The Vine: September 12, 2008
I’m trying to find out the name of a show that I think was either on FOX or UPN.It was on TV roughly in the same time period as Dark Angel, and I believe it lasted one season or less.
It was set in a future version of America, where the U.S. was under military rule.The rebels (of course) were the good guys.The main characters were a “team” of four rebels.Large black guy, leader white guy, slightly annoying white guy, white chick.There was some very cool fight scene/action cinematography, some of which ran in the opening credits. ( I don’t think there was a sci-fi element like special powers and such, but I can’t be sure.)
Thanks for your help!
Could I give you any less to go on?
Dear Probably,
It sounded vaguely familiar to me, but fortunately Skyrockets is on the premises and says it sounds like Harsh Realm, which means slightly annoying white guy is probably Abusive Ned from Party of Five.
Anyone else have a thought?
Hi Sars,
When I was probably about 10 or 11, I rented a movie (on VHS) from the local library that, to put it mildly, freaked me the fuck out.
The premise of the movie, from what I can recall, is that there are two sisters — one blonde and one brunette — who end up in a sort of alternate reality where they can control their environment (i.e. their wishes come true). Blonde sister seems to know much more about this place than brunette sister (maybe it’s all her invention?) and sort of goes around conjuring food and stuff and not really thinking about the consequences of her actions.
There’s a man that the brunette sister may have conjured who’s really good-looking, who becomes a source of conflict between the two, since the brunette initially dreams him up but he ends up hanging out with the blonde…at the end someone tries to kill someone else (I think it’s one sister killing the other)…and that’s all I remember.
Some random images to help jog memories: the alternate world is really woodsy, the brunette lies in a meadow trying to sort of make the magic of the place work for her and conjures up really ornate jewelry on her hand and the good-looking man, who crawls toward her from out of the trees (???), the sisters swimming in a waterfall, the brunette standing in the woods and spinning around until she falls down.
I know it’s a long shot. The movie so disturbed me as a young kid (I don’t think I had any idea what was going on) and my desire to find it sort of stems from that old “let’s conquer some childhood fears as an adult” nostalgia as well as a genuine curiosity about what the FUCK the story was.
I hope this sounds familiar to somebody!
Why This Movie Was In The Children’s Section Of The Library I’ll Never Know
Dear Me Neither,
It doesn’t sound familiar to me (or to Skyrockets); the closest we could come was DePalma’s Sisters, which this definitely is not.
Readers?
Tags: Ask The Readers Brian DePalma Dark Angel Harsh Realm Party of Five popcult
The show is probably Freedom (2000) with Bodhi Elfman and was on UPN.
Googling the words “sisters magic forest trangle” comes up with a Wonderworks production called “Odile and Yvette at the End of the World” which could be what Me Neither is looking for. It’s showing at this year’s Cleveland Film Festival
and Googling the title turns up a lot of library holdings, all in the Juvenile section.
I think this is wrong, but the movie that first popped into my head upon reading this description was “Heavenly Creatures.” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110005/)
But I don’t think that’s it.
My first thought on the TV show was Harsh Realm as well, but I don’t remember a large black guy, so I think merecat’s suggestion of Freedom is more likely.
Don’t know about the movie, but now I really, really want to see it. Sounds kind of awesome.
The team in Harsh Realm was only three people–D. B. Sweeny (who was indeed annoying), Scott Bairstow, and Rachel Hayward, who was mute. Oh, and the dog I suppose could have been a fourth member of the team. He was always getting them out of trouble.
That 2nd movie sounds spooky – any idea on the year that it came out or when you saw it? The post just says ‘when I was 10 or 11’ but that could have been 5 years ago or 50 years ago.
“Misfits of Science”
The show definitely Freedom, airing on UPN in the fall of 2000 for 7 episodes before getting yanked.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0247096/
http://epguides.com/Freedom/
The scenes from the movie being described actually reminds me of “Heavenly Creatures,” which does end with a murder, but they’re definitely not sisters. Are the sisters adults or children?
Given this blurb from a review on Amazon:
“One girl wants a boyfriend,and gets him. The boy likes her sister so the first girl shoots him. Within minutes each girl is acting is if nothing has happened. ”
it sounds as if your movie is definitely “Odile and Yvette,” which is alternatively listed as “Odile and Yvette at the Edge of the World” and “Odile and Yvette at the End of the World.” And, funnily enough, another review says that it will remind you of “Heavenly Creatures.”
Odile and Yvette definitely sounds like the movie. The movie is 15 years old and awfully trippy for a kid’s movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107726/
Odile & Yvette at the End of the World has to be it.
Review Summary
The longing of young girls can create powerful magic as is seen in this youthful drama filmed on location in Texas. Odile and Yvette are sisters. They run away from their father after he makes a pit stop during a journey in Texas. Yvette tells Odile that she will take her to a place where dreams come true. Using the magic of everyday objects the two are safe from their father. Johnny a handsome young man appears (by happenstance, or is it truly magic?). At first he is interested in Odile, but then he turns to her sister. Odile is angry and now must decide how to break the spell and regain control of her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The idea of Heavenly Creatures being in the children’s section is seriously disturbing.
Me Neither, does this sound like it could be right?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107726/
Ooh, the movie that popped in my head (definitely not the one, though, sorry) was Watcher in the Woods – which always blew my mind that it was a Disney flick! Man, that movie freaked me out. I should netflix that.
