WORKING MIRACLES

Synopsis:  Buddy Hoyt lives an ordinary life and his fiancée loves him just the way he is but he wants to be a "somebody." After being involved in an accident Buddy gets his wish and is gifted with the ability to heal others. Life gets complicated when Buddy learns that he is draining his own energy every time he heals someone else and it may eventually kill him. Will Buddy choose his new-found fame over the woman he loves?

Starring: Eddie Cibrian (CSI Miami, Ugly Betty) and Patrick Duffy (Dallas, Step by Step).

REVIEW: Pleasant enough, if somewhat contrived escapism, more like a Lifetime For Women special, it does incorporate the need for faith. While it doesn't dwell on faith in what or who, it does suggest that there is something more to life than the mental and physical. I found nothing objectionable.

BOUND BY A SECRET

Synopsis: Ida Mae is thrilled when her best friend Jane, returns home after years away as a famous actress. But when Jane reveals that she's dying, both women struggle with whether it's time to finally reveal a shattering truth to Ida Mae's grown daughter, Kate, about the reality of her natural, and secret, parentage.

Starring:  Meredith Baxter (Family Ties) and Lesley Ann Warren (In Plain Sight)

REVIEW: It deals with the death of a loved one and suggests a need for faith. We do see a person in thoughtful pose while sitting alone in a church, a stained glass portrait of Christ in front of her, further suggesting a need for reflection and a turning to Christ, but mainly the story is about friends bonding through a crisis. Solid performances by Meredith Baxter and Lesley Ann Warren, two old pros looking anything but old.

Not rated, I found nothing objectionable.

THE NANNY EXPRESS

Synopsis: A young woman goes to work as a nanny for a widower whose two kids have already run off six other nannies. Slowly, the man's young son warms to the new nanny, and the dad himself starts to fall for her as well. The teenage daughter of the family is still hurting over the death of her mother and has no interest in having this new woman in her or her dad's life.

Starring:  Vanessa Marcil (Las Vegas, General Hospital), Dean Stockwell (Battlestar Galactica, Quantum Leap) and Stacy Keach (Prison Break).

REVIEW: This movie features the hardest working film composer in Hollywood. I say that because there are few scenes not accompanied by music. This guy must have been paid by the note. Alas, it's awfully syrupy. Once past that complaint, we are faced with another. The script. It's like The Sound of Music, without the songs, or any of the other dynamics that made that film a classic. Still, there is a saving grace. Vanessa Marcil is likeable and does a credible job. As with Working Miracles, it is a pleasant enough if somewhat contrived storyline. Like the other films in this collection, it does incorporate the need for faith. That said, it's not a church film. We are never told who to have faith in, though it is slightly suggested by having the heroine seen in church, praying.

LADIES OF THE HOUSE

Synopsis: Three women take on the daunting task of renovating a rundown house in order to raise funds for their church. The project becomes deeply personal for each of them and helps them examine challenges they are facing in their lives.

Starring:  Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Donna Mills (Knotts Landing), Pam Grier (The L Word, Foxy Brown), Lance Henricksen (Millennium) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft).

REVIEW: Once past the first twenty minutes of almost slapstick comedy as the inept house builders learn their way around a tool belt, the story becomes engaging. It features three marriages, one in good shape (except he's dying of cancer), one mendable (they just need to fall in love again), and a third, well, he's super rich, thinks she is super silly for taking on this project, and oh, yeah, he's cheating on her – in a big way.

It has a TV feel and the situations and their solutions seem paper-thin, but it is pleasant enough. Aimed at a Lifetime for Women audience, it is interesting for us guys to see what happened to the sultry Donna Mills and is that really Pam Grier, the chick who busted out of several women's prison movies in the early '70s?

Unrated, it contains a couple of minor expletives, but no harsh or profane language.

Without wanting to seem chauvinistic, this series of films may be best suited to women. They seem more directed at female sensibilities. And though these are not great movies, they are a welcome alternative to films and TV shows that stress crudity and sexuality over family-aimed storytelling.