I remember this ABC 1997 TV movie which has Baywatch babe Yasmine Bleeth star as a beauty queen, who will do anything to win a pageant starting with a love affair a lasting dislike and even murder to kill a rival beauty contestant. This movie took an issue that very well could happen sure people would plot and scheme in order to have who they want to win a beauty pageant. Crowned and Dangerous is really made to watch to spotlight Yasmine Bleeth she is at her sexy best. I remember that seduction scene in which Yasmine shows just a little part of her bra when she unbuttons her clothing and you can see the front of the pink bra she is wearing! Oh man now that is something to make any man shout! Great performance by Bleeth watch this if you haven't maybe some network like Lifetime will rerun it, this is Yasmine Bleeth at her best.
11 Reviews
It was so bad I couldn't stop watching
omnipresent13 November 2003
I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be serious or not - it was too bad to be serious and not amusing enough to be funny - but I still sat down one Saturday afternoon and watched it. The worst part of all is if it came on telly again I would probably watch it.
A mediocre movie with an atrocious ending
Eli_G_Meyer3 June 2007
This movie started out cringe-worthy--but it was meant to, with an overbearing mother, a witch of a rival, and a hesitant beauty queen constantly coming in second. There was some goofy overacting, and a few implausible plot points (She comes in second in EVERY single competition? ALL of them?) Unfortunately, the movie suffers horribly from it's need to, well, be a TV movie. Rather than end at the ending of the movie, an amusing twist in which the killer is (semi-plausibly) revealed, the movie continues for another twenty minutes, just to make sure that justice is done. Of course, now that the killer is revealed, she suddenly undergoes a complete personality shift--her character gets completely rewritten, because the writers don't need to keep her identity secret any more. The cheese completely sinks what otherwise could have been a passably amusing movie.
Another Texas Cheerleader
gatebanger26 August 2002
A `Wacky Chick' flick. A beauty contestant winds up dead and the Usual Suspects are rounded up. Another entry in the vein of the Texas Cheerleader, this is an average example of its type.
Yasmine Bleeth turns in her usual wholesome girl performance, and Jill Clayburgh does a good job as her stressed-out slightly obsessed mom.
Some mildly funny moments listening to the vapid self-serving PR coming out of contestants' mouths. (`I'd like to own a restaurant so I can give left-over food to the homeless.')
You have to ask yourself what people are using for brains when they think a cheerleader spot or beauty crown is worth killing for!
Yasmine Bleeth turns in her usual wholesome girl performance, and Jill Clayburgh does a good job as her stressed-out slightly obsessed mom.
Some mildly funny moments listening to the vapid self-serving PR coming out of contestants' mouths. (`I'd like to own a restaurant so I can give left-over food to the homeless.')
You have to ask yourself what people are using for brains when they think a cheerleader spot or beauty crown is worth killing for!
Primary film.
oew10 October 1998
it was good
chakotay2414 October 2005
I was shocked to see Gates Mcfadden in this movie because we have all loved her as Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek TNG and the following movies. I liked the main cast and how the story kept you guessing until the last minute.I also liked this movie because the plot wasn't dull and didn't repeat itself like other movies sometimes do. I would see that movie again and even buy it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes drama and mystery. If you liked TV shows like The OC, Lost or Alias, you will like this movie. I am not saying that this is my favorite movie because I can think out a few that are better, but not many.
Lives up to it's title
bps6211 October 2006
This pageant movie definitely lives up to it's title. It is one of the premiere of campy and catty pageant movies.....and a whole lot of fun too!! It definitely is successful in it's pursuit as the tongue in cheek/drama that it is attempting to be. Yasmine Bleeth and Cassidy Rae play their roles to the hilt as catty, feuding pageant contestants. Jill Clayburg is also great as Yasmine's nutty pageant stage mother. George Eads from the TV show CSI plays the man they are feuding over. I enjoyed this film much more than a similar film entitled Beauty's Revenge which stars Cortney Thorne-Smith. With the silly Dairy Queen premise Beauty's Revenge left me "udderly" bored.
EXCELLENT
kEWWWWL12 January 2002
THIS MOVIE WAS FANTASTIC. JUST SAW IT TONIGHT ON CABLE. I have one question though.....When they go to talk with the murderer, she said "when will I get my mothers neckless" the detectives left and said they did not tell her about the neckless.......Now, I remember when the mother was being interrogated and the detectives asked her specifically about that necklas, and the mother said she did not know how it got there. My question is this.......Would it not make sense that while the daughter was in the interogation room with her mother, that the mother could have told her that the necklas was part of the evidence? I mean how do the detectives know that the mother did not tell her??????? Kind of a small glitch in that the convicting evidence on the daughter was portrayed to me as sloppy police work and in the real world a real detective would not have assumed that the mother did not mention this to the daughter........but all in all I absolutely "LOVED" the film. 100 stars in my book!!!!!!
