Bound by Lies

Absolutely nothing to write home about. Why on earth anyone would hire Stephen Baldwin for anything is a mystery to me. He is obnoxious and he can't even act... Movies like this should use the opportunity and their low budgets to search and try out new faces, young undiscovered talent, and not to finance and sustain a large part of the Baldwin family...

And then Kristy Swanson... How on earth do you cast an actress who is so grossly overweight for a lead role in an erotic thriller? It just doesn't make sense, Hollywood is full of young aspiring actresses who would kill to have such a role and look ten times better... So then why? Is it just ignorance, or did somebody simply owe her a part in a movie...?

In other, there is not very much to say about this movie, it is simply bad, a waste of everybody's time and money. There isn't a single thing that can be saved from this horrible wreck, the screenplay is bad, the acting is bad, the directing is bad, the soundtrack, the cinematography... you name it. Unfortunately, there are many movies out there that are even worse, hence the three stars I awarded this one, otherwise I was tempted to rate it even lower...

Max Garrett (Stephen Baldwin) is a cop on a seriously thin rope. Garrett returns from a six month suspension t0 robbery / homicide only to get involved in a homicide case involving a sexy artist (Kirsty Swanson), who may be more than just an innocent witness. Garrett uncovers kinkiness that may well put his life and family in danger.

"Bound by Lies" is a simple straight-to-video police thriller. Full of clichés and C-list stars. Not to bad, about the equivalent of a film you see on late night cable. Good looking stars sprinkled with a little smut with a better than usual polished look to it. The plot is standard and the acting is fair but at least the original Buffy is in it.

I just saw a copy of this movie and it was awful. Nice camera work and clean edits made for a vast comparison with the weak plot and horrible acting by these b-movie stars. The only thing one could hope for is to see Kristy Swanson get naked, which she didn't even do (three years after her Playboy shoot she has packed on a few more pounds which is probably the reason!)

To even think of this movie as a thriller is impossible: the focus is more on the Baldwin and Swanson characters rather than developing a true thriller plot of who is killing all these people.

Overall don't waste two hours of your time, life is far too valuable.

There isn't much to say about this C-Grade "thriller" really. Released as "Betrayed" in New Zealand, the DVD cover which is a homage to "Basic Instinct" is somewhat misleading, for while "Basic Instinct" was no masterpiece, it wasn't as terrible as this film. The plot is very weak, the settings plastic, the score terrible and the dialogue cheesy. The leads, Stephen Baldwin and Kristy Swanson are just going through the motions, though they do hold the film together, and Swanson looks very healthy. The rest of the cast are appalling, in particular the actors that play Baldwin's wife and fellow detective. So unless you want to watch C-Grade "thrillers" then don't actively seek out this film.

There are two classes of people who will love this film - Stephen Baldwin fans and Gladys Jimenez fans. All others are bound to be bored.

Baldwin plays a cop (Max Garrett) who is dangerously close to being kicked out. He is assigned to watch Laura (Kristy Swanson) and protect her from a crazed killer. You'll know who the killer is in the first five minutes, so there are only two questions to be answered: will the killer get Laura, and will Baldwin get Swanson, who continues to remain nudity-free after 55 films.

Well, there is a third question that begs to be answered: why the heck would Garrett want Swanson when he has Gladys Jimenez at home? She has no problems showing us what made her famous in films like Blowback and Secrets of a Chambermaid. She gave that up to become a soap star, but we get another view in this film.

We know that Garrett is not gay like we suspect Dr. Doolittle is, but he certainly has his priorities crossed. Get home, jerk, Jimenez is waiting!