There was a time when Christian Slater was THE man. He was the hot young star… and personally I really liked him. There was a time when Cuba Gooding Jr. was considered by many to be the “next” one. A prodigy, a bottomless well of acting talent with an Oscar to his name and surely many more to come. Yeah… well there was also a time when gas was $2 a gallon… those days are gone too.
Science has yet to discover what happened to these two guys. They had talent… so did they just lose their edge? Did they lose their passion for the art? Did they just become rich and realized they could just coast through the rest of their careers and still collect paychecks bigger than most of us will ever see? Did they just realize that time spent with sweet underaged hookers in Thailand was more fun than practicing or developing their craft? Who knows.
10 years ago, news of Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr. doing a movie together would have been BIG news. It’s kinda sad that it’s now just a footnote on a slow news day. But here’s the word from Variety:
Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr. are toplining Nu Image/Millennium Films’ action/comedy “Lies & Illusions.” Richard Salvatore, Johnny Martin and David Ornston are producing while Nu Image/Millennium’s Danny Dimbort, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short and Boaz Davidson exec produce. Shooting begins this week in Spokane, Wash.
“Lies” is directed by Tibor Takacs (“Mega Snake”) from a script by Eric James. Story centers on a novelist being hunted by a spy who believes the writer holds millions of dollars in diamonds stolen by his dead fiancee.
WHAT?!?!?! It’s being directed by the man who did “Mega Snake”?!?!?! Well that changes everything! This movie will rule!!!! (Please note sarcasm).
Deep down I secretly yearn for a return to greatness for both of these guys. I’ve enjoyed them so much in the past. It brings a tear to my eye that I can’t muster even the slightest bit of enthusiasm for this.
I agree with every negative thing written by others above who have good taste. And I’ll add this: the music was the absolutely worst music ever done for film. Whoever supervised the score should never be able to get a job in music again! From the very beginning, I was asking myself what in the world are they were thinking. I only continued to watch (and listen) because it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Sick, sick sick…
This movie is so bad. I like Cuba and Christian, but how can they do this crap out of money?
Yes, This movie was bad, but how’d you like the bagpipes in the St. Patricks Day parade? Firefighters are cool!
It was an embarassing movie to watch. It seemed put together by an amateur, horrible music, fight-sceens you couldn’t help bursting out in laughter from and just terrible directing. At first I was thinking this must be some sort of sarcastic movie – but it isn’t. It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. My favourite part was when the hunted couple finds a bar to hide in, and then sits by the windows.
O’doherty’s! Great Irish Pub!!!!
F. This movie is a stupid waste of time. How could there have been any money that went into this movie? It was HORRIBLE. So lame, unrealistic, awful acting, annoying music, ridiculous lines, shall I continue? BRUTAL!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just rented the video and it’s the first time I knew of this movie. EVERYTHING was terrible. The writing, the acting and the direction. How about that GREAT scene in the hallway where they are blasting at each other and never hit a thing other than the maid’s cart? Impressive. Christian’s terrible dialogue with all those “ouches” and that insane “Karate” battle between the two women. Cuba’s non-acting was amazingly bad and Christian wasn’t far behind. Did anybody notice that when Christian comes into the room bleeding, he’s bleeding from the right side of his scalp, then later he is putting the towel on his left side? Continuity! Plan 9 From Outer Space finally has some real competition!
I give this movie -5 Stars. Wow, what a waste of my time. Possibly the worst acting of the year from start to finish.
Even though I really (really) like Slater’s acting, this has to be one of the worst films I’ve seen in a long, long time.
The lines are very bad, the actresses are pretty ugly, sound FX -specially in action scenes- is cheap and the plane crash at the end… oh well, it would have be better if that just wasn’t included.
I give this film 1 star (just because I like Slater).
crap crap crap dont bother watching
This should be a direct to you-tube movie. It was so crap, if I controlled the budget, I would not even press DVD’s.
Poor dialoge,
Poor effort from the actors,
Poor storyline,
the list goes on.
Was it aimed at 8 year olds?
one of the WORST movies i have ever seen. But i watched it all, coz it was HILLARIOUS. and i dont intend that to be a compliment!!!!
Pathetic acting
Pathetic story
Pathetic everything
this is the WORST film i’ve ever seen.
or almost.
embarassing.
bad acting.
bad script.
bad cinematography.
bad soundtrack.
all 0 out of 5 stars.
do not bother watching.
this film was so crap i am half way watching it and decided to type this up. The film is a complete joke, souunds like no one knew what they were doing, the camera doesnt even stay still and the black guy is a completely gay. Having my ball lick by a porcupine sums it up. All of the actors/actresses were bare ugly and the acting was like amatuers. Who ever spent money on this crap is sure crying right now, a few dvd sales at the most its the joke of the century.
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I don’t know where information is coming from for this film but many articles have that it began filming in the later part of May when filming actually wrapped in mid-April. I’m also not sure about it being an ‘action-comedy’. I worked on the set and it didn’t seem comedic at all. Admittedly, I mainly worked on the outside action scenes but I skimmed the script and it seemed to me to be more of a dramatic action movie.
I dunno.
I completely agree, I was an actor in this movie and it seemed to have a more serious tone than what it is being described as. On the other hand I think Tibor Takacs could possiby pull this one off regardless of his past works. He and the crew were really professional about the whole thing, he seemed to have a good handle on what he was doing. Also a very nice, funny guy.
Slater was seriously impressive in He Was A Quiet Man. Don’t write him off. On the other hand, this movie does not sound promising at all.
Can you imagine them in a bar having a beer – what would their conversation be? – “Dude I was the bomb in the 80’s.” “Dude I was the bomb in the 90’s.” – “Hmm those were the days” “Yep – they sure were”
“You working” “Yeah, but not too proud of it – but I gotta pay the rent” “You know how that goes” “yup”
Actually they HAVE been doing smaller work, and have been doing very well with it. While Slater had his “Alone in the Dark” he also did a great turn in “Bobby” while really knocking it out of the park in “He Was A Quiet Man”. Similarly while CGJ had his “Daddy Day Camp” he also did very well in “Dirty” and “Shadowboxer” opposite Stephen Dorff and his penis.
I have never been a huge fan of either actor, and I never saw why they got as “huge” as they did (minus Slater in “True Romance”), but perhaps they will do well with what they are taking on.
Mega Snake aside.
I didn’t want to even read what this was about. Once I saw thier faces next to one another I could smell the crap.
Their time has come and gone. And they should do some smaller work to gain credit again.
Blah.