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The brunette mom still didn't learn anything at the end despite her crying in the closet. The way she talked to the judge(!) like she's still in control of all around her.

The special after the movie was interesting too. It explained in simple terms which I appreciate since there were a few things I still didn't understand.

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I enjoyed every good-bad minute of The College Admissions Scandal! I always like seeing the differences from real life in these "ripped from the headlines" TV movies: the two leads were clearly inspired by Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin but weren't celebrities, and the entitled brunette mom was divorced. Instead of signing autographs outside of court like Aunt Becky, she thinks she can get the judge to schedule hearings around her career, and swans into the office after she's been indicted like nothing has happened. Such a fun, ridiculous diva!

The "Olivia Jade" character didn't just want to party and be a social media star, but started off with talk of volunteering and was realistic about her odds at Yale, so looked at less prestigious schools in close proximity. The boyfriend was done with her, to find out she took part in the whole thing, plus his parents were ice cold when they told her she should go home, as the news broke. Ouch, for her to hear Faux Aunt Becky saying the younger sister was smarter, so they probably wouldn't need to cheat the process with her.  That's an element borrowed from the Huffman case, where they decided not to pay the bribes with the younger daughter because she was more studious and would want to keep trying to improve her SAT results, so it would be much harder to arrange a fixed test score for her, every single time.

Felicity's daughters became a son who wanted to be a musician, the parents took part in both sides of the scheme (cheating on the standardized tests and faking athletic credentials) instead of just one aspect, and they both got arrested in reel life, while William H Macy conveniently skated.  The guy playing the Best Friend was clearly milking his big confrontation scene with the son and I'm sure he's already added it to his acting reel.

Edited by Dejana
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On 10/23/2019 at 12:29 PM, msrachelj said:

Did anyone watch Patsy and Loretta? Who did the singing , it was great. The movie, not so much. 

The actresses did the singing. They've both done a lot of Broadway/theater.  The movie really was a lot of nothing, wasn't it? The most interesting non-singing bits were the previews to Megan Hilty's holiday movie tomorrow.

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I came for the singing as I'm very familiar with the actors, Megan Hilty and Jessie Mueller. Megan was the superior Marilyn Monroe on the short-lived tv show "Smash." She's also done a lot of Broadway roles including "Wicked" and "9 to 5." Jessie is most well known on Broadway for "Waitress" and "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical." I absolutely love both of their voices.

I'm not too familiar with Country music, and I came in only knowing that Patsy Kline and Loretta Lynn were Country singers. I could probably pick out a few of their songs too. But that's about it. I didn't know that Patsy had died so young. It looks like they had only known each for two years.

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Just finished I Know Where Lizzie Is.  I don't care for kidnapping storylines, but this one didn't focus too much on the kidnapee, but rather the circumstances surrounding it.

Aside from Tracy Gold's acting being a little over-the-top, I appreciated the twist (scene by the pool) - didn't see that coming.  But the last scene with the stepmom -  totally saw that coming, just like I did in Mean Girls

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1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

I’m currently watching Stolen by my Mother- crazy making. I’m glad the young lady did have a happy childhood but this is such a nutty story!!

It is so frustrating to watch, making the kidnapper out to be the victim. SHE STOLE A BABY AND HID THE TRUTH FOR YEARS. Who gives a fuck that she "raised her right"?! Meanwhile the poor bio mom is being treated like crap just because she's justifiably angry and wants justice. I understand the difficult position the girl was in but still!

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2 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

It is so frustrating to watch, making the kidnapper out to be the victim. SHE STOLE A BABY AND HID THE TRUTH FOR YEARS. Who gives a fuck that she "raised her right"?! Meanwhile the poor bio mom is being treated like crap just because she's justifiably angry and wants justice. I understand the difficult position the girl was in but still!

I don’t think Gloria was ever a victim. I do think it was unrealistic for anyone (even the bio mom) to expect Alexis/Kamiyah to have feelings for people she didn’t even know existed. Gloria should be getting all the anger and rage. But I understand why Alexis/Kamiyah still loves Gloria, and considers her to be her mother. I hope she’s getting therapy and dealing with her feelings. 
 

I feel bad for EVERYONE besides Gloria. 

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19 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

It is so frustrating to watch, making the kidnapper out to be the victim. SHE STOLE A BABY AND HID THE TRUTH FOR YEARS. Who gives a fuck that she "raised her right"?! Meanwhile the poor bio mom is being treated like crap just because she's justifiably angry and wants justice. I understand the difficult position the girl was in but still!

