Every Mother's Worst Fear

I caught this movie tonight on Lifetime and I have to comment. The internet is NOT a toy and I wish this movie were shown more often. I say that because I see kids online all the time who drop their names, locations, email addresses and IM names like people drop business cards. I know they think that this sort of stuff will not happen to them but as this movie showed, it can happen to anyone. I reinforce these realities whenever I need to and have no problem doing so. Cyberspace crawls with pedophiles, stalkers and people who have nothing else to do but play online all day. I think this movie was good and I wish it were shown more often. If any parents are reading this.......PLEASE keep the computers out of the kids rooms. Otherwise, you never know what sort of trouble can come of just "innocently" talking in a chat room to someone. The internet is not a toy and should not be treated as one. Just my two cents.

In today's, pc world, this movie tells a tale that we all know could happen. Not all that bad a film, especially if you're a cheryl ladd fan.

God this was just horrible! everything about it... the acting, the script, the characters... I just couldn't decide what was more laughable, the unbelievably dumb 16 year old, (yes some teens are innocent and gullible, but not to that level!!), the internet-geek who "never goes out of his house" and voluntarily gives a hell of a laptop to some woman he never met before, or the mom who didn't know anything about computers, but learned 'it all' in a couple of, umm, minutes? Not to mention Ted McGinley AKA Jefferson Darcy as the big bad scary hacker guy...

Other than that you just gotta love movies about comps and "the net" made by people who know absolutely nothing about it (except for various textbook quotes)... There were so many holes and misinformation in this movie I couldn't even begin writing about it...

But in any case, to all worried computer-illiterate parents: unless your teenage daughter suffers from major brain damage, you don't have anything to worry about... but if she does, disconnect the internet and let her watch TV instead... cheers :)

Jordan Ladd proved a worthy actress in this enlightening made-for-TV drama, which sends a message that all teenagers should adhere; never trust internet chat-rooms.

It's a film that many parents might actually understand - the child, who is perhaps naive and a little too trusting, spending hours and hours on end on their computer, and one or both of the parents working full time and are never at home to check on what's going on. Every Mother's Worst Fear points this out quite thoroughly.

Admittedly, the story is a little clichéd, but you can't help but sympathise with Connie Hoagland (Cheryl Ladd) as she desperately tries to locate her daughter. It does work that a real-life mother and daughter were cast for such what is really a cat-and-mouse movie. It does point out that the internet is not always a good thing. 5/10

This is a surprisingly well done and enjoyable if slightly dated made for TV movie. Yes you can pull the plot apart if you so wish but you can do that with any movie ever made.

A young girl goes missing and it becomes clear she has been kidnapped after meeting up with a guy she chats to over the net. It's not a far fetched scenario as there are many examples of this.

Where this film succeeds is that it keeps your interest throughout as the mother and police search for the missing girl. There are a number of tense scenes and the abuse scenes though mainly just hinted at are effective. The acting for a TV movie is pretty good with both Cheryl and Jordan Ladd putting in convincing performances.

It is no classic but compared to many TV movies this is a pretty good effort.