Change Your Image
shelyna
Reviews
Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (2009)
Mandie WHO?? Movies have Nothing to do with the book series??!!
Spoilers kind of but not really??
The story lines are so much difference it would be too much to tell! But these Mandie books have been a childhood favorite of mine. Since my best friend turned me onto them when we were 9-11 years old. So it's frustrating to me because next to being a childhood favorite, I've always wanted to watch a movie version of Mandie Books but this isn't even the same author. It's like night and day and the "ghost writers" just completely ruined the experience for me.
Mandie and the secret tunnel, Mandie and the Cherokee legend, Mandie and the forgotten Christmas, movies so far, are unrecognizable compared to the books.
To name a few, Grandmother Taft, redeems herself in the books and was apologetic and in Mandie's life a lot and they had a good relationship. Etta Shaw remarried before Mandie left but they never visited John Shaw's house. Neither was there any Mr. & Mrs. Snow. There was a man and a woman and daughter totally unrelated to each other but coming to claim kinship to John to get entitled to his will. But must like most of the characters, details and names has been rewritten.
Details about how they search for the will was rewritten and how they found the will was rewritten. Mandie never called Elizabeth by her name it was always Mother once she found out who Elizabeth was. When Mandie went to the girls school and met Cecilia, Cecilia didn't hide in the attic hoping to attend the school, she was enrolled in by her parents. I forgot the exact details on Cecilia's Life. But she wasn't a smelly poor girl sneaking around in the attic. If I'm remembering correctly, her parents were quite rich. And all their adventures at the girls school have all been rewritten or twisted around.
A lot of things in the Cherokee legend had been rewritten. Mandie and her mom and friends never snuck on a train to follow her uncle John and Uncle Ned. There was no jumping off a train. No most wanted "man" with $1,000 reward on the loose. In the books Joe was in love with Mandie (as much as a 13 year old boy can be in love) and was much nicer to her than he seems to be in the movie. In the movie, he seems more interested in Polly but in the book there was no competition.
And I could go on because there was so much change it just bugs me! Who wrote this stuff? The book would have done so much better than the movie anyway.
I don't even recognize these stories anymore??
Stalked at 17 (2012)
It's Ok. A TV movie, practically exactly what you'd expect
Some spoilers..
But first of all, I don't know why people were bashing about the lead actress' acting, I thought she did just fine. If anything, NONE of the acting of the entire cast was that good. Especially the actor who played the boyfriend, I thought he was the worst of the group as far as acting goes. And the actress who played the bio mom wasn't that great either.
But I don't think the film makers were looking for top professionals exactly, I think they just wanted regular actors/people who would make the story more natural and real. And especially if this was a low budget film, it probably would be difficult and costly to get top actors in. But I thought the leading actress sold it just fine.
The thing that had me concerned/puzzled about the story is that, there seemed to be no safety measures or precautions in keeping Angela and the baby safe other than the restraining order, which obviously wasn't enough. I would think that the parents would have sent her far away to live with a relative or friend that the bf didn't know about, talked to the school about transferring her. Or just took her out of school for the time being until they could figure out how to keep her safe.
They also kept her in their house with no security system in place or anything, after he violated the restraining order. And they left her and the baby in the house alone. That part seemed careless to me. If I had a daughter who's baby daddy was coming to my work and calling me a hundred times at work, and then coming to my house to try to get to her. Then going to the school to see her after the restraining order, I'd be really concerned about keeping her in town. And especially in my own home where he's bound to know or find out from someone where I live. Even if my daughter had never told him. So as dangerous as this guy was, Angela's parents needed security for themselves. And not just their daughter and grandson.
At the beginning it makes you think the guy was just a robber or kidnapper. And then it goes back to explain that he's the ex boyfriend and why he's kidnapping them. But I think it was too predictable, too random and It's almost like it's meant to confuse you, but not in a good way, like most good quality films.
The way they wrote things to be figured out by the audience/or fall into place. It was kinda weird, so I don't think the writing was that good. But good enough to keep the attention and keep you interested, I thought. Yes I would watch it again. Yes I would recommend it to a friend.
So overall it was a pretty good movie for me.