Were the scenes of the supporters/protestors outside the courthouse based on real events?  Because one of the signs someone was holding up (in support of Gloria) said something to the effect that "bio mom was too young to have a baby." Seeing that sign took me out of the movie and made me question humanity.

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13 minutes ago, Darlin said:

Were the scenes of the supporters/protestors outside the courthouse based on real events?  Because one of the signs someone was holding up (in support of Gloria) said something to the effect that "bio mom was too young to have a baby." Seeing that sign took me out of the movie and made me question humanity.

The last decade has made me question it as well.

Again, I understood Alexis/Kamiyah's feelings but it still seems unfair that she was more accepting of the bio dad than the bio mom. That, and her continuing to support her kidnapped must have really smarted as well.

 

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1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

The last decade has made me question it as well.

Again, I understood Alexis/Kamiyah's feelings but it still seems unfair that she was more accepting of the bio dad than the bio mom. That, and her continuing to support her kidnapped must have really smarted as well.

 

I suspect she found it easier to accept bio dad (Craig) because (1) she didn't have a father already in the picture (not sure what happened between her and stepdad once Gloria and 2nd hubby separated/divorced) and (2) perhaps Craig gave her the space/time she needed to adjust in accepting her biological family. I feel for Shanara, and I can't imagine the pain she's living, and think Gloria's actions are unforgivable, but I think Shanara's approach towards Kamiyah/Alexis was a bit aggressive. I'm not sure if they are on speaking terms at the present.  Sad. But it's easy to understand her anger. I saw the "Behind the Headlines" show following this movie and Craig and Kamiyah/Alexis were on the show, but Shanara declined to appear. Kamiyah/Alexis also has established a relationship with her paternal half-siblings. 

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On 1/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, Darlin said:

I suspect she found it easier to accept bio dad (Craig) because (1) she didn't have a father already in the picture (not sure what happened between her and stepdad once Gloria and 2nd hubby separated/divorced) and (2) perhaps Craig gave her the space/time she needed to adjust in accepting her biological family. I feel for Shanara, and I can't imagine the pain she's living, and think Gloria's actions are unforgivable, but I think Shanara's approach towards Kamiyah/Alexis was a bit aggressive. I'm not sure if they are on speaking terms at the present.  Sad. But it's easy to understand her anger. I saw the "Behind the Headlines" show following this movie and Craig and Kamiyah/Alexis were on the show, but Shanara declined to appear. Kamiyah/Alexis also has established a relationship with her paternal half-siblings. 

I was just about to say this exact thing. K.A. didn’t have a father already (so it was easier to accept Craig)- it seems her moms husband was kind to her but he came into her life as a teen, so he was a “step dad” and not a FATHER. Craig may also have a more mellow temperament (like K.A.) and be willing to give her space. Also because Craig wasn’t the one who was pregnant, wasn’t the one who went through labor, never even saw K.A. Before she was an adult, he doesn’t have the guilt bio Mom has. OF COURSE it’s easier to bond with the siblings, the siblings have “no pressure” or expectations, just new friends. 
 

I brought this up to my Mom (we watched together), that bio Mom is probably even more angry because she’s conflicted, she IS HAPPY K. A. was safe, and wasn’t trafficked or murdered or tortured by evil people, she’s happy she’s alive and well and not only is she angry at Gloria for the kidnapping, she’s angry at herself for being grateful Gloria loved her baby and kept her safe. Also all the fantasies she had about meeting K.A. Are never going to measure up- she’s a REAL PERSON, with her own tastes and personality. Not an infant she can mold. 
 

If K.A. never wanted to speak her bio family (or Gloria)* EVER again that would be her right (even though it would hurt their feelings, and they would have a right to be hurt), but you cannot make another adult love you, even if they are your biological child. It’s somewhat similar to adult adoptees who search out their bio families- I do think they have a right to know, and to ask for a relationship, but the bio family also has a right to say “we don’t want a relationship with you.”  

I did wonder how Gloria enrolled that child in school without a real birth certificate, BUT how often to people falsify documents to enroll people in KINDERGARTEN (compared to a job or for credit). Also she lived in a tiny town, was black, and a native English speaker so I don’t think the school registrar looked that closely. Did she think the child would never grow up? Why didn’t she try to get her a SS number from a child that died as an infant on the black market or something??????(I know that’s a felony but no worse than KIDNAPPING!!!) 

*Gloria has no rights here for the record. I was just bringing up the scenario. 
 

Bio mom never got the therapy she should have in 1998 to help her heal. When she said “the kids upstairs love me”, I thought “what a burden to always be compared to the baby that was stolen before you were born.”

 

Gloria is the villain here END OF STORY. At least K.A. still has Gloria’s extended family who love her a lot. 

