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jowysiren
Reviews
Hitting Home (1988)
Worth seeing once
I saw this movie by chance years ago and it pretty much stuck with me since. That's very telling, don't you think? What made this movie was the strong performances and the fact that you go from routing for the grieving parents to hoping they rot with their dead kid. At least that's how I felt. It's hard to even respect people who sink lower than person they want justice/revenge from.
Some of the most powerful scenes took place in the courthouse and it's a shame that the Canadians couldn't manage to get the neglectful driver(played by the ever cool Saul Rubinek) extradited. Honestly, he should have been. He killed a kid. That shouldn't have gone unpunished. Then again, he did a good job punishing himself. So, did the grieving parents, especially in the end, where they do the right thing when they didn't have to.
Overall, it's an okay movie. Not exceptional, but one that gets to you and can haunt you for a long time.
What Makes a Family (2001)
Not bad, but still cringe worthy in some ways
I love the idea of this movie. I love the fact that a lesbian fought tooth and nail keep the child and won in a State where they'd sooner give a child to a murderer than a gay person. Way to go! Nice to see the issue come up.
Two women, Sandra and Janine get married(despite the fact that it's illegal to do that) and Sandra has a child through artificial insemination. Sometime later, Sandra develops lupus and dies. Her parents try to take the girl away from Janine. In response, she fights to the bone despite the overwhelming odds against her. She's able to convince a very conservative, but ultimately fair judge that she is worthy of keeping the child.
Certainly gives you the impression that you can fight the State and win. If you have the money to do so, of course. Anyway, I do think the movie is fairly decent, but I found myself gagging at some of the overt sentiment and some of what was in the movie seemed too artificial. I don't how to describe it, but it seemed that way.
It's worth seeing at least once and it does a great job in showing just how ridiculous anti-gay laws are, especially in Florida.
Haunting Sarah (2005)
Bleagh
The only thing I could think of was "just awful". I found some of the scenes, particularly the ending ones, gratuitous and that such a thing can only be forgiven if the movie/show is stylishly slick or or outright exceptional. This movie was neither.
Basically, a young boy dies in an accident and his cousin named Sarah is haunted by his spirit(which for some never really well explained reason is evil. Buh?) There's some supposedly creepy things that happen and Sarah ends up being close to death and the mother(who is an identical twin)has to have son for her to survive(since David wants to come back to life).
The movie just fails because it has that generic Lifetime feel that both tries too hard yet not hard enough. Only the Sarah girl was any good. Everyone else was just wooden. I have to admit though, I did like the leather costume on one of the twin women. That was pretty cool, but before and after that was either lame(kid in Devil mask? Bah!), needlessly disgusting(I don't think a C-section should have been that graphic. YECH! Only House and CSI could get away with that), or just "meh"(amulets to ward off spirits? How original).
If you're a die hard spirit horror fan, you might like it. If not, best to steer clear. I should have.