Hall Pass Nightmare (2022 TV Movie) User Reviews

Lol a "bad boy rock star" who only plays acoustic guitar and sings ballads??

[deedrala · 2/10 · 26 September 2022]

Hall Pass Nightmare

My review title is the main laughable, nonsensical issue of this latest of many over-the-top LMN fictional flicks with its usual premise of a violent psycho-stalker LBG (Lifetime Bad Guy) who's hyper-focused on LGG (Lifetime Good Girl) for unknown reasons - this time in the form of a famous singer who used to be in a rock band and has gone solo under the stage name 'Dante'.

Other laughable issues include:

• the object of LBG's obsession being unattractive and boring - as if this hot "bad boy" didn't already have a plethora of groupies drooling over him from which he could pick and choose.....but no, of course he just had to set his sights on a mediocre, stringy-haired, uptight married woman with a boring job in healthcare administration and no tattoos (I remember watching her - Andrea Bowen - as Julie, the daughter of one of the Desperate Housewives, years ago)

• her plan to stop his stalking is to stupidly entice him to her BFF's house where she and her two girlfriends think they'll bring him down with a taser and baseball bat

• no help from the police whatsoever

• LGG's husband overacted to the point that he came across as a dorky goof (he also reminded me of a young Harrison Ford in the looks dept.)

Brief summary: LGG and two friends go to business convention where she meets her high school celeb crush in the bar and turns down his invite to his room but ends up making out with him in the hotel hallway. After returning home, he openly stalks her with surprise visits and gifts and texts, that she repeatedly rebuffs, but he can't/won't take 'no' for an answer and so predictably turns violent and dangerous.

Main complaint is the ambiguous ending: it only showed him lying still after falling down the short flight of stairs, so the viewer is left to wonder if he died or was arrested?

Grade D - 2 out of 10.

Never meet your idols

[CranberriAppl · 29 October 2022]

First reaction: well at least it wasn't another naughty teacher movie. When I saw the thumbnail on my tv's guide, I wasn't really going to watch it bc I can't stand the teacher/student movies. Just ick and it's never treated as gross when it's a female teacher and a male student. But a review site I read had the synopsis, so once I realized that's not what it was, I decided to watch. That said, the title is terrible. It makes sense if they were teachers, but if I was thinking about having a freebie on my husband (which I am not), it wouldn't be called that. It's been years, but I think I remember Ross and Rachel having a similar "pass," but the name escapes me.

I think it's possible to have fame and be relatively low key, but this guy was the worst. The guy from His Killer Fan pulled it off better if you ask me. As another contributor said, he had a groupie in his bed the same night Carrie turned him down, so what gives? They honestly didn't spend enough time together, in my opinion, for his obsession to make sense. Even in a Lifetime movie. As bad as it sounds, it would have made sense if they slept together and she rebuffed him. They just made out in the hallway. It almost would have helped if they pulled another Lifetime trope and just had her remind him of a long lost love or something. There's nothing about Carrie that shows why he even approached her. She's not "letting loose" or anything at all. I guess maybe it was her admittance that she used to be a superfan, but even still,

Also, the opening scene sort of bothered me bc of how the 911 call played out. Now, I'm for sure not victim blaming, but I am writer blaming...in these movies, characters never name the person harming them when given the opportunity. In the opening scene, the ex-gf knows who is attacking her but only tells the dispatcher "a man." It doesn't sound natural at all given that we already know this guy is going to be a villain. That's just a pet peeve I have.

I felt for her husband. I mean, the movie just....is. There have been better versions of this and this one feels like filler. Not even sure if it's been on again since the premiere.

Frumpy Woman

[agreenskeeperscorp · 2/10 · 16 March 2024]

How Andrea Bowen was casted for this role makes absolutely no sense. She has too be the most frumpy looking actress in any LMN movie. To try and make us believe some "rock star" Dante is obsessed with her is laughable. And I wouldn't want to buy any medical equipment from her totally clueless dopey husband. And what was the shower scene with her washing all the filth off of herself after a couple of kisses she had with the acoustic rock star? That was pathetic. The whole movie went from bad to worse. The complete clueless, goofball husband was just over the top. He also went from bad to worse. 2 stars for comedic value.

