Fans of the hard-boiled crime thriller are sorely under-served these days, but here we have a Hammett story adapted for the screen and directed by the always trustworthy Bob Rafelson. Milla Jovovich is the centerpiece as a woman who uses her sexuality to attract men who are then robbed by the other members of her gang. But when detective Sam Jackson intrudes on this little arrangement, it begins to unravel. Jealousy, deceit and betrayal follow and soon sparks and bullets start to fly. The cast are very good and completely convincing in their lowlife milieu, and the script gives them plenty of hard-edged banter to bandy back and forth amidst the various sneakings around. The action, when it comes, is not the usual stylized action movie nonsense, but is explosive and violent and most importantly organic to the plot rather than gratuitous. And the plot twists have a similar organic logic, rather than having that contrived feel of being a plot twist because we haven't had one for a while. There is a nice gritty yet realistic look here that really helps to pull together the various crime genre elements into a credible and watchable drama, and the actors make it all work. Recommended, but keep expectations reasonable.
Review of No Good Deed
