The Perfect Neighbor

In this insipid movie made for TV Niven plays yet another evil witch and does it badly. With a constant sneer on her face, she walks through the movie I guess to indicate she's bad. WRONG! She's God awful . . . . as an actress. Never have liked her and this boring predictable movie proves it. Add to this Perry King yet another stupid husband who doesn't seem to live on this earth. He let's manipulative females rule his roost in almost every movie he's in. This is no exception. Blindly he falls for the witch. When it comes to looks certainly Niven ain't got it, believe me. Why the lovely and talented Susan Blakely would do this junk is beyond me. And why King would prefer Niven over Blakely is like Newman not wanting to bed with Taylor in CAT ON HOT TIN ROOF. Unimaginable. So hands down on Niven and hoping she won't be seen again on TV.

This movie moved at a snails pace and the story line was way too simple to be interesting, in fact many threads they could have continued were dropped.

Donna committed several murders but seemed to attract no attention from Police. In fact the police only briefly got involved while all the dead bodies continued to pile up.

Typical 'TV movie'.

Acting was reasonable, let down by the story line. No real suspense or thrills here, way too predictable. Donna the murderess used a floppy disk which kinda made the Movie seem dated before its time.

Sorry, but I don't have much positive to say about this movie.

This movie looks like it's from 1995. The floppy disk sent me flying.

THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (TV movie 4.5 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 1:01 min

BASIC PLOT: Donna Germaine (Barbara Niven) is a disturbed woman, living in her own delusional reality. Childhood trauma has left her seeking love in all the wrong places, and her latest disastrous attachment is within the Costigan family. Donna has her sites set on William Costigan (Perry King), and she's not going to let anyone stand in her way, not his wife Jeannie (Susan Blakely), his co-worker Ashley (Tori Hammond), or even her own Aunt Grace (Lila Bata-Walsh). The more Donna ingratiates herself into the Costigan family, the more dangerous her obsession becomes. Can William and Jeannie discover Donna's true motives in time to save themselves, and clear William from a false murder charge?

WHAT WORKS: *THE BASIC PLOT WORKS for a low budget, made-for-tv melodrama. It could have been elevated into real entertainment with a bit more character development, but the story is fun enough to make it watchable.

*THERE ARE TWO POSTERS FOR THIS MOVIE and both of them are above average. Quality posters/DVD covers are a rarity, and deserve a mention.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *WHAT IS WITH ALL THE CLOSE UPS? I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to shove the camera that close to middle aged actors, but they need to think again.

*THE DELIVERY OF LINES IS PRETTY WOODEN All the characters, with the exception of Barbara Niven, deliver their lines in a very stiff fashion. This is a melodrama, so some of that can be forgiven, but it does have a detrimental effect on the movie overall.

*THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL ONE DIMENSIONAL Again, this is a melodrama, so deep character studies are not what you'd expect to find. Still, having the characters be this flat, it's hard to care about any of the outcomes. I expect better out of Ken Sanders.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *If you are a fan of made-for-tv melodramas, there are worse ones out there. It's not terrible, not good, just mediocre TV movie faire.

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a made-for-tv movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

Let the foolish people who were dumb enough to rent this give you a piece of advice, go to bed early and skip this extremely predictable movie that apparently ran out of film at the end. This "film" was shallow and appeared to be dragged along in an effort to fit it all in within the allotted time. The best part of the entire movie was that the two leading ladies were very attractive 50 something women who in another setting may have been able to better capture and retain your attention.

Yet another disappointing waste of time, next time I'll read the previews before renting.