Damaged (2014) Chris Klein, Merritt Patterson, Tasya Teles, Michael Cavalieri, Karen Cliche, Paul DeAngelo, Dakota Guppy Movie Review

Damaged (2014)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Chris Klein in Damaged (2014)

Bad Luck and Poor Judgement

Sam Luck (Chris Klein - American Reunion) has got it made; he is married to the attractive Kate (Tasya Teles), he is also a popular and respected teacher at the local high school and on top of that he and his best friend are buying a diner together. But then Taran Hathaway (Merritt Patterson - Metal Shifters) moves in across the street and Sam can't help himself from checking her out, especially when he thinks she is a hot young college student. But it turns out that Taran is younger than he thought and is in fact a High School student in his class. But it doesn't stop him from looking and even ends up using her father's car when his car is stolen. When Sam offers to fix a leaking pipe for her not only does Taran suggest that maybe Kate's working late is a cover for her having an affair but Sam's life starts to spiral out of control as porn is found on his school computer, money goes missing and a sexual harassment case is filed against him.

I often come across reviews of Lifetime movies which call them dumb and unfortunately when you come across a Lifetime movie like "Damaged" you can appreciate why so many people find them dumb. Now there is a double dose of dumb straight off the bat with "Damaged" as first we have Chris Klein cast as a teacher and maybe it is because of the "American Pie" movies but Chris Klein does not come across as a believable teacher with an acting style best suited to comedies, where over acting is not such a terrible thing. But the double dose is the fact for a happily married man the character of Sam does some seriously stupid things, seriously what sort of guy carries on with a young girl in his class who also lives across the road from him, it is ridiculously dumb which combined with Klein's acting style does the movie no favours at all.

Merritt Patterson in Damaged (2014)

But not everything which is wrong with "Damaged" is down to Chris Klein and who ever wrote this has basically spent too long watching Lifetime movies as one cliche follows another. A car goes missing, a computer has porn on it, money vanishes from the bank, even a dog dies and of course Sam doesn't listen to advice from his best friend. Basically we spend most of this movie watching a teacher being extremely naive and doing dumb stuff until his life starts falling apart and suddenly someone realises that their is an obsessed psycho behind all this bad luck who is not what they seem.

What this all boils down to is that "Damaged" is a movie which for me is chock full of issues from casting choices to being little more than a lot of cliches. Yes there will be those who enjoy it because it stars Chris Klein whilst the easy to follow nature of it has an appeal all of its own. But there is so many dumb decisions in "Damaged" that it is at times laughable.


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