Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

How sad is this?

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Nothing is scarier than seeing the man who played the part of Bill Denberough from Stephen King's IT playing the part of Rich Farley, a psychotic stalker creeping around with a machine gun in a computer research corporation. And what started his scary rampage? A woman named Laura Black. But it wasn't her fault. She was the victim.Laura has just graduated and is leaving her tacky little Virginia town to work as an engineer in Silicon Valley, a high-tech looking city with an introduction soundtrack that along with the powerful buildings really reminds me of that stupid animated kid's film, the Brave Little Toaster, for some reason. And when Laura arrives, she meets a friendly group of technicians, along with a kind of nerdy guy named Richard (Rich) Farley. And at first he seems like he could be a really good friend, but it begins to get creepy when he hangs around Laura's gym class watching her do aerobics, and when he shows up in her office very early in the morning offering her blueberry bread. When he gets creepily violent, slashing her car tires, sending her evil letters and sending her family spliced photos of him and Laura together, she tells her bosses, who automatically pin it on her. Soon she moves to a high-tech security home with her landlord friend, but Rich shows up in her garage, and threatens to murder her bosses, until they finally fire him.That's when he snaps.He buys a trailer and a bunch of guns, watches several influential crime-type drama movies, then shows up in the morning shooting up the whole corporation, killing or injuring many of Laura's friends. Her best friend from work tries to rescue one man who's been shot but it still alive, but Rich arrives standing on the toilet in the bathroom where they're hiding. Can Laura make it out alive, or is she finally his victim? Well, I'm not going to tell you, that'd ruin the ending. So here's my review and rating.I love Lifetime Network movies, and this one I just had to see. I thought after the first few minutes of Rich's pathetic and weird love attempts that it would be humorous, but it got dramatic and creepy. It was based on a true story, too. The actors did a great job, it had kind of a late Eighties/early Nineties soundtrack that I really liked, and it was suspenseful. However, it had a dumb ending, being that Rich surrenders to the police over a sandwich! That's right, a sandwich! Because of course, this criminal isn't just a dork, he's also willing to give himself up to go pick up a sandwich the police have brought him. Still, good that he gets arrested in the end, but what a lousy way to go! Either way, that's my only complaint. 8/10 is my rating!

On February 16, 1988 Richard Wade Farley shot dead seven people at the headquarters of the computer company where he had previously worked in Sunnyvale, California and injured four others. He was subsequently convicted of seven counts of first degree murder and sentenced to death, although the sentence has not yet been carried out and he is currently sitting on death row at San Quentin prison.The cause of Farley's murderous rampage was his obsession with a young co-worker named Laura Black. (She was one of those wounded in the shooting, but survived). Farley had persistently pressed Black to go on a date with him, and when she refused began stalking her, sending her unwanted letters and gifts. Eventually he was dismissed from the company, but this did not diminish his obsession with Black, whom he continued to stalk for four years between 1984 and 1988, even though she changed address several times during that period. The trigger for the killings appears to have been when she obtained a temporary restraining order against him. Following this case and the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer by a deranged fan, California passed the first anti-stalking laws in America.This film is a dramatisation of those events; it appears to be known by various titles, but I will refer to it as "Stalking Laura", the title by which it is known in Britain. (It was originally made as a TV movie for American television). The real Richard Farley appears to have been an unattractive, unprepossessing figure, considerably older than Laura Black, so it was surprising to see him portrayed by the good-looking Richard Thomas. For anyone of my generation Thomas will always be John-Boy from that impossibly wholesome TV series "The Waltons", so I found it difficult to believe in him as a homicidal maniac.Brooke Shields rose to prominence in the late seventies after the scandal surrounding her film "Pretty Baby". She was one of several "teenage temptresses" who were being tipped for stardom around this period; others included Jodie Foster ("Taxi Driver") and Nastassia Kinski ("Tess"). Although she remains a reasonably well-known figure, Shields has never really achieved the huge success that was once predicted for her, despite her striking beauty. Part of the reason must be that too many of her early films, like "The Blue Lagoon" and "Endless Love" (another film about romantic obsession), were poor ones, and she was not helped by the contrast between her sexy on-screen image and all those media stories in the eighties suggesting that off-screen she was actually rather prim and virginal. Another part of the problem, however, is that her acting is often characterised by a reticence which makes it difficult for her to convey strong emotions successfully. (She is better in light comedy like her TV series "Suddenly Susan"). Here it seems obvious that Farley's actions would have caused Laura to feel strong emotions, chiefly fear and anger, but we never get any strong sense of these.The British title "Stalking Laura" is perhaps indicative of where the film's main emphasis lies. Although it deals with the crimes of a notorious mass murderer, it tries to play it safe (a common failing with TV movies), concentrating not on the killer but on one of his victims. Moreover, it also concentrates on the years during which Farley was stalking Black more than on the killings; apart from Black herself, those individuals who were actually killed or injured remain for the most part faceless and nameless. A more daring approach might have been to have shown events more from Farley's viewpoint and to have examined the psychological factors which led him to kill; this would have been more risky, but might have yielded a more interesting result. Something like this might have worked in a made-for-cinema feature film, but the producers of this movie went for the safe option, evidently calculating that a TV audience would prefer to watch something where the primary character is an obviously sweet and wholesome girl-next-door type who finds herself in danger though no fault of her own. 5/10

"Stalking Laura" is the feel good romantic comedy of the year that's finally available on DVD. Richard Thomas stars as our shy, misunderstood hero Richard Farley who's determined to win the heart of a cold, career minded co-worker (Laura Black) portrayed with bitchy hilariousness by Brooke Shields. Determined to win her love despite the objections of an overzealous and litigious HR representative, clueless bosses and Laura's wacky best friend, who all try their best to prevent the unlikely interoffice romance, a cute office game of "Cowboys and Indians" shows just how far Richard will go to win Laura's cold heart.I can't think of a better way to spend a chilly Tuesday night, than to curl up on my sofa with a Togo's #23 sandwich (it's the best) and a quart sized diet cola (extra ice, I like to chew on the ice) and my copy of "Stalking Laura". If I could give this movie and 11 I would, but take my word for it, I CAN make you love Stalking Laura.

This was the first movie I watched with Richard Thomas in as a mature man. It has become my favorite, although I don't know why, unless it has to do with Brooke Shields. She's a beautiful girl, but let's face it, she really can't act. However, she did lend creditability to her part by possibly drawing on her own stalking experience. She was miscast in my opinion, the real Laura Black was petite. Thomas spends most of his scenes with her gazing up into her face with those gorgeous blue eyes of his. Once again, the real talent here is Thomas. Arrogant, pushy, and menacing though most of it, at the end, he effectively generates sympathy for his benevolent and suffering character On the outside looking in is indeed a lonely place. And who knows..maybe she did point her finger at some time and laugh at him. The special and gifted do take advantage of the lesser. Some of the acting is not very good-but Thomas shines as he ALWAYS does. The movie is based on fact-you can look it up on the net. The scene where Farley looks up at her with that longing and surety in his incredible eyes and says, you and I were meant for each other, Laura, all I know is we were meant to be together-forever is what did it for me. That and the blueberry bread he baked for her in the first part of the movie. Even psycotics have their moments.