No Good Deed (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – An unstable escaped convict terrorizes a woman who is alone with her two children.

My Take – One day while surfing online, I had read a statement about some particular movie by the author – “Anything with Idris Elba in it, I am going to watch it”. Well that is clear enough for me as well. Having followed him from his BBC’s Luther days, Alba is one star whose magnificent personality has no bounds. This statement had led me into watching the horrifying 2009’s Obsessed (well that had Ali Larter & Beyonce too, more reasons to watch), & of course its surprising BO win! And just like Obsessed moving around the same boundaries comes another paper thin thriller from the same producers! The movies follows convict Collin (Idris Elba), a sociopath narcissist, who after serving a five year sentence for killing a man & a history of violence towards women, is denied parole as result escapes & begins to harass a home alone mother (Taraji P. Henson) of two.

The movie really tries hard to emphasize on its thriller aspect. Yes, there is a twist at the end that is a bit too clever for this premise, but aside from that, the structure of the whole film is quite similar to films we’ve all seen before (Fatal Attraction is the 1st one that comes to mind); only this time targeted at an African American audience! The story is another one of those all so predictable plot movies. It opens up nicely looking like a sophisticated big-budget movie, showing the news report to summarize the background. The movie then continues on building the Colin character, focusing on his nature, that it left little duration to develop Terri’s character until the main conflict arrives. Although you knew he was the “bad” guy who is eventually going to snap, you kind of find yourself liking him for a little while (with his fine self). The plot is typical TV movie stuff with its attempts to build on the suspense (which is hardly there) along with being unintentionally laughable. The movie also only serve us one twist over the entire movie. And also, that only twist is vividly predictable! It thus is quite a disappointment to find that the movie has build its story so slowly and taking most of its fair duration to have no spectacular twist than that. It does good on the addition of those flash backs and the ringing voices to build on Colin’s potential for violence. But then again, Terri is not really left any room to build on her character.

While it is somewhat curious as to why Elba would star in a movie like this at this point in his career (and also hold a producer credit) for how one dimensional his character is, he does sell it with a performance that is brutally and relentlessly intimidating. Like I said I will watch Alba in anything, more villainous roles would be a great route for him, well although in better movies. He has a very imposing stance and he could do wonders with the right part. Leslie Bibb plays the typical horny best friend and nothing beyond that. I think Taraji Henson and Idris Elba are great actors and they do what they can with the material which isn’t much at all. The direction from Sam Miller is really what makes this movie what it is, as he simply does what he was asked to do, it was pretty clear with right material he can do wonders! On the whole No Good Deed is just very mediocre, not terrible, but almost trashy entertainment. I do like the actors involved, but it would be wise to just watch these actors in other movies or TV series.