There's enough of the all-out V.C. Andrews flavor to make this installment worth a look for those who want to catch up with a family of soap people 30 years in the making.

Where Flowers was airless and po-faced, Petals is manic and sudsy, speeding through a treasure trove of sleazy plot twists like CliffsNotes on crack.

Soapy, sudsy, and scandalous, this take on the much-beloved (and much-reviled!) V.C. Andrews' book is a lot more fun than Lifetime's previous Flowers in the Attic.

[Petals on the Wind] commits the deadliest of movie sins: it does not shock, it does not move, it does not provoke...unless yawns count, it is simply a bore.