gcd70
Largely disappointing film which does a terrible job of accounting the shocking and brutal murder of a young newly married New Hampshire man at the hands of his wife's school boy lover and his teenage friends.Neither Joyce Chopra nor her screen writing team have made any attempt to emotionally involve their audience, and any attention to the details of this tragic case is completely non-existent, thus leaving the viewers frustrated and starved of information.The entire cast are all very ordinary and uninspiring which results in a potentially fascinating and aggravating true story (although claimed to be fictitious in the end credits) becoming an uninteresting drag. Watch an old "Colombo" re-run instead!Thursday, August 4, 1994 - T.V.
MarieGabrielle
she does quite well in this made for TV film. She certainly provides the audience with the personality of a hate-worthy narcissist, who, once she cannot get her way, and rise to stardom on TV news, decides the way to solve her career problem is to have her husband executed.Pamela Smart apparently was able to manipulate a student, Billy (well portrayed by a young Chad Allen). She worked as media director at a high school, but that was not good enough for her lofty aspirations, so she manipulated Billy and his friend to murder Greg Smart, promising them insurance money as pay-off. (There was no money). There is actually an amusing scene after her husband has been murdered, and Pamela Smart is worried about how she will look on the 6PM news.Hank Stratton as Gregory Smart is a bit too innocent, but we do feel sorry for his fate. Seems an odd question, but did Pam Smart ever hear of divorce?.Howard Hesseman is not in the film long enough, but offers a good performance, and the courtroom scenes are thankfully left to a minimum. Michael Learned and Ken as Greg's well-meaning parents.Overall a decent docudrama which has probably been elevated to cult status by now, as Pamela Smart in real life is now petitioning for yet another appeal. 7/10.
zowey78
This was an excellent re-enactment of the Pamela Smart story. I have been wanting to see it again for years and up until a few minutes ago I was unaware that it could be purchased. I can't wait to add it to my video library. I think everyone in the movie did an excellent job. I think that a lot of people misunderstood the movie. If u followed the story at the time the movie was pretty much factual to what went on. In fact i just watched American justice last night and it was a documentary about the greg smart murder it got me thinking about that movie again and thats why i looked it up on the internet and i saw someone elses comment about how horrible the movie was and i felt i had to make a comment because i totally disagree. To anyone out there who hasn't seen it I definitely recommend it.
de2425
The movie was a typical TV movie of the week. The actors did well with the script they had to work with but they really didn't have much to work with. I wouldn't rate the movie as high as I do if Chad Allen didn't look so cute in it. All in all I'd say it was a pretty average to slightly above average made for TV movie.
AD
