No Good Deed

Starring:Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd, Doug Hutchison, Joss Ackland, Grace Zabriskie, Jonathan Higgins, Shannon Lawson, Robert Welch (III), Francis X. McCarthy, NoÃ«l Burton, Roberto Blizzard, Shawn Roberts (VI), Terence Bowman, Robert Brewster, Peter Blascke, Jennifer Seguin, Larry Day, Andrew Campbell (IX), Carole Bureau
Director: Bob Rafelson
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Echoes of The Maltese Falcon reverberate through No Good Deed, a loose, updated adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's kidnapped-cop tale The House on Turk Street. Unfortunately, the film proves an interesting disaster at best, certain to leave fans of noir director Bob Rafelson (Blood and Wine) wondering what happened. Samuel L. Jackson plays lonely police detective and amateur cellist Jack Friar, whose search for a missing girl results in being taken captive by a motley gang of dreamers, lost souls, and psychopaths on the eve of a bank heist. Left alone with an armed but sympathetic, Russian-classical-pianist-turned-femme-fatale (Milla Jovovich), Jack finds someone to save. But the film's credulity is lost when Rafelson fails to convince us that Jack's honor-bound refusal to escape, despite a prime opportunity while nuzzling the defenseless Milla, is a good and honorable thing. One can feel authentic Hammett themes stirring here, but it's not enough. --Tom Keogh

Description

Based on a short story entitled 'The House on Turk Street' by Dashiell Hammett, this crime drama is about a police detective who, while doing a friend a favor and searching for a runaway teenager, stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery. Starring:Samuel L. Jackson (Basic), Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil).

Customer Reviews:

Intelligent Noir!.......2007-03-20

To just only think about Bob Rafelson directing this film is by itself a solid warranty. That' s what it made to pay attention to this solid policeman that deals with a diabetic and cellist police officer who spends his holydays trying to perform Johannes Brahms ` Trio Op. 8, when suddenly his neighbor wants for him to help her to search his missed daughter. He will refuse, but soon h3 will change of mind and so he will live one of these awful experiences that the fate keeps for all who preserve the white room of the law.

Soon he will get involved about a very careful plan to robe 10 millions $, and the quartet formed nobody trusts in each other. A wounded and mentally disturbed woman, a repressive husband, and two other who pretend her each one to his own, will absorb you in this intriguing movie, plenty of those psychological devices that one really appreciates. Suggestive work illumination conforms a very advisable film to watch over and over.

Recommended without reserves, but never a classic.

No Good Deed was far too annoying.......2004-09-02

It started off good and then it went to crap all the way threw. Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Die Hard With A Vengenace) plays a cop who is helping out a mother of a lost child. So he sets out in search of her and ends up being taken hostage and tied to a chair. From there on it was too far too with stand. I couldnt bare the fact that Jackson signed up for this gargantuan of a bomb. Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil Apocalypse, The Fifth Element) seems like she is still is in Resident Evil. Stellan Skarsgard (Deep Blue Sea, The Exorcist The Beginning) is boring as hell as Tyrone. Doug Hutchison (Bait) dies the same way he did in The Salton Sea...with something in his neck. Those old people were just too annoying and so was this. I was tempted to stop and rewind and send it back to the store but then Jovovich in the shower keeped me from doing it and then I said screw it and watched the rest. Ughhhhh is all I half to say. Also starring Joss Ackland (Lethal Weapon 2).

THRILLING PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPER THAT SPREADS ITSELF THIN.......2004-07-31

The script pecks in every conceivable direction, and a few inconceivable ones, but surely not as terribly as the reviews would suggest. It held my attention throughout its winded course.

The suspense scenes are fabulously constructed, revolving around universally appealing themes -- bank heist, kidnapping, layered romance, betrayal, and above all, some fabulous twists.

Part of the slick fun is trying to figure out what the characters have up their individual sleeves, what surprising turn each may have to dish out. Result, an alluring semi-noir in which the audience is not privy in advance to how they'll all get away with it, or even who the good or the bad guys are.

Towards the end, we fall into the net of one gratuitous turn too many, which the eventually simplistic plot clearly did not have an appetite to digest, but hey, overall it is pretty cleverly done. Renting, at least, may be a good deed indeed.

HAS GOOD ACTORS IN IT, BUT..........2004-02-21

DURING A MISSING PERSONS INVESTIGATION, A COP [SAMUEL L. JACKSON] GETS KIDNAPPED BY A GANG OF THIEVES. MEANWHILE, AN ELABORATE BANK ROBBERY IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN. OF COURSE, SAMUEL DOES GREAT AS ALWAYS, BUT THE SCRIPT AND ESPECIALLY THE VERY SLOW PACE BRINGS IT DOWN. WHAT SOUNDED LIKE A GOOD MOVIE TURNED OUT TO BE A DISSAPOINTMENT. FAR FROM BEING THE WORST MOVIE YOU CAN RENT, BUT, IT'S JUST NOT AS GOOD AS IT SOUNDS. MAYBE NEXT TIME, THEY WON'T TAKE ALL DAY TO GET STARTED.

Name of the song.......2004-02-10

Movie was ok, like both Samuel L Jackson and Milla but was disappointed. But does anyone remember the name of the song that Milla and Samuel play together - her on the piano and him on the cello - she asks him if he has ever played it and hands him the sheet music. thanks

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