Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Women are stranded in the woods; comic violence, language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Hunting Housewives
What's the Story?
HUNTING HOUSEWIVES is a title that evokes the names of popular reality TV shows. After boarding a private plane to an exclusive spa, wealthy wives Karla (Denise Richards of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), Rebel (NeNe Leakes of Real Housewives of Atlanta), Sharell (Melyssa Ford), and Joli (Kym Johnson Herjavec of Dancing with the Stars) crash in the woods. One dies on impact. The others dust themselves off and start trying to survive—until they figure out that the crash was a deliberate attempt to murder them all. Surveillance cameras are watching them, they learn, and when they try to find help, a man shoots at them with arrows and bullets. The action is observed from afar by the insufferable, controlling husband who implemented the plan while he breaks it to the other husbands that all their wives have betrayed them and he has contrived to get justice on their behalf, with or without their permission or cooperation. Not all the husbands are on board with the crime and are forced to watch the dirtied, wounded, diamond-clad women struggle to survive while being held at gunpoint by the megalomaniacal mastermind.
Is It Any Good?
With a more able cast and a well-written script, Hunting Housewives could have been a hoot. As it stands, with a Swiss cheese plot and unfettered overacting, it offers at best a few badly delivered good jokes and a final 15 minutes of amusing revenge, all of it bordering on self-parodying camp. The camp, conscious or accidental, is what makes the whole thing just barely watchable. Add a visibly low budget with bad lighting (someone announces she's just "killed the power" yet lights are still on), flimsy sets and props, and borderline bad performances, the whole thing looks like an elaborate home movie gone terribly wrong.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the movie expects the audience to respond to a controlling media mogul who seems to have no sense of regret about his "need" to kill his wife and her three friends. Is this realistic? Why, or why not?
What elements of the movie seem most farfetched? Surveillance cameras were set up in the woods. How easy do you think it is to arrange for a plane to crash in one particular prearranged spot?
Do you think a plane could go down without any authorities being aware of the crash? What other plot elements strain believability?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : March 10, 2024
- Cast : Denise Richards , Melyssa Ford , Kym Johnson Herjavec , NeNe Leakes
- Director : Marco Deufemia
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Black Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Lifetime
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 92 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : March 19, 2024
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