The Perfect Neighbor (2005)

The Worst Film Ever

Don't listen to the negative reviews

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Let's forget for the moment that this an absurd chick flick with a preposterous plot. I might have given it a 4 or 5. But it is yet one more in the endless stream of mediocre movies shot in Canada and financed with Canadian tax breaks that is set in the United States. Why do we not have the GUTS to produce Canadian movies set in Canada????. This film was shot in Ottawa. Why was it not also SET there??? But no... The bad guy, make that bad girl, is from Kansas City. The victim's wife gets a job in New York City. Her husband goes off to a meeting in Chicago. The television station against which much of the inane plot revolves has American call letters. Cars have US license plates.(Not sure which state but they sure were not Ontario plates!)It is insulting, demeaning, cowardly, unpatriotic and stupid! I have no problem with American film companies coming up here and using Toronto as a stand in for Detroit. (That actually happened!) I don't even mind it when a Canadian film company does work for an American studio. But producing "Canadian" movies which keep their Canadian roots hidden puts us slightly below Botswana in the ranking of film producing nations. Is there any other nation on earth so cinematically gutless that it does this? I don't know how anyone involved, from the actors to the honey wagon driver, can take the least pride in their work. (Incidentally guys, you failed to conceal two dead giveaway Canadian clues. The words "Caribbean" and "schedule" are pronounced the Canadian way.)

It's getting to be that the name Perry King is synonymous with bad Lifetime-type movies, which is a shame.This is a Fatal Attraction ripoff with no attraction - it's all in her head - but lots of fatal. Barbara Niven plays a woman with a daddy complex - her father left when she was 8 and she blamed her mother - who goes from married man to married man seeking fulfillment. I guess she never watched Lifetime herself or she would know this is a dead end. The last guy who told her he wasn't leaving his wife got a knife in his stomach. Niven then flees to her aunt's and within five seconds is in love with Perry King, who lives next door and is married to Susan Blakeley. Mentally she's hot and heavy with him by the first commercial. There are some other people to get out of the way first, though, and a marriage to drive in the final coffin nails.The only impressive thing about this movie was that Barbara Niven was 52 when she made it and Susan Blakeley, playing a woman with a very young daughter, was a whopping 57. I can only say, I'll have what they're having. They both look absolutely amazing in this movie. I thought I must be wrong that I saw Blakeley in Rich Man, Poor Man in the '70s, but of course I wasn't. I started to suspect the Dorian Gray syndrome with the hideous portraits in the closets. Good for them - but both actresses deserve much better. Perry King was his usual handsome, affable, clueless self.I'd say don't watch it but if you catch it on Lifetime, just watch the first 15 minutes to catch a gander at what the fifties look like today for women and remember a time when a woman hit 30 and Hollywood stuck gray in actress' hair and made them play maiden aunts.

In this insipid movie made for TV Niven plays yet another evil witch and does it badly. With a constant sneer on her face, she walks through the movie I guess to indicate she's bad. WRONG! She's God awful . . . . as an actress. Never have liked her and this boring predictable movie proves it. Add to this Perry King yet another stupid husband who doesn't seem to live on this earth. He let's manipulative females rule his roost in almost every movie he's in. This is no exception. Blindly he falls for the witch. When it comes to looks certainly Niven ain't got it, believe me. Why the lovely and talented Susan Blakely would do this junk is beyond me. And why King would prefer Niven over Blakely is like Newman not wanting to bed with Taylor in CAT ON HOT TIN ROOF. Unimaginable. So hands down on Niven and hoping she won't be seen again on TV.

This movie moved at a snails pace and the story line was way too simple to be interesting, in fact many threads they could have continued were dropped.Donna committed several murders but seemed to attract no attention from Police. In fact the police only briefly got involved while all the dead bodies continued to pile up.Typical 'TV movie'.Acting was reasonable, let down by the story line. No real suspense or thrills here, way too predictable. Donna the murderess used a floppy disk which kinda made the Movie seem dated before its time.Sorry, but I don't have much positive to say about this movie.