Menace au paradis

I had fun watching this. There were some good twists that I didn't see coming and some good suspense. While they are others out there who hate Lifetime movies, I have to say I love the majority of them (there are exceptions though). And this movie is one that I liked. If you don't like Lifetime, all you have to do is not watch it. I loved Alexandra Paul in this and Lover's Revenge and Saving Emily. I also saw that Love Thy Neighbor scored the highest approval rating in the Nielsens that they've "ever had for an Indy film." I honestly can see how people would dislike Lifetime films, but they are what they are. I am the audience they're shooting for I guess. If you're looking for an Academy Award film, you're not going to find it on Lifetime. But if you like these movie of the week popcorn movies, then I'd recommend this one as much as any other. To each is own I guess.

... or should I say unintentionally hilarious? Either way, this is one of the best comedies I've seen in a long time. I was laughing throughout at the antics of some of the dumbest fictional characters this side of Homer Simpson. It's just one forehead-slapping, painfully stupid scene after another as the clownish, dim-witted cardboard cutouts substituting for actual humanoid characters push, pull, and drag the "plot" to its inevitable and obvious conclusion.

If I had to describe this movie to someone, I'd call it a mutated hybrid of Fatal Attraction, Dumb and Dumber, and the Three Stooges, with a "climax" uncannily similar to the episode of Family Guy in which the whole family gets into a knock-down fistfight in the living room.

Advice to Benson family: next time you get a new pet, do the poor animal a favor and DON'T name it Fred!

After a violent break-in and robbery, crisis-counselor Alexandra Paul (as Laura Benson) is disturbed by flashbacks. Her soccer-playing teen daughter Ksenia Solo (as Erin) has nightmares. Husband and father Gary Hudson (as Jim), often absent due to his work, decides to move the Illinois family of three to a gated community. Idyllic "Arbor Eden" is heavily secured; it has an entrance officer, coded doorways, and super-tough windows. As this is a "Lifetime" TV-thriller, you can assume they will be needed...

At first, all seems well. The family adopts smart cat "Fred" to replace their likewise named, and unfortunately murdered, dog. Problems involve missing furniture and overbearing neighbor Shannon Lawson (as Janis Rivers). In a custody battle with her ex, Ms. Lawson lives with painfully shy daughter Michelle Killoran (as Jenny), in a perfectly decorated house. As chicken-fed chubby as Paul is attractively thin, Lawson gets on her neighbors' nerves. Lawson deliciously bites into her role, helping make this one fun.

****** Love Thy Neighbor (2/26/06) Paul Schneider ~ Alexandra Paul, Shannon Lawson, Ksenia Solo, Gary Hudson

I don't know who wrote (above) that this movie is a "must see"... but whatever drugs they are on, they are pretty powerful.

The movie is about a psychopath neighbor who is intent on wrecking the ordinary lives of the main family. It's pretty tedious to watch. Unfortunately, the only reason I ended up watching it was because it got such a high percentage. Then I looked at the votes afterwards, and 18 of the 23 (at that time) were straight 10s. All the other votes were quite low. My boyfriend says this is quite possibly the crew and/or promoters of the movie. Either way, they did get me to watch the movie, and now I have to vote low. Sorry, it sucked.

I accessed this movie on this site for a friend. She was curious about it, since she had been in Toronto while they were shooting it (are any of these Lifetime flicks made anywhere but Canada or Seattle anymore?) -- and had met some of the cast.

By coincidence it was indicated as being shown again in a few days (Oct, 10/'07), and I was able to catch it -- and frankly was curious after seeing some of these comments.

It has the formula for which somebody at "Lifetine" obviously has a check-list -- where only some superfluous details in the particular story vary: (1) an initially friendly, even giddy, neighbor, who turns-out to be a raving sociopath; a disturbed "heroine," who at times is so banal as to diminish the degree of sympathy we might afford her; the husband who is something of an amiable doophus; dialog and several scenes which make the typical soap opera seem an intellectual presentation by comparison; to the inevitable child, sometimes annoying, sometimes (like here) a precocious catalyst to the story and the sociopath's actions.

There is also the further aspect to this particular story -- also not unknown to this genre -- where the family move, made following a "once-in-a-lifetime" dangerous experience, only finds worse in their new locale.

But, all-in-all, a bit fascinating in its predictable mediocrity, and watching the inevitable Jeckyll-to Hyde metamorphosis of the intrusive psycho

Sometimes this type flick rates, say 3 or 4 *'s. Give this one 5, because the acting is a bit better than most.