Trashy movie

[hhutton-25800-97724 · 1/10 · 16 March 2024]

Lets see now: cheating, low resolve housewife: loving, oblivious, wimpy type husband who is in very obvious need of some self-defense lessons: psycho, scummy pretty-boy guy who weak minded women always flock to: very low moral friends who care nothing for you. Yeah, this makes for a bad film that is very triggering. Really love Andrea Bowen, but hated her role in this one. A lot of this crap happens in real life, less the rock star status of the psycho, with the exception that the husband doesn't forgive as easy and act like nothing happened. May be blow to the head caused amnesia. And shortly thereafter they ride off into the sunset of a beachy resort to start a family. This movie really leaves a bad taste.

Not too bad.

[haroot_azarian · 7/10 · 13 December 2022]

I thought it was above average LMN movie to be honest. Andrea Bowen plays the bored sexless housewife who of course still madly loves her husband who seems to be too involved with his work (medical equipment salesman) and sports on TV than making love to his bored and neglected wife.

So. CarrIe (Bowen) has two besties/coworkers who seem to be a bit naughty.. On a girls' night in Beth tells the other two about the hall pass thing, which apparently has saved a number of marriages. It involves a one time only cheating on the spouse to help spruce up the marriage. Carrie dismisses it. But when all three go on a conference trip, in the hotel bar Carrie notices her teen idol Dante from her favourite band. So the other two girls see the opportunity for Carrie to use her hall pass and leave her with him. After a number of drinks and seemingly interesting conversation with Dante he tries to seduce her, but as they're in a heated passionate kiss, Carrie comes to her senses and rejects him. This is as far as I'm going to say not to spoil the movie, altough a number of the contributors already have.

I just have one message for one contributor who thought the title was off-putting Hall Pass Nightmare. A hall pass has nothing to do with high school or anything like that. It's an expression like getting the green light etc. Or other expressions with other meanings such as ghosted or catfished etc.

One other thing which I found to be the only unrealistic thing in the movie was in the bar scene where Dante tries to pick up a woman who's waiting for her partner. Now a celebrity fighting in public would in real life get into a heap lot of trouble. But here he beats on the woman's partner with patrons just looking on and the couple do not press charges. That was the movie's downfall to me.

Anyway I thought the movie was good. No one cheated on anyone for a change as for LMN movies goes. Andrea did a great job. Matt Magnusson overdid his part. Justin the hubby reminded me of Dick Van Dyke not facially but in movie characters. I'll give this one a seven.

Be Careful What You Wish For!!!

[lavatch · 7/10 · 26 September 2022]

At the beginning of the film, we meet the three besties (Carrie, Beth, and Lexi) who are colleagues attending a conference. There is some lively banter in the bar about a "hall pass," which is defined as a freebie extra marital affair. The scene is light-hearted, but becomes portentous when one of the male patrons begins to flirt with Carrie. Herein lies the film's main theme: be careful what you wish for!

The attractive man is Dante Jones (aka, Thomas Murphy) a singer who has performed with a group called Icarus. Carrie has loved Dante's music since high school and still plays a favorite CD when she takes a bubble bath. Now, she is confronted with an ethical dilemma. But after a little kissing, she firmly tells Dante "No" when he invites her to her suite. And "No" M E A N S "No," Mister!!!!

The rest of the film evolves into a by-the-numbers stalker film with the obsessive Dante in pursuit of Carrie. It stretched credibility to think that the police would have allowed Dante to file a restraining order against Carrie, especially due to his criminal antics in the past when he entered into the home of the kind waitress Brenda and broke her arm. Even Carrie's text messages from Dante should have alerted the police that he was the stalker.

The ending sequence in which the three besties plot an ambush against Dante was also not very believable, as they were armed only with a taser. Carrie's devoted husband joined in the plot, only to be clocked in the head a second time by Dante.

The best part of the film was the exuberant characterizations of the three besties. The three actresses merit special commendation: Andrea Bowen (Carrie), Ciarra Carter (Beth), and April Nelson (Lexi). Each of the actresses embodied the essence of the modern "Lifetime" woman, and we look forward to seeing them in more Lifetime films in the future.