Deception

Sex, explosions, mistaken identities, and plot twists... sounds like the beginning of a great movie, and with an amazingly creative and secretive title like Deception what could we, the audience, possibly expect besides sheer edge of your seat excitement and moment to moment surprises? How about a horrible mixture of bad acting, conventional dialogue and back-to-back clichés dating back to every thriller made before it.

Deception had a predictable plot interspersed with scenes that looked like they were straight out of other films. How many times have you seen and unknown killer in black hit a man from behind after he enters an empty hotel room... just by a show of hands... that's what I thought. Deception was a formula not a film. It was as if, someone had seen a bunch of thrillers and decided he wanted to make one, so he compiled all the plot points and twists he had seen in other films and rolled them into one.

Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman are two actors who when placed in a film with a well-written script and original ideas can perform very well, however in this film they both flop. Hugh Jackman was terribly unconvincing as the cold-blooded killer. I am a strong believer in not typecasting an actor and letting them reach their full potential, like Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Jack Black in Margo at the Wedding, however it felt like at any moment Jackman was going to break into song.

Overall I would say if you smell something burning... it’s the popcorn. If you want to see a thriller, Hard Candy is one I will recommend, with Ellen Page before her due date in Juno, playing a teenage girl lured in by a child predator. This film will knock your socks off, including a twist you won't see coming... see how bad clichés can be?