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Reviews
Murder Comes to Town: Who Killed Miss Brown Sugar? (2017)
Evidence! Please talk about the evidence!
Ugh, another example of this show glossing over (or just completely omitting) discussion of evidence. In this case, they never mentioned whether or not DNA or signs of rape were found from the medical examiner. Now, it turns out that it seems like she had consensual sex with her murderer at the motel right before he shot her, but didn't they find semen or any kind of DNA from her? Did they even look for it? At least address it please. This is the main issue I have with this show. They spend WAY too much time with unimportant stuff like showing locals saying "This is a quiet town - nothing like this happens here!" They focus too much on the dramatizations and not enough on the forensics.
Murder Comes to Town (2014)
Glosses over the evidence and awful narrator
This is a well produced show (I personally think the re-enactments are fine) but it falls short for two reasons: neglecting the evidence and the narrator.
For example, in the last episode I watched, S3 E9, a woman is found raped and stabbed to death in her home. They point out that a strange stain is found on her shirt and they show them in the reenactment meticulously cutting it out of her shirt and bagging it. Fast forward to the end of the show, they find the culprit and he actually eventually confesses, but they NEVER addressed the stain! In an earlier episode where someone was shot to death, they never once talked about the murder weapon other than it being a rifle. Was it found, etc? Instead of spending more time on the evidence and forensics, they focus more on interviewing people saying things like "I never thought this could happen in OUR little town!".
And, the narration is just terrible. The writing and the narrator's voice is infuriatingly over the top melodramatic. It's insulting to the audience.
Fireproof (2008)
Average at best but sprinkled with moments of brilliance
I almost quit on this movie 20 minutes into it. The script was riddled with trite dialogue and the performances seemed a little stiff. I had a huge problem with the train scene where something significant seemed to happen near the end but was never resolved (and apparently completely forgotten about for the rest of the movie), which was quite bizarre. But as the film progressed and reached its climax, there were actually some very powerful and moving moments, performed very impressively by both Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea. This movie kind of reminded me of "Freedom Writers" where overall it was so-so yet contained some very poignant, profound, and memorable scenes.
I am a Christian and I admired the fact that the makers of "Fireproof" were not shy of bringing forth the Gospel message and how Jesus Christ should be the focal point of a healthy marriage. I couldn't help but think what I would have thought about this movie if I had seen it before I received Christ into my life. Back then, I think I can honestly say that I may very well have turned it off after those first 20 minutes. But if I hadn't, it could very well have helped to change my life. And thinking about it, I bet there are some people out there whose life DID change after watching this, and to that I say hallelujah! :-)