{"id":5180,"date":"2013-01-14T16:46:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T00:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=5180"},"modified":"2021-05-31T23:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T06:24:06","slug":"review-loveme-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2013\/01\/review-loveme-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Me Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With a title like Love Me<\/i><\/b>, there\u2019s not a hell lot to actually love<\/i>. The script is half-baked, the dialogue stilted and the mystery is, well, unmysterious. For her part, Lindsey Shaw doesn\u2019t do a bad job, so that\u2019s at least one positive thing I took away from the film.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nLove Me (2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Genre(s): <\/b>Suspense\/Thriller, Mystery
\nAnchor Bay | PG13 \u2013 98 min. \u2013 $24.99 | January 15, 2013<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Rick Bota
\nWriter(s): <\/b>Kat Candler (written by)
\nCast: <\/b>Lindsey Shaw, Jamie Johnston, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Kaitlyn Wong, Mikaela Cochrane<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Featurettes
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/b>English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 1.78
\nSubtitles: <\/b>English SDH, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/b>21.9 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/b>A<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

** Note: <\/b>This review does contain SPOILERS<\/b> so please move on to the other sections if you don\u2019t want to know plot and possible twist details. **<\/b><\/p>\n

Love Me<\/i><\/b> is the latest in the \u2018tween thriller genre (i.e. rated PG-13) with a lazy, half-assed script and a twist ending one could see coming twenty miles away; in this case, really within the first few minutes. I wouldn\u2019t mind that so much if I could even remotely care about the teen angst drama that fills the middle section. Seriously, those scenes seem to be taken from rejected CW scripts…<\/p>\n

The movie takes place in some non-descript town in some non-descript state (the back cover says Ridgedale, but I don\u2019t ever recall it being mentioned, in fact the police cars merely say \u201cPolice\u201d) it opens on a prologue of cute girl Melissa Kennedy being stalked in muscle car by some unknown person. She\u2019s obviously angry with whoever it is and tries to escape but this individual manages to catch up to her (on foot) where we cut to her blood-curdling screams. It\u2019s a cheap cut that\u2019s been done numerous times… 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

After the lame intro, fast forward 3 months and we are introduced to our main character, Sylvia Shaw (LYNDSEY SHAW), getting ready for school and putting the finishing touches on her artistic hobby of making paper miniatures for an artistic project. At school she\u2019s got a core group of friends: comic book artist Harry (JEAN-LUC BILODEAU), sassy girl Dalyn (KAITLYN WONG aka the Three-Breasted Girl in the Total Recall<\/i> remake) and flaky chick Katie (MIKAELA COCHRANE) and her boyfriend, Brian.<\/p>\n

While walking to their first class, Sylvia falls head over heels (literally) for newcomer, rich kid and bad boy Lucas Green (JAMIE JOHNSTON). Later, Lucas apologizes for accidentally tripping her by giving a mix CD with some personally favorite angst-y songs and she immediately is drawn towards him. However, her friends are not so keen on the guy from Harry who has had a crush on Sylvia for years and Dalyn who, as Sylvia later discovers, had once dated Lucas and went a bit \u201cpsycho\u201d on him when they broke up. But as Sylvia gets closer to Lucas, she discovers he\u2019s not so clean either after discovering he\u2019s the prime suspect in Melissa\u2019s disappearance as the pair had been dating at the time.<\/p>\n

Ignoring her friends\u2019 warnings, Sylvia gets closer to Lucas as their relationship, quickly, steps up to the next level. However, there are some troubling warning signs \u2013 aside from being the two lead detective\u2019s primary suspect \u2013 for one he beat a punk kid to a pulp (there\u2019s a background story concerning Sylvia and her old school). Sylvia breaks things with Lucas but soon he becomes obsessed calling multiple times and tracking her down at her theater job, jiggling a locked door handle without saying a word (why?).<\/p>\n

