A Job to Kill For (2006)

I was oddly surprised by this Lifetime movie as I was fixed on Georgia Craig as Stacy. What a whack-o / bravura performance by this actress!! Her range of emotions were just amazing to watch as she switched over from confident assistant, to terrified assistant, to an emotional crying nut job. She chewed up the scenery including her co-stars! The movie stars Sean Young, but it is Georgia that steals the show. There are only a few B movies that are so bad that they are so good,,,,this is one! Nice subplots and is well paced until the end when everything is revealed too quickly. I was completely caught off guard by the final scenes as one surprise becomes another surprise....pulled off nicely!

Do they still describe the advertising world as a business where you have to "get out there and crack heads?" This TV movie gives that classic phrase a whole new meaning, as hard-charging Jennifer Kamplas takes over as general manager at HR&Y Advertising. But Jennifer isn't the one to fear, for no sooner is Jennifer installed in her new job than she's interrupted at lunch by one Stacy Sherman, an "interviewee" who's so tough and aggressive that she makes Jennifer look like a pussycat. Stacey's way of applying for a job at HR&Y is to hand Jennifer the secret business plans of a competing advertising firm. Stacey comes aboard as a manager and immediately starts to employ her own version of chaos theory, as company meetings become brawls where Stacy reams out long-time employees, not only for their performance but for the lifestyles, noting that a respected male employee is gay (read: not tough enough. When she's done with him she bullies everyone else into submission.Not only do people who stand up to Stacy fare badly at meetings, but Jennifer's enemies start to turn up dead. First it's a business rival, murdered in his hot tub, then the punk who's been stealing the outside mirrors off Jennifer's expensive imported car (Stacy cracks his head open with a tire iron), then it's the CFO who won't approve of Jennifer's budget-busting perks and business plans. The police ask who would kill people over some car side mirrors or differences at work, but find no answers. Jennifer is a suspect, of course, but somehow she just doesn't seem vicious enough. Of course, we're in the know as we watch Stacey seduce then blackmail a client into extending his contract with her firm then put an end to the mirror thief. Next we're privileged to watch her use her Porsche to push the offending CFO's car into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer. Finally the crows of Stacy's storm trooper tactics come home to roost. As the business starts to falter, expensive consultants are called in, meetings become even bigger fiascoes and Jennifer abandons her protégé Stacy in an effort to save her own marriage. Pushed to the brink, Stacy becomes even more desperate, then has a psychotic breakdown (completely superfluous, given her past behavior), as she confronts Jennifer's husband Patrick and then stabs him. As if on cue, Jennifer walks in, grabs a pistol and puts Stacy out of her misery, shooting her mouth off about her own complicity in the dastardly doings. Also as if on cue, the police walk in and grab Jennifer. The punch line is offered by the still-living husband (ach! Jennifer thought he was dead), who delivers the I-told-you-so line.We've heard of being protective of your boss, but this girl Stacy takes the idea to deadly extremes. The acting is decent all around, with Sean Young competent as Jennifer and Georgia Craig standing out as the obsessive, loony Stacey Sherman. The biggest complaint we have with this movie is whether these 2 characters seem believable as people - it's the screenwriter's fault far more than the actors if they are not. The Jennifer character starts out all right as she takes over at HR&Y then seems abandoned by the writer as the action begins to focus around Stacy, leaving Jennifer seemingly with nothing to do. The Stacy character's motivation in killing her boss's rivals seems unclear: is she sexually obsessed with her boss or just homicidal? It's clear that after initially promising to "cover her back," Jennifer abandons Stacey as she ignores HR&Y to run home and "save her marriage." As for Stacy's turning into a complete psycho, let's face it, the network that finances these TV movies would probably be out of business if they didn't write at least one psycho into most of them.

It states in the ad that it's a film where an attractive woman vies against a corporation and takes over. First of all, she's not that attractive. Believe me. Georgia Craig plays the role and she's far from pretty. In fact there's a scene where she puts the make on this old geezer. It couldn't have been a worse choice. To think he must have been that desperate to go after the likes of her. With stringy hair and a nose that points towards mecca, she's quite homely. Let's forget her and move on to the dullest performance in the film. That of Sean Young. Blank expressions and monotone voice make her the most uninteresting character in the movie. Why the husband would want to stay with her and why the bimbo would want to kill for her is beyond me. Ari Cohen, the husband, is the victim here. Both as the actor and the character.Then we have two idiot detectives that have to be a joke. Mutt and Jeff seem to bungle everything. That they represent the law is a laugh and embarrassing to the viewer.So, bad script, bad casting, bad acting make this a ridiculous movie not even for desperate audiences that have nothing else to do. Better to read a book, folks.

Sean Young is Jennifer Kamplen, a top ad exec who hires the assistant from hell in "A Job to Kill For," which recently premiered on Lifetime. It features Young sporting her familiar pouffy hairdo and dressed in earth tones (and basically anything that will wash her out) as a new, highly valued employee of a large advertising agency. The Kamplen character comes with stereotype attached: Her marriage to an artist is in trouble because she works so many hours and is devoted to her work, she is tough as nails, and she gets a rush working 18 hours a day. Then she hires Stacy, who convinces Jennifer that she's not only good at her job but shares Jennifer's strong work commitment. The only problem with Stacy is, she gets her results using sex, murder, and blackmail. When given the responsibility of an account while Jennifer makes a last ditch attempt to save her marriage, Stacy shows signs of a psychotic crumble.Young basically walks through this placidly without demonstrating any emotion, while Georgia Craig, who plays the volatile Stacy, chews the scenery. She's a very accomplished Canadian actress, but everyone else is so downplayed, she almost comes off as over the top. It's probably appropriate for someone who's NUTS, but one wonders throughout how Jennifer doesn't see how frighteningly intense she is and that Stacy a little too devoted to her.There is an attempt to build the characters of the two detectives who are brought in to investigate several murders, but it comes off as silly and unnecessary.The movie has a double twist. Despite its derivative moments and the absurdity of the plot, it's entertaining.