bugsboom

This was an after-school special that I saw ten years ago and it still sticks with me to this day. I was only 11 when I saw it, but I think that it was what kept me alive throughout both junior high and high school. It's about this kid whose best friend dies in a car accident. Both the boys are your typical teenaged guys: horny, reckless, and immature. Trust me, things have not changed much in the last ten years.

Anyways, after the best friend dies, the friend left behind suddenly has this epiphany that life is nothing to play with and that it's precious and should be lived to the fullest. The whole point is that this movie is supposed to be preachy. Now, most teenagers would have done one of two things: A) They would have taken their friend's death as a sign to continue doing stupid crap b/c you never know when you might bite the big one OR B) Would have sank into a deep depression and eventually drank themselves to an early, but not surprising death.

This movie had every opportunity to be corny, but it wasn't to me at the time. If you show it to an 11-year-old these days, they might laugh straight in your face. However, it opened my eyes to immortality, or the lack thereof and how even a 17-year-old could die with no warning. OK, enough of the Lifetime BS! When's Final Destination 2 coming out?!

"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." -- James Dean

This film was actually pretty good. I half expected to bawl my eyes out (like I sometimes do at Lifetime movies) but I didn't. It was pretty sad, but I came from the film with more questions than feelings.

The movie is about two families that have known each other for practically forever. The son, Chris (played by the ultra-cute and talented Eric Lively) of one family and the daughter, Emily of the other grow up together and eventually fall in love. For whatever strange reason (I shall not say b/c I do not wish to spoil the movie for anyone) they make a suicide pact. She kills herself, but he lives. The movie then follows his subsequent trial for murder (ooh, the plot thickens) and how these events shake up the relationships of both families.

The movie luckily isn't some preachy afterschool special about teenage suicide. You can feel the pain Chris goes through and the love he had for Emily. The strain between the families is evident. More so between the two mothers (played by Megan Mullally and Juliet Stevenson) as their friendship deteriorates throughout the film. However, I wish they had not made Chris such a creepy character. His motives aren't clear in the beginning and it feels like that in the last 45 minutes of the movie they are trying too hard to rush the sensitivity of his character. They make Megan Mullally out to be the vindictive mother wanting someone, anyone to pay for her daughter's death. And lastly, it is not understood why Emily was so depressed to begin with. Perhaps we are not meant to understand, but it got a bit tedious and confusing after a while. All in all, this was a pretty good movie for Lifetime. 7 stars out of 10. I'm definitely going to have to read the book now.

I will admit, I was touched by this movie. I assumed that it would just be a piece of crap, but it wasn't. The overall theme of how true friendship lasts forever made me think of my best friend Toya and how we've been best friends since we were eight (we're 21 now.) Some of the scenes drew a tear to my eye. That was mostly from the acting of Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning (who really deserved more screen time and shouldn't have been stuck in Britney's shadow). I'm sorry to say that I still feel that Britney Spears can't act.

It was so obvious that the point of this film was a mere extension Britney's "pop star fame". Britney-endorsed products (such as Pepsi and Herbal Essences) were flaunted about shamelessly. And let's not forget that most of the songs in the movie belong to Britney or other pop star acts (*cough* Nsync *cough*). This movie is self-advertisement at its worst. Also, Britney's portrayal of a "virginal girl desperately trying to grow into a woman" was pathetic. It's the same song and dance she's been trying to give us for the past 3 years and frankly, I'm tired of it. This movie was almost as scary as Mariah Carey's sad attempt at acting. I totally expected this to be a well-oiled "Britney machine" and it was. She claims the movie was supposed to be an ensemble piece, but for some strange and mysterious reason, Britney's character Lucy seems to be the center of attention.

I'm sorry, but of all the pop stars breaking into acting lately (Britney, the aforementioned Mariah, Lance Bass, etc.), Mandy Moore seems to be the only one with any staying power. That girl acted her butt off in A Walk to Remember and can do so much better than Britney. If Britney plans on making anymore movies, I sure hope she has the cash to produce them, because it would be tantamount to disaster for a studio to back anymore of her films.