• Home
  • Movie News
  • Movie Trailers
  • Reviews
    • Cinema Reviews
    • Home Entertainment Reviews
      • Blu-ray Review
      • DVD Review
  • Competitions
  • Features
    • Interview

Movie Muser

Have your say about cinema

No Good Deed (DVD) – Idris Elba is an unwelcome houseguest

29th March 2015 By Tim Isaac


Sometimes getting two really good actors to take on a rather run of the mill script can raise the whole thing to new levels. There must have been hope No Good Deed could do the same, but it doesn’t really work.

Colin (Idris Elba) is a very bad man, who police believe is a serial murderer but who they’ve only managed to lock up for manslaughter. After a parole hearing he escapes custody and heads for the house of his girlfriend, whom he promptly kills (just in case we were wondering just how bad he is).

He then ends up on the doorstep of wife and mother Terry (Taraji P. Henson) after having car trouble. After some initial suspicion she invites him in out of the rain to wait for a tow truck. As you might have suspected things don’t go smoothly, and following a little early flirtation things start to get increasingly dangerous, with Terry slowly realising she’s got a complete nutcase in the house.

As many have already suggested, it’s difficult to tell what drew such talent as Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson and Luther director Sam Miller to No Good Deed. It’s the sort of cookie-cutter script that we see hundreds of times every year being released straight-to-DVD, but not normally which such good actors involved – and there’s very little about it that would have made it much better. Everyone puts in their all and it’s obvious Elba and Miller have spent a lot of time trying to give their serial murderer both charm and depth, but it doesn’t really work (not least because it’s difficult to take a killer called Colin seriously).

There are a couple extremely good sequences, with one in particular that involves Henson being unable to tell the police what’s happening being extremely tense (if also extremely clichéd). However the biggest feeling you’ll having watching No Good Deed is that everyone involved should be working on far better material than this, as they’ve got what it takes to make something brilliant.

Oh, and you’ll also learn that if anyone called Colin knocks on you door saying they need help, you should slam the door in their face.

It’s one of my laws of the film world is that if a DVD says on the cover ‘From the producer(s) of…’, the movie that’s on that DVD is going to be rubbish. That’s particularly true here where the only thing they can think of to boast about No Good Deed is that it’s from the producer of Obsessed, a 2009 movie starring Elba and Beyoncé that few people remember and which has an abysmal 4.9/10 rating on IMDB. Is that really something you want to call attention to?

Overall Verdict: The script runs through every cliché and hackneyed moment that a home invasion thriller has ever thrown up, and does it in a slightly dull fashion. Elba and Henson do their absolute best and give decent performances but they’re got virtually nothing to work with.

Special Features:
‘Making A Thriller’ Featurette

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Related

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Filed Under: DVD Review

Search this site…

Get Social

RSSTwitterFacebook

Get new posts by e-mail

Get the latest in our daily e-mail

Latest Cinema & Home Ent. Reviews

Mortal Engines (Cinema Review)

Anna and the Apocalypse (Cinema Review)

Suspiria (Cinema Review)

Overlord (Cinema Review)

King of Thieves (Cinema Review)

Isle of Dogs (DVD Review)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Cinema Review)

Tomb Raider (Blu-ray Review)

The Bridge 4 (DVD Review)

My Friend Dahmer (Cinema Review)

Latest News & Trailers

Detective Pikachu Trailer – Pokemon is going live action with Ryan Reynolds

Toy Story 4 Teaser Trailer – Woody & the gang are coming back once more

Aladdin Teaser Trailer – Guy Ritchie directs Disney’s latest live-action adaptation

New Glass Trailer – The worlds of Unbreakable and Split meet

Aquaman Extended Trailer – Jason Momoa goes to war under the seas against Patrick Wilson

New Overlord Trailer – Soldiers take on Nazi-created zombies in the JJ Abrams produced movie

The Mule Trailer – Clint Eastwood is an octogenarian drug runner opposite Bradley Cooper

Vice Trailer – Christian Bale transforms into former Vice President Dick Cheney

Mary Queen of Scots Trailer – Saoirse Ronan & Margot Robbie get Elizabethan

New Mortal Engines Trailer – London is literally on the move in the steampunk fantasy

Handpicked MediaHandpicked MediaCopyright © 2025 Muser Media · Powered by WordPress & Genesis Framework · Log in
Movie Muser is a member of The Handpicked Media network

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT