Second Chances

A reporter who made an error of judgement finds it coming back to haunt her a couple of years later.

This is a made for TV movie so you are aware from the time you put it on that it's not going to win many awards. The story is a bit confusing at times and very generic but it is held together by a decent performance from Melissa George as the ex reporter. The rest of the performances are less impressive and this does hamper proceedings at times.

For all it's faults it does at least build up a nice air of mystery but unfortunately the end reveal is a bit disappointing

Whilst this isn't a great film, I did find it somewhat entertaining and it did at least hold my interest. As long as your expectations are low then this is an easy enough watch.

I had an interest in seeing this movie due to Melissa George who plays Kate Fischer who lost everything due to withholding an interview she did with a serial killer that could have saved a life if she turned it into police right away. Melissa is a decent actress capable solid performances in TV (Alias) and film. She was passable at best here and every actor around her was awful. All of them are a boring, tired cliche or just plain useless in the film. Even worse, Kate's cop friend Lucas was downright terrible. He is horribly incompetent and not believable as a seasoned detective. Second Chances also has characters that do not serve to advance the plot at all. A key example is the professor that does not like Kate Fischer (Melissa George). In addition, once the perpetrators that are after Kate are revealed it was not some big twist or surprise at all. You could see it coming a mile away. The music used to build suspense and advance the story is bad as well, even for TV movie standards. I have watched other made for TV movies and went into this with low expectations and was still very disappointed, hence the low rating.

If I could think of a plus side, Melissa George looked gorgeous here; however, by the end of the movie I was bored and wanted to go to sleep. Skip this film if its on tv. Second Chances is not even one of those "so bad its good" films. Don't even give it one chance.

Boston serial killer Max Hersog has been in prison for the last two years. Journalist Kate Fischer (Melissa George) is still villainized for holding back information which could have solved the case earlier. She was not convinced that Max is the September Slayer and a person with that Modus Operandi is hunting again. She is the new ethics professor in a local college and it's causing a scandal. She is still recovering from her divorce and her public battles. Lucas Kelley is the police detective.

This is a murder mystery TV thriller. There are some problems with the production, the writing, and the final section. The production is strictly TV and it struggles to make Montreal locations be Boston. Somebody should be fired for the bad signage work. The writing is problematic. As a mystery, the reveal needs to have more obvious hints. The villains need bigger roles. It doesn't make sense that he kills like the serial killer. Why? This should not be that complicated. It should be formulaic. As for the final section, it makes no sense that the swat team doesn't go into the house first. There are issues with the sequencing of events. Grading on a curve, this fails even as a cable TV movie.

By the time "Second Chances" is finished, all you wish is that you had a second chance to live the hour and a half wasted on watching this. This is truly a dreadful movie, composed of a weak cast offering weak performances playing uninteresting characters filled with meaningless sub-plots and a main plot that was poorly developed and not that interesting. It's supposed to be about a former reporter filled with remorse about not helping the police capture a serial killer years before who is suddenly being targeted herself. Why, then, did we need to know about her former marriage - replete with flashbacks? Why, then, did there have to be a past romance between her and the cop on the case? Why, then, did there need to be this irritating professor at the college she's hired to teach ethics in journalism at who adds nothing to the story and offers perhaps the worst performance of a bunch of bad performances? Why, then, did she even need to have a son? And - my pet peeve - why did this Canadian movie have to pretend to be an American movie by placing itself in Cambridge, Massachussetts? (I mean, Kate could just as easily have left Toronto to teach in Peterborough.) On behalf of all Canadians, I apologize to the people of Cambridge for setting such a dreadful movie in your city. Those who put out this movie should now apologize to us all. 1/10

Was anyone responsible for researching the locations? They made it sound awful for the poor little boy who had to move all the way from Boston to Cambridge -- a whole 15 minute by car tragedy. Horrible for the little boy to move all the way from Boston to Cambridge -- a 15 minute trip! There are no new mini mansions with hugh laws and pools in Cambridge MA.

I couldn't watch because it was such a poorly imagined film. Do your research!