of Lifetime's "Perfect" movies, in which the unscrupulous bad girl goes after the good guy's money and/or his bod and doesn't let the fact that he's already married to the good girl stand in her way one bit. Then we get a scene of Suzanne at home with her boyfriend Jimmy (Joe Marques) and it appears that they're in some kind of plot to scam money out of Michael. Suzanne does everything she can to sabotage both Michael's restaurant and his life, and it's not until about two-thirds of the way through the movie that we finally learn what this is all about: before moving to Philadelphia (where the film takes place), marrying Catherine and building the restaurant, Michael lived in San Francisco and had a relationship with Suzanne's sister Ariel (Allison Busner). We've only seen Ariel on computer videos Suzanne obsessively watches when she's alone at home, and we weren't sure who she was — and for that matter we weren't sure whether these were old tapes or they were Skyping each other in real time (one nice thing about this movie — which hasn't always been true of Lifetime — is at least the communications technology is up to date; there've been Lifetime films set in high school in the mid-2000's which asked us to believe that none of the students had a laptop, a smartphone or a Facebook account). Now we find out through some exposition from Suzanne and a few flashbacks (in which Tim Rozon actually does look credibly younger than he does in the main part of the movie) that Ariel took the relationship a lot more seriously than Michael did. When Ariel got pregnant she expected Michael to marry her; instead he rejected her and went to Philadelphia after leaving her the money for an abortion, and instead of having either the baby or the abortion she committed suicide. That is what Suzanne has been bent on having her titular "sister's revenge" on, and in the film's most chilling scene Michael pleads with her and asks what he can do, to which she replies, "Suffer." "A Sister's Revenge" is one of those obsessive Lifetime movies that isn't terribly good as a movie but is redeemed by a marvelous villainess performance from Brooke Burns, who makes her twisted psyche believable and even a bit understandable (her background is that both she and Ariel were molested as children by their father, and when she saw her dad raping Ariel she killed him and got three years in a mental institution for her pains), but she can't undo the effects of slovenly writing and by-the-numbers direction that portrays Michael's Kafkaesque fate in all too matter-of-fact a manner.
The movie is about a sister that wants to extract revenge on a man she blames for her sisters suicide.
tedknudson28 April 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This movie had a good idea for a plot but the execution was atrocious. Even fiction should be believable. This was not even close. When Suzanne was demanding $75,000 ransom money, the show should have stopped right there. He was drugged you could have seen it in the pictures. He would not have had a problem going to his wife with the proof. He also should have kept the hand cuffs as proof. The movie just keeps getting dumber and dumber from here on out. The problem was not the acting, it was not great but it was OK for a made for TV movie. I thought that Brook Burns did a great job; she just had a lousy script to work with. I would not recommend this movie to anyone.
What a waste
VeganVag4 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
So a business owner gets blackmail for being raped where he then goes along with allowing the rapist to come into his home as his wife's personal trainer after she reniggs on the payout of the evidence of him being drugged while he was raped?? I guess this is what should be called "Soft Thriller" because it's just a wasteful to watch as "Soft Porn" is.
The personal trainer
kapelusznik1826 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** It's when the hostess Miss Amber, Caitlin Pasquet,of Michael Miller's, Tim Rozon, five star restaurant Michael's Bar & Grill was run off the road by the wide eyed and hyperventilating Suzanne Dunne, Brooke Burns,it became obvious that Suzanne wasn't just up to no good but wanted to get close to Michael to not only destroy his marriage but also his life as well. As were soon to find out Suzanne has it in for Michael in what he did to her baby sister Ariel, Allison Busner, some five years ago in San Francisco by in walking out on her that drove Ariel to kill herself. Now getting a job at Michael's restaurant replacing the injured Amber she's to make his life miserable and by infesting his place of business with vermin drive him into bankruptcy!
There's also the matter of Michael's wife Catherine, Ashley Jones, and infant son Michael Jr that a vengeful Suzanne starts to work on that will in the end almost drive Michael not only out of his bird but into prison on trumped up charges of him trying to poison his wife. Suzanne also goes so far by both getting Michael drunk on a combination of gin & vodka and having him spend the night with her to sleep it off, while video taping the entire sordid episode, as well as becoming Catherine's personal trainer. It's Suzanne who together with her pip squeak boyfriend Jimmy, Joe Marques, who also plan to turn her against Michael on an infidelity rap.
***SPOILERS*** The end couldn't come fast enough with Suzanne dropping her guard and going so far as having Michael Jr kidnapped and threatened with death if Michael didn't drop his wife as well as lose his business and become, It's the only thing I could come up with, her personal sex slave. By now even Jimmy, who seemed to worship the very ground that she walks on, had just about all he could take from Suzanne and checked out on her as things started to get out of hand. Suzanne now gone completely nuts who in a life and death struggle with Michael ends up shooting herself which saves Michael and everyone else involved in this film any more suffering.
