I feel like at this point I’m introducing characters in the Spider-Verse movies. Okay, let’s do this one last time. Each and every week without a major wrestling event the hosts of the At Odds with Wrestling podcast assign each other something wrestling related from the past. They discuss the homework on their Patreon show and I write up my thoughts here. This week we’re watching the TNT original movie starring then WCW star Sting and a possible height of her powers Daisy Fuentes. I watched the version on YouTube complete with the commercials that played alongside this network television debut. I also took way too many notes so I could keep the story straight. While I may have the world record for number of words written about movies starring the Miz I just don’t know that there’s a magnum opus to be had about Shutterspeed. 

The plot unfolds as needed but that also makes this a bit complicated while watching the movie. Who is this? What is their relationship? Why do I care? Once answers are given it’s all pretty straightforward. I feel it was a way to make a simple story feel deeper and thus hopefully more engrossing to the home audience. The whole plot could easily be done in 45 minutes, or less with a B plot, on a random episode of NCIS or Blue Bloods or whatever my parents are watching now. 

We start in Berlin and someone is running from bad guys. He’s holding a camera, which we know because of the movie’s title will be of some importance. He’s shot and a different guy runs off with the camera. Also, let’s get this out of the way now, it’s weird to watch TV in the old aspect ratio now. Especially without anything but black on the borders. The second guy sneaks into a building and has escaped the shooter, for now. 

The opening credits are over cameras or pieces of cameras. Hey, he’s called Steve Borden and not Sting. I’m going to call him Sting. 

We’re in Seattle for the rest of the story. Sting is watching a pregnant woman and follows her into a public bathroom. He pulls a knife on her and we’re getting really creepy right away. Sting stabs the woman’s belly, another woman comes into the bathroom and sees this then runs away in fear. Oh but it’s okay because the pregnant woman is actually a male drug dealer in disguise, smuggling cocaine in the belly. 

Now Sting is on a motorcycle and he races a hot girl in a hot car. Sting gets pulled over for speeding. No policeman’s code? Sting pulls up to the hot girl’s photo shoot, and it’s Daisy. They have this very aggressive flirting and it’s all role play. They’re a long time couple about to get married. Yay for random people coming in with the exposition. 

Now at the police precinct, detective Sting is dressed down for how he handled the not pregnant woman situation. Another cop comes in and tells Sting his friend Mark dropped off a camera. It’s the same camera from Berlin. We see a picture of Sting with two people in his locker and a brief flashback that is fuzzy but will become clearer as the movie goes on. Heather greets Sting at his home. It’s not made clear until later but she’s a model friend of Daisy’s who also watches their dog. She also is now dating Sting’s friend Mark from earlier who is also Daisy’s brother. Alright, getting all the chess pieces and biographies on the board. There’s only one picture on the camera and they’ll get that developed later. 

Mark is captured by the bad guys from Berlin and very gently beaten up. Seriously, I’ve slapped flies away harder. Mark won’t tell what he did with the camera however a bad guy plays Mark’s messages and there’s one from Sting saying hey Mark what am I supposed to do with this camera? Mark is now killed off camera. 

Sting is in bed with Daisy and starts having nightmares. See guys, even with a hot girl next to you there could still be nightmares. His dad may have been murdered. More on all of this later. 

We’re at the first commercial break. I think this was the usual pattern of a long opening scene to get viewers hooked before the first commercial break, then more frequent commercials in the second half once everyone’s already committed. I’m not going over every commercial but some jumped out at me during the evening. 10-10-220 with Christopher Lyoyd. I forgot about those things. Papa John’s is over 20 years old? I don’t know that I’ve ever had it. DSP/Texas Instruments look at this phone! The Steel movie will debut on TNT in the prime time slot of 10:30 PM on a Saturday night. That is buried. 

Back to the movie. 

Heather kisses Mark in the dark room. Sting needs the photo developed. There’s a lot of quick scene jumps throughout the movie. Scenes that could have been combined, or flow a bit more seamlessly. I mean, fun fact, the writers learn how to do this later on because they went on to write the Conjuring series. 

