MovieFreak.com - "No Good Deed" DVD Review by Dennis Landmann

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Stellan Skarsgård, Doug Hutchison, Joss Ackland

A missing persons investigation escalates into a deadly game of cat and mouse when detective Jack Friar (Jackson) is captured and held hostage by a gang of brutal thieves in the process of an elaborate bank robbery. Cruel mastermind Tyrone (Skarsgård), manipulative girlfriend Erin (Jovovich), and deranged henchman Hoop (Hutchinson) are locked in a dangerous web of deceit, double-cross and romantic intrigue, making Jack a pawn in the lethal high stakes plot.

Apparently the original title for this film was The House on Turk Street. This makes sense since the script (by Christopher Canaan and Steve Barancik) is based on a short story of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. Hammett also wrote "The Maltese Falcon", which in 1941 director John Huston turned into a cool noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. No Good Deed wants to be a kind of noir film, but it doesn't succeed. The problem lies within the execution of the story. Hammett's short story is just what it is; short.

The first thirty minutes are kind of odd in the way we meet the characters. Jack is introduced to the viewer in the opening five minutes. We learn he's a student of music, a detective and a diabetic. He investigates the disappearance of a runaway girl when he sees an old woman dropping her groceries. He goes to help her and she invites him inside her home for some coffee. As he sits down he suddenly feels the barrel of a gun at the back of his head. He just stumbled upon a gang of thieves operating out of the woman's house, and she's in on it. With Jack tied to a chair, Tyrone and Hoop go about the heist and Erin stays behind to watch Jack. For the entire film Jack must use his skills and intuition to survive and stop the thieves from making a clean getaway. What follows is a decent game of cat-and-mouse.

The plot is rather simple as a whole. However, things get kind of interesting when Jack and Erin are alone in the house, and Tyrone poses as a blind man during the bank heist. The film breaks into two separate stories at this point, and each new scene adds some intrigue to the film's larger scope. The story takes pace over some 48 hours or less. With a 97-minute running time, No Good Deed is not terribly slow-moving. I wasn't bored by anything in this film, though a more tighter approach to the story would've strengthened the overall pace. Whatever pauses and slow scenes exist, the plot moves along. This moving of the plot works because of the back-and-forth cutting of the two separate stories.

The thing about the cat-and-mouse aspect of the story is that it could've been better. I like it for what it is, but improvement is needed to make it effective. That's why the film is only decent in the way it presents intrigue. Again, the film didn't bore me, but it didn't surprise me either. The DVD back cover exclaims the following about the film, "Deception is the rule in this action-packed, pitch-black thriller that will hold you in suspense until the final frame." Deception certainly plays a role in the story, but it's rarely effective when it appears. Also, the film lacks some twists. I think those would've helped and aided in the areas of deception and intrigue. Then again, a film should avoid employing too many twists so as not to confuse; a good example is John McTiernan's Basic.

Moreover, No Good Deed is not action-packed. It's also not a pitch-black thriller. Another awkward thing about that quote is the mention of suspense until the final frame. The last ten to fifteen minutes play out interestingly, but the suspense does not reach the final frame. In fact, the climax is pretty monotonous. It's not the climax I expected. Most of the performances are good, except for a disappointing Doug Hutchison (his is a throwaway role). Jackson and Jovovich have a little chemistry. Skarsgård plays the bad guy in typical fashion. Director Bob Rafelson does a decent job, and I think the script should've been better. Some parts of No Good Deed seemed to suggest a made-for-TV film, but I don't know. No Good Deed is a decent film overall. Some viewers may not care about any of it, others might.

Columbia Tristar presents No Good Deed in 1.33:1 fullscreen format. I don't know if Bob Rafelson shot the film this way. I can't think of any other reason why a widescreen version wouldn't be available on this disc. Picture quality is alright. I didn't notice any dirt or scratches on the print image, although I watched this film late at night with sleepy eyes. Colors look decent. Color detail is fine. Dark tones and black levels are okay. Compression artifacts do not occur. I don't know what else to say other than the film looks pretty decent.

Columbia Tristar presents No Good Deed in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Well, there isn't a lot of surround usage here. Much of the film consists of dialogue, which is clear, easy to understand, and nicely reproduced across the two front channels. Sound effects, such as the heavy rain later in the film, come across nicely. Rear speakers don't have a lot of work here, but the front channels do a good job. Overall, a decent and perfectly fine presentation.

All we get is the film's theatrical trailer plus a few bonus trailers (Resident Evil, S.W.A.T. and one more). It's a pretty cheap affair, but for a film starring these actors I think something more was warranted. Then again, probably nobody has ever heard of this film.

You can select to view the film with optional English and French subtitles. The 97-minute feature is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

No Good Deed is a decent film. It has its slow stretches, but I wasn't bored. The cat-and-mouse aspect works fine and some intrigue is present. The story is kind of simple; some viewers may find it uninteresting. Video/audio quality is just fine. But there are no extras. No Good Deed is definite rental material, seeing as how it went straight to video/DVD in the first place.

THE MOVIE	6
THE VIDEO	7
THE AUDIO	7
THE EXTRAS	1
OVERALL (not an average)	5