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Mike (Matt Long) was the star quarterback in his small hometown. He is invited back to the field on homecoming night for the retiring of his football jersey number. Everyone is a little surprised to see him show up with a new girlfriend Elizabeth, played by Jessica Stroup. It’s when Mike runs into his insanely jealous ex-girlfriend Shelby, Mischa Barton (The O.C.), when the plot thickens.
Shelby is still madly in love with Mike and will do anything in her power to get him back. This includes kidnapping his girlfriend after hitting Elizabeth with her car. She tells lies to Mike to make him believe his girlfriend left him and wasn’t happy when in reality Shelby is keeping her captive. Once her unwell thought out plan starts to have some complications, Shelby takes matters in her own hands by threatening Elizabeth with her life. Now Elizabeth is forced to try and escape.
This pitiable big screen feature feels as if I plopped in a Lifetime movie DVD into a projector at a movie theater. The quality of the film in parts is good, but in most areas it looks like a student film. I know this isn’t a big budgeted film, but I thought the CW only did television.
Should I even get started with the acting? Mischa Barton does play an excellent psycho when she is in “crazy mode”. However, in any other scene it’s as if she is reading from a prompter. Matt Long basically doesn’t have to talk much, just listen to others as they praise him in his hometown. Jessica Stroup (90210) is cute and actually does the best out of the three main characters. Then again, she mostly has to just be scared for her life and limp around. Maybe I am being a little too harsh. I don’t see many suspense thrillers/horrors often anyway. What am I expecting?
“Homecoming” is nothing more than a cookie-cutter teen based suspense thriller. There is no uniqueness of the film. You won’t leave the theater feeling like you saw something new. In fact, you may be asking yourself was this originally made in the mid 90’s. If it was, then I’m okay with this film. Since I know that this film was years in the making with many problems holding it back from being released just helps display what a jumbled mess the outcome became. Wait for the television world premiere, and then try to forget this ever made it into the theaters.
