Sex, Lies & Murder

Mini (Nikki Reed) is bored with her life. Her mother Diane (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a boozing gold-digger. Her latest catch is her stepfather Martin (Alec Baldwin). Mini is always looking for challenging "Firsts" and joins an escort service. Her client turns out to be her stepfather Martin. They begin a secret affair behind her mother's back and then scheme to get rid of her.

This tries to be a black comedy. It tries and tries but can't quite get there. The writing has nothing new and lacks funny jokes. The biggest problem may be Nikki Reed. She looks sexy in skimpy outfits but doesn't excel in comedic roles. She's better as the femme fatale. The movie is not quite dark enough to push the envelop of black comedies. This is all very familiar and simply less than good.

Although I liked the movie and it's plot. The relationship between father Martin and stepdaughter Mini, on which a great deal of the movie builds, somewhat reminded me of the tension between Kathryn and Sebastian in Cruel Intentions.

Plot twists like in Mini's First Time, Wild Things, Dead Mans Curve.. need I go on were refreshing a few years back. Nowadays the unpredictable twist are getting rather predictable to the regular movie viewer.

And let's be fair maybe looks like Mini's can get you out of trouble in the movies but the writers should have drawn the line somewhere and instead of looks let the whole plot support on more realistic excuses for her to come up with.

Although the story is a bit entertaining to watch the quality is just not there. It all looks and sounds like a TV movie. Not that there's something wrong with TV movies but it's just not of the same quality. The worst thing about Mini's First Time was the soundtrack. That was really bad and brought the quality of the movie down. Despite some known names in the cast not everybody in this movie is a great actor. I've seen worse movies so it's not all that bad, but it won't win big prizes, that's for sure.

I just saw this film's world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The movie starts off with Mini, played by Nikki Reed as a spoiled and manipulating child of a wealthy actress (Carrie Anne Moss). (ala Heathers). Anyway, Mini decides to work as a call girl for the heck of it, and one of her first clients is her step-father (Alec Baldwin). They begin a torrid love affair and devise a plan to drive Moss crazy so that they can be together (ala Gaslight). Predictably, the plan turns to murder. And "then" the movie gets really dark.

The first half of the film was really good as the various scenarios devised to make Moss go crazy are inspired and original. However, in the second half of the movie, the plot begins to fall apart and things just get too creepy. Also, the "twist" at the end is somewhat obvious throughout the film.

Finally, I still cant figure out why Jeff Goldblum is in this movie. He's a really good actor, but his character was superfluous and pointless. It seems the only reason he's even in this movie was to add some improv scenes and have him make strange faces for pointless comedy. Has Jeff Goldblum turned into the comedic version of Christopher Walken?

Saw this at Tribeca Film Festival and was laughing the whole way through. This is a very unique film in that it dares to blend genres. Part pitch black comedy, part noir, it sucks you into the story and takes you along for the ride.

Nikki Reed's great in a role that could have been obvious. Alec Baldwin (always good) gives one of the best performance he has in years and Carrie Anne Moss is hilarious as the mom. Goldblum's role as the TV Producer neighbor is so damn funny and Luke Wilson gives a really subtle performance as the detective.

The twists and turns are a a blast. Definitely not a film for those who don't like black comedy, but those with more sick, twisted senses of humor should love it.