Devoted wife and mother of two, lives an ideal life that takes a dramatic turn when her home and children are threatened by Colin, a charming stranger who smooth-talks his way into her house, claiming car trouble. The unexpected invitation leaves her and her family terrorized and fighting for survival.
No Good Deed practically fetishizes the brutality Idris Elba's character inflicts on a number of women. It sexualizes him as a killing machine. It wants us to salivate over him and tremble before him simultaneously.
It's too pointless to be even a guilty pleasure, plunging past "low rent" into "no rent" territory, dragging two competent performers down into the mud with it.
It's a little dumb (OK, maybe more than a little), but "No Good Deed" is an otherwise brisk, efficient thriller that won't punish audiences who drop in.
No Good Deed is one of the least inspired and laziest films of 2014, featuring a complete lack of originality and a waste of talent from Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson.
With performers as strong as Henson and Elba, and the guidance of director Sam Miller, who's worked with Elba in a handful of Luther episodes, it should have yielded more. The trite third act reveal only further sours the wasted potential.
Not content with painting Idris Elba's escaped convict Colin as a thoroughly bad sort, the suspense-free home invasion movie No Good Deed has a score that assaults us with histrionic crashes and bangs.
"No Good Deed" made some decent box office and didn't cost much to make. Perhaps there'll be a sequel. "Good Samaritan Goes Bad" or "Call Triple-A, Cause I Ain't Opening the Door."
