In Dangerous Company

Enjoyed the first few chapters in this film concerning a very beautiful sexy gal named Evelyn, (Tracy Scoggins) who wants to hire her former boyfriend from years back who was a hit man named Blake,(Cliff DeYoung). Evelyn lives with a very rich man who abuses her in every way possible and she wants to have Blake rub him out. However, Evelyn has many many men on the side who she has affairs with and uses whenever she can and yet she claims to love Blake and at the same time Blake still feels he loves her. There is a very dark side to this film and it starts falling apart as the film starts to go around like a Merry-Go-Round.

What do you get when you make an erotic thriller that drops the ball on both of those terms? Well thanks to this tepid, uninteresting piece of pseudo-noir, we find out the answer to that question that no one asked. This movie is damn near unwatchable due to a toxic combination of uncharismatic lead actors, wooden acting and a surprising lack of nudity (save for one rather fleeting glimpse of Tracey Scoggins showing her Babylon 2's). The plot is extremely predictable, the 'erotic' scenes lack chemistry or rather even anything approaching erotic in any connotation of the term. To put it quite simply, it's a worthless waste of time.

This film essentially begins with a man by the name of "Blake" (Cliff de Young) being visited by a former girlfriend named "Evelyn" (Tracy Scoggins) who asks for his protection against someone who is trying to kill her. Sure enough, not long afterward, a young man named "Richie" (Michael Shaner) sees them together on the street and pursues them in his car. Although they are able to eventually evade his pursuit, having witnessed the violent nature of Evelyn's stalker, Blake reluctantly decides to help her out. He then discovers that Evelyn is married to an exceedingly wealthy man named "Raymond Ryerson" (Steven Keats) who has made a fortune selling forged masterpieces of art. Not only that, but being extremely jealous, her husband also has a couple of thugs working for him who make sure that nobody gets too close to his wife. The problem is that, even though Blake doesn't want to become emotionally involved with Evelyn, the closer he gets drawn into her life the more dangerous things become for all concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had a certain amount of potential as it featured a couple of solid actors with both Cliff de Young and Tracy Scoggins standing out the most. Unfortunately, the longer the movie ran, the more ridiculous the plot became--which basically nullified their efforts. Again, this film had potential--but it was totally wasted by inept writing and poor direction, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Almost every single thing in this movie is overblown and wrong. The writing, the acting, the music...the direction is actually fairly technically proficient, but that only serves to highlight how terrible and wrongheaded the whole project is.

Oh, and watch out if you're a smoker. The lead is almost constantly smoking in the first half of the movie. Don't follow his lead or you'll kill your lungs.

Only good with some beers and some friends.