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Did anyone watch Friends who Kill?  I’m watching it now and there was a scene where the friend asks the main character where her mother is, she said working late but it’s 8 so she should be home soon.  Then in the next scene the friend goes up to the bedroom and the mom is there, like she’s been home, then comes downstairs and asks them if they want dinner.  When did she get home?  Also the evil friend is upstairs and over hears the other girls talking.  Her hair is up in like a partial braid (in that scene and scenes before) when she walks down stairs right after she overhears then but pretends not to, her hair is down. Then cut to next scene of them eating.  Her hair is up again.  The continuity of these movies are bad. 

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Watching the Chris Watts movie. That guy is garbage even by Lifetime standards -- not just for murdering his wife and daughters, but also for trying to pin the kids' murders on the wife. And I'll never forget how even after he came clean about the murders, his equally garbage parents went on TV for him to beg him to take back his guilty plea and continued to smear the poor wife, saying that she was always crazy and she was the real murderer. Fuck them.

Edited by Spartan Girl
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The Chris Watts movie was excellent. Well cast--everyone looked like their real life counterparts, well-written, and well-acted. They also did a great job recreating certain things like the cops showing up at the house and the interrogation scenes.

It's amazing how Lifetime's regular movies are usually dreadful, but the ones based on true stories are usually very good.

 

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I only watched the first half hour. The story is so sickening I really didn't want to go back there. 

This is one of the many horrible stories that happen everyday but got so much media attention that I watched Ashley Banfield on HLN cover it nightly (before her show was canceled). Her show, replaced by nonstop Forensic Files, has some pretty sick stories too, but, killing one's entire family so you can start a new life is pretty rare.

He's a monster. His mother should be ashamed of her behavior and I'm not sorry that his girlfriend has to live with this for the rest of her life too.

RIP Shan'en and babies. 

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The Neighbor in the Window is insanely good! I think we all know someone who isn’t a pathological liar. I often wonder if the one I knew did crazy shit like this to her neighbors. 

I felt physically ill after watching the Chris Watts movie, I kind of wished I hadn’t watched it. 

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I liked The Neighbor in the Window too. I was annoyed at the other neighbor who just turned her back on Karen. Very well done. I also liked the Stacy Castor story last week about the woman who poisoned her husband and daughter with antifreeze. A lot of scary people out there! 

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5 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I also liked the Stacy Castor story last week about the woman who poisoned her husband and daughter with antifreeze. A lot of scary people out there! 

That reminds me that I have to watch that one to make sure it matches up with the actual true life case, or at least what I know of it from Forensic Files. I know, creative license and all, but if it is a true story or true case and they deviate too far from the source material, it's an immediate no go for me on the movie.

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On 2/9/2020 at 1:15 PM, JD5166 said:

The Neighbor in the Window is insanely good!

Kind of reminded me of an adult version of 'Friends Till The End' with Lisa's 'Zann' to Karen's 'Shannon Doherty' character.  I really don't like when the movie starts with a future scene, then proceeds with the '6 Month's Earlier' mode.  You don't have to tease me with what happens down the line to hook me with 'how did we get there?"

I did think court scene wrap up was weak as well as shocked that Lisa wasn't brought up on perjury charges.  Her husband was a pathetic toad enabling her destructive behavior because he felt bad for her inability to make friends because women are intimidated and jealous of her looks.  uh-huh

I thought JLS's acting came across as forced, considering her experience.

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On 4/17/2019 at 12:01 AM, Mabinogia said:

I think this was a Lifetime movie, don't remember the name of it, but the main characters BFF, who was in the way of stalker guys stalking, goes out for a jog and she's in the middle of the fucking road, not down the center line, but like where the cars go. She even fucking stopped at the stop sign like she was in a freaking car. And then she's all WTF when some car is driving slowly behind her. Sure he ended up killing her (I can't say I blame him) but what was he supposed to do? You were in the middle of the lane he had to drive down! I've never been happier about a friend of the protagonists death in my life. 

I know this post is almost a year old so maybe you already figured it out, but I recently saw a new movie Predator's Obsession which is a sequel to Stalker's Prey (with a different actor playing the villain). I'd never seen Stalker's Prey so I wanted to see it before watching the sequel so it's fresh in my mind that it is the movie you were talking about.

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2 hours ago, paulvdb said:

I know this post is almost a year old so maybe you already figured it out, but I recently saw a new movie Predator's Obsession which is a sequel to Stalker's Prey (with a different actor playing the villain). I'd never seen Stalker's Prey so I wanted to see it before watching the sequel so it's fresh in my mind that it is the movie you were talking about.

