Freeze Frame

I remember being excited to see this movie when I read about it in the Disney Channel Magazine, mostly because the article said “with Kids Incorporated’s Ryan Lambert”. It was 1990 (the movie was shot in 1989 though), there was no new season, and all the favorites were gone. I’ve never been much of a Shannen Doherty fan, but I thought I’d give this a shot. It wasn’t on TV that often, but scored a VHS release in 1992. It was filmed in Indiana. Thunder Island Water Park and The Silent Butler cleaning service are real.

You can see the movie in 8 parts on my YouTube channel.

The tape gives you little info about the movie itself, preferring to crow over its stars. Then there’s: “Funny, fast-paced action in the super-renting tradition of The Goonies and War Games – which combined for over 10 million video transactions!” Um, so?? When you’re trying to advertise other movies on the back of your movie, it’s not a good sign.

Ryan has a big part in this movie, bigger than he did in Monster Squad. He’s the "too-cool rocker" called Tripp, friend to main character Lindsay. He’s, uh…not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he makes up for it in coolness. Tripp plays guitar and sings lead in a band called The Diseased. He performs two songs - although rumor has it for some reason that it's not his voice - why???? Damnit, I've been singing "Too Many Reasons" in my head for years after I saw this! It does say in the credits that “The Diseased” was written and performed by Bill Baker. That doesn’t make sense, because there are two songs, and I didn’t think either one was called “The Diseased”. Looks like Disney pulled yet another Connie/Devyn switcheroo!

Speaking of Tripp...Ryan just steals all of his scenes. He is so over the top here. I particularly love when they are sneaking through the school at night - which would imply stealth and silence, mind you - and suddenly Tripp stands up and says, "IS THIS MY LOCKER????"

But I’m getting ahead of myself. On with the story.

It opens with a seemingly unimportant scene that will become important later on. I should tell you right now that this movie is FILLED with plot points and foreshadowing. A Midwest University security guard is watching TV instead of the building he should be guarding. Someone breaks into a lab and you get a good shot of his eyebags before we switch to comedy.

Lindsay Scott (Shannen Doherty) lives with her well-meaning but clueless (aren’t they all?) divorced dad. She’s pretty normal; doesn’t care much for what her dad (Charles Haid) wants her to succeed in, preferring instead to emulate her favorite news reporter Victoria Case. There’s a soundbite on TV that you’ll want to remember for later; Case interviews governor candidate and owner of "American Biotech" Harris Reinhardt (Seth Michaels).

On her way to school, Lindsay hops on her bike to track down Victoria and be a fangirl. Surprisingly, Victoria (Robyn Douglass) herself is very understanding, even promising to watch Lindsay’s tape of her own news reports. We hears Reinhardt say that he’s shutting down Thunder Island, the local amusement park and popular hangout.  Then some clod runs over Lindsay’s bike and ruins it. Quick, memorize the faces in the car!

We get a brief shot of Tripp (our own Ryan Lambert!!), as Lindsay walks her busted bike to school. She barely manages to make it to the A/V lab with time to edit her piece for the school news program. Brandon (Adam Carl), the show director, is not too happy with her. [Check out his snazzy nametag and make a note of it.] Neither is the faculty advisor, Mr. Newberry (Steve Russell). He’s the typical crotchety old fart who runs his news program like a tight ship, and he won’t have this whippersnapper making waves! Lindsay soothes everyone nerves and gets to class just in time to see her bake sale exposé get sneered at by the rest of the students. Oh, well. Even Victoria Case had to start somewhere.

 
Lindsay meets up with Tripp later in an art class (?) where he is doing anything but working. She tells him about Reinhardt and Thunder Island. This does not sit well with Tripp, since The Diseased has a gig there.

Ryan poses and smirks, and I remember why I am watching this again.  
His spikes are back, by the way, did I mention that?

On the personal front, Lindsay is attempting to set her dad up with an eligible female.

At dinner, she comes up with the idea to send a strawberry shortcake to some woman sitting alone and then sneak off, leaving her dad to enjoy dessert.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have a sweet tooth and a match isn’t made. Back to our plot.

Lindsay goes to Brandon with her scoop, thinking he would let her borrow a camera and bring it to the local university’s lab. He’ll be glad to show it on the news, with the park closing being relevant to teens, right? Wrong. Brandon is glued to Newberry’s backside and won’t allow any video equipment to be removed from school. Lindsay manages to charm him into lending the camera and transporting her…and Tripp. Needless to say, Brandon and Tripp do not instantly become the best of friends. 

Our trio heads to the university in Brando – I mean, Brandon’s mom’s station wagon as they find out that the lab is being named after Reinhardt and he is presiding over the unveiling. The camera’s mic is busted, so they use a minicassette recorder for sound and tape some footage… of a bimbo. That’s what you get for making the guy in the houndstooth print pants your cameraman.

Suddenly, there’s an explosion. No one seems to know what’s going on, but the kids have it on tape. Unfortunately, when they get back to school, they are anything but heroes. Newberry throws them all off the news staff, and Brandon is crushed – and late for dinner.

The news blames the explosion on a lab student, Graham Dennis, who is conveniently missing. His face is familiar. Lindsay realizes she’s seen him before…in the car that wrecked her bike. But that’s not all. Reinhardt’s aide Charles Welsh looks familiar too. Lindsay blows off Chemistry to call Tripp and Brandon in for some extracurricular schoolwork.