There's also the matter of Michael's wife Catherine, Ashley Jones, and infant son Michael Jr that a vengeful Suzanne starts to work on that will in the end almost drive Michael not only out of his bird but into prison on trumped up charges of him trying to poison his wife. Suzanne also goes so far by both getting Michael drunk on a combination of gin & vodka and having him spend the night with her to sleep it off, while video taping the entire sordid episode, as well as becoming Catherine's personal trainer. It's Suzanne who together with her pip squeak boyfriend Jimmy, Joe Marques, who also plan to turn her against Michael on an infidelity rap.
***SPOILERS*** The end couldn't come fast enough with Suzanne dropping her guard and going so far as having Michael Jr kidnapped and threatened with death if Michael didn't drop his wife as well as lose his business and become, It's the only thing I could come up with, her personal sex slave. By now even Jimmy, who seemed to worship the very ground that she walks on, had just about all he could take from Suzanne and checked out on her as things started to get out of hand. Suzanne now gone completely nuts who in a life and death struggle with Michael ends up shooting herself which saves Michael and everyone else involved in this film any more suffering.
Destruction of A Life-A Sister's Revenge ***1/2
edwagreen28 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Exciting taut thriller with a woman hell-bent on extracting revenge against a guy who impregnated her sister. The latter killed herself.
What makes the movie this good were the ways that this gal goes about in trying to destroy the life of the guy. Putting roaches in the restaurant that he owned and subsequently setting fire to it, drugging the guy and then getting him bed, having him arrested for poisoning his wife which she had done, and finally the kidnapping of his infant son.
The head lead is vicious, cunning and an absolute joy to watch on the screen. How she methodically planned each step in her evil plan is exciting to watch. Did anyone notice that the wife of the guy is a definite Hillary Clinton look-alike?
What makes the movie this good were the ways that this gal goes about in trying to destroy the life of the guy. Putting roaches in the restaurant that he owned and subsequently setting fire to it, drugging the guy and then getting him bed, having him arrested for poisoning his wife which she had done, and finally the kidnapping of his infant son.
The head lead is vicious, cunning and an absolute joy to watch on the screen. How she methodically planned each step in her evil plan is exciting to watch. Did anyone notice that the wife of the guy is a definite Hillary Clinton look-alike?
Shenanigans at Michael's Bar & Grill
lavatch25 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The setting is Philadelphia where an aspiring restauranteur, Michael Miller, has just opened a new restaurant to great fanfare. But a saboteur arrives on the scene with a methodical plan to undermine Michael's business and ruin his life. The major dramatic question is why does Suzanne Dellinger have Michael Miller in her cross hairs, and why is she targeting this poor schlub?
For the patient viewer, the motivation slowly reveals itself when we learn that Michael once had an affair with Suzanne's beloved sister, Ariel Dellinger. The cad Michael impregnated Ariel, then became callous when she clearly wanted to marry him. When he refused, the couple broke up, and Ariel eventually took her own life, memorializing the shooting on camera with the footage played by Suzanne to stoke the fires of her revenge on Michael.
Suzanne's plan is diabolical, as she disrupts his restaurant business and extorts him for $75,000. But she then continues the assault by attempting to murder Michael's wife, Catherine, and kidnaps his baby boy Evan. The lengths to which Suzanne will go at least merit acknowledgment for their creativity, placing roaches in the salads of unsuspecting diners at Michael's Bar & Grill and lacing Catherine's jug of ice tea with antifreeze.
Consciously or not, Suzanne was tapping into Michael's fundamental insecurity. He was too proud to ask his wealthy father-in-law for financial support. As a result, he foolishly taps into credit lines to pay off Suzanne without conferring with Catherine, compounding his deceit and losing the trust of his wife.
"A Sister's Revenge" explores an ongoing theme of the Lifetime films: the gullibility of a soft male husband, who refuses to tell the truth to his wife at the start, then loses her trust later. Michael should have told Catherine right away about his sordid relationship with Ariel Dellinger, and he should have told her as well about Catherine's plan to extort him. With this level of deceit, a relationship may never recover.
For the patient viewer, the motivation slowly reveals itself when we learn that Michael once had an affair with Suzanne's beloved sister, Ariel Dellinger. The cad Michael impregnated Ariel, then became callous when she clearly wanted to marry him. When he refused, the couple broke up, and Ariel eventually took her own life, memorializing the shooting on camera with the footage played by Suzanne to stoke the fires of her revenge on Michael.
Suzanne's plan is diabolical, as she disrupts his restaurant business and extorts him for $75,000. But she then continues the assault by attempting to murder Michael's wife, Catherine, and kidnaps his baby boy Evan. The lengths to which Suzanne will go at least merit acknowledgment for their creativity, placing roaches in the salads of unsuspecting diners at Michael's Bar & Grill and lacing Catherine's jug of ice tea with antifreeze.
