The Wrong Child is one in a series of stand-alone "wrong" movies often directed by David DeCoteau and starring Vivica A. Fox. This one features Fox as a bookstore owner married to architect Gary Daniels, living in a posh lifestyle in LA with her daughter Amy. When a young man shows up seemingly out of nowhere claiming Daniels is his father, Daniels is dubious, but Fox wants to take this possible son into her home and welcome him into the family. If there were nothing wrong though, we'd have no movie, and eventually the cracks in the young man's story start to show, and he's having trouble killing people in time to keep it from unraveling. Will Fox figure it out in time to save her family?
This movie was fun in that William R. Moses-Joanna Kerns kind of way. And to have DTVC Hall of Famer Gary Daniels in that William R. Moses part is even better. You can tell that DeCoteau and Fox are more at home in this environment, which gives it almost like a comic book crossover or Laff-A-Lympics quality to it, like William R. Moses is off in another film in wearing all black, carrying a gun, and sneaking into an abandoned factory to take out a bunch of baddies, while Daniels is here making this. Beyond that, I love a good Lifetime movie, and DeCoteau and Fox seem to get what makes those fun for people, which makes this even better. For Daniels fans, this is an enjoyable change of pace.
49 movies at the DTVC for Gary Daniels. 50 is so close now. It's like watching ESPN and them cutting into a regular program to show a player's at-bat when he's sitting on a milestone home run--and being only the second person in the 50 Club along with Dolph Lundgren is like Hank Aaron hitting his 700th home run to join Babe Ruth (and of course, we call Dolph the Babe Ruth of DTV), so this is a big deal. Before I say this is the most unique film we've seen Daniels do, he also did a Lifetime-esque movie, Dark Secrets aka Cold Earth. That one was nowhere near as fun as this one was though. If you look at my Gary Daniels list on Letterboxd, I actually have this one one ahead of I Am Vengeanace. I think the latter may have been better overall, but from a Daniels standpoint, I liked what he did here slightly more. We've seen him play a kickass baddie before, but to do William R. Moses as well as he did here was a different story, but cool to see happen.
The real star of the film of course is Vivica A. Fox. When we last saw her here at the DTVC she was making history as the first black woman playing the President in a live-action feature film. While she was making history in that one, this movie required more work on her part, and she delivers. You get the sense that DeCoteau leans on her because she knows what he wants almost intuitively, which I imagine would be enormous when making a film like this on short time and a short budget. As the film is wrapping up, and loose ends are flying at us from all over the place, Fox is acting her way through it effortlessly, like Neo in the Matrix. It's a thing to behold as a fan of low-budget films or films made on a shortened schedule like I am. For them to really work, we need a cast and crew who don't betray that it's done quickly and maybe without a lot of resources, and Fox is a master at it. A lot of accolades are given to Eric Roberts for his work in the "Stalked by My Doctor" films, but I think Fox deserves that same praise, if not more, because it's just as impressive what she's done with these "The Wrong" movies.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think this is our first David DeCoteau film at the DTVC. I don't know how that happened though, considering he's done over 160, you'd think we'd have walked into at least one other out of the 1000+ we've done. That's the hard part though, with over 160 movies to page through, it's not easy to find one to see if I've reviewed it. I think the same way I'm giving Fox praise for her performance, I have to do the same with DeCoteau's ability to land this plane in the allotted time, again while these loose ends of the plot are flying together in the last ten minutes or so; and know too that he has someone in Fox who can help him land it. Look at that picture below. That's the daughter, apparently bound and gagged under that sack, we don't really know, and Fox has to act like that's not the most ridiculous thing ever, and DeCoteau has to create the atmosphere that isn't saying "that's gotta be the most ridiculous thing ever," which then enhances our fun with it when they're playing it straight like that. And then they're each going to do another 6 or 7 movies that year too. It's amazing.
One thing that has changed between when I started the blog and now, is I can access my DVR on my computer. When I first started, I had no way of getting images off the DVR, so I either took them from the trailer, or hotlinked them from other sites (which I learned early on was a no-no). From there, I got software that allowed me to run either my VCR or my cable box through my computer, so I got images that way. Now, Xfinity allows me to access both my DVR and their OnDemand library through my browser, so I don't need any of that. It's a pretty sweet deal. On the other hand, because LMN had that watermark up the whole time, my screens from this one all have that, which I don't like. I've come a long way from the old hotlinking days.
And after that walk down memory lane, it's time to wrap this one up. As far as I can tell, this is only available on the Lifetime Movie Network whenever they decide to show it. I'd keep an eye out for it and record it, because it is a real fun one, even if you're not a Lifetime movie fan, just for the Daniels factor. Next time we see him here, he'll be in the 50 Club.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5538912
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