Unexpectedly Finding a Body
I was so excited when I saw that Jazz Ramsey, the first K-9 Mystery, was coming up as a Hallmark Mystery movie. I immediately recognized this as a movie based on a series of books I loved. I enjoyed watching the story come to life on the screen.
Jazz (Rachel Skarsten) has made a career out of training police dogs. Her current trainee is Zeus (Dillon the Dog), and the two of them have been invited to do a presentation for Astor Academy for Girls, the private school that Jazz attended.
The demonstration starts well, but then Zeus makes an unexpected signal. Sure enough, he’s found human remains – someone put a dead body in the vent between floors. It begins to look like it is a teacher who left abruptly at the end of last school year. She wasn’t a popular teacher since she was a stickler for the rules. Even though trying to solve the case means teaming up with Nick (Corey Sevier), her ex, Jazz can’t help but try to figure out what happened. Will she do it?
I’m not sure why, but the producers decided to base this first movie on the second book, The Secrets of Bones. Make sense? Yeah, doesn’t make sense to me either. Having said that, this is a good story. I feel like there was a bit too much story for a movie since a couple of things seemed rushed, but in the end, the mystery did make sense.
I read the book when it first came out four years ago. That means, beyond the setup, I’m not sure how closely it stuck to the original story. That’s probably a good thing since I wasn’t able to nitpick everything that is going on.
Having said that, I am a little confused why they would name this movie after the main character. Where does the movie series go from here? I can see why they branded it the K-9 Mysteries, but what would they call movie two?
Speaking of which, I did expect Zeus to have a larger presence in the film. I get why he wasn’t – the amount of time for training and filming with an animal must be extensive. But it was still a noticeable absence.
If you followed along with my reviews while I was watching Batwoman, Rachel Skarsten’s portrayal of the villain Alice was my favorite part of the show. It was great to see here again here, and see her playing a sane person for a change. She did great, as did the rest of the cast.
Do keep in mind that the movie kept Jazz’s backstory, which is sad since she is still processing her grief over the loss of her father three years ago. That does play into a couple of subplots. I felt like it was handled beautifully.
Unfortunately, the movie does suffer more from the low budget cheese than some of the other Hallmark movies I’ve watched recently. Or maybe, it’s just that I was expecting more since I loved the books so much.
Speaking of which, if you liked this movie, before sure to check out the books.
Hallmark Mystery movie fans should enjoy Jazz Ramsey whether they’ve read the books or not. For me, it was extra fun since I already knew and loved the characters.
Nice review. I haven't read the books.
ReplyDeleteThis is my least favorite new Hallmark mystery of the year so far. I gave it 2/5. I was distracted by the many plot holes and the fact that the dog wasn't used enough (although I do understand why that would be a challenge). I am intrigued about the books, though. I might check them out. :)
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