No Good Deed.

Although barely rated above a modern B-Movie it’s the robustly physical and menacing performance from British actor Idris Elba that makes the American thriller No Good Deed (2014) worth a look, he manages to make you believe in his larger than life portrayal of Colin Evans. The movie is directed by another Brit Sam Miller who had previously worked with the star on the popular TV series Luther in which Elba plays a rather unpredictable police inspector serving in the Serious Crime Unit. Miller’s resume mainly lists TV drama’s but does included a couple of feature films including an appealing British romantic comedy drama Among Giants (1998) which starred Pete Postlethwaite and Rachel Griffith.

 

Loosing his appeal starts Edris Elba on a tragic journey. 

When Colin Evans is accused of being a malignant narcissist and fails to get his expected parole after serving a third of a fifteen sentence for murder he knows his chance will not come again for another five years. It’s during his transportation back to prison that he carries out a brutal escape killing both of his guards. High jacking a truck, he precedes to track down his former girlfriend and resume their fraught relationship. Discovering that she now has feelings for another man he murders her and making a hasty retreat crashes the truck and tricks his way into the house of Terri, a mother of two (played with a lot of vitality and strength by Taraji P Henson) whose husband is away on a business trip. Unaware at first of the nature of her late night visitor there develops a strange attraction between the two. But the question is where will it lead? An entertaining outing that the critics hated, but the public disagreed enough to make it a box office hit in the USA.

The Three Musketeers 2011.

Its all very simple really, based on a rehash of the Alexandre Dumas classic novel The Three Musketeers (2011) tells an exciting and fun filled tale of three elite Musketeers, Porthos (Ray Stevenson), Athos (Matthew Macfadyen) and Aramis (Luke Evans), who serve the King of France. After discovering an evil conspiracy to over throw the King and increasing their number to four, by the addition of D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman), they embark on a dangerous mission to foil a plot by Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) and his henchman Captain Rochefort (Mads Mikkelson) that not only threatens the King but also the very future of Europe itself. Paul W.S. Anderson directs, best known for the Resident Evil franchise which also starred his current wife the Ukrainian actress Milla Jovovich, in the Three Musketeers, (or was it four, I’ve lost count?) she plays Milady de Winter a beautiful spy working for the Cardinal whom Athos has got a crush on.

This movie is every thing Haywire (2012) should have been but was not, a dam good action packed adventure drama, exciting, fun and never boring. It’s what Besson meant when he described a film as a ‘good night out’. All action films should follow this blue print and it should make no difference which era its set in, the principal should always be the same.  A sequel is due to be released next year.

Deep End (1970)

Occasionally I question why a particular film is described as a “classic”, Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1970 US-West German co-production Deep End is one such example. But don’t get me wrong this so called lost film deserved its restoration and recent cinema re-release along with a DVD release in July as part of the British Film Institutes worthwhile BFI Flipside series if for no other reason than to give us all a chance to sample this cinematic curio, one that gained critical triumph on its initial release but not box office success.

Mainly shot in Munich, although the London Street scenes were actually shot in Soho, and the exterior of Baths shot in Leytonstone East London, it was set at the tail end of the swinging London scene. John Moulder Brown plays Mike a 15 year-old who has just left school and started work in a Public Bathhouse, something that most towns had due to lack of bathing facilities in peoples homes at that time, this one also incorporated a swimming pool. Responsibility for his training falls to the sexually active Susan who is a wee bit older than our school lever. Adolescent desire kicks in and Mike falls in lust with Susan and who can blame him, but she also has a fiancé Chris (Christopher Sanford) and a lover the lecherous married swimming instructor played by the German actor Karl Michael Vogler. I must not forget to mention the voluptuous Diana Dors who in a wee cameo try’s to seduce the young boy after taking her bath, one of the truly humorous scenes in the film.

Jane Asher

The much coveted Susan is played by one of the key figures of the sixties Jane Asher who was nominated, justifiably, for a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress for her role. She had already appeared opposite Michael Caine in a seminal sixties film Alfie (1966) and had been engaged to the Beatle Paul McCartney. I’m quite aware that the Polish director allowed his actors to improvise, but I’m afraid that Moulder Brown’s acting skills leaves a little bit to be desired. Initially masquerading as a light-hearted sexual sixties romp, the longer the film goes on the darker and more disturbing it gets.  As I have said maybe not a classic but well worth a look.