No Good Deed (2014)

Elevator Pitch: Colin is a manipulative convict, jailed for manslaughter, and up before the parole board who deny his release. On their way back to the penitentiary he overcomes his guards and escapes, going to the home of his former fiancée and killing her. He escapes, but crashes his vehicles and walks up to the front door of Terri, who lives in large house in Atlanta with two children, and whose husband has just left for a visit to his family. Terri incautiously lets Colin in, and even after the arrival of her friend Meg, he remains charming and they drink wine. But when Colin and Meg go outside for a smoke, she reveals her suspicion of him. How will it all go?

Content: No sex or nudity and just a bit of drinking. There is smoking, but I’m not sure whether it is tobacco or pot. Colin rides in the prison van, and the parole hearing takes place where a member of the board brings up the possibility that he has committed other killings. Once he has disposed of the prison officers who are taking him back  he is out in the upmarket suburbs of Atlanta. We see him kill his ex fiancée and then the interaction between him and Terri as the situation gets worse and worse, but it would not be a spoiler to say that Terri is a woman who is not easily frightened.

A View: This film was not shown to the critics, usually indicating that it is a dud, and indeed the few who paid to see it gave it the thumbs down. However it easily covered its estimated $15 million production cost on its first weekend and went on to make money. Probably the presence of the former Stringer Bell from The Wire, one of the coolest characters ever, and that of the lesbian sniper from Smokin’ Aces guaranteed an audience. And indeed they are great, doing their best with a lame story. So it could be a movie to have on while doing something else, but not one to spend money on.

Additional Info: How is it, people have opined, that there can be a killer on the loose in the city without anyone saying anything in the media, or there being any