Atypically fun, smart, dark comedy TV movie
I_Ailurophile2 March 2022
There's absolutely no reason why this should be as genuinely entertaining as it is.
Made-for-TV movies cover a wide spectrum of quality to the point that, fair or not, I've quite come to directly associate thrillers of the medium with Lifetime. Some are astonishingly sincere, heartfelt, and worthwhile. Others manage to be unexpectedly fun, with able writing, acting, or otherwise craft that outweighs unmistakable lack of subtlety. Then there are those titles that are so over the top and bombastic as to defy all good sense, but that cheekily play it off with a very straight face. 'Crowned and dangerous,' however, finds its own way to surprise: by taking the tack of an outright dark comedy, and being very up front about it with a wide, beaming smile. Moreover, we're familiar with particular indelicacies in TV movies - contrivance, overtness, tropes, and bluntness - but the writing is sufficiently adept here that for the most part it dodges the anticipated inelegance. I can't believe I'm saying it, but this is honestly pretty great.
If there are any flaws here, it's that the very beginning and the very end of the movie are decidedly untidy. When the story first meaningfully begins it throws several characters at us with no readily clear direction or comportment, and as the end nears it feels like the pieces are tied together far too hastily to be entirely convincing. A little bit tighter writing, and maybe a few more minutes in the runtime, would have been all that was necessary to correct these shortcomings.
Yet it also says so much that nothing else especially comes to mind as a fault - by and large, I think the screenplay is rather fantastic. Every key struck upon the page reflects a focus to ride the line between the serious drama at the heart of the story and its figures, and the utmost farcical romp it gently declines to become. There's astounding balance here, even as the scene writing, dialogue, and characterizations are all lively and exaggerated, built through and through with an earnest sense of dark humor that's more common to premium cable TV channels, or studio flicks, than to more ordinary network television pictures. Most every line is sharp and biting, the parts are a shade more complex than we generally get from TV movies, and there's some welcome variety from moment to moment, with thriller energy or grinning jest being accentuated at different points.
At that, it's worth noting that beyond the tongue-in-cheek comedy, the narrative writing is rather clever for how it's crafted (again, not least of all compared to other TV movies). None of its most prominent characters are perfectly likable, no matter how much we admire the actors playing them. The screenplay exploits that quality by very deftly avoiding obvious identification of the ultimate antagonist, and it's not until the last act that the suspects are eliminated. Furthermore, the person centered as the protagonist isn't written as an investigator - but is one of the dubious individuals that may or may not be the real villain. Alan Hines and Carey and Chad Hayes are to be commended for writing that's smarter than we generally assume of features in this medium; broadly speaking, I think they nailed it.
Director Christopher Leitch joins the screenwriters in that excellence with a keen eye for consciously forthright shots that would wink at the audience if they could as they brazenly imp the gratuitous style of beach body programming like 'Baywatch,' or the embellished irreverence of other dark comedies. And: I don't know how much credit Leitch deserves for guiding the cast, versus how much credit goes to the cast themselves, but everyone in front of the camera gleefully leans into their roles with feigned sobriety, and every performance here is terrific in building the whole. The acting tends toward purposeful directness, in the same way that many TV movies are constructed, yet with just enough nuance for the actors to let us know that they're in on the joke. There are some recognizable names and faces here, of course including star Yasmine Bleeth, then also Jill Clayburgh, George Eads, and even Troy Evans - and I think they all do a fine job. For my part, it was the inclusion of Gates McFadden that drew me in, and it's a small delight to watch her portray Patrice, a role well removed from Dr. Beverly Crusher of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' while nonetheless carrying the same poise.
Rounded out with fetching contributions from hair, makeup, and wardrobe, I think nearly everything about the production is just super. It's marginally imperfect, for sure, and I can understand that the film deliberately works so hard to echo its more ham-handed, serious-minded brethren that some viewers may find the intentional slant off-putting. But I, for one, can see that 'Crowned and dangerous' is only ever geared toward a brash mixture of thriller and comedy, such that every subjectively unseemly facet we'd call out for vulgar amateurism in other features is willfully amplified for effect. No, this isn't going to be for everyone. However, if you're receptive to the vast variety of styles that cinema can play with, and don't mind the less graceful flourishes that frequently populate TV movies, then I think this is a picture that's well worth checking out if you have the opportunity.
Made-for-TV movies cover a wide spectrum of quality to the point that, fair or not, I've quite come to directly associate thrillers of the medium with Lifetime. Some are astonishingly sincere, heartfelt, and worthwhile. Others manage to be unexpectedly fun, with able writing, acting, or otherwise craft that outweighs unmistakable lack of subtlety. Then there are those titles that are so over the top and bombastic as to defy all good sense, but that cheekily play it off with a very straight face. 'Crowned and dangerous,' however, finds its own way to surprise: by taking the tack of an outright dark comedy, and being very up front about it with a wide, beaming smile. Moreover, we're familiar with particular indelicacies in TV movies - contrivance, overtness, tropes, and bluntness - but the writing is sufficiently adept here that for the most part it dodges the anticipated inelegance. I can't believe I'm saying it, but this is honestly pretty great.
