[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello, my friends, and welcome back. We are talking about the movie Prime Time today. Now, if you haven't heard of this one, you're probably going to recognize the name of who it's about a lot more. This movie is a story of Chris Hansen. And if you're not familiar with him, he originated the series To Catch a Predator.
Now, if you're not familiar with that, I'm sure you're familiar. If you've been on social media at all, TikTok x Facebook, you've seen that there's videos of people basically doing just this luring, pretending to be kids, luring people who like to mess around with kids into situations where they get caught.
Absolute sickos, psychos, however you want to put it. These people are the. The bottom feeders of society. And that is a compliment.
Now, I'm not referring to Chris Hansen. I mean, he was kind of one of the ones that kind of started this whole sting operation to nail these people. And if you haven't already been able to tell, I have a friend with me today. If you have not met him before, this is Botero. This is the one that always likes to get in trouble.
He's mommy's baby.
He's purring.
He's your baby.
He jumped on the back of the chair, and I'm like, you know what? He's being good. I'm just gonna go ahead and start recording. So he's just sitting there being good. He was trying to play with the flag a little bit ago.
But back to the movie primetime deals with the very early Free To Catch a Predator days when it was brand new, with the Dateline and with NBC and its very early days when there just wasn't much buzz. It was not imagined that something dealing with something like this could actually have an audience.
And here NBC is putting all these millions of dollars into all these other shows with storylines, and Catch a Predator was outdoing all of them in the ratings. So it's raining really hard outside, and that's what's got Potero's attention. It's okay, baby. Hey, it's okay.
Yes, I know you're per and you're happy.
He's normally not being this good and this quiet. So I'm not complaining.
But this, we get to see the progression of Chris Hansen with that in the very early days into its thing of Where To Catch a Predator got moved into the prime time slot. Well, in order to maintain that prime time slot, you have to have the ratings to go with it. And people were just kind of getting a little tired of watching just everyday predators getting caught. And so he has a chance to go after a bigger fish. As to say, but before I get too far into that, I of course want to share the trailer with you.
So if you are easily bothered by stories such as this, the trailer might be a little bit triggering. Doesn't go into anything detail or show anything overly graphic. The movie has some very graphic moments in it, but not in the trailer itself. So let's check that out.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Come on in.
Are you sure your parents aren't home?
[00:03:20] Speaker A: I'm sure.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Big night planned.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Who.
Who are you?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Why don't you have a seat right there.
I'm Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC and we're doing a story on adults who try to meet teens online.
You see how this looks, right? Holy grail.
I don't really like your show, but America loves it. So I need to move you to catch a predator. 9pm prime time.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Gonna be bigger than Lost.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: I'm gonna be bigger than lost.
My name is Dan Plom. Do you know what you're auditioning for?
[00:04:00] Speaker A: So you are playing a 13 year old.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Is there time for a rehearsal?
[00:04:04] Speaker A: We're gonna shoot the rehearsal.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Come in.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: You're gonna love this.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Predator has never earned the recognition that deserves.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Get out of here.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: I want something that matters. No more bond thieves. All in a way of.
Don't you ever just wanna bleed em?
Man, what I do is a little worse.
This could be our greatest segment yet.
We're going to hell. Don't do that. They come to us. I don't understand what I' what you're doing is more than acting. You're cleansing the world of an ancient evil.
The kid's house is a predator. Don't give you permission to do this.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: You have no plan.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: I have to put him on time. You're gonna be so proud of me. I don't want to be a bad person.
Your definition of bad and my definition of bad are vastly different.
What would have happened if I wasn't here?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Like I said, it's. This movie is more than difficult to watch at times.
Watching how this plays out, watching these sickos preying on kids. Gonna get down, buddy.
Okay, bye.
He decided he was done here for the moment. But how now? The people that they're using to kind of bring these people in, they're not children, but they are adults made to look like children.
30 year old playing a 13 year old, etc. And like I said, luring these people into these situations that it's not entrapment in the typical sense. It's more of they're putting the feeders out so they're not actually preying on real kids. And they think they're preying on real kids. And then when they get there and they find out that it's not a real child, the sting operation, their lives get torn apart, as they should be. And everybody thinks that Chris Hansen leaves this perfect life, that he does this, and we get to see a little bit into his personal life as well. He's not the golden child that everybody seems to think he is, but that doesn't mean that he's not doing good. Now. His. Now, I'm not saying he does anything like the things that he's getting that he's nailing people on, but it just shows that his family life had a bit of issues and stuff. Well, as well as he was kind of figuring all of this stuff out. And he's being constantly compared to other big names and stuff in the world of just everything that was happening. And when they get this slot, he realizes that they're going to be competing against loss. That's what he's referring to in the trailer when he says. Or going against Lost. That's back when Lost was on the air and they were in a competing time slot for that. And it was just a very intense situation and very intense circumstance. But as you kind of heard me referencing a little bit before, and then as I was. As it was referenced in the trailer, he wants his whale. Well, the white whale he ends up going after is.
Let's say it's a big fish. Let's say it's definitely a big fish.
And the portrayal of all that.
At times, this is hard to watch, knowing that these people are preying on kids and this stuff happens. This stuff wasn't just had. This was taking place back in 2006, 20 years ago.