The movie also delves a bit into the investigation part as the detectives (played by Michelle Haug and Peter Skagan) try to rattle Lucas but also track down other leads including Sylvia\u2019s friends who both have some sort of connection with the missing\/presumed deceased. So, is Lucas the one who harmed Melissa? Or is somebody else to blame? Personally, I couldn\u2019t have cared less, though within the first 10-minutes I was 99% certain who it was.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only one of the problems with Love Me<\/i><\/b>. The mystery element isn\u2019t that, well, mysterious, it kind of reminds me of some of those \u201cFear Street\u201d tween novels by R.L. Stine, some aren\u2019t bad but the \u201cwho-done-it\u201d aspect were lacking, and it\u2019s a similar situation in this movie as well. However, I could probably forgive if it were only that but simply put, the teen angst dramatic parts were boring as all hell and very hard to sit through, especially with silted dialogue. To me, the entire film felt like an extended episode of \u201cPretty Little Liars\u201d (a show I highly recommend, by the way; which Lindsey Shaw guest-starred on) with weaker writing.<\/p>\n

Love Me<\/i><\/b>, to my surprise yet not, was directed by Rick Bota, a name you might not recognize but some of his work you have. Most of his career was spent as DP on numerous television series such as \u201cTales from the Crypt\u201d, \u201cClose to Home\u201d and \u201cJericho\u201d (and feature films The Babysitter<\/i> and, ugh, Barb Wire<\/i>). But his directing career, feature wise, was back-to-back-to-back Hellraiser<\/i> movies (Hellseeker<\/i>, Deader<\/i> and Hellworld<\/i>) all of which pretty much stunk.<\/p>\n

In fairness, I can\u2019t lay too much blame on Bota as the screenplay, by Kat Chandler, was half-assed in its presentation and utterly void of surprise, the kiss of death for any suspense-thriller. But an even bigger sin is that while the killer might\u2019ve been predictable, everything else was downright boring and became a chore to sit through. One bit of praise though is Shaw does share some sort of charm as she\u2019s not your typical female lead but has a mysterious aura which I\u2019ve seen on \u201cPretty Little Liars\u201d and The Howling Reborn<\/i>. As for everyone else, they\u2019re not bad but awfully forgettable.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Love Me<\/i><\/b> is nothing more than a made-for-TV flick that is destined to be shown on Lifetime one day. The acting isn\u2019t terrible but the dialogue is at times atrocious and worst of all, this suspense\/thriller had little of either and wasn\u2019t even that mysterious. I can without a doubt suggest to skip this one altogether.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 1.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Love Me<\/span><\/i><\/b>: Behind the Scenes (7:14; HD)<\/span><\/b> is nothing more than a thin look behind the camera at how the movie was made with cast\/crew interviews explaining the plot and\/or their characters.<\/p>\n

Love Me<\/span><\/i><\/b>: Stories from the Set (6:10; HD)<\/span><\/b> \u2013 This is more BTS footage but contains some outtakes as well as thoughts from the cast and director about working with one another. It\u2019s thin but kind of fun to watch.<\/p>\n

Previews<\/b> \u2013 10 Years<\/i>, The Howling Reborn<\/i>, Hiding<\/i><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Love Me<\/i><\/b> arrives on Blu-ray presented with a sleek and clean 1080p high-definition transfer. The film is presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and looks like it was filmed digitally since it\u2019s absolutely free of grain or noise. The detail levels though does look good and there isn\u2019t any signs of artifacting or other flaws. That being said, presumably this had a minimal budget so it\u2019s not something that exactly pops off the screen but it\u2019s certainly acceptable.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, like the video transfer, isn\u2019t amazing and is more serviceable than anything else. The dialogue at times sounds muffled and flat whiles other elements such as any action, the music or score sounds a bit more dynamic making use of the surrounds. The LFE channel unfortunately is relegated to minimal use.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a><\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, with a title like Love Me<\/i><\/b>, there\u2019s not a hell lot to actually love<\/i>. The script is half-baked, the dialogue stilted and the mystery is, well, unmysterious. For her part, Lindsey Shaw doesn\u2019t do a bad job, so that\u2019s at least one positive thing I took away from the film. The video\/audio transfers aren\u2019t anything incredible but acceptable nonetheless and the features are limited.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Movieman
\n<\/i>Published: <\/b>01\/14\/2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a title like Love Me, there\u2019s not a hell lot to actually love. The script is half-baked, the dialogue stilted and the mystery is, well, unmysterious. For her part, Lindsey Shaw doesn\u2019t do a bad job, so that\u2019s at least one positive thing I took away from the film.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1824,1117,1087,1823],"class_list":["post-5180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-jamie-johnston","tag-kaitlyn-wong","tag-lindsey-shaw","tag-love-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5180"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26347,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180\/revisions\/26347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}