If there are any flaws here, it's that the very beginning and the very end of the movie are decidedly untidy. When the story first meaningfully begins it throws several characters at us with no readily clear direction or comportment, and as the end nears it feels like the pieces are tied together far too hastily to be entirely convincing. A little bit tighter writing, and maybe a few more minutes in the runtime, would have been all that was necessary to correct these shortcomings.
Yet it also says so much that nothing else especially comes to mind as a fault - by and large, I think the screenplay is rather fantastic. Every key struck upon the page reflects a focus to ride the line between the serious drama at the heart of the story and its figures, and the utmost farcical romp it gently declines to become. There's astounding balance here, even as the scene writing, dialogue, and characterizations are all lively and exaggerated, built through and through with an earnest sense of dark humor that's more common to premium cable TV channels, or studio flicks, than to more ordinary network television pictures. Most every line is sharp and biting, the parts are a shade more complex than we generally get from TV movies, and there's some welcome variety from moment to moment, with thriller energy or grinning jest being accentuated at different points.
At that, it's worth noting that beyond the tongue-in-cheek comedy, the narrative writing is rather clever for how it's crafted (again, not least of all compared to other TV movies). None of its most prominent characters are perfectly likable, no matter how much we admire the actors playing them. The screenplay exploits that quality by very deftly avoiding obvious identification of the ultimate antagonist, and it's not until the last act that the suspects are eliminated. Furthermore, the person centered as the protagonist isn't written as an investigator - but is one of the dubious individuals that may or may not be the real villain. Alan Hines and Carey and Chad Hayes are to be commended for writing that's smarter than we generally assume of features in this medium; broadly speaking, I think they nailed it.
Director Christopher Leitch joins the screenwriters in that excellence with a keen eye for consciously forthright shots that would wink at the audience if they could as they brazenly imp the gratuitous style of beach body programming like 'Baywatch,' or the embellished irreverence of other dark comedies. And: I don't know how much credit Leitch deserves for guiding the cast, versus how much credit goes to the cast themselves, but everyone in front of the camera gleefully leans into their roles with feigned sobriety, and every performance here is terrific in building the whole. The acting tends toward purposeful directness, in the same way that many TV movies are constructed, yet with just enough nuance for the actors to let us know that they're in on the joke. There are some recognizable names and faces here, of course including star Yasmine Bleeth, then also Jill Clayburgh, George Eads, and even Troy Evans - and I think they all do a fine job. For my part, it was the inclusion of Gates McFadden that drew me in, and it's a small delight to watch her portray Patrice, a role well removed from Dr. Beverly Crusher of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' while nonetheless carrying the same poise.
Rounded out with fetching contributions from hair, makeup, and wardrobe, I think nearly everything about the production is just super. It's marginally imperfect, for sure, and I can understand that the film deliberately works so hard to echo its more ham-handed, serious-minded brethren that some viewers may find the intentional slant off-putting. But I, for one, can see that 'Crowned and dangerous' is only ever geared toward a brash mixture of thriller and comedy, such that every subjectively unseemly facet we'd call out for vulgar amateurism in other features is willfully amplified for effect. No, this isn't going to be for everyone. However, if you're receptive to the vast variety of styles that cinema can play with, and don't mind the less graceful flourishes that frequently populate TV movies, then I think this is a picture that's well worth checking out if you have the opportunity.
Oh wow... horrible...
neptuneblt30 August 2002
So I found myself home watching Unsolved Mysteries this morning, vegetating on the couch, and this movie comes on afterward. It as terrible!
I mean... my God. Completely awful.
If you want a funny beauty pageant movie, check out Drop Dead Gorgeous, not this second rate mediocre rip off.
I mean... my God. Completely awful.
If you want a funny beauty pageant movie, check out Drop Dead Gorgeous, not this second rate mediocre rip off.
An Awesome Movie
brianfan_1_49 September 2003
This movie was really good. Yasmine Bleeth played a beauty pagent contestant who always came 2nd to another contestant. Suddenly, things start to happen to the other contestant that makes Danielle( Yasmine Bleeth) become the 1st place winner, since she was 1st runner up. Then something permanent happens to the other contestent, leaving Danielle as the main suspect, along with a jealous mother and her ex-boyfriend, who was the father of her unborn child. If you want to know what happened in this movie, please watch it. It is a very good movie, i give Yasmine 10 stars for looking gorgeous in the movie. The movie is worthy of praise and gives new meaning to the words "Beauty Pagent"
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