A Deadly Encounter (2004)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

An Exercise In Nonsense

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The female lead was stiff and wooden and the ex-husband was not engaging in the least. The lead's friend had all the talent you'd expect to find in a middle-school theatrical production. The lead's mother was not even in it; she looked more like a producer's assistant running lines with the lead rather than someone actually acting. Within ten minutes, I was rooting for the bad guy. It was so bad that I ended up reading a package insert from a box of sinus pills I found in the drawer of the nightstand. The possible side effects were a lot scarier than this movie.

A lame ending and some silly plot elements take the zing right out of what could have been a decent enough made-for-T stalker movie.Laura Leighton may never win an Oscar, but she deserves better material than this lazy effort. A first year film student could have written a more sensible and more gripping script than this, and almost anybody over the age of puberty could have scripted a better conclusion.The premise of a furious driver stalking a fellow motorist who cut him off on the freeway is reasonable, if over-the-top considering the two did not actually have an accident. Some people are nuts (for want of a more politically correct word), and extreme road rage is not unknown. However, in the world of fiction scenarios of this sort should not end in as lame and downright senseless fashion as they do in this instantly forgettable movie. And we won't even worry about some of the implausible and illogical things that happen in between - the brightest mom on the planet, this woman is not.

***SPOILERS*** Over the top made for TV movie about this crazed stalker,Alain Goulem, who sets his sights on pretty single mom, aren't they all now a days in the movies, Joanne Sanders (Laura Leighton) who innocently cut him off one night on the highway on her way home from work as a hostess at the Santana Nightclub in downtown Phillie. Feeling both hurt and disrespect's this nut case starts to make Joanne and her 13 year old son Eric's lives miserable! If miserable is the right word for it. Hounding Joanne day and night by making threatening phone calls to her house the psycho goes a step farther by at first booby trapping her mom's car and then going so far as kidnapping her son Eric. As for Joanne's ex Keith,Frank Schorpion, he's on the outs with Eric as well as herself and tries to keep as far away from Joanne, and Joanne's problems, as possible.The film gets more ridicules by the minute with Joanne really doing nothing to help herself in finding the creep by just installing a caller ID system on her phone, which for the most part is mandatory, to get his number and reported him to to the police. Joanne doesn't even have a cell phone that she can use to call the cops, which she magically later obtains, to use when she spots the stalker or his SUV when she's outside out of her house. In fact there was a scene when Joanne spotted the stalker's SUV parked right alongside her car and didn't even bother to take down his license plate and give it to the police!***SPOILERS*** The ending really tops it, the movie, all with Joanne being forced by the stalker,who's holding her son Eric hostage, to say pretty please to him for all the hurt he suffered because of her, not at once considering all the hurt he caused Joanne, by cutting him off on the highway earlier in the film. Still not satisfied with her answer, yes Joanne did say pretty please to him, this total nut job went in for the kill only to end up getting everything that's coming to him, from an finally outrage and gun toting Joanne, that put him on ice or the hot seat for good!

Warning: This may contain SPOILERS!!First of all I watch a lot Lifetime movies and realize they are just that....Lifetime movies. Some are great (really), some are good and some are bad. Unfortunately this movie falls into the latter category. It actually started out with some potential....single, divorced hard working mom (who gets out of work at 2:00 AM) cuts a guy off while driving home from work and let's just say he doesn't take it too well. The stalking begins immediately with phone call hang ups and escalates to her home being broken into and completely trashed. So she goes to her mother's for the night and the next morning her mother's car blows up. This seems to be just a pain in the butt for our heroine who deals with it by going underwear and jewelry shopping!!! So the police put her and her son in a local motel for safe keeping and what does Mom do? She goes off to work leaving the kid all alone at night in a strange motel room and tells him to order a PIZZA!!! I couldn't believe it! Then it really gets stupid! And the ending just made me angry because it was so ridiculous and typical. Too bad because it seemed to have possibilities.