Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Lifetime Classics: It Was Him or Us b/w The Story of Zoey

I'm so happy I got a chance to see these movies again, these are genre classics. The genre? Pure hooey.



It Was Him or Us. ***1/2

Now this was a classic. "It Was Him or Us" was released in 1995. It went to No 13 on the charts. This film was about bad, bad relationships and how they sneak up on unsuspecting folks. This also stars Richard Grieco and catches him during his "Beating the Heck Out of Folks On TV Movies" days.

Ann Jillian's character had some experience with abusive relationships so of course her advice was totally ignored. Richard Masur played husband No 2, a guy who liked to hunt deer and was as dumb as a sack of rocks. Despite Grieco's firebreathing and nearly smell-o-vision performance, the star for me was Monique Lanier. Playing the Cutest Single Mom Ever, Lanier was great as a hot, dumbass woman hooking up with a stone-cold psychopath. Oh the horrors. What I like about this movie is that it appealed to my dark sense of humor. Although Grieco was clearly showboating, the subject matter was serious and therefore I can't "laugh" at this anymore. Yeah right...

Rating: I gave this an extra 1/2 star for the laugh factor--I bet some of it was intentional too..




The Secret Life of Zoey ***

See Mr. T wasn't wrong, drugs are bad. This 2002 lifetime movie was really hard-hitting. Julia Whelan did a nice job with Zoey. Mia Farrow daft and flighty mom, Cliff DeYoung was the Barely There Dad. Simply this is the tale of a teenager who gets hooked on dope. To make this more startling, Zoey didn't really start to wear all black and look that bad. She was a functioning addict/high schooler and that's impressive--well until she started getting -17's on her geometry papers.

You know what's weird? The first time I saw this I thought we lost Zoey, I mean really. Imagine my shock when I watched this for the third time and saw her survive. I was happy about that fact, I got to see more of her snarky comments and Andrew McCarthy as a tough social worker. In the end, Zoey got totally clean and I was so happy about her sobriety. Good news, I met Zoey on MySpace, we've been dating for 5 months, I love you Zoey!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

andrew mccarthy telling somebody not to take drugs? that's the pot calling the kettle bobby brown.

Unknown said...

LOL Boobs, yeah I remember hearing about Andrew McCarthy's "problems." I don't know what he was doing in this movie but it certainly looked like he wasn't all there. Zoey deserved better!

Anonymous said...

I WANT TO ADD THIS MOVIE TO MY GREICO COLLECTION. IT WAS HIM OR US. HOW CAN I BUY IT??? CANNOT FIND AN OUTLET. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.

Unknown said...

Hey Anonymous, I just saw your comment in my mailbox. Well, it looks like It Was Him or Us isn't available on DVD. There's a good chance it might wind up on YouTube. I hope so, I'd like to watch it again.