Dearest Blog, yesterday afternoon it was off to the pictures for the thriller No Good Deed.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
Home alone on a dark and stormy night, a woman and her two young children are terrorized by an intruder.
Readers, I gotta be straight with ya: I find leads Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson to be two of the most beautiful people in the world. I can't decide if I liked this movie more than it deserved, because I got to look at them for 90 minutes, or if I liked it less than it deserved, because I was distracted by their excessive good looks. At any rate...
No Good Deed is a decent thriller that does a nice job of maintaining suspense throughout. If the tricks are cheap, they're also effective; I jumped in my seat a fair few times. It's got kind of a twist on a twist, so, if you see the first bit coming (I did), it may still take you by surprise. Hensen is perfect, terrified (especially for her children), but no simpering damsel in distress.
Elba plays the psycho baddie with relish, and every frame seems specifically designed to make him look larger (he's 6'3" to Henson's 5'5") and more menacing. Paul Haslinger's comically melodramatic score sets the right tone, even if it's a bit much at times.
No Good Deed clocks in at a quick 84 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sequences of violence, menace, terror, and for language."
A perfect fit between Summer Blockbuster Season and Awards Season, No Good Deed is worth your ten bucks, but you'll likely have forgotten it ever existed by next year at this time.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, No Good Deed gets five and a half.
Until next time...
Thank you, but I've already bought my Girl Scout cookies!
