Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-20 19:46:38

FAST PACED -- WELL ACTED GEