The Two Mr. Kissels is quite possibly the worst TV movie I have ever seen. Without a doubt, the commercial interruptions were the high points of the experience.The script was ridiculous, the acting flat and the direction useless. I waited and listened to useless dialog hoping for the film to take some direction. It never happened.I wish I could cite some worthwhile attribute of this film. Unfortunately there was none In spite of the boredom, I hung in for the entire horrid experience. The only relief came when the end titles appeared! This trash is not worth one moment of anyone's time! 1/10

Firstly, I know about the subject matter. It is based on a true story and many of the main characters are real people (this is a docudrama) and some have different names. The characters resemble the actual people but look nothing like the real people involved and some of the facts are altered or left out. I'm not sure if this is because of potential liability or threatened legal action or the producers only used the actual events as a jumping-off point and didn't think they were doing a documentary, so accuracy was not tantamount. Also, the time line was cleaned up and made easier to understand because there were other issues that were not included (Nancy's father planned on taking care of Robert's kids and then her brother wanted to care for them, etc.) so if you're watching this thinking this is all the way it was or were not familiar with the actual events, please understand there is a lot more information that was not included or was altered, so the movie is not accurate. The producers and the writer work around this by calling the movie a docudrama, which means as long as it has some truth to it, then that's okay but some details were basically mis-represented in any event.

This just released on TV gave the viewers a treat in the performances and script. A mystery, although it's pretty obvious as to what will happen from the beginning. In fact in the promos of the film you sort of know what's ahead. The two Mr. Kissels are played by Anson Mount and John Stamos. Like the good and bad brothers. Cain and Able. One tries to compete with the other in life, love and happiness. First one gets married then the other. But the wives are reversed in good and bad. Anson marries a witch, played by the not so attractive Robin Tunney, who is out for all she can get. You do wonder why this nice looking guy would not only fall for the likes of Tunney, but why he would put up with her. Most guys would have dropped her fast. She looked like Dracula's daughter. Then Stamos married a beauty who is all for him and he screws up all he way.You put these four together and sooner or later it all falls apart. I felt bad for Anson and the gal who played the other wife, don't know her name. Stamos and Tunney earned their fates.Both Stamos and Mount did good jobs. A big departure for Stamos who usually plays the nice guy. Mount is new to me and should go far in his career. Tunney, you want to forget. Bad casting and not that pretty to look at.

Some very good individual scenes here, and an excellent performance from John Stamos (not so with Robin...who is just terribly miscast in this one)....however the whole is not as good as it's individual parts. Based on a true story, I had seen several documentaries about this really amazing case (Two brothers on separate Continent's are both murdered). Those documentaries are extremely fulfilling. This TV drama only touches on the highlights of the tragedies. Unfortunately, the wealth of material that was available to the writer wasn't used properly. Yes, as I've said, some VERY good, and well researched scenes. However, this TV movie basically only has acted sections of what really happened. Unfortunately, if you don't know enough about the case itself....this film won't make too much sense. But what is there is good....it's just not enough. Investigate the case before you see the film, and I'm sure you will agree.