Swim at Your Own Risk (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

Water on the Brain

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 11 December 2016]

****SPOILERS**** Driven almost beyond endurance by her mom former Olympic bronze medal winner Gina Morgan, Keesha Sharp, high school swimming star Samantha,Javicia Leslie,gets help for her new assistance coach the likable lad Bryce Hinge, Tom Maden. It's Bryce who soon turns out to be a bit unhinged himself in his obsession with Samantha's looks swimming ability but most of all her massive mop of hair, that must weigh at least 10 pounds,that if she trimmed it down would add or cut down at least five seconds to her final swimming score. At first trying to be professional with his giving Samantha hints to improve her swimming by using shorter strokes Bryce soon tries to get her to put out for him, in the swimming pool, after classes that soon turns disastrous for both of them.

Not only concentrating on Samantha Bryce starts to drop hints to her that her mom's bronze medal was tainted by her winning it while being high on steroids. Bryce also goes after Samantha's boyfriend Lucas,Cameron Jebo, who was on to him and tried to warn her away from Bryce. That leads Lucas getting almost beaten to death by a hooded Bryce with an aluminum baseball bat in the school parking lot. It soon becomes apparent that the All-American looking Bryce in a psycho in disguise! That's confirmed by his estranged dad Mr. Thomas Hinge, Ivar Brogger, who told a shocked Samantha that his son is a accident just waiting to happen.

***SPOILERS*** It's when Bryce at first fails to satisfy-sexually-Samantha's classmate Emily,Madison Iseman, who was more then willing, unlike Samantha, to put out for him he takes his frustrations, in not being the great lover that he thought he was, out on Samantha's mom Gina whom he ties up in her living-room and holds hostage. It's in fact Emily who finds and rescues Gina before Bryce can do any harm to her. Back at the swimming pool Bryce forces at gunpoint Samantha to undress and take a dip with him only to have her grab his gun, not his you know what, and try to keep the love crazy guy at bay until the police-Whom her mom called- arrive. It just happened that Samantha was a bit too quick on the trigger when Bryce stripped down to his boxer shorts attempted to make a move on her that ended up her deep sixing him.

Needs a lifeguard

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 7 May 2017]

Too much was left unsaid about our villain Tom Maden as to his motives for doing the bad things he does in Killer Coach. Maden plays an assistant swimming coach who seduces his star pupil Javicia Leslie and then won't leave her alone.

Maden was hired by Keesha Sharp who is Leslie's real coach and also her mom. He gets hired so Sharp can concentrate on the rest of the team and more time in the mom role.

As it turns out Maden has some real issues that deal with his own mother who is departed now. It all doesn't bode well for mother and daughter.

What can I say but it's a trashy exploitation flick and not even fun like trashy. Maden's psychological motives remain unexplained by the story.

Skip this one.

Main character butchered the movie.

[msblackeyes68 · 1/10 · 20 January 2017]

School gym assistant coach takes a liking to one of his swimmers and after meeting with her for the third time has sex with her in the pool. She immediately tells him it's over and of course he doesn't listen. He finds evidence about her mom, the actual swimming coach, about her taking drugs from when she was a swimmer and threatens to expose the mom if she doesn't continue to see him. He also has a video of the two having sex in the pool. The problem I had was how unbelievable the girl was. Her wide eyed doe look was annoying. You didn't get a sense of her fear or anxiety. It all felt like she was trying to hard. That she was "acting". It's hard to enjoy a movie like this when the main character isn't convincing. The movie felt rushed. They should have spent a little more time building tension between the girl and the stalker. Instead she went hot and cold so fast your head spun. And then the "climax" was horrible.

****major spoiler alert**** He ties up mom and then using her phone lures the girl to the pool. She gets there only to find him Holding a gun. He tells her he wants to go back to the night they had sex and makes her get into the water with him. She jumps in and pretends to want him and then shouts NO and proceeds to belittle him. He drowns her and she holds her breath then when he lets her go she jumps out grabs the gun and shoots him. Now when she started to belittle him I was shaking my head. It was so sad to see someone fail so miserably at acting but when she shot him and tried so hard to look horrified all I could feel was embarrassment for her. I kid u not. Don't watch the movie but fast forward to that scene. There is no way anyone could keep a straight face. The rest of the actors weren't that bad. But the main character ruined the movie. If your leading lady can't convince an audience that she's a damsel in distress. If you Can't feel her anxiety or fear then your film is in trouble. I've disliked movies before and have been disappointed in some people's acting skills but this is the first time I truly disliked a movie based solely on one of the characters horrible acting skills. If they had chosen a different actress (I use the term loosely) it would have been a solid 6/10. There were some irrational story-line flaws such as her going to see his dad, and his dad who didn't know the girl from Adam told her things no parent would tell a complete stranger. Or who came to the rescue of the mom, did they put all the characters name in a hat and drew one? There are much better movies similar to this that is so much better. I recall one that had mark walburg in it that was pretty good actually. I would search for that one and give this one a wide berth.

