Wicked Revenge or Fame at a Deadly Cost (2020 Lifetime)
Cast: Gina Holden, Heavenly Reyna, Aaron Schwartz
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
When star-struck teenager Blake (Mozart Dee) who has a desire to make it as a pop star suddenly disappears, her concerned single mom, Michelle (Gina Holden), sets out to rescue her from the controlling singer who lured her to a faraway island with promises of fame and fortune only to find out that it’s all a sexual trafficking scheme.
Thoughts
A woman is lead to the edge of a cliff and pushed off by a mand with long hair and sunglasses.
Flash to two weeks earlier. The same woman, whose name is Michelle, is wearing an apron cooking for her catering business. Michelle has a blonde daughter named Blake and a dead husband named Ryan. Blake loves to sing and is encouraged by a pregnant family friend to purse it more.
Blake plays guitar and sings a song she wrote and records it on video. She isn’t a bad singer and is adorable AF. (Think early Talyor Swift.) Blake gets bullied at school for being a nerd. Her nerdy guy friend, Mason, posts the video online. It goes viral, and Blake gets contacted by a talent agent named Rachel Reeves.
Michelle is hesitant but agrees to take Blake to the meeting. Rachel convinces the mother and takes Blake to a club to promote her new artist. Things escalate quickly, and Blake records a horrible pop song in a recording studio. (Think Lorde, but flat. REALLY flat.) As the terrible song plays, we see Blake getting a makeover, shopping, and hanging out with older creepy men. (Specifically, her producer/songwriter named DC) When Blake records her song “Paper Tiger,” DC is impressed. I am less so.
Malia who knows DC texts, Blake, to meet up. She sends the text through an unknown number and sends an address to meet. DC sees the text and sends the man with long hair and sunglasses to take care of her before she can become a problem. Blake goes to the meeting point, but Malia is dragged away before she can tell Blake anything.
Blake is asked to record an album and is being whisked away to a recording studio out of the country. Rachel and DC get Blake’s social media login information and promise to make her a star. Michelle isn’t happy with how things are working out with her daughter and the record people. She grounds Blake when she finds a fake ID that Blake has been using to get into clubs to “network.”
While she is grounded and drinking tea in a daisy shirt, Blake is getting texts from Mason. He apologizes to her and swears he didn’t tell Blake’s mom about the fake ID. Blake goes downstairs to get more tea and sees an intruder. Then she hides behind a suitcase to evade being seen. It works? The intruder ransacks the place and steals her passport. The police are called.
The next day, Michelle is windexing her countertops and gets a call from the school. She is informed that her daughter didn’t show up for classes. Coincidentally, a news story about the human trafficking of teenage girls plays on the TV. Michelle learns that Mason also missed school. She drives around town, calling everyone she knows. She finds Mason working on his car and almost killing his whole family by leaving the car running in a closed garage???
Mason tells Michelle he saw Blake get in a car with DC. Michelle goes to Rachel’s office and tells her that this isn’t working out for her family. Rachel turns it around and tells Michelle she is ungrateful, then quits as Blake’s manager.
A local reporter, the one from the news, approaches Michelle in a parking garage. His name is Bill Wyatt. He plays videos on his laptop for Michelle and earns her of human trafficking. He thinks Blake is on her way to Mexico. She is in Mexico with DC, lots of beautiful young girls, and the long-haired sunglasses guy. (His name is Jax, but I will only refer to him as long-haired sunglasses guy.)
Speaking of the long-haired sunglasses guy, he gets told to take care of Michelle because she has become a problem. (She makes a few social media posts and sets Rachel off.) He pretends to be a rideshare and takes Michelle to a cliff and pushes her off. Michelle washes up onshore and isn’t dead after all. As she is gasping and chocking a handsome man yells at her to get off his beach, it is private property.
Once the handsome man realizes Michelle is in trouble, he goes to rescue her and even offers her a ride. Is this a MEET CUTE in the middle of a Lifetime movie? The handsome man offers to help Michelle look for her daughter. His name is Rhett, and he gets Michelle an undercover job as a caterer at DC’s party.
Blake is still in Mexico and in a bathing suit. She gets rubbed down with sunscreen by a shirtless DC. DC convinces Blake that the situation isn’t weird, and she is reassured by his developed pecs and bulging biceps. (Oh wait, that was me.) Blake is actually concerned. (She should be!) DC pawns her off on a sleazy “music producer” who undresses while she signs for him. The sleazy man caresses her and tells her to relax. It is gross and probably happens more than we know in the music business. Blake rushes out to tell DC, but see his hit one of the girls and then sees another girl beaten to death in the bathtub. YOU IN DANGER, GURL!
Michelle is in the mansion that DC is holding all the girls and finally can save Blake. Blake is being forced to signs for a married movie producer who is putting the moves on her. Michelle barges in and records the whole thing with her phone. She threatens to post the video.
The mother and daughter make a run for it, but DC stops them at the gate, holding a gun. The longhaired man with sunglasses almost stops them too, but Rhett saves them, and they drive to saftey.
Blake and Mason are friends again. They graduate from high school. Michelle and Rhett are together! The end!
Side Note
Minority Report: Malia, Police Officer, Reporter
The singing in this movie was a journey, and I was not prepared for the LOLs.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime
Trying to find the song she sings in the car were finding heaven on the dance floor and can’t find who sings that song can you help me please. Thanks my email is tkaugust21999@yahoo.com my name is Kathy. The movie was awesome but I always watch lifetime movie