Mind Over Murder (2006)

Really Surprised!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The drawback is that comedy, drama, and suspense are merged into one film with a romantic subplot between Tori as the lawyer and Dean as the detective, hand tailored for their off-screen affair, have all been mixed together in a recipe which might teach us too many cooks spoil the brew. I found the ending to be surprising and quite suspenseful since the real guilty party for the murder of an aide to a senator turned out to be nobody she was reading the minds of after her accident. For a second in her flashback the culprit looked like Dean McDermott! It made the ending even more surprising.

This was a really strange and confusing movie. I feel pretty bad saying this because I am a fan of Tori and Dean, not so much for their acting, but I do like their reality show. The movie seemed to be everywhere with the plot. I mean, the plot was good, but whoever wrote this didn't know how to make the plot work correctly. I think better writers and maybe if Tori and Dean would have gotten into their characters a little more, it may have turned out better. I think the acting was okay, but it seemed fake. You know they are acting, but when you can actually remember throughout the film that they are just acting, it's not really good. Well, at least they both got something out of the movie, a nice relationship.

Now I know why Aaron Spelling left Tori out of his will and the reason why her mother is not speaking to her. Tori should be ashamed of her work in this "film." So many flaws, where could I possibly begin? First of all, I don't know one Asst. District Attorney (Tori's character in the movie) who would show up to court sporting cleavage and wearing bright pink and lime clothing. Let alone fake blonde extensions. Can someone give her a believable character, please?!! Secondly, Tori's acting skills in this film leave much to be desired. I kept having 90210 flashbacks when she spoke and laughed in the movie. It was scary. Even a B movie is beyond her acting skills. She should stick to guest appearances on sitcoms that require very little acting and even less camera exposure. One thing surprised me: Dean McDermott is actually pretty good in this movie. However, even Dean's decent acting skills couldn't save the horrible writing, character development, and plot. It was actually quite laughable.

Predictable plot, poor direction, poor acting, and a number of logical errors make this film a disappointment. The redeeming quality of this film is in its usefulness as a training aid for dramatic criticism and showing the neophyte film producer how to make mistakes.While the potential of the premise of this film would make any attempt worthwhile (and has done in serials such as Medium or Ghost Whisperer) the film didn't achieve what it might have. This was also a disappointment.If it sounds like we're disappointed, we were. We stuck it out simply to see if it could get worse. In fact the show became a means to "spot the disaster". Not really what we were looking for when we started watching.At least in real life the girl got the guy so, perhaps, not a complete waste of time.