Not Smarter Than a 5th Grader

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 7 August 2016]

Attractive high school swimming star Javicia Leslie (as Samantha Morgan) lands in hot water after making waves with her handsome, well-built assistant coach Tom Maden (as Bryce Hinge). Talking a dip with Mr. Maden could jeopardize Ms. Leslie's college and Olympic opportunities. Her blond boyfriend Cameron Jebo (as Lucas) senses something is up. Leslie's single mom Keesha Sharp (as Gina), a former swimming champion, could have some ugly secrets from her past revealed. They all become entwined in a "Lifetime" TV movie filled with fleeting sex, firm skin, and a seemingly psycho killer...

While the cast of "Killer Coach" is imaginatively diverse, the characterizations and story do not make the grade. A college setting might have helped. Leslie is especially unlike a high school teenager. However, she and her leading men are good looking. The most convincing acting is accomplished by Ms. Sharp, who benefits from seeming to fit her role. Lee Friedlander's direction and Ian S. Takahashi's underwater photography are strengths. While this is certainly and unabashedly a formula movie, you couldn't be blamed for thinking the pieces might add up to something more entertaining and engaging.

*** Killer Coach (6/3/2016) Lee Friedlander ~ Javicia Leslie, Tom Maden, Keesha Sharp, Cameron Jebo

Going for the Gold

[lavatch · 8/10 · 24 September 2019]

At first glance, "Killer Coach" is about a champion swimmer on the receiving end of harassment by a deranged male coach. But, as is the case with many Lifetime films, the real story is about the bonding of a mother and a daughter.

Samantha Morgan is a superb swimmer, and her principal coach is her mother Gina, a former bronze medalist swimmer herself. But Coach Morgan passes the duties on to an assistant named Bryce Hinge, whom she has hired primarily as a more impartial mentor to her daughter with upcoming trials. Samantha's mother believes that her daughter has the potential to take home the gold.

It turns out that Bryce Hinge is an predator, and he is instantly besotted with Samantha. But after Bryce is rebuffed, he truly becomes unhinged and threatens to expose Samantha's mother, who allegedly used HGH to win her bronze medal. Samantha is then in the direst of circumstances as she tries to simultaneously fend off Bryce and to protect her mother.

One of the most interesting scenes in the film is when Samantha travels outside of L.A. to meet with Bryce's father, who was a former swimming commissioner. The father knows of Bryce's mental condition that may have stemmed from his mother's suicide when he was age ten. The father clearly senses that Samantha is another victim of his predator son, yet fails to take any action to prevent the abuse.

Other interesting characters are Lucas, the boyfriend of Samantha, who valiantly tries to assist her in getting out of a bind. There is also Emily, a fellow swimmer, who is both a friend and a rival to Samantha. Then, there is the fatally flawed Bryce, who is constantly grinning with the phony smile that is his trademark device as a predator.

But the heart of the film is the touching mother-daughter relationship. While Gina and Samantha have grown apart and there is tension during the period in which the smooth-talking Bryce is harassing the daughter, the mother's love comes shining through at the time it is needed the most.

***

[edwagreen · 8/10 · 8 August 2016]

For a pleasant change, this is not a racially divisive movie.

Mother is also daughter's high school swimming coach and she is as strict as they come and her attitude towards her daughter is no different. Along comes an assistant coach that mother hires and alas, the trouble begins.

After a pool interlude with this guy, he never lets her forget it and threatens to expose her mother for a drug rap years ago.

There are actual no killings here; although, in the case of the girl's boyfriend, we come close.

Basically, a story of a very sick young man who found his mother dead via suicide and never forgot it.

Death is silent

[davdi-64233 · 7 August 2021]

This film contains a series of horror events that transform the viewer.