"Family in Hiding"

I knew this day would one day come… it was inevitable!

For months, yours truly, The Phantom has been grousing about how Channel 7’s Late Movie show seems to broadcast an inordinate amount of mob movies and Lifetime/CTV movies.

Well, this Sunday, Channel 7 presents a movie that was originally a Lifetime/CTV movie AND is a mob movie at the same time!!!

I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? I’ll pause to let you pick up the remote you just dropped.

This is a good time to point you to two previous posts of mine: one that will lead you to my reviews of all the other mob movies that have shown up in the Landfill; and the other that links to most of my Lifetime/CTV reviews.

So now that you’ve had ample time to pick up your clicker, let’s get back to “Family in Hiding”: there’s this single Mom who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time and sees a DA get rubbed out by the mob. She’s put into the witness protection program so she can live long enough to testify, but everyone who’s ever seen one of these movies knows that there’s a distinct lack of protection for the threatened until at least the final five minutes when the bad guys are finally disposed of.

There’s really only one notable cast member here.

Well, really three. I’ll get to the film’s main star in a moment.

First, I have to mention Christopher Jacot simply because he was in several episodes of a series the Phantomess enjoys greatly, ”Degrassi: the Next Generation.” A cooler credit for me is his turn as the voice of Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm in the 2006-2007 ”Fantastic Four” animated series.

And I have to mention Ben Cotton because he was in another of The Phantomess’ favorite shows, ”DaVinci’s Inquest.”

Per usual with these Lifetime/CTV movies, it’s a cast filled primarily with Canadian TV actors (who, if you peruse their credits, also appear in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy shows aimed at the San Diego Comic Con set… of which the Phantom proudly includes himself).

So, I said I’d tell you about the film’s star.

I lied. I’d rather show you. Primarily because I have neither a trailer nor a clip for “Family in Hiding.” So…

The star of this movie is “Brenda Strong,” who you’re bound to know from one of her two most famous roles:

Sue Ellen Mishkie, the O’Henry candy bar heiress and braless wonder from “Seinfeld”:



…or as Mary Alice, the suicide on the block whose voice-over narrates every episode of “Desperate Housewives”:



You can watch “Family in Hiding” on WABC-TV Channel 7 on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 PM... if you dare!