The Colony

Starring the fantastic late great John Ritter The Colony is a made for television thriller with a concept alone that it deserves credit for.

It tells the story of a family who move into an exclusive gated community but begin to have concerns about the overwhelming number of rules they must live by and the strange behaviour of their fellow residents.

It's all very 90's (If that makes any sense) but despite the usual gliches it's quite an entertaining little venture. There are a couple of plot holes but thankfully nothing too major and Ritter is excellent as always.

A harmless way of killing 90 minutes.

The Good:

John Ritter

Some interesting ideas

The Bad:

Cliched

Ending could have been better

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I would happily sacrifice some freedoms for that quality of life

This made for TV suspense thriller had lots of potential but just seemed to fall flat. John Ritter stars as a security expert of the high tech scale who moves his family into THE COLONY an ultra exclusive community that appears on the surface to be perfect in every way.

Shortly after moving in they soon find all is not what it appears. An elaborate set of rules and regulations abound that at first seem to be ridiculous but in reality are taken seriously by those who run The Colony. The family encounters staff members, who come into their home to do various environmental checks, remove outdoor plants that are deemed inappropriate for The Colony and perform surgery on their pet dog. Security guards shows up at the home of another family when the man of the house decides to paint his dwelling with a color that The Colony does not approve of. Slowly this utopian community begins to show it's dark and sinister side as Ritters family begins to catch on.

The film attempts to have a Stepford Wives type plot to it but too many topics are touched on and compressed to allow the film to have a build up for a suspenseful ending which also falls somewhat flat. The characters seemed to be miscast which hurts the picture. Hal Linden as the BMOC (Big Man On Community) who runs the Colony and wants everyone to love, respect and fear him at the same time just doesn't seem believable as a sinister individual. John Ritter who is fine in comedy roles also just doesn't seem to click in this picture.

The story is there and if redone with good casting and directing would make for a suspenseful film along the same lines as The Firm. If you've never seen it it's still worth viewing.

I thumbed through the channels and came up with " The Colony " After watching for awhile and thinking it might turn out to be a good wet Saturday movie, I realized it was just like living in a gated community here in Boynton Beach, Florida. Fortunatly we can leave whenever we wish. However, there are associations who tell you what color your homes should be painted, what kinds of plants are acceptable, who is entitled to play on the tennis courts,who can swim in the pool etc,etc. We have our own COPS core. CITIZENS ON PATROL.They patrol the streets in an official police car. They do not carry guns, cannot issue traffic tickets. I am thankful to have this type of security. As far as the movie, It was better than expected.

In this mid-90s TV movie John Ritter plays Rick Knowlton who has designed a security system. He is also a family man with a wife Leslie (Mary Page Keller) and two kids (Alexandra Picatto and Cody Dorkin). While feelings the effects of living in a big city of L.A. and having their car stolen Rick is looking for a new and fresh place to live without the stresses and fears that city life creates. A super-rich tycoon Philip Denig (Hal Linden) wants to buy this security system and move the Knowlton family to his community. Rick is ecstatic, but soon finds out that this community isn't as great as he first thought.

Unfortunately this flick doesn't make the cut in my eyes. Not scary enough or spooky enough and the messages that are delivered could have been done in different ways to be much more effective. I do believe they needed to amp things up for it to strike any real chords with me. Might work better for those who have not seen this type of movie before. Sad though, because I think Ritter was perfectly cast for his role, but needs more meat on the bone for me to become more concerned for their well-being. Also starring Frank Bonner from WKRP IN CINCINNATI.

This could have been a good movie, except it was too tame. Not enough menace in the menace, if you know what I mean. If you want to at least read it done right, read a novel called The Association, by Bentley Little. It's almost the exact same concept, but it actually makes you fear the big boogey man.