Flirting with Danger

It's more than just a rainy day's fun. The plot's tight, the characters look good, the locales are excellent and there's more. Carpenter's 'talents' have been totally wasted however. Victoria Sanchez looks very credible in her role as a longtime friend. James Thomas as the male lead does a good job.

The key thing for me was that as a murder mystery, every other scene did not have blood and gore. That part was handled elegantly, I thought. As a relationship drama, the dialogs were well written and rather credible. The steamy scenes were probably designed to be a grade schooler's delight, I guess.

It's much better than a typical Lifetime flick.

This is a TV movie; even the sequence transitions will tell you that. So you can't expect another "Basic Instinct" here: the erotic parts are tame, and the direction has little cinematic style. The movie clearly counts on its plot and its actors to maintain your interest; the plot does, but it's nothing brilliant (there are, after all, only two suspects for the killings), apart maybe from the killing method, which is indeed quite unique. The actors are clearly the best thing about "Flirting With Danger", and provide some eye-candy (for both sexes). Charisma Carpenter, one of the most uniquely beautiful actresses out there, with a smile that's at once sweet and naughty, plays the main suspect / love interest for the hero James Thomas, and Victoria Sanchez gives an appealing and believable performance as his childhood friend who may have deeper feelings for him. Despite his dilemma (or should that be trilemma - Karen Cliché is also around, as the other suspect), Thomas is a lucky man - but will he live long enough to enjoy his luck? You probably know the answer to that one, but "Flirting With Danger" is still an OK way to pass 90 minutes. (**)

I had some outdoor activity delayed by a heavy rain, so flipped-on t.v. just as this movie was beginning.

In the first few minutes, when the main four characters (James Thomas (Rafe); Victoria Sanchez (Gloria); Charisma Carpenter (Laura); and Karen Cliché (Ellen) were all introduced on-screen, one thought immediately came to mind.

I remembered a funny scene in "Everybody Loves Raymond." Peter Boyle, as Ray's Dad is talking to Robert Culp, who played Ray's father-in-law. I think it was the show where Culp and wife had separated, but he appeared at a family gathering with an older, plain new girlfriend, rather than a younger "trophy" type which everybody was expecting.

Talking with him while the women elsewhere, Boyle's "Frank" character expressed to Culp his puzzlement and curiosity about the reason for this surprising choice. He noted Culp was a good-looking guy, and then said something like "You've got a full set of teeth, AND THEN SOME."

Robert Culp has always been one of these people with a pleasant appearance, along with a set of prodigious choppers, impossible to ignore.

Well, the four leads in this flick must have four of, say, the other 49 among the top 50 or so sets of teeth in the country, and perhaps the world. All of them are handsome specimens and there is more ivory flashing across the screen than you'll find in a documentary about elephant herds.

Among the mysterious Laura, his old friend (who'd like to be more), Gloria, as well as the equally-attractive Ellen (to provide to the mystery) - James Thomas/Rafe has one of the better gigs ever presented to a male lead.

As a "Lifetime" presentation, with personnel a bit down the chain from Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, etc., as well as budget and production constraints, we wouldn't expect this to rival "Fatal Attraction," "Basic Instinct," and the like. It is, perhaps, the "poor man's version" of these.

But it does present a far more attractive cast and a bit better quality scenery than typical of the Lifetime genre, and there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours on a rainy day, awaiting the weather to clear.

Tommy Heaton dies and his friend lawyer Rafe Marino (James Thomas) slowly suspects foul-play. Rafe starts finding a series of other death like Tommy. He investigates with his cop friend Gloria Moretti (Victoria Sanchez)'s help. He keeps running into Laura Clifford (Charisma Carpenter) and starts a passionate relationship with her.

James Thomas is a rather bland lead. Every woman in this is a thirtysomething former hot girl. There is a blurry forgettable sameness about all the actresses except for Carpenter and Sanchez. The movie is trying too hard to be sexual which comes off very cheesy and soft-porny. It's a murder mystery with a flashing neon sign flashing on Charisma Carpenter. The investigation is slow and boring. It's a lower rate Lifetime TV movie. By the time the twist comes, the interest is long gone.

the only sin in this case is the great expectations. because more than a crime, it is a kind of cocktail. sex, murders, love, hesitations, a story who has not sense but who looking for it after hot scenes? a film who use each classic ingredient of genre in a pretty game who not gives nothing interesting. only beauty of actors, vulnerability of a hansom guy, the maleficent woman. game of clichés and stereotypes, it is nice if you ignore the mistakes or consider it only a joke. James Thomas does a decent job and that is the best thing to say about the movie. because it is only one from many, many easy films who remains the perfect choice in a Saturday evening.