hanshotfirst1138

If the movie winds up being Lifetime making fun of Lifetime, that's so meta I don't think I can handle it.

RichC2

I think it's going to play it straight, I thought it'd be more along the lines of They Came Together which was basically an intentionally horrible romantic movie with gags inserted into it (unlike most spoofs as of late, it mostly went after tropes above specific pop culture references). Now it looks more subtle than that.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LNiGkRbDNSk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

philo

Reminder this airs tonight at 8.

writer106

Just watched it. It was played straight for the most part with some funny moments mixed in. The actress who played the daughter is a great child actress. The tragedy in the beginning parodied a very common storyline used in soap operas.

I also checked twitter during the airing and there were some people who didn't realize that it was satire/parody and then were a few people who kept wondering why "Kristen and Will were making this awful movie" and they didn't realize it was done on purpose.

philo

It felt like a fan letter to the Lifetime movies. I doubt I'll watch it again but it was entertaining seeing a lot of the cliches play out with Ferrell & Wig.

PhantomStranger

I thought it was played too straight to be effective as an outright comedy. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this as someone that has liked both Will Ferrell and the occasional Lifetime movie in the past.

TGM

this was fucking atrocious.

RichC2

It was a little too subtle for its own good but I found it pretty funny

MrX

Some of the little bits were funny, like the pieces of dock still along the shore.

I could watch 2 hours of Jessica Lowndes just standing there

Deftones

I read this and I was like, OK, I'll delete it without watching.

Then I read this, and I'm like, OK, now I have to watch it.

TGM

when you do, let me know who was right.

PhantomStranger

The problem is that every actor in the cast played their role straight. They took a generic Lifetime movie script and assumed casting Wiig and Ferrell would make it funny. I don't think Lifetime particularly cares, they do these stunt castings as publicity for the network outside their traditional demo. Ferrell must not be getting the same kind of offers in Hollywood as he once did.

skatefan20

@ the last 15 min. with the climactic bridge sequence, happy family ending.

This
It was your typical Lifetime "inspired by a true story" made-for-tv schlock - almost a blueprint of the low budget movies for this network filled with your favorite dramatic music cues, slo-mo sappy montages, and corny dialogue.

"Is SPF30 enough?"
"Don't say that! I am not mean, I am the only nice one!"
"Oh my god, you're not pregnant?" ( Wiig was spot on.)

happy anniversary Lifetime.

DWilson

I read two reviews before I watched the film, -TV Line called it brilliant, while a major newspaper called it boring. If their goal was to create a pastiche (something that's more intellectually funny, than laugh-out-loud funny), they pretty much succeeded, but while I found it an interesting curiosity, I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again. I could see watching this as a "straight" drama if you didn't know better. Actually the weakest link for me is Ferrell, -Wiig, for example, is giving an authetic dramatic performance, while Ferrell just didn't come across as "sincere" in the same way to me.

stevevt

I found this oddly easy to watch, even though it didn't get a lot of laughs from me.

fujishig

These are my exact thoughts as well. Maybe I don't watch enough Lifetime movies, so I didn't get some in-jokes or something? While the music and such were all over-the-top, it didn't really seem like it was a parody until Ferrell got back up near the end.

Also, now I have no idea if the other movies are parodies as well. Is that Bella Thorne one they were advertising supposed to be a parody or a regular Lifetime movie? So hard to tell.

RichC2

I agree that Ferrell was a little too obvious but Wiig was spot-on. I doubt I'll ever watch it again but I'm kind of glad it exists, it is just a huge inside joke of a production.

Jackskeleton

Eh, It was a little too subtle for my taste and I ended up turning it off half way through. Probably try again with group of friends who like to watch bad movies, but a bit of a let down.

PhantomStranger

I was expecting a more direct spoof of the Lifetime formula. This was just a standard Lifetime script without all the beautiful people that fill every role.

RichC2

What's sad is even with the sense of spoofiness, the acting from the 3 leads was better than most Lifetime movies.

leeta

An article in the TV section of EW said they were playing it straight.

JeffTheAlpaca

Maybe if Adam McKay and Will Ferrell wrote it it would have been funnier.

writer106

I was curious about the ratings, but I forgot to check a few days ago. They did ok with this.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/will...gs-1201525162/

RichC2

It would have been a full budget movie in that case. I think this is exactly what Wiig and Ferrell wanted to do. The movie that aired before it with Katrina Bowden was way more over-the-top and terrible-awesome.

PhantomStranger

The normal Lifetime movie with Bowden was also far more entertaining.