It has not gotten any better. People still do things like this. And this movie is getting a guilty rating, definitely guilty rating. It's dealing with a subject that people should never have to deal with.
And the.
The way that it approaches it, the way that it handles it, the way that it presents it shows you just how real this is.
And it's uncomfortable, very uncomfortable at times.
Does that mean it's any less watchable? No, it probably means it's more.
Now, there was something that actually happened when I went to the theater to see this, and it left me speechless. And I actually brought it up to some of the security people that were at the theater.
A Lot of theaters around the country, especially on Disney Nights, have security teams there.
And this was so disturbing. I actually brought to securities attention.
I won't say what theater I was at because I don't want. I don't want to get the theater in trouble with anything with this, or I don't want people to think less of the theater because of the situation.
But typically when a movie's over and the credits start rolling, people leave. I'm one of the people. I sit all the way through the credits for the dedications and loving memory of or any type of dedication or bonus scenes or anything that could be at the very end. And so people are getting up and leaving, and I'm just sitting there, and I thought everybody was gone. The movie was done. The credits were done rolling. And I. I hear behind me, it's. And I hear somebody getting up from their seats.
And I just couldn't turn my head a little bit. I could see it was a man and a woman. Boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife? Not sure.
But the guy goes, this was really messed up. And I'm just sitting there nodding. I'm like, yeah, this.
Everything that was portrayed here is messed up.
Thanks to people like Chris Hansen, we. These people are getting nailed and put behind bars, but there's still more of them out there.
But then the guy said something else. He didn't think it was messed up for the same reason I was, that I thought it was messed up.
This is. The gentleman behind me in the theater literally said, these people are not predators.
They're just misunderstood.
My brain, like, short circuited, like, what?
And then the woman he was with made the comment along the lines of, well, at least they don't see your history.
Did he not realize the movie he was coming to see?
Did he not research it all ahead of time?
Child exploitation, child exploitation, child endangerment is sickening. There's a movie last year, was it two years ago, Sound of Freedom. If you have not seen it, watch it.
One of the highest rated movies I've ever reviewed. I think it is the highest rated movie and it is also the hardest. Watch this one.
Very difficult to watch for similar reasons. But it focuses, though. It focuses so much on catching the predators. It also focuses on Chris Hansen's life as well, which is the only reason it's not getting a better score. This is. It's still getting a very good score as far as I'm concerned. But the content is difficult to watch at times.
Very difficult to watch.
And seeing how some of the things play out are just you almost want to turn away for some scenes, but you don't want to miss what's happening. But it's almost to the point where you just want to.
You just want to shield your eyes and turn away. But you know these people are pretending to be kids that are luring them. But in your brain, you can picture, what if these were real kids?
What was the last real kid that this happened to? Who did this happen to last? Who's this going to happen to next? Who are these people? Are they your friends? Are your neighbors? Do you go to church with them? Do they teach your children school? Are they your politicians?
Are they.
Do you pass them in the supermarket?
I have a hard time looking at people the same way after Sound of Freedom and after stories such as this. It's like you look and you're almost suspicious of everybody. And it's not all men. I mean, most of the predators that they catch are men, but some are women, too.
How are we safe from these people?
How is anybody.
This is.
This is an epidemic in the world that people target children and it's.
This is wrong.
What do we do to stop it?
If you even suspect it, talk to your local law enforcement. Talk to anybody in your community who might be able to help Heck, reach out to Catch a Predator or some of these other people who have huge followings online that do this on a smaller scale.
What? It may save just one child, it may save just one person, but guess what? That may not seem like much, but it's going to mean the world to them, score wise. You're probably wondering where I'm at on this.
I'm coming in at prime time at a 6.5 out of 10 on the deputy scale. I was really debating sevens, but there's some parts that I just couldn't. Just couldn't quite get there.
Overall, do I recommend it with hesitation? Yes. With hesitation? Yes. It's a difficult watch, but it's important it shows you that these people can be anybody, literally.
So if this is one you've been debating on, I hope that this helps.
Again, I'm giving this a guilty rating.
This is when you go see. I would love to know your feedback on it.
Feel free to reach out to me directly, tag me on social media, or just reach out to me
[email protected] or the contact me page on moviedebity.com either way, I respond to everything myself.
So, like I said, I would love to know your thoughts on this. Yes, you've heard mine as no spoilers ever here, so don't worry about that. But yeah, I would really love to know what you think about something like this, but if you haven't done so already, please like and subscribe and share.
Help other people see reviews such as this so that they can be informed before going to see a movie such as this, or so that they realize that they can have a voice even when they don't think they do.
But until next time my friends, the next movie we are talking about is a much more light hearted one and I hope you come back and check that out because we talk about A list, B list and no list. I talk about the Good, Bad and the Ugly and my tagline, if you haven't heard me say it before, is I interrogate movies for their plot and their content and ones like this are ones that I really get deep into to go hmm, I hope that this has helped you. I know it was an eye opener for me. Even though I know that this exists in the world, seeing it like this. Just nothing prepares you to actually see stuff like this. And I know it's a movie, but knowing that this actually happens in real life is hard to watch.
But until later my friends.
Bye.