Thank you for letting me know that so I can find Stalker's Prey to record. Do Lifetime sequels work the same way as other movies, where you need to watch the first one?

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I watched them back to back so the first one was still fresh in my mind, but I don't think you really need to know anything from the first movie in order to follow the story of the second movie. Altough it did help to recognize a few smaller details that I would not have noticed if I had not watched them both.

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4 hours ago, Camille said:

I just realized that one of the few benefits of this nightmare is that production has been halted on all their generic movies

Yeah, but think of all the neat titles that can come from this:

Psycho Toilet Paper Hoarder

Killer Social Distancer

Quarantined And Deadly

#stayhome Stalker

My Husband's Secret Stash of Face Masks

 

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(edited)

Got around to seeing "Dying for Motherhood" where a pregnant woman gets taken in by a rich couple and the wife turns out to be crazy. I thought it was alright. I mainly watched because the lead Hannah Bamberg is on a YouTube show that I follow called Geography Now. For a first time lead I thought she did good. I did like the twist in the end that she was actually trying to get justice for her friend the whole time. I was also shocked that this was filmed in Miami and not Canada.

Edited by methodwriter85
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Ok so last week I posted about the insane movie on lifetime about a nanny and insane parents obsessed with a movie star. This week they had The Captive nanny about an insane family obsessed with a rock star. The exact same story! This is ridiculous even by Lifetime standards.

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Saw this ^^ and Psycho Escort. What's with these newer Lifetime movies where the killer gets away to psycho elsewhere in the end? I like when the oldies but goodies took out the baddie and the protags rode off into the sunset.

I also wonder if Lifetime keeps cutting their movies because some of the flow seems jumpy. I noticed a difference between the premiere of Cheerleader Escort compared to the rerun on LMN. The latter made much more sense (and was a good movie) whereas the former was a bit confusing.

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2 hours ago, MissyPoo said:

Saw this ^^ and Psycho Escort. What's with these newer Lifetime movies where the killer gets away to psycho elsewhere in the end? I like when the oldies but goodies took out the baddie and the protags rode off into the sunset.

The possibility for a sequel down the road, I would guess. Remember the Stalked By My Doctor movies with Eric Roberts? I think they made three or four of those. 

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Can Lifetime please just bring back their good ol' classic movies and put them in rotation instead of churning out new ones which are nothing but formulaic drivel?

Last night I watched Murder In The Vineyards  At first, I thought it took place in Martha's Vineyard, but no.....a divorced mom with a teenage daughter inherits said vineyard and house from her father.  Of course, said house is absolutely gorgeous - something a single mom with no obvious job other than running a vineyard she has no experience running - complete with windows that have no covering so creeps can peep in and take photographs of said teenage girl who is unaware there's a creep taking photos of her outside an uncovered window because she's so absorbed in her phone

Let's move on - said teenage daughter attends first day of school and not only makes two insta-friends, but manages to bump into popular boy/captain of soccer team who has an uber-jealous gf (whose also a cheerleader - what else!?) who notices said bump-into.  Cheerleader Gf calls out soccer captain bf for flirting, bf gets annoyed, breaks up with cheerleader gf and insta-rebounds with teenage daughter

A lot of your usual nefarious hijinks ensues - sneaking into rooms, going through drawers, getting kidnapped, clocking your attacker ONCE on the head then hanging around thinking they're out for the count (NOTE:  if you knock your attacker out, GET OUT IMMEDIATELY.  If you plan to hang around to catch your bearings or reflect on what happened, at least find something to gag and hog tie them with)

The In The Vineyard part of the movie title wasn't really relevant other than the fact that it was the location of main character's house

Lifetime movie writers are just dialing it in - using familiar premises and just changing the titles around that start with Stalked By My ______,  Killer _____,  Psycho _______ , Dangerous ______- just change around some details, fill in the blanks and off you go.  I wish they'd just take a break from churning out the same obvious bore-fests and repeat some oldies but goodies from the 80's/90's

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Is there no work available for Wendy Malik's caliber that she's now resorted to campy Lifetime movies like Deranged Granny?  Just....awful.  Her acting chops got me through it, but when she had to pull off the 'How dare they get in my way so I don't get what I want' tantrum, complete with dramatically sweeping everything off the top of a dresser, even those chops couldn't save that scene.  The predictability (as soon as someone mentions a peanut allergy, I know I'm in Lifetime-Ville), cluelessness and lame acting from the supporting cast was just dreadful. 

