If Lifetime is to drama as B-movies are to horror, is there a particular term for action-thrillers that follow that same direct, unsubtle slant? Because 'Scarlett' is full of it, from the very beginning - and it's an irresistible delight.

I'm not familiar with most of the names here, though I've seen Melanie Stone elsewhere and know she's a very capable actress. I don't know the films of director John Lyde or writer Brittany Wiscombe, though at this point I'm genuinely excited to learn more. I don't think a movie can be this plainspoken, pointedly forsaking nuance, without deliberate intent and effort behind it. It takes work - and I applaud the product of that labor.

The title flashes on-screen within seconds, in large, scarlet letters - see what they did there? The opening scene depicts a generically cloaked figure infiltrating a compound while the guards they evade seem altogether disinterested. The camera abruptly cuts to a shot of a piece of furniture at the precise moment that Scarlett (Stone) bumps into it, revealing plot development. Our protagonist makes decisions that defy the training she was supposedly raised with.

The antagonist expresses great frustration with a display of violence while shouting not an expletive, but "Jeez!" Characters fail to don all proper PPE in a laboratory setting. There is a forcefulness to fight scenes that to me betrays not that they're unpracticed, but perhaps that an expert choreographer was not involved in production. But then, maybe I'm wrong - if effects artists can revel in the splatter of cheesy, fun horror flicks, why can't a learned fight coordinator take joy in orchestrating a scuffle as plain as the writing behind it?

As visible as actors are in any given movie, they are often the first to garner our derision if a feature in any way falls below our expectations. Yet there's a distinct difference between a performer being incapable of convincingly inhabiting a role, and a performer being instructed by their director to lean into the flavor of a role. No one in 'Scarlett' is going to be mistaken for Chiwetel Ejiofor or Jennifer Connelly, but just as it takes a great level of skill to express boundless emotions with nothing more than one's eyes, there is a craft to withholding any such expression, or to portraying a character with conscious bluntness to the same effect. I find no fault with Stone's performance, nor that of anyone else here.

The narrative in 'Scarlett' is hardly revelatory, but it's sufficiently engaging to keep watching. It's certainly not perfect though; the constant back and forth of capture and escape grows to be a bit much, and a writer of any skill level should know better, even in a film like this. Moreover, I rather wish that the protagonist were given more agency. Even as Scarlett is undoubtedly the heroine of this tale, there's a measure of constraint to how she is written, as the movie repeatedly reminds us she's not a master spy, her training was secondhand, and this story is almost more about her father than it is about her. If your screenplay centers a character, then they should definitively feel like the center.

Ultimately, 'Scarlett' isn't really fulfilling, but it's entertaining. Melanie Stone and her costars play their parts well, as they are directed to do for this screenplay, and the unquestionably straightforward course of the narrative is fun in its forthrightness. We celebrate horror films that tell stories with a similar approach, and the lesson should be applied to other genres, too - so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the cheesy sport of it.

B movie not bad tho-action etc enjoyable.would def watch a no2.

As the title says. The actress is attractive, and the fighting is decent. Yes, she is a little old to be college age. But I enjoyed this flick. Seen on Tubi, the free streaming site.