Desperate Hours: An Amber Alert
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Edward "Eddie" Larson (Tom Berenger) is a criminal who doesn't refuse to commit any crime. He attacks some cowboys around a bonfire, steals the car of two sweet elderly ladies, and then steals a convinience store. He also steals a Betty Boo doll belonging to the young daughter of the owner. With all that, he approaches his old home, where he used to live with his ex-wife and his daughter. There, the audience learns that Larsan has just left prison. He demands to see his daughter, Sandie (Jessica Parker Kennedy), but she is out with her friends celebrating her birthday. His ex-wife, June (Dana McLoughlin), is already engaged to somebody else. Larson wants to revenge himself, but he seems to disregard his old wife, as she used to work as a stripper.Two girls are leaving a party: they want to go somewhere else, among the woods, to find boys. They park close to Larson, whose car has a burst tyre. Chris Geiger (Alexander Mendeluk) phones one of the girls, and he's told that there is only an old Cadillac with a glass-wearing old man -Larson, who goes over and over in his mind about his ex-wife's words. Chris is spending the holidays home from university and offers to pick the girls up.Katie Hughes (Torri Higginson) wants to travel to Italy on her own, but her mother won't allow it. Her boyfriend Pete (Tyler Johnston) arrives when Katie is thinking of leaving home. Katie and Pete go out to talk in a quiet place at night.Larson breaks into the two girls' car. He ties one girl to a rail. The car with Katie and Pete arrives. Larson also steals from them. Larson says that "it's going to be a horrible night". Larson kidnaps Katie and ties her with the other girl at the back seat with cellotape. Larson runs away with the two girls, Debra Gleason (Genevieve Buechner) and Katie. Pete phones the police. Agent Martha Gayer, (Tracie Hansen) the chief officer, thinks it may be a joke, but Sgt Lamm (Chad Cole) goes to check what's happening. The two mothers panick. Martha establishes an amber alert. The radio networks give public announcements.Tom (Greg Kean), Katie's father, arrives to console his hysterical ex-wife, who is about to go out to look for her daughter herself. Eddie stops at a road petrol station. His ex-wife recognises him, and Kaylie (Britt McKillip) says that he's written to her father some times, unbeknowst to June. Larson is the son of a violent father and a battered mother. Kaylie says that there is a lake where he used to go as a child, which used to make him feel free.Katie and Debra ask for a toilet break. Katie uses it to try to get a stone into the car which she'd try to hit Larson with. Larson discovers it, but doesn't hurt Katie after all. Katie's parents reconcile due to the harsh circumstances.A boy (Jake D. Smith) recognises him. Larson falls asleep, and the girls puck up his knife. The girls won't dare cutting his throat, but Debra finally stabs a knife onto his chest.The girls run away. They are found by the police, and their parents are really happy to have them back. However, Eddie doesn't sell his life easily, until he is killed.

Review: only Tom Berenger and not much else. Larsan (Tom Berenger) is a dangerous armed drifter. He gets out of prison and confronts his ex-wife looking for his daughter Kaylee. The car breaks down. He carjacks 18 year old Debra (Genevieve Buechner) leaving her friend Sandy (Jessica Parker Kennedy) behind. 17 year old Katie (Britt McKillip) storms out of home with boyfriend Pete. Larsan kidnaps Katie. Pete is able to call the cops. Chief Geiger (Torri Higginson) activates the Amber Alert system.Tom Berenger is a veteran actor, and he's able to give a threatening performance despite some cheesy talking-to-himself. Britt McKillip shows some acting skills. But mostly both girls cried a lot.... I mean a whole lot. The whole movie is either an advertisement for the Amber Alert, or a really lazy writing assignment for a film school. There really isn't much here. The only drama comes from the girls and Tom Berenger. Nothing else is really that interesting. Don't expect anything more than the simplest TV movie-of-the-week.. Amber Alert:Terror on the Highway. On Lifetime the movie is called "Desperate Hours". I wish they wouldn't do this, it's very confusing.I notice that a lot of movies do this. So when looking for info, you might have to just search for info on the character themselves., which sometimes takes extra time,but I guess if you really want to know you will take the time.I enjoy Tom Berringer movies every since I saw him in the movie The Substitute where he played a teacher undercover after his girlfriend is assaulted by some gang members. That movie had a very good story line and it was exciting from start to finish. Don't know why he wasn't in any of the sequels.But I really enjoyed this movie.. terrible. terrible editing! you can see numerous scenes where the editing is poorly done and the actor they used as the kidnapper is awful.there's no way that you should seriously watch this movie unless you have nothing else to do or you are being forced to watch it as a sign of torture.It's just not a very good movie at all. poor writing and poor film editing really make this a sub par quality movie.Just avoid the pain of having to sit through this movie!perhaps if they were to replace the actor with someone who actually knows how to act and improve the editing quality of this film it might be worth watching on TV. don't buy the DVD as you are wasting your money.. A Poor TV Movie Despite Tom Berenger. Tom Berenger stars in a TV movie called "Amber Alert: Terror on the Highway". He portrays a criminal named Eddie Larson who decides to kidnap two young women below 18 after he was rejected by his wife into becoming a part of his family once again after he was released from prison. Or as what the first few scenes intend to imply.Torri Higginson co-star as the policewoman who handles the amber alert case together with Genevieve Buechner and Britt McKillip as Debra and Katie respectively as the young women kidnapped by Larson. No question that the viewers already know the ending to the story after the scene wherein Larson kidnaps the two children.All we are going to watch are subplots to the story like Chief Geiger and his son Pete's poor relationship and Pete and Katie's romantic relationship that was on the brink of breaking up until the girlfriend got kidnapped.Despite having a great actor in Tom Berenger who did very well as Eddie Larson, what happens is the fact that the TV movie instead becomes substandard in the end. The subplots were simply clichéd and have already been done before.Added to that,there was nothing really told in the story except the fact that the police conducts an amber alert when a person below 18 years of age goes missing. Too bad that Berenger's presence does not even make it better despite of having a good performance.As for the young actresses portraying the kidnapped children, both practically did nothing except crying and bawling.The scenes a la "Two For The Road" wherein the communication between the kidnapped young women and kidnapper while driving out of state until the Larson was killed provided nothing interesting at all.