Strike Her Dead (2021 Lifetime)
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Cast: Marc Herrmann, Cece Kelly, René Ashton, Grace Lawell
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
All-star soccer player Jenna Sims and her mom Sally are ready for a new start when they move to a new, sunny beach town. Jenna joins her new school’s soccer team in the hopes of making new friends and keeping her college scholarship, but things soon turn dangerous when she is framed for murder after discovering the cover-up of a player’s death. Can she find who the real culprit is before the real murderer gets to her? Cece Kelly, Ren Ashton, Marc Herrmann, Grace Lawell star. (2021)
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie begins with a group of soccer players celebrating on the beach. They are STATE CHAMPIONS! The team captain, Alicia, congratulates the girls and compliments everyone one by one. As the sun starts to set, a player named Lily is found dead in the ocean. The girls cover up the death and just say that Lily is “missing.” (That is pretty shady of them.)
Sally is separated from her husband and has relocated her soccer player daughter, Jenna, from Ohio to California. Jenna is nervous that she won’t make the team at her new school, but she is an all-star player.
Coach Ritchie is hot AF. He puts Jenna on the team immediately. Cue a soccer montage where Coach Ritchie dangles a whistle in his mouth, and I’ve never wanted to play soccer more! Even though that isn’t her preferred position on the field, Coach Ritchie puts Jenna in Lily’s old spot as a goalie. (SPORTZ!)
Jenna goes out with some of the girls from the team. Grace is overtly self-involved, Stacey tells it like it is, and Maria is sad sad sad. The girls introduce Jenna to the high school boys, but she is more concerned about Maria’s sullen attitude. As Maria begins to open up, Grace falls from an upper balcony and somehow survives the fall, but she is in bad shape.
Sally isn’t that worried about her daughter’s tragedy. She is too busy flirting with her boss at work, Dan Rocklin. With the new hunky prospect, Sally considers getting divorced when she tells her daughter, Jenna, storms off. (Like a typical, Lifetime teenager.)
Back on the practice field, Maria and Stacy get into a physical altercation. Coach Richie screams at them, but that doesn’t stop the girls from arguing in the locker room. Stacy blames Jenna for the (maybe) accident to get her spot as forward. Maria disagrees and suspects Stacy pushed Grace off the balcony.
Thank you, Lifetime Gods. Coach Richie makes the girls do swim practice and is shirtless the whole time. After swim practice, Jenna finds Maria dead by the pool.
Finally, the principal and a detective show up to address the three incidents with the team. One girl is missing, another in a coma, and one dead. (I would say it is time to quit the team.) Sally agrees and asks Jenna to take a break from soccer. Jenna whines and gets her way, but she is not allowed to go to the parties anymore.
Jenna’s dad shows up and tells her not to tell her mother. He also speaks with a southern accent for an inexplicable reason. (It’s cute tho!) Jenna breaks her promise when she sees Sally canoodling with her boss. The dad, Joe, wants joint custody of their daughter.
Back at school, Jenna receives threatening notes. She talks to Alicia about Maria’s suspicions, and Alicia comes clean about staging Lily’s disappearance to cover up her death. Jenna tells her to come clean, but Alicia tells her that she is too scared of Stacy. She asks Jenna to help her prove that Stacey pushed Grace and killed Maria.
Coach Ritchie takes the girls back to the beach, where Lily dies, and sadly he wears his shirt this time. He tells the girls to face their demons and put them in the past. They have a game to win! The team walks hand in hand into the water, and apparently, it isn’t easy to stand in the ocean because the group acts like they are doing something difficult. Stacy and Jenna get into an argument right after. Jenna is trying to provoke Stacy. It works, and the teammates are now enemies.
Stacy may be winning because someone puts Maria’s bloody sweater into Jenna’s locker, linking her to the crime. Jenna is now a suspect. Her parents meet to figure out what to do, but they still want to end their marriage. When Sally tells the detective she will take matters into her own hands and solve the murder, he tells her not to because “it never ends well.” (Clearly, he has never seen a Lifetime movie.)
Strange things start happening to Jenna, like a rock being thrown through her window, and a guy named Ken attacker her in the hallway. She convinces Ken to help her break into Stacy’s house, and they set off the alarm. The police arrest Jenna for breaking in entering, but even worse, Sally grounds her when she gets home. No phone, no school, and no talking!
Sally continues to ask questions to prove her daughter is innocent of any wrongdoing. When she tries to talk to Alicia in the locker room, Coach Ritchie intervenes and accuses her of harassing his students. Then Sally visits Lily’s mother and asks to look through her room. Sally finds a soccer burn book. She suspects the coach and calls the detective.
Meanwhile, Jenna visits Grace in the hospital and cries by her bedside. Ken shows up again! This guy didn’t even help Jenna when she was arrested. They also decide to visit a mother, this time; it is Grace’s room they look through. They read her diary and learn that Alicia is hiding something.
Of course, Alicia and Coach Ritchie are having an illicit affair. Jenna spies on them, and they catch her. (She is the worst criminal.) Coach Ritchie chases her with a gun and holds her captive. He killed Lily because she was fixing the games so that the team would lose. He also killed Maria and convinced Alicia to push Grace and frame Jenna with the sweater. He plans to blame Jenna, but Alicia freaks out on him and stops him from shooting Jenna.
Jenna’s parents burst into the garage where the girls are being held, and sally grabs the gun from Coach Ritchie. Then she kicks him in the face. Coach and Alicia are arrested.
Jenna’s dad coaches the new team. Jenna and Stacy bury the hatch and that the team to victory! The end!
Side Note
Minority Report: Stacey, Maria, Frieda, Jamal Tanner, Stacy’s father
Also known as Killer Cover Up
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*** I’ve updated the rating system moving forward. Knives represent # of kills. Wine is over enjoyment (NOT a value judgment) on a 1-5 scale.
I will use the following tags for those who want to know watch or skip: Pour it Up (Would Recommend) or Put A Cork In It (Would Not Recommend).
Overall rating
Number of Kills:
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
Enjoyment Level: 🍷🍷 (2 glasses of wine.)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media @LifetimeUncorked
*Photo Credit: © 2021 Lifetime® | A+E Networks®
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