Back at the police station. Sting’s brother is being transferred. Sting is mad. Hints of something involving their dad’s death. Sting and his brother have a dick measuring contest at the gun range. They definitely have tension over dad’s death. 

Sting and Daisy have dinner. Later Daisy gets out of bed and walks … upstairs? What a weird floor plan for this place. Sting plays piano because he can’t sleep. Is this an elaborate Sting and The Police joke? Maybe some tantric sex humor later. There must be a reason he got Daisy. 

Sting’s brother has his first day. Daisy has lunch with Sting’s brother. The first time they’ve met in person. She’s trying to be a mediator. Sting shows up, sees his brother, and leaves. Sting and Daisy argue.

Sting is back at work. They found Mark’s body. “He was going to be my best man.” Sting is going to work Mark’s death with his brother. His brother who wasn’t good enough to notice Mark and Daisy have the same last name and might be related. 

Commercial break. Just so you know the last Goodwill Games took place in 2001. 

We’re back and Sting is visiting Daisy’s talent agent, who was also Mark’s agent. We get a little more information about people and this Agent is being set up as a suspect. 

Sting and his brother talk about working together. Wait, shit, who is who again? Ok Mark is dead and Eric is the name of the kid police photographer. I don’t remember ever hearing his name. Eric brings the one photo from the camera but its blurry so he sent it to the FBI to clean up. Sting and his brother go over new notes on Mark’s death. Sting goes home and the house has been trashed by the bad guys. They probably had trouble figuring out the floorplan and getting from room to room. Heather is dead in the bath. Daisy is at a fashion show. Sting calls her to see if she’s okay. She wants to talk. He tells her to shut up and listen. She hangs up on him. Women. Am I right fellas? Guys? Hello? 

Sting is on his way but not in time. Daisy is kidnapped. The bad guy shoots another model on the way out. This causes a strobe light panic. By the time Sting shows up all of the other cops are there but no one knows what happened to Daisy. 

Bad guy headquarters is an elaborate counterfeit money printing facility. Daisy also finds out her brother is dead. Eric is taking crime scene photographs of his dead girlfriend in the tub. I feel like that is a thing that wouldn’t happen. Get someone else to take the pictures today. 

Commercials. 

This “I don’t like cheese” presidential campaign commercial must have been absurd in 2000 but now I could see every moment of this happening for real in 2024. In addition to Papa John’s I’ve never gone to Sonic either. Or Shoeny’s. Not sure if that one is still around. Is that the one that Scott Steiner had a franchise? I had a stuffed bear from one though. Oh hey look, behind the scenes of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Where’s that homework? 

Back to the movie. Sting’s brother sees the trashed house. He has a flashback as well. Was he undercover when his dad was shot? Sting’s desk phone rings. He pretends it’s someone else but it’s about Daisy telling him where to do a swap. Sting tries to sneak out but his brother confronts him. Sting is going to hand over the camera for Daisy. Sting’s at the parking garage meet up and told that Daisy will be released within an hour. However, now his brother and a bunch of police show up. One suspect is shot. Sting chases the other through the parking garage. Maybe the same one Miz ended up in in the Marine series. The suspect’s truck crashes and he takes a hostage. Sting puts the gun down then the other cops show up. Sting shoots the suspect. Sting confronts his brother and says he had it all under control. Sting blames his brother for everyone he knows dying. The mom of the hostage slaps Sting and it’s a harder slap than Mark’s interrogation. 

The police chief dresses down Sting. Sting and his brother fight over the camera. I’m still confused about this flashback scene but we’ll get there. Sting and his brother agree to work together for Daisy. 

Commercial break. Is Office Depot gone? Nope. Just not in my area. 

Back to the show and the bad guy is at the Agent’s house. So clearly they know each other. Daisy is crying while still kidnapped. Sting opens up the camera for clues. Sting calls Daisy but the bad guy answers. They’ll talk at 10AM and set up some sort of meet. Sting and his brother have a heart to heart. They have the same dad but different moms. “He didn’t go in as a cop, he went in as a father.” Okay, so brother is undercover. Their dad thinks he’s over his head. Dad and Sting go to the same bar. They’re made which makes the whole deal go south. Sting thinks if his brother listened their dad wouldn’t have been shot. Personally I think they’re all reckless, Sting the most so, and they’re lucky any of them are still alive. Not just from this one moment but for many during the movie. 

