Advance & Retreat (2016) Riley Voelkel, Casey Deidrick, Brandon W. Jones, Dirk Blocker Movie Review

Advance & Retreat (2016)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Advance & Retreat (2016)

Summer Camp for Grown Ups

Allison (Riley Voelkel) is good at her job as a marketing professional and a promotion is between her and her rival Vanessa (Whitney Anderson). On top of the chance at promotion she is also dating her successful colleague, Bryce (Brandon W. Jones - Hopeless, Romantic), and she plans to use the company's annual retreat to put forward her case for why she should get the promotion. The trouble is that this year's company retreat is to where a decade earlier she was not only a camp counsellor but where her heart was first broken when she came across her then boyfriend, Cody (Casey Deidrick), with another girl. To make matters worse is the fact that Cody now owns the camp and wants Allison to learn the truth as to what really happened all those years ago.

This may sound like a cop out but after a while some movies, especially those which get made for TV, don't need that much saying about them; some might say that they don't even need reviewing in the first place. Now for me "Advance & Retreat" is one of those movies because it is pretty much self explanitory, as in when you start watching you will be able to see where it is going to go. For example there is the confusion as to whether or not Cody cheated on Allison when they were younger and you could easily take a stab that her rival for promotion will learn about the past and attempt to use it to try and stick the knife in to Allison in one way or another.

As such there is of course the simple fact that "Advance & Retreat" is a typical TV romance and as such you know that Allison and Cody will end up falling for each other all over again. As such you can bet that Allison might feel torn between her life and career and the charms of the outdoor life on a camp, especially when Cody inevitably asks her to stay. On top of that you have Cody who chose to run the camp to avoid the business world yet has fallen in to providing a space for corporate events and feels like he sold out. Of course all of this delivers some messages from teamwork to discovering what is important in life which is all good but if truth be told none of it really becomes memorable or gives you that special warm feeling that some TV movies achieve.

What this all boils down to is that if you enjoy lightweight made for TV movies there is a good chance you will also enjoy "Advance & Retreat" as it has all the usual elements. But whilst enjoyable I can't say that there is anything really memorable about it which makes it stand out from the crowd.


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