Sneaking into the school’s A/V room, the kids joke around, almost get busted, and scrutinize their footage. Attempting to sync up the sound with the audio, they realize that someone is running before the explosion. It’s Welsh. This is where all those plot points start to come together. They take the tape to Victoria. She’s a bit skeptical at first, but then she uses her connections to do some digging. Back at school, Lindsay bribes the boys to come along to investigate Graham Dennis.

A trip to Graham's school reveals that his lab partner Nick Reynolds is a pretentious jerk, and Graham is not the type of guy who makes groundbreaking discoveries every day. But if he did discover some biochemical breakthrough, he’d be rich. So why was an average schmuck in the car with the governor's aide? Discouraged, Lindsay wanders around a bit until she decides she’s not wrong about Graham and sneaks off to his house.

It’s a wreck – trashed furniture, curdled milk, cut phone cord, tons of messages on his machine. One of them turns out to be a classmate, asking Graham to cover for him on the fateful day. Another is Graham himself revealing that he’s waiting for American Biotech to call him back. But Lindsay’s not the only one snooping. She nearly gets caught by a masked figure and hurts her arm in the process.

Lindsay of course runs straight to Victoria, who is on her side. Her boss, Lou, on the other hand, isn’t buying it. Mr. Scott storms in yelling about Lindsay’s arm. He blasts Victoria and argues with Lindsay about news taking up too much of her life. They both storm off, and we get the obligatory music montage.

Later, at Tripp’s garage, the kids figure that Graham was onto something after all, and he may have even scooped Biotech. Reinhardt wants credit for the discoveries being made in his research lab, so they kidnapped Graham. But where is he? Time for another break-in. Brandon doesn’t have keys to American Biotech...but he does have a brother with a cleaning service. The Silent Butler sends three members of its cleaning crew to pretend to clean some stuff and find Walsh’s office.

For some reason, the company bet all of their assets on one formula and kept an entire record of it right on the computer, easily hackable. Walsh returns and they follow him to a warehouse, where Lindsay and Tripp sneak in and find Graham being kept prisoner. Their constantly faulty camera gives them away, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, leaving Brandon behind was a bad idea as he drops his nametag, alerting the bad guys to their identities.

Thinking themselves safe at school, the kids try to contact Victoria, but she’s hosting a talk show – with Reinhardt as a guest. A couple of thugs take their standard issue black sedan, interrupt our heroes' English Lit. class, and chase the kids through a crowded campus. When the kids escape, the thugs decide on a new plan – take Newberry hostage. Will Lindsay, Tripp, and Brandon actually rescue the teacher who has since far threatened their every move?

Well, they’re going to try. Lindsay somehow gets patched into Walsh’s car phone and they broker a deal – Newberry and Graham for the videotape at Thunder Mountain atop the water slide. When they get to the park, there’s only Newberry, Walsh, and a gun. Never deal with clichéd bad guys. The kids refuse to give up the tape (Tripp heroically shoves Walsh down the slide), and Walsh pursues them (yes, and shoots at them).

The only place left to go is the TV station. The boys find a cop – at a Denny’s – and Lindsay finds Lou who refuses to let her interrupt the broadcast. Turns out he’s in on the whole thing. She switches the tapes when he’s not looking and the whole thing explodes. Victoria chases Reinhardt. Walsh and Lou chase Lindsay. Everyone is caught by the cops. Film at 11.

Victoria congratulates Lindsay on a job well done and the kids are ready to celebrate until they remember THAT THEY LEFT THEIR FACULTY ADVISOR TIED TO A WATER SLIDE! Whoopsie!

Ah, who cares? Everything’s cool. Graham’s discovery is helping out Mr. Scott’s patients. The kids get medals. The Diseased performs at the reopening ceremony of Thunder Island. Brando is cool now (sort of). Mr. Scott appears to be dating Victoria – thanks to a strawberry shortcake. Tripp gets a new jacket, and Ryan gets the last shot of the movie.

- Apparently, Lindsay and Brandon have the exact same phone.
- Lindsay wears a Harvard sweatshirt when she breaks into Graham’s house, but when her father comes to reprimand her, he is wearing a Notre Dame shirt. Who went to what school???
- Tripp accidentally calls the boss “Len” instead of “Lou”. He also refers to the woman on the tape as Graham's fiancée, when nothing on the message indicates that.
-Lindsay says: “Newberry will give us all medals.” Winning a Newberry medal is a prestigious honor for a children’s book.  Sure enough, they actually do get medals at the end - from the city.
- You get the actual title about 30 minutes into the movie.
- While Lindsay and her dad are talking about the explosion, you can hear them announce Graham Dennis before they show his picture.
- When Lindsay breaks into Graham's house, she whistles for a dog, Mr Tibble(??) Where do you get information about someone's dog? From 411? Not likely. Nick Reynolds? Why would he care? It's possible she found a dog bowl outside, but the movie doesn't let on how she found out. It's just weird.
-The dates are ALL SCREWED UP in this movie! They say the explosion happened on Tuesday, the 5th, but the paper Lindsay picks up says the date is the 19th. The Diseased's concert is the 24th.  
- Lindsay is filming from outside the vent, behind some boxes...but the view we get is Tripp's - inside the vent, behind the bars.

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