Product Description

Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 06/21/2005 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65904 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Customer Reviews

Horrible
Melissa Crider stars as a 28 or so year old woman named Tess. The movie starts by showing her marriage go sour and how violent her husband is. She finds a body part hidden in the house and calls the cops and they find out he killed many women. After being arrested, the husband immediately escapes and seeks revenge on his wife. Kadeem Hardison plays a cop and sends Tess to learn self defense from Marc Dacascos.

The story itself is bad, but the acting is pretty good. Melissa Crider is pitiful, but Dacascos and Tim Abell who plays the husband does some very good work. And that is literally the only good thing about the movie. There is no real training except for Tess learning to use a gun. The story just drags along while Tim Abell performs very well in badly directed scenes.

Since at least 90% of the stuff I watch is fighting movies, I can excuse a bad story and bad directing. Like I said, the acting is pretty good, so I was hoping for some good action, and I would be happy. The fights are shot so close up and are so choppy that it becomes aggravating to watch. I liked the final fight, but 2 or 3 good scenes does not make a movie. The last straw for me was when Tess is pointing a gun at an armed man, and after all her training, she holds her gun sideways. I don't remember her learning any sideways gun techniques, but I will admit I had a hard time paying attention for most of the movie.

1.5/5

DVD from DEJ Productions is full screen and picture quality is not bad, but could be better. Sound is fine. There is a Spanish language track included.

More than 'Enough' for what it is...
Okay, so this isn't the most genius work, and by far not Dacascos's or Crider's best, but the film works.

Loosely based on the book 'The Perfect Husband,' the plot is standard: pretty woman in jeopardy garners the help of a self-defense genius, a la the movie 'Enough'. Whereas 'Enough' was filled with idiotic plot holes and completely contrived plot devices, this was almost believable. Key word: almost. Like any film of this type, there was the standard disregard for realistic procedure and believable action. Also, this movie was lower budget than the J. Lo counterpart, and it shows (though in my opinion, it is for the better).

The actors do an incredible job within the parameters of their characters. Abell is creepy and sadistic as the serial killer husband. Dacascos brings to life a character I found a lot more sympathetic than his literary counterpart (sorry Lisa Gardner, but the book's J.T. was way too domineering for comfort), and Crider is believable as a woman who starts out too afraid to fight back even when her husband is trying to strangle her.

Dacascos doesn't get to show off his incredible martial arts skills like he does in 'Drive', but I think it would have detracted from the story, as well as adding an additional level of disbelief. Another issue not generally addressed in reviews is the really dark and violent nature of the story. The beginning scenes of abuse and rape are disturbing, and graphic (though they fit within the rating and there's not a lot of blood seen). VAGUE SPOILERS: The serial killer is basically on a sadistic rampage during the entire film, and he kills a couple of main characters in really brutal ways. That was the hardest part for me as a viewer. And while the romance and the ending may have been somewhat contrived, I liked it. It's hard to watch such a darkly themed film without wanting a little bit of happy fluff.

Overall, I liked the movie. I may even buy it as it is something that I would probably watch more than once (and that I can bring out when my friends want to watch 'Enough'). I wouldn't say it's a great or even good movie, but it's a decent film for what it is.