Liz, I thought of Watcher too! I snapped up the DVD at a ridiculously low price a couple of years ago and it’s a treasure–def. netflix it, especially if it’s the one with the (really terrible) alternate endings.
Oh jeez, Watcher in the Woods scared the pants off me when I was 6. I lasted 20 minutes watching and then had years of terror with mirrors (no idea why my mother wouldn’t just let me move the mirror in front of my bed–seriously, years of being unable to open my eyes in bed just in case THE BLINDFOLD GIRL WAS IN THE MIRROR), until I was 12 and watched the whole thing.
I love Watcher in the Woods! I have the DVD with the alternate endings – wow, they are horrible!
I might have to look into Odile and Yvette – could be good!
Disney movies used to be so much freakier than they are nowadays. Come to think of it, kids movies in general used to be sort of freaky, huh? I remember being shown a movie called The Peanut Butter Solution at school when I was about 9 and it was sort of disturbing. I remember one of my friends thinking it was inappropriate for our age, probably because at some point, as I recall, there is a reference to pubic hair.
It’s definitely “Odile and Yvette”. SO WEIRD. Did anybody else see this as a kid?
(Oh, and thanks for the detective work, you guys!)
Me Neither, I have not seen that movie before, but now I’m definitely ordering it from Amazon.com. It sounds awesome!
@liz: I saw Watcher in the Woods when I was 5 or 6 and it scared the bejesus out of me. Nightmares for years. YEARS, I say.
So I figured I’d try watching it again in my early 20s, to prove to myself that it wasn’t so bad. Disney movies aren’t nightmare-inducing, right? WRONG. I didn’t get through the first half hour, and I can’t watch it to this day. I can’t THINK of it to this day. That movie is wrong, people.
@Amie – THAT is a movie I would’ve written in about! Weirdest thing ever. Do they travel INTO the paintings? Man, I’ve been wondering if I’d just dreamt up that whole movie.
Now if only I could find the cartoon with the lady who flies over the land with her arms stretched out, and it changes the seasons…
Well, I’m no help: I immediately thought not of Harsh Realm, but of Jeremiah, which would make the annoying white guy Luke Perry.
The Watcher in the Woods gave me nightmares, in which Bette Davis figured pretty prominently. I’m not sure I even want to know about the alternate endings.
I think older Disney films like the original Freaky Friday and Escape to Witch Mountain would probably be considered “inappropriate” for their target audiences now.
Thanks, Merecat et al – it is definitely Freedom!
Talk about your freaky kids movies!!! I remember this one about a boy in an apartment building (80’s movie) and these cabbage heads attached to vines kept taking over the apartments one by one, and the cabbages kept growing and cloning people in every apartment…somehow the kids saves everyone at the end-does anyone know the name of that one…
that one really freaked me out!!!
@Krissa,
yes! The main boy gets scared by ghosts of homeless people who were squatters or something in an old mansion that burned down, and it causes all his hair to fall out. The “solution” involves some concoction made with peanut butter, and it makes his hair grow really fast. Somehow, some evil art teacher kidnaps him and other kids to make magical paintbrushes out of his hair, and they I think make whatever is in your imagination become real or something in the painting, and they trick the bad guy somehow getting stuck in a painting, I think? I can’t remember exactly. I think there is an entry in wikipedia, though.
@ Amie
[quote]I remember being shown a movie called The Peanut Butter Solution at school when I was about 9 and it was sort of disturbing. I remember one of my friends thinking it was inappropriate for our age, probably because at some point, as I recall, there is a reference to pubic hair.[/quote]
I thought I was the only person that remembered that movie. Highly disturbing: the boy with the pubes coming out of his pantlegs. Although, I was a weird kid and loved the movie at the time!
@Krissa “Now if only I could find the cartoon with the lady who flies over the land with her arms stretched out, and it changes the seasons…”
Are you thinking of the scene in Fantasia with the beautiful woman drawing the stars & darkness over the land as though it’s her cloak? That was damned gorgeous stuff too!
I haven’t seen Fantasia in so long, I guess it could be – I have a strong impression of a woman flying, and the seasons changeas she passes over. I remember specifically this tree-lined path changing from summer to fall/winter. I feel like it was used to denote the passing of time in the film. But that’s as specific as it gets, and I make no claim to its accuracy.
I’ll be checking out Fantasia now, though. :)
Whatever the children’s movie it is another loose interpretation of the old Bonnie Sisters story. Many variations most people know it as a traditional story about two sisters, one blonde and the other fair. One sisters drowns the other for the love of a man. The dead sisters body is found and turned into a fiddle. The Bonnie Sisters, The Bonnie Swans, the story has many names. In one Canadian song version of the story, the sisters are really swans.
@Krissa: It’s a long shot, but are you perhaps thinking of The Selfish Giant? There’s a scene at about 1:01 in this video where the Snow “cover[s] the Giant’s garden with her great white cloak.” I’m probably wrong, but it’s the first thing I thought of when I read your comment. I loved this cartoon as a kid: http://tinyurl.com/4d8r6v
Sandman – I don’t believe that’s it, but THAT video brought back memories! I even though about that film in probably 20 years, but I remember it! What a great little video.
Krissa – I knew it was a stretch, but I *had* to link to it, even so. What a great little film that was, indeed. How I loved it and The Happy Prince when I was a kid, even though they both kind of broke my heart.