Geeks logo

Lifetime Review: 'Deadly Mile High Club'

A fun villainess, self-awareness, and high-flying drama makes this aviation-themed thriller a keeper.

By Trevor WellsPublished 4 years ago 6 min read
1

Life for Jake Sherman (Marc Herrmann) hasn't been the best as of late. Working an unsatisfying job at his nagging mother-in-law's business, Jake wants to make a change--and sets about doing so through pursuing his dream of becoming a pilot. While Jake's enrolling for flying lessons puts him at further odds with both his mother-in-law Margaret (Diane Robin) and his wife Annie (Anna Marie Dobbins), Jake finds comfort in the form of his flying instructor Tanya Jackson (Allison McAtee), who provides the encouraging shoulder Jake is in need of.

But when Tanya reveals she's attracted to Jake and invites him to a tryst, Jake declines out of love for Annie. But when he becomes suspicious that Annie may be cheating on him, Jake finds himself tempted by Tanya's advances. But what Jake doesn't know is that he reminds Tanya of her former lover who died in a plane crash months prior--and that she's been resorting to more than a few tricks in order to win Jake over.

Considering the fact that Deadly Mile High Club comes to us written and directed by Doug Campbell, the same man responsible for the light-hearted Lifetime-ian slasher flick The Stalker Club and the famously off-the-wall Stalked by My Doctor series, it might not come as a surprise that the film has a certain self-aware humor to it. What I didn't expect, however, was for Campbell to take this humor and take it up to very nearly the same levels seen within the Stalked by My Doctor saga. Given the provocative title, though, perhaps Campbell taking the film in such a direction shouldn't have been as surprising as it was.

Initially, Deadly Mile High Club plays itself as an average Lifetime obsession drama, with all the expected tropes that go with it (everyman protagonist, marital troubles, evil seductress, etc.) But as the film goes on, moment after moment of comedy emerges, from dramatic scenes intentionally overacted to the point of hilarity to the handful of gleefully over-the-top characters the film presents to us. They all combine to make a movie that knows full well about the reputation Lifetime movies have, and is more than willing to play up that campy image for all its worth.

Of the histrionic characters to be found in Deadly Mile High Club, Tanya Jackson proves to be the one we spend the most time with. After Alison McAtee was completely wasted as a superfluous minor character in Deadly Daughter Switch, Deadly Mile High Club rectifies that by giving McAtee a fun villainess to throw herself into. In the role of Tanya, McAtee strikes a nice balance between over-the-top theatrics and subtler emotional depth. In addition to fun scenes of insanity as we see Tanya ogling Jake during flight lessons and fantasizing about murdering Annie, we get a few grounded scenes showing a more emotional side to Tanya. We see the way her boyfriend's death has left her broken, and it's hard not to feel sorry for her as we see not one, but two people use that tragedy to needlessly hurt her. Even the scenes where Tanya breaks down when she feels she's at risk of losing Jake are made tearjerking by McAtee's performance. She also forms strong chemistry with Marc Herrmann as Tanya emerges as the first person in Jake's life to encourage his dream of flying, almost enough to make you believe that--if she weren't an unstable woman with murderous tendencies--Tanya would make a better partner for Jake than Annie.

On his own, Herrmann brings likability and sympathy to Jake Sherman, allowing you to feel for the poor guy as he finds himself and his ambitions mocked and dismissed by both his mother-in-law and his own wife. With all this negativity surrounding, you find yourself understanding why Jake grows so close to Tanya and why he finds himself lured in by her advances. While there are some notable moments when Herrmann's delivery feels stiff as well as moments when Jake feels too gullible for Tanya's tricks, Jake is overall still a likable character and Herrmann otherwise gives a strong performance, particularly when Jake is either allowed to get in on the comedy (a scene that starts with him saying, "Houston, we have a problem", is gold) or any of the countless moments when he stands up for himself--particularly when it's against his bully of a mother-in-law. This all works together to make a protagonist you want to see happy by the film end's, making the film's already intense climax all the more so.

Less fortunate in the character writing department, however, would be Jake's wife Annie, who despite being played by a strong actress in budding Lifetime regular Anna Marie Dobbins, never truly emerges as a character you truly feel invested in. In addition to Annie being shortchanged for time in comparison to Jake, Annie starts out the film unlikable and only gets so much time to work her way back from that first impression. This also makes it hard to see any chemistry develop between Annie and Jake that would make you want to see their marriage survive Tanya's schemes, and while Dobbins and Herrmann do share some sweet scenes together, it never proves enough to make you root to see them fly off into the sunset together (pun intended).

(SPOILER ALERT The film's final act does, however, provide two funny bits of irony regarding Annie: 1. she receives some nice karma for dismissing Jake as not being smart enough to pilot a plane by needing Jake to literally swoop in at the last second to stop her from crashing a plane herself, and 2. after spending the entire movie denying having the affair Tanya tricked Jake into believing she was having, it was more than a little amusing that the film ended on a high comedic note with Annie casually revealing she'd had a fling with her professor while she and Jake were on the outs--a reveal that had me thinking for a split second that Deadly Mile High Club was meant to be a stealth prequel to Stalked by My Doctor: Patient's Revenge. Annie's mother also picked up an ironic moment of her own during the excellent scene at Gonzo's flight school, where despite her seething hatred for her son-in-law, she inadvertently ends up saving him from Tanya's fatal trap for Gonzo Spoilers Over)

Diane Robin's Margaret is one of the film's two prominently over-the-top supporting characters, the other being Damon K. Sperber's slimy flight instructor Gonzo Rogers. Robin (having previously appeared as a similar character in the Doug Campbell directed Home Abduction) hams it up magnificently as the ultimate mother-in-law-from-Hell, as does Sperber as we get to see that Gonzo is every bit the reckless tool Tanya says he is. Sperber is also responsible for the funniest scene of the film, with the spectacularly over-dramatic climax ranking at a close second.

Despite some acting flaws in its lead actor and some development fumbles in both his character and the character of his leading lady, Deadly Mile High Club proves to have more than enough to counteract those hiccups: a generally likable lead, a fun antagonist whose also given some shades of depth, a strong meta humored tone that differentiates it from the pack, hilariously histrionic side characters, and an ending that wraps everything up on a high note which seems to be begging for a sequel (hint hint, Mr. Campbell!). Deadly Mile High Club can proudly join the Stalked by My Doctor saga as required viewing for anyone identifying as a die-hard Lifetime fan.

Score: 9.5 out of 10 pink fedoras.

review
1

About the Creator

Trevor Wells

Aspiring writer and film lover: Lifetime, Hallmark, indie, and anything else that strikes my interest. He/him.

Link to Facebook

Twitter: @TrevorWells98

Instagram: @trevorwells_16

Email: [email protected]

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.