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Original
Title: In The Shadows, Someone's Watching
Synopsis: Something evil and terrifying is happening in the community of Tyler's Grove. Someone unseen is watching and waiting to attack, perhaps to kill. "With Harmful Intent," is a psychological thriller about a family whose lives and happiness are threatened when children in their neighborhood become victims of mysterious accidents - is it coincidence, or is someone out for revenge? Synopsis: |
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According to US I finally had the time to sit down
this past weekend and really watch this one without any interruptions
from any offspring (a miracle in itself) and I must say it made for a
thoroughly enjoyable evening. I recruited my brother's girlfriend to
watch it with me as I know she is a big Chris Noth fan and she had not
heard of this movie before. Which brings me to my first point, which I
can't believe no one has addressed yet. Why did "they" change
the title of this movie? My copy, taped from NBC from when it first
aired titles this movie, "In the Shadows, Someone's Watching."
The promo that ran for this movie which I had recorded prior to the
airing (am I showing my geekiness here?) the announcer says the same
thing..."In the shadows, someone's watching the children of Tyler's
Grove. There's a killer amongst them. Emmy winner Joan Van Ark, Daniel J
Travanti, Christopher Noth and RICK SPRINGFIELD are seeking out who's
watching" (word for word there minus the airdate). That title kind
of makes more sense to me. |
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| Back to the Merritt house (Cinny & Paul's) and the nerdy kid
neighbor mom is there when Paul walks in. This does not seem strange to
Paul, and she tells him she is there to get some things for James, he is
in the hospital - to which he races out the door into his fabulous
Porsche (love the choice of the car BTW, just an inside joke here for
anyone who knows my last name) and off to the hospital. He races into
James' room and here's the first "dubbed" line: "My God,
our son" That may be Rick's voice, but I'm thinking he said that at
a different point in the movie, I dunno. It doesn't sound right here.
Anyway -they argue about why he didn't pick the kid up, of course it's
all his fault because he didn't pick the kid up... There's a mentally impaired boy leaving a book at James' pillow while he's sleeping. It's the same book psycho had in his messed up cabin. Back to the Merritt house, Cinny crying, Paul sleeping ever so
handsomely :-) He awakens to her cries, they talk a bit. He mentions
Lydia (nerdy kid's mom) was already there to get some things for
James-and Cinny lets this drop!- he then asks her if it's okay to visit
James, and she says of course. She's looking at pictures of her family
and wondering out loud what happened to that family. He tells her he'd
give anything to "have you love me." Uh huh. Major drool scene
for any Rick fan :-) |
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Paul & Cinny have a meeting with psycho doctor and his boss.
Finally, Rick is rid of the white shirt - still has jeans on, but now a
green very Rick-like long sleeved shirt. Cinny disses Paul in front of
the doctors-and get this-they know she's gonna get chewed out, they
offer them the office to use as long as they like on their way out. Paul
lays into Cinny (finally this character has backbone) and let me tell
you, I don't ever want Rick to point a finger at me that way! |
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| True confessions time. I think I
remember when this movie first aired. I think it might have been a
Monday Night movie on NBC. I remember flipping over to see what was on
and I see "Rick Springfield" in the opening credits. I'm
thinking "OMG, woo hoo!". Then the movie starts, out walks
Rick looking all unkempt, his eyes are kind of blood shot, looks kind of
like a drug addict, and my immediate thought was "oh, no, not
another one of those characters". I think the last two things I had
seen him in were Dead Reckoning and Silent Motive, and I just didn't
want to see Rick as another no good character. So I flipped the channel.
(am I really admitting this in writing in public?) Now that I've watched
the movie, even though his character was kind of wimpy, he wasn't a bad
guy. I was just happier remembering Rick from the 80's and Hard to Hold
and Nick Knight and just didn't want to have yet another role to fade
those memories. And since apparently we weren't going to get any more
music out of him (or so I thought at the time), I was just going to be
satisfied with old memories. What's up with the Cowboy boots? Also, noticed that Rick had a different wedding band on than what he wears now (which I seem to remember that he and his wife did get new wedding bands, with the crosses). He's playing with it a little in his opening scene. I actually liked his character better in the first scene than the rest of the movie, at least he didn't seem so whipped, at least not at first. Loved the line: She says, "Stop what, being his mother?". he says: " Don't do that, you're already so good at being mine" But then he's quick to wimp back down and apologize. When Paul shows up at the hospital, after the accident, he says "My God, our son". That sounded dubbed over to me, like he came back and added that later. He tells his wife the reason he didn't pick James up was because the home studio had gone crazy and they went into town and finished up. She told him to leave. He didn't have to go, I think he should have stayed. His son was dying in the hospital. Paul is home asleep on the couch, his wife comes home to get some things, they are about 2 minutes into the conversation before he asks "how's James?". Found that a little strange. Then, some of the dialog from Paul: "I wish I could make you believe how sorry I am?" and "I'd do anything to have it all back, to make you love me". Sounds vaguely familiar, kind of like a new song on a dvd we may have just got. Finally, Rick's character shows some strength when they are in the doctor's office and his wife tells him to stay out of it. I like the way he just looks at her, waiting for the doctors to leave the office, breathing kind of heavy because you can tell he's mad. The he says "Don't you tell me to stay out of it, cause he's my boy, too, and I'm going to stay in this, no matter what....I'm in". And he's got his finger in her face. FINALLY! I think this really turned the wife on, I'm surprised she didn't jump him right there in the office. She does come home later and he's in the home studio, and they are talking about the equipment being damaged, although they really seem to be talking about their relationship at the same time. Nice suck face scene, love the way Joan has her hands in his hair. I think my favorite scene is where Paul is on the hospital bed with James and they are talking about Pizza. That seems to be the scene where Rick's personality really comes through. Plus that's the scene where I think he looks the best, his face has some color to it and he's not so pale, and he looks rested and healthy, instead of tired and upset. Then, the way Paul looks at his wife at the very end, very nice! The very last line "Ok everybody, we're on our way". I do not believe that is Rick's Voice. You can see the character's mouth moving, even, and that doesn't seem to be what he is saying. I think it would have been a better movie if the murderer had been more of a mystery. There would have been lots of potential suspects - the smoking next door neighbor, the mentally challenged boy, the undercover police detective, but you kind of knew pretty quick who did it. Also, when Mr London had figured out who the killer was, but couldn't talk because of his stroke, so he carved some initials into the Ouija board......why did he do MDF (for M.D. Ferris as is Dr. Ferris), instead of DRF. DR was two letters and it actually stands for Doctor. I didn't get that. The character of Malcolm Cobb/Dr Ferris was just a little to evil and twisted for my liking. I thought Rick's acting was good, I just wish his character had more of a backbone.- rlh |
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