Sting’s brother finds something in the camera. Bad guy and Agent meet. 5 years and $6 million in payoffs and they’re almost done. The Agent will pretend to be an intermediary. Eric comes into the room with Sting and his brother. He uses a microscope or something similar for photos. These are custom clearance codes that are being used to smuggle things in. Daisy now knows the Agent is part of this. The bad guys tell him to shoot her. He does and nothing happens. It’s not really said if the gun was loaded or blanks or whatever. Sting’s brother calls the police station pretending to be a bad guy to get Sting out of the building. 

Commercial break and are Ball Park singles still a thing? Apparently they are. I had to go gluten free for my health so if I find some buns, it’s on. 

Sting and his brother wait at the house. Very complicated feelings come out. They both look the same so it’s not obvious how many years have passed since their father’s death. I’m not sure if a bad guy would assemble a sniper rifle in a home and then walk the assembled one across the street. Why not wait and assemble it there? Also, how much money does Daisy make as a model? Because Sting could not have afforded this home as a detective. Eric has the cleaned up FBI picture and look, there’s the Agent. Sting and his brother break into the Agent’s office before the sniper bad guy is ready across the street. LIke I said, the pacing for this movie gets crazy. This must have taken place before the phone call that was supposed to happen at 10AM too. I don’t know what the sniper is using. It looks like a handgun connected to a silencer then with a longer rifle barrel. I’m not a gun guy so maybe this is normal but it looks weird. Most of my knowledge of guns comes from the Punisher Armory. The sniper shoots the Agent, the brother shoots the sniper, and in the middle of this all does someone tell Sting where he can find Daisy?

Commercial break and we get our first and only commercial for WCW Nitro. Great cross promotion guys. Also, BattleBots is on. Pay per view?! I’ll watch it sometimes on TV but not a chance in hell would I have spent $30 or whatever on that. 

Sting is on his bike going somewhere, so I guess he figured out where Daisy is hidden. Daisy and the bad guys are in some warehouse pier thing. Sting rolls up and meets his brother in another building overlooking the operation. Sting rolls up on the bad guys and wants to initiate the trade. Sting’s brother sneaks into the vehicle with Daisy. The brother hotwires the truck and they escape. Sting dives for safety as the truck drives away and the police show up. There’s a helicopter?! The police helicopter keeps the bad guy helicopter down. This feels like 90% of the budget. The bad guy helicopter pilot is shot in the shittiest filmed and acted scene in the entire movie, and I’ll dare say in the entire history of Homework. 

Sting and his brother in one vehicle (they put Daisy in a safe corner or something) chase bad guy number one in another truck. Everyone else is in a shoot out. Bad guy crashes into a shed and this is enough to flip the truck over. The bad guy sneaks up on Sting. The brother shows up. This is just like the flashback. Sting needs his brother to trust him, unlike last time. The brother lowers his gun, Sting kick flips away, and his brother shoots the bad guy. Sting shoots the truck and funny money rains down on everyone. 

Sting, his brother, and Daisy are all at Mark’s grave. We jump to the wedding. That’s a lot of people crammed into a small church. Looks like the November Rain video. This “happy and satisfied” song that plays at the end is horrible. Sting and Daisy leave on the motorcycle. Sting and Daisy kiss somewhere pretty while another cop is writing them a ticket. Probably made he wasn’t invited to the wedding.

Stay tuned for an encore presentation. 

The movie isn’t horrible once all the pieces are there. Honestly, if this was a two hour pilot I would watch the show. Cheap cable drama with a big guy and hot woman. Sting’s answer to Thunder in Paradise. It is overall forgettable. If I wasn’t taking notes I’m sure I would have forgotten who was who and what was going on for the first hour. Other than the helicopter pilot death, not the worst thing we’ve watched. 

Finally, we see how Sting is doing most weeks on AEW but just so you know, according to her Instagram Daisy Fuentes is still doing very well too.