Movie Review: Dangerous Lies (2020)
Synopsis: When the wealthy Leonard apparently dies in his sleep, the last thing his new caregiver, Katie, expected was for him to leave her everything in his will. However, her new-found windfall creates suspicion about her and her husband's role in Leonard's death.
Who's in it? The movie stars Camila Mendes, Jesse T. Usher, Cam Gigandet, Elliott Gould and Sasha Alexander.
Review: I actually had planned on just watching re-runs of Psych last night. However, I saw an advertisement for this Netflix movie and, since my wife and I are familiar with Mendes because of her work on the show Riverdale, I decided to watch it with her. Unfortunately, the movie really wasn't that impressive.
My biggest problem with this film is the way pretty much everything could have been avoided had Katie (Mendes) simply called the damn cops. OK, yes, her and her husband (Usher) did some pretty stupid things, such as taking the $100,000 in cash Leonard (Gould) kept in his attic. But, by not calling the cops when there's an obviously fake real estate agent stalking you or after you find a dead body in the garage doesn't exactly help the situation either. You didn't kill the guy, so why are you going out of your way to make it look like you did?
Quite frankly, I'm not sure they couldn't have gotten the best of both worlds had they simply been smart about it. I, personally, would have kept my mouth shut about the money, would have called the cops about the dead body in the garage, omitting the part about the bag of diamonds the corpse was holding. I then would have pointed them in the direction of the obvious bad guy (Gigandet) knowing that would get the police off my back regarding Leonard.
Worst case scenario is the police may insist on searching for the diamonds I didn't steal and they can't prove the dead guy didn't hide. Even if they found them, I'd still have the cash that I would later claim to have found under a floor board a couple months after the police investigation was closed. I mean, it's not hard at all and they had all the time in the world to come up with the same plan.
The other thing that made me dislike this movie was the husband. The guy, simply put, was an ass. And, that was before she became rich. The movie seemed to be trying to go with a "love conquers all" theme when it came to their marriage but I honestly wasn't buying it. If anything, it was very one-sided. In fact, I'm not even convinced he really did love her. He seemed to only be with her because she was the one bringing home a paycheck and he was just milking it for as long as he could. I was actually a little surprised, given his personality, he wasn't beating her too.
It was pretty obvious Katie felt the same way deep down. I mean, it didn't exactly take a lot of effort to get her wondering if he was the one who killed Leonard or if he was actually involved in an armed robbery earlier in the movie (I still think he was). Let's face it, if you believe your significant other is a murderer despite zero evidence and a much more obvious suspect walking around (seriously, what did that imitation real estate agent have to do? Wear a t-shirt saying "I'm the killer?"), your relationship probably isn't as solid as you think it is.
On a positive note, one thing the movie did right was casting Gould as Leonard. He was perfect for the role and very believable as an elderly man who cared a lot but also might easily be manipulated or not necessarily know everything that was happening in his own house. It's great to see the original Trapper John can still find movie roles, even if it is in a sub-par film like this.
I'm also going to give the movie partial credit for at least trying to throw in a surprise twist at the end. Unfortunately, by that point, the movie had just become a little too predictable and the surprise really wasn't much of one as a result.
Final Opinion: As I said before, Elliott Gould was awesome. Otherwise, this film was kind of forgettable.
My Grade: C-
Who's in it? The movie stars Camila Mendes, Jesse T. Usher, Cam Gigandet, Elliott Gould and Sasha Alexander.
Review: I actually had planned on just watching re-runs of Psych last night. However, I saw an advertisement for this Netflix movie and, since my wife and I are familiar with Mendes because of her work on the show Riverdale, I decided to watch it with her. Unfortunately, the movie really wasn't that impressive.
My biggest problem with this film is the way pretty much everything could have been avoided had Katie (Mendes) simply called the damn cops. OK, yes, her and her husband (Usher) did some pretty stupid things, such as taking the $100,000 in cash Leonard (Gould) kept in his attic. But, by not calling the cops when there's an obviously fake real estate agent stalking you or after you find a dead body in the garage doesn't exactly help the situation either. You didn't kill the guy, so why are you going out of your way to make it look like you did?
Quite frankly, I'm not sure they couldn't have gotten the best of both worlds had they simply been smart about it. I, personally, would have kept my mouth shut about the money, would have called the cops about the dead body in the garage, omitting the part about the bag of diamonds the corpse was holding. I then would have pointed them in the direction of the obvious bad guy (Gigandet) knowing that would get the police off my back regarding Leonard.
Worst case scenario is the police may insist on searching for the diamonds I didn't steal and they can't prove the dead guy didn't hide. Even if they found them, I'd still have the cash that I would later claim to have found under a floor board a couple months after the police investigation was closed. I mean, it's not hard at all and they had all the time in the world to come up with the same plan.
The other thing that made me dislike this movie was the husband. The guy, simply put, was an ass. And, that was before she became rich. The movie seemed to be trying to go with a "love conquers all" theme when it came to their marriage but I honestly wasn't buying it. If anything, it was very one-sided. In fact, I'm not even convinced he really did love her. He seemed to only be with her because she was the one bringing home a paycheck and he was just milking it for as long as he could. I was actually a little surprised, given his personality, he wasn't beating her too.
It was pretty obvious Katie felt the same way deep down. I mean, it didn't exactly take a lot of effort to get her wondering if he was the one who killed Leonard or if he was actually involved in an armed robbery earlier in the movie (I still think he was). Let's face it, if you believe your significant other is a murderer despite zero evidence and a much more obvious suspect walking around (seriously, what did that imitation real estate agent have to do? Wear a t-shirt saying "I'm the killer?"), your relationship probably isn't as solid as you think it is.
On a positive note, one thing the movie did right was casting Gould as Leonard. He was perfect for the role and very believable as an elderly man who cared a lot but also might easily be manipulated or not necessarily know everything that was happening in his own house. It's great to see the original Trapper John can still find movie roles, even if it is in a sub-par film like this.
I'm also going to give the movie partial credit for at least trying to throw in a surprise twist at the end. Unfortunately, by that point, the movie had just become a little too predictable and the surprise really wasn't much of one as a result.
Final Opinion: As I said before, Elliott Gould was awesome. Otherwise, this film was kind of forgettable.
My Grade: C-
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