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On 9/14/2020 at 9:36 AM, ctlady said:

Is there no work available for Wendy Malik's caliber that she's now resorted to campy Lifetime movies like Deranged Granny?  Just....awful.  Her acting chops got me through it, but when she had to pull off the 'How dare they get in my way so I don't get what I want' tantrum, complete with dramatically sweeping everything off the top of a dresser, even those chops couldn't save that scene.  The predictability (as soon as someone mentions a peanut allergy, I know I'm in Lifetime-Ville), cluelessness and lame acting from the supporting cast was just dreadful. 

Yeah, I watched this one or rather had it on in the background while I did stuff, but yes, it was breathtakingly awful and Mallick is talented. I always feel bad for talented actors when they show up here, which is probably silly. They're getting a paycheck and working under pretty good working conditions, according to someone I know, my former hair stylist, who moved to doing hair and makeup for TV and movies by doing some Lifetime and Hallmark movies. She said they like to hire people who are easy to get along with, because sometime you're off in a remote location or hunkered down in some suburban setting for a period of time and they can't have difficult cast or crew members. She enjoyed the experience (but has since moved up to big budget projects). Still, I tend to be glad when I see someone like Malick do a higher quality project after being in one of these abominations.  

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Secret Life of a Celebrity Surrogate was pretty entertaining, though our heroine was entirely too trusting. The personal chef tried to warn her, but she was broke and naive. How much work is someone even doing as the personal chef for a vacation house? And that celebrity couple was wild! I guess it's okay on a Lifetime movie to show someone shooting up between their toes, as long as you don't say what's being taken? 

 

Her Deadly Sugar Daddy premieres tonight!

 

Edited by Dejana
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On 7/21/2020 at 10:20 AM, ctlady said:

Can Lifetime please just bring back their good ol' classic movies and put them in rotation instead of churning out new ones which are nothing but formulaic drivel?

Last night I watched Murder In The Vineyards  At first, I thought it took place in Martha's Vineyard, but no.....a divorced mom with a teenage daughter inherits said vineyard and house from her father.  Of course, said house is absolutely gorgeous - something a single mom with no obvious job other than running a vineyard she has no experience running - complete with windows that have no covering so creeps can peep in and take photographs of said teenage girl who is unaware there's a creep taking photos of her outside an uncovered window because she's so absorbed in her phone

Let's move on - said teenage daughter attends first day of school and not only makes two insta-friends, but manages to bump into popular boy/captain of soccer team who has an uber-jealous gf (whose also a cheerleader - what else!?) who notices said bump-into.  Cheerleader Gf calls out soccer captain bf for flirting, bf gets annoyed, breaks up with cheerleader gf and insta-rebounds with teenage daughter

A lot of your usual nefarious hijinks ensues - sneaking into rooms, going through drawers, getting kidnapped, clocking your attacker ONCE on the head then hanging around thinking they're out for the count (NOTE:  if you knock your attacker out, GET OUT IMMEDIATELY.  If you plan to hang around to catch your bearings or reflect on what happened, at least find something to gag and hog tie them with)

The In The Vineyard part of the movie title wasn't really relevant other than the fact that it was the location of main character's house

Lifetime movie writers are just dialing it in - using familiar premises and just changing the titles around that start with Stalked By My ______,  Killer _____,  Psycho _______ , Dangerous ______- just change around some details, fill in the blanks and off you go.  I wish they'd just take a break from churning out the same obvious bore-fests and repeat some oldies but goodies from the 80's/90's

Yes yes yes!!! I am mourning The Betty Broderick’s of then 80’s Andy 90’s myself!! I am watching Cheer camp murder and just came wee to say wow, these cheerleaders are horrible....cheerleaders AND actors! 

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Did anyone else watch Cheer Camp Killer?

It was pretty bad in a hilarious way. First off. no one actually died so maybe Cheer Camp Attempted Killer? Also, some of these cheerleaders were supposed to be super talented, but these were some of the most basic routines.  

Full disclosure: I was a cheerleader in sixth grade. We wore shorts and our routines were basically clapping our hands and moving from side to side. It looked pretty similar to what they did in the movie.

Also, the heroine, who happens to be black, ends up tied to a tree. That seemed like maybe not the best choice for a plot...

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13 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I think I have Covid stuck at home insanity because I’m starting to like these cheesy movies where Viveca A Fox is a teacher, coach or principal and appears for about 10 minutes in the film. Lol

Where she says always says something like "You picked the wrong cheerleader/neighbor/whatever" to the crazy villian? They had a marathon of them a while back and she had that line in every movie. LOL.

I am tired of Lifetime's cheerleader theme. The first couple were fine, but they are really stretching the drama these teenage girls can get into. Thankfully they are switching to Christmas movies next, although I am sure I will be sick of them by December.

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