Garage Sale Mystery: All That Glitters

Great acting. Great storyline. A pretty good mystery for antique dealer Jennifer Shannon (Lori Loughlin) and her business partner Danielle (Sarah Strange) to sink their teeth into. There are also a few sub-plots that allow Ms. Loughlin's supporting cast to share the film's screen time with.

Mrs. Shullivan and I thoroughly enjoy this family added value made for television film that ignores most of the other mainstream over glorified phony Mission Impossible action themed films with their over used CGI and plastic surgically induced bimbos that spew profanities in an effort to maintain their audiences attention.

A robbery takes place at the opening of the film in which a handful of pristine large diamonds are stolen and shortly thereafter the two jewel thieves are murdered and the jewels are never recovered. Fast forward five years to the present time and at an auction of some commercial self storage containers where Shannon and Danielle outbid their competition for a storage container filled with "who knows what?"

You guessed it, the mystery diamonds re-appear, the owner of the commercial storage units is murdered and the mystery killer is out to get their diamonds back, and Shannon and Danielle are smack dab in the middle of this fun mystery to solve. There is also a touching scene near the end of the film in which Shannon, her husband and son are digging for real buried treasure in a senior citizens front yard that is very touching.

We loved this family mystery and therefore give this "diamond(s) in the rough"a perfect 10 out of 10 rating.

Lori Loughlin, Sarah Strange, and Steve Bacic star in Garage Sale Mysteries: All That Glitters.

The show opens in 2009 with a jewelry store robbery of diamonds by two people pretending to shop for an engagement ring like Kate Middleton's, except she wasn't engaged yet.

I don't know - I'm a writer and I have to look up things all the time. You'd think someone would have verified that.

Anyway, we fast forward five years later when Jennifer and Danielle (Loughlin and Strange) are shopping for collectibles and antiques for their store. Then they venture into bidding on storage units and win one.

Then the owner of the storage place is killed, after Jennifer overhears an argument between him and a man. Their shop is burgled of costume jewelry. You begin to get the picture.

I liked this. It moved at a good pace, I loved seeing all the antiques and collectibles, and the acting was okay. It sure beats Mystery Woman or Jane Doe, both of which move much more slowly. Looking forward to seeing more.

Jennifer Shannon (Lori Loughlin) has a gift for finding rare treasures hidden in garage sales that she can resell at her consignment store, Rags to Riches. But her keen eye for finding valuables also gets her involved in the criminal investigations that happen at the very second-hand sales she frequents. When Jennifer's friend and self-storage facility owner Martin (Michael Kopsa) turns up murdered just hours after auctioning off an abandoned storage unit full of unique items to Jennifer, she is immediately pulled on the case as a key eyewitness. Working with Detective Lynwood (Kevin O'Grady), Jennifer helps single out a disgruntled customer as the prime suspect, while she and her business partner, Danielle (Sarah Strange), sift through boxes from the auction. As her husband Jason (Steve Bacic) worries about her safety, Jennifer starts to get over her head when there is a break-in at her store and a run-in with Martin's angry wife. Then, Jennifer and Danielle discover their new merchandise contains the sparkly evidence they needed all along to nail the surprising real culprit. They must race to save a life and put their own on the line. Will they succeed before times runs out?

Unfortunately this episode doesn't glitter much, and there's not much snooping or questions. Its plot comes across lazy and there's no drive in the plot. However It's watchable for cast.

5/10 - not a bad entry in the series, but this one was not as intriguing nor entertaining as its predecessor

A whole lot of Canadian players got work in this inaugural Garage Sale TV movie All That Glitters. That is except for lead Lori Loughlin late of Full House. She's our protagonist whose eye for the valuable and even unexpected valuable looks like it will get her into trouble.

Loughlin owns an eclectic store called Rags To Riches and it's built on the premise that people discard some really interesting and valuable things when they do spring cleaning. It's what makes her business, profitable, interesting and fun. She and partner Sarah Strange purchase the contents of a storage unit which is up for auction as the person who stored whatever there failed to pay the agreed upon fees.

Later on though the manager of the storage unit location is murdered and that turns into the homicide that our antique dealer has to solve. Like that other female sleuth Jane Marple, she's up to the job. There is something truly valuable involved and it's hidden in a most ordinary place.

There's also a side plot involving her son and the discovery of a pirate treasure map in another antique purchase. You never know what will turn up and I suspect this is the plot premise of the future Garage Sale movies.

It looks like an enjoyable series.