Consciously or not, Suzanne was tapping into Michael's fundamental insecurity. He was too proud to ask his wealthy father-in-law for financial support. As a result, he foolishly taps into credit lines to pay off Suzanne without conferring with Catherine, compounding his deceit and losing the trust of his wife.
"A Sister's Revenge" explores an ongoing theme of the Lifetime films: the gullibility of a soft male husband, who refuses to tell the truth to his wife at the start, then loses her trust later. Michael should have told Catherine right away about his sordid relationship with Ariel Dellinger, and he should have told her as well about Catherine's plan to extort him. With this level of deceit, a relationship may never recover.
Another Loki film
ThunderKing620 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
.
About: A Sister seeks revenge after a guy walks away from her sister.
Story: tricks and tense
Production: clear and to the point.
Highlight: Eye candy aka milfs
Main Intelligence: 10
Unworthiness Level: 0
Should you watch this? Yes. This movie can lead to constructive discussion. Was the guy at fault? Was her sister at fault or was the main lady psychotic?
I think the guy didn't do anything he did the right thing in walking away. Many People will say the guy was at fault because his pregnant ex killed herself. But that can lead to mentioning the fact that females 94ing their own babies. Which in today's world is a good thing and acceptable.
I know walking away from your offspring is better than 94ing ones offspring.
Walking away that child can still become an asset.
94ing a child that child can not.
Please watch this movie.
Story: tricks and tense
Production: clear and to the point.
Highlight: Eye candy aka milfs
Main Intelligence: 10
Unworthiness Level: 0
Should you watch this? Yes. This movie can lead to constructive discussion. Was the guy at fault? Was her sister at fault or was the main lady psychotic?
I think the guy didn't do anything he did the right thing in walking away. Many People will say the guy was at fault because his pregnant ex killed herself. But that can lead to mentioning the fact that females 94ing their own babies. Which in today's world is a good thing and acceptable.
I know walking away from your offspring is better than 94ing ones offspring.
Walking away that child can still become an asset.
94ing a child that child can not.
Please watch this movie.
VIEWS ON FILM review of A Sister's Revenge
burlesonjesse514 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
2013's A Sister's Revenge is one of the most effective Lifetime flicks ever made. Sans the usual LA locales, it's a conniving, layer upon layer thriller in which director Curtis James Crawford carefully pulls out all the stops.
Starring Brooke Burns, Ken Proulx, and Peter Gray, "Revenge" gives us one of the great antagonists of TV ready-made-s and juggles different plot points with some serious aplomb. There's the searing flashbacks, the opening, inserted hit-and-run scene, the relentless lex talionis, and the Forensic Files-style third act. Yup, what we have here is a real doozy, a Lifetime-r that combines style and substance over just style. "You know what you can do, you can suffer". Ouch.
In terms of characters, well A Sister's Revenge puts them in a pristine, Philly restaurateur setting and lets them get their wasp on. I mean it's not enough for an evil woman to blackmail a guy after roofing and sleeping with him. You have to further go after his family, do a B and E on his plush digs, mess with his fiscal matters, and blot his reputation in the eatery biz. That's "Revenge's" inching, sticking point and it makes the film almost feel like Fatal Attraction as a three-part series. Cockroaches are just substituted for hard-boiled bunnies. Ugh.
As a Lifetime pic about a married restaurant owner who has a brief tryst with a co-worker while living to regret it, "Revenge" has actors that are well cast with their performances being expounded and/or perfect for the throes of this long running cable channel. But wait, there's more. A Sister's Revenge also provides helmer Crawford with set locations that range from the unspoiled to the mark of convention. One doesn't substitute for the other and that makes "Revenge" feel like a veristic, budgeted affair. "Big payback".
Starring Brooke Burns, Ken Proulx, and Peter Gray, "Revenge" gives us one of the great antagonists of TV ready-made-s and juggles different plot points with some serious aplomb. There's the searing flashbacks, the opening, inserted hit-and-run scene, the relentless lex talionis, and the Forensic Files-style third act. Yup, what we have here is a real doozy, a Lifetime-r that combines style and substance over just style. "You know what you can do, you can suffer". Ouch.
In terms of characters, well A Sister's Revenge puts them in a pristine, Philly restaurateur setting and lets them get their wasp on. I mean it's not enough for an evil woman to blackmail a guy after roofing and sleeping with him. You have to further go after his family, do a B and E on his plush digs, mess with his fiscal matters, and blot his reputation in the eatery biz. That's "Revenge's" inching, sticking point and it makes the film almost feel like Fatal Attraction as a three-part series. Cockroaches are just substituted for hard-boiled bunnies. Ugh.
As a Lifetime pic about a married restaurant owner who has a brief tryst with a co-worker while living to regret it, "Revenge" has actors that are well cast with their performances being expounded and/or perfect for the throes of this long running cable channel. But wait, there's more. A Sister's Revenge also provides helmer Crawford with set locations that range from the unspoiled to the mark of convention. One doesn't substitute for the other and that makes "Revenge" feel like a veristic, budgeted affair. "Big payback".
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