Bullet Points: Killer Competition
When you have a site like Bulletproof Action that has a minimum of 365 posts each year, you find yourself using all available resources for content.
As a physical media collector, I often turn to my own personal library. There are also the popular streaming options like Prime Video, Netflix and Tubi.
But sometimes the search for content will take you down a road less traveled… like when I checked out 2020’s Killer Competition on the Lifetime Movie Network!?!?
- Westbridge or Bust: Nicole (Jacqueline Scislowski, Power Rangers Beast Morphers) is a high school senior who dreams of nothing more than graduating and moving on to the prestigious Westbridge University, following in her parents’ footsteps. Nicole is among the top students in her class and in the running to be valedictorian. But when Nicole finds out that one of her competitors for the valedictorian spot, Victor (Philip McElroy) has also applied to Westbridge she freaks out!
- Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions: Nicole’s best friend Sarah (Cristine Prosperi) plays a little game of “What If” with Nicole as in what if they managed to sabotage Victor’s English mid-term to knock him out of the running for valedictorian and increasing Nicole’s chances to go to Westbridge. The “What If” becomes reality, when Nicole manages to get an extra copy of the mid-term and Sarah forges it in Victor’s handwriting. The two then break into the school, bypass the school’s security system and switch the fake Victor mid-term with the real one, then out running an officer responding to the alarm outage. The result… Victor ends up with a B- and he is not happy to say the least. Victor even confronts Mr. Sheppard (Demetrius Stear) and demands the chance to retake the test right then and there, but Sheppard shoots it down immediately saying it is against school policy and everyone has to deal with disappointment in life.
- That Escalated Quickly: Nicole goes home that night and can barely sleep… the guilt of what she did is eating away at her. The next day when Sarah comes to pick her up for school, Nicole tells her she is going to confess and won’t mention that Sarah had anything to do with it. Sarah tries to talk her out of it, reminding her that Nicole will be throwing her future away. Still Nicole has every intention of coming clean, but things take a dark turn when Nicole finds out that Victor committed suicide. Now Nicole is really freaking out and it is about to get worse…
- Enter the Ramirez: Nicole is summoned to Principal McCain’s office where Detective Ramirez has some questions for her regarding the nature of Nicole’s relationship with Victor. In the course of the questioning, Ramirez learns that Nicole did not consider Victor a friend and wasn’t really close to him, despite being in all the same honors classes with him. Ramirez also picks up on the fact that there was a rivalry between the two valedictorian candidates. Ramirez writing all this down in his notebook has Nicole on the edge of her seat. Professional wrestling fans will recognize Detective Ramirez as former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Paul London. London gave a strong performance and was 100% convincing in his detective role and this comes from someone who has seen him play a mad hatter type in an Elvis jumpsuit with a bedazzled cod piece on Lucha Underground. Rumor has it the Ramirez role was a much smaller part, but obviously others were convinced by London’s performance and that led to more screen time for Ramirez.
- It Was Murder: Things really start to go down hill fast for Nicole when the police begin to suspect that Victor didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered. Nicole knows she did not murder Victor, so she starts doing a little independent investigating to see if she can find some proof to bring to the police. Nicole even warns Ryan, another valedictorian candidate, that she believes one of their classmates killed Victor and he should watch his back… what happens next, a masked assailant in a black hoodie and wielding a hammer goes after Ryan in the school parking lot. Ryan runs into the street to avoid the attacker, but is then promptly hit by a car. Ryan ends up in a coma and the police begin to have the same theory that Nicole has… one of the top ranking seniors is Victor’s killer and they are now all persons of interest. And that’s about the time Nicole finds a black hoodie and hammer in her locker and is nearly caught with the damning evidence by Detective Ramirez.
At this point, Nicole finally loops her parents into this whole debacle she now finds herself in and all the pieces start falling into place. I will say that while the identity of the killer was obvious early on in the film, Killer Competition did manage to throw in a twist and we find out our killer was not working alone.
My biggest gripe about Killer Competition was there wasn’t more action where there easily could have been. I’m not suggesting the movie just throw in action for action’s sake but there were scenes that would have had a boost with a little more action and not taken away from the plot.
Here’s a boost for this review in the form of some Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Killer Competition was originally known as Top of the Class, something you may have noticed from the poster.
- Worst Library Award: There are a few scenes that take place at the “local library”. This was easily the worst library I have ever seen in a movie. It looked like it was filmed in a lawyer’s office.
- Directed By: Andrew Lawrence, who directed the enjoyable Money Plane earlier this year, was the director of Killer Competition. There’s an Andrew Lawrence Easter egg in the movie, as he appears in the Read Books PSA poster that can be seen in various locations in the school.
- Not The First: You may be thinking this is the first time a Lifetime Movie has been covered on this site, but you’d be wrong. Matt Spector actually covered A Mother’s Crime back in April 2019.
