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No Good Deed
Stars: Idris Elba, Taraji P Henson, Leslie Bibb, Kate Del Castillo, Henry Simmons
Director: Sam Miller
In the long-ago days of the deliberate second feature (unlike so many contemporary cinema releases where patently obvious B movies are shamelessly given stand-alone releases), this competent thriller might have been a bonus addition to a double-bill.
On its own, however, and despite being competently acted by Idris Elba and Taraji P Henson and efficiently, if anonymously directed by Sam Miller, the thriller doesnt really merit paying to see on the big screen unless youre a cinema completist, or a fan of its stars.
After his angelic, cynically sanitised-for-celluloid-hagiography turn as guerilla-turned-saint Nelson Mandela, Elba is effectively unpleasant as a prisoner serving five years for manslaughter who escapes after failing to be paroled and ends up holding single mother Henson prisoner in her home
You can guess the rest. To give everyone involved, efficient enough suspense escalates as the eminently predictable cat-and-mouse captive-versus-captor suspenser evolves. Not terrible, simply over-familiar and cliché-ridden.
Alan Frank
USA 2014. UK Distributor: Sony (Screen Gems). Colour.
83 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.
Review date: 24 Nov 2014