Movie Series Review: Twitches

Hey, guys!

Usually I review movies singularly, but today Iʼm going to be reading two at a time today because they are in a series. I know that this seems a little strange for me as Iʼve never reviewed a Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), but I promise you that there is a method to my madness. Read on and find out why!

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning. These reviews are both spoiler free!

Twitches (2005):

Based on: The Twitches series - by H. B. Cilmour and Randi Reisfeld.

There is a darkness threatening to consume the land of Coventry. The king gives the last of his magic to his daughters in order to save them, and their guardians hide them away in the modern world. Both of them grow up separately until their guardians decided to bring them together on their 21st birthday, which is Halloween. At first they canʼt believe it, but through the day they spend time together and try to learn how to use their magic. They have had it their whole life, but never used it, with just a dayʼs training will it be strong enough to defeat the darkness? They get scared, so will one of them have to do it alone?

Genre: Fantasy, Family.

Length: approx. 86 minutes.

Script: 10, no bad words.

Crew: Directed by: Stuart Gillard. Written by: Melissa Gould, Dan Berendsen, H.B. Gilmour, & Randi Reisfeld.

Starring:

Tia Mowry as Alex Fielding.

Tamera Mowry as Camryn Barnes.

Kristen Wilson as Miranda.

Patrick Fabian as Thantos.

Jennifer Robertson as Illeana.

Pat Kelly as Karsh.

Jessica Greco as Lucinda.

Jackie Rosenbaum as Beth Fish.

Arnold Pinnock as David Barnes.

Karen Holness as Emily Barnes.

Jessica Feliz as Nicole.

Kathryn Haggis as Housekeeper.

Costumes: 9, nothing indecent. Iʼll talk more about them later...

Cinematography: 5, this movie was a ton of fun, but this is the one place where they couldʼve improved it. The CGI is so bad! Every time it was suspenseful because of the “darkness”, my sister and I would burst out laughing because it was so cringe-worthy.

Cinematography by: Manfred Guthe.

Music: 8, I couldnʼt remember what the score or soundtrack was so I had to look it up and listen to it, but it is pretty different from anything else that Iʼve heard.

Music by: John Van Tongeren.

Quotability: N/A as I just watched it, but I would give it a tentative 8.

Content: 10, there are really no content concerns. For those of you who are wondering, yes there are witches (as you can guess from the title), but this is how the magic system works. In Coventry everyone has magic and is born with it. You can sometimes give people part of your own magic to strengthen theirs, but it can never be forced and is only done willingly. There are darker parts of magic (the “darkness”), but the good characters donʼt use it.

Originality: 10, Iʼve read a lot of books or seen a lot of movies with magic, but this was so different and original!

Good For: DCOM fans and sisters.

Age Range: There are some scary and intense moments that might be a little much for tiny kids, but I think that 8 is a good guess for the age where it starts. Probably most people over 40 wouldnʼt be that interested. Of course, it depends on the person.

Overall Score: 8.5.

Thoughts:

I was surprised because I thought that this was going to be really cheesy (and the CGI was), but it was actually really fun! First of all, I love that Alex and Cam are actually played by twins! Iʼm so used to twins being played by the same person, and the characters never have the same connection that real siblings do. Both of the characters Alex and Camryn felt so real! Their characters were consistent the whole time and the struggles and fears really fit in. It made so much sense how one character was really cautious at first then became more confident, and another was really enthusiastic in the beginning and got afraid later on. Well done!

It was kind of neat to see a DCOM with main characters who were so much older than their usual crowd. Usually the movies are about teenagers and there is nothing wrong with that, but I really appreciated having them be 21 because it made so much more sense.

The side characters were a lot of fun, too! Camrynʼs relationship with her parents was the best, and all of it felt so natural with the playful teasing and jokes. Karsh and Illeana were comic relief, but such good comic relief. Lucinda was a really good friend for Alex. The story and messages were great, too! Overall a really fun time.

&

Twitches Too (2007):

Based on: The Twitches series - by H. B. Cilmour and Randi Reisfeld.

Camryn and Alex are getting used to how this whole sister thing works. Camryn wants to learn how to use her magic and take responsibility with what she can, while Alex feels that sheʼs missing something. She keeps writing strange stories, and she knows that all of her stories are true. Is someone calling to her? Who, and why?

(Iʼm sorry that Iʼm being super vague! Thatʼs how this whole second review will be because I donʼt want to give away spoilers for the first movie.)

Genre: Fantasy, Family.

Length: approx. 83 minutes.

Script: 10, once again, no bad words.

