It's funny how my opinion on this movie has changed since the first time I saw it. I caught it on NBC when it first premiered and boy, did I think that it was good. I made the mistake of not recording it and for a while after that I looked EVERYWHERE for it. Couldn't find it but finally Lifetime came to my rescue. Lifetime is known for helping me out with those movies that I can't find anywhere else. I watched it again the other night and guess what, I hated it.
The plot is simple. The movie starts off good but soon travels downhill. It takes a while for the movie to actually get going, but it finally does. Oh, and it has the one thing in movies that bugs me the most: it starts off showing what will eventually happen. That irks me to no end. I mean I knew what was going to happen, but it still frustrates me when that occurs.
So, it drags on, and it drags on, and it drags on. It's entirely too slow.
I feel bad criticizing the acting here, but it has got to be done. I liked Ariana Richards in 'Jurassic Park' no matter how minor her role was. She is just awful here. Seriously, I haven't seen such bad acting since I went out and rented a Bette Midler movie. Oh, yeah, I don't like Bette Midler. Richards is just so...so...boring. She puts absolutely no emotions into her words, which results in her character being not likeable. I at least didn't like the character. Susan Blakely, on the other hand, is really good. Good acting, good character development, no complaints from me in that area. William Bumiller wasn't anything great.
This plot has been done so many times that it needs to be put to a rest. 'Race Against Fear' is slow-moving, predictable, and has some very, very bad acting. I would not advise anyone to watch this. I'd suggest another TV movie: 'She Fought Alone.' It's basically the same idea and I know that I said that all movies along this line need to stopped, but it IS good; a lot better than this horrible thing.