Crew: Directed by: Stuart Gillard. Written by: Dan Berendsen, H.B. Gilmour, & Randi Reisfeld.

Starring:

Tia Mowry as Alex Fielding.

Tamera Mowry as Camryn Barnes.

Kristen Wilson as Miranda.

Pat Kelly as Karsh.

Leslie Seiler as Illeana.

Karen Holness as Emily Barnes.

Arnold Pinnock as David Barnes.

Nathan Stephenson as Marcus.

Chris Gallinger as Demitri.

Jackie Rosenbaum as Beth.

David Ndaba as Felix.

Patrick Fabian as Thantos.

Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. Norseng.

Costumes: 9, all good, and Iʼll talk about it later.

Cinematography: 5, yeah, in two years the CGI didnʼt improve any.

Cinematography by: Manfred Guthe.

Music: 8, same as last time.

Music by: John Van Tongeren.

Quotability: N/A again, and I donʼt even have a guess for how quotable it would be. Content: 9, one or two crude jokes are added in, but same as last time. There is danger, which could be frightening to little kids.

Originality: 9, I wasnʼt as wowed with the creativity here, but it was still good.

Good For: DCOM fans, sisters.

Age Range: About 8-40, same as the first!

Overall Score: 7.5.

Thoughts:

Ah, sequels. It is rare that they are as good as the first, right? This was alright, but I just felt that the story was tacked on and so unnecessary. It was fun to spend more time with all of the characters, but some parts felt forced. I liked, though it was brief, to see the girls in college. It was weird that someone else was playing Illeana, but she did a fine job. I missed seeing some other characters that seemed to just be abandoned. Overall cute, but I wonʼt be watching it nearly as much as I plan to see the first one.

This is my entry in my Fifth Costume Blog Party! 

From now on, there will be SPOILERS. So don't read any further if you haven't seen both movies!

Now you must be wondering, “MC, why in the world did you pick this?”

Great question.

I forgot to take photos without our faces, so it's a little blurred.

When I announced this blog party, I had a completely different idea in mind for what I was going to do. I had no clue about what I was going to do this year, but I was going to talk about a costume I had a few years ago. Leading up to Halloween my sister and I were watching a lot of movies in the spirit of it. She has a goal to watch all of the DCOMs, and even though Iʼm not as into it as she is, I like watching them with her. We watched the first Twitches movie, which we had never seen before, and liked it. After that we couldnʼt stop calling each other Twitches! No, we arenʼt twins (Iʼm older), but we look a lot alike and are the closest that you imagine. On October 30th we watched the second one, and on the spot decided to dress up like them.

How Alex and Camryn look isnʼt super recognizable. If I were to just show you photos of their costumes, even if it was exactly on point, it is very doubtful that you would be able to recognize them. But, what they wear is important to each other. Being identical twins it can be hard to tell them apart and how you can do that is by their clothing!

Do we look like them?

For example, in the second movie a character talks to Alex for a few minutes, the whole time thinking that she is Camryn. When the character leaves, Camrynʼs best friend Beth comes over and thinks that is hilarious because she knows that it is Alex.

“I knew it was you, Camryn wouldnʼt be caught dead in those jeans. But, you look good in them!”

“Beth, weʼre identical twins, you basically said that I look bad.” (Paraphrase)

Another occasion they used their magic and temporarily changed how they look, so they switch places and look like each other. It is pretty funny because they are bad at being each other because they are so different.

Just because they look the same doesnʼt mean that they have the same interests. Alex loves to write, and Camryn loves drawing. One thing that quickly defines them is their necklaces. Camryn has a necklace with a sun on it, meaning that she works better during the day, and Alex has a moon pendant indicating that she is most creative and active during the night. 

"The powers of the sun and the forces of the moon..."

In addition to that their styles are very unique to them. Their different styles are shown right away when they meet each other, because Camryn is shopping and Alex is just looking for a job. Camryn also has curly hair while Alexʼs is straight.

Because my sister and I had this idea a day before doing it, we didnʼt have great materials. We ended up just dressing in anything orange or purple that we had. My younger sister is dressed more like Alex complete with a moon necklace, while Iʼm wearing a flowing dress which is something more like Camryn. I couldnʼt find a sun necklace of any kind, so I have a lightbulb charm (donʼt ask). But, in personality my sister is more like Cam and Iʼm like Alex.

Though we donʼt look that much like either of them, we had so much fun. The whole day we just hung out and would randomly yell, “Go twitches, go twitches!”

Thank you for reading! Were you surprised by my sisterʼs and my costumes? Have any of you seen these movies? Check out all of the other costumes for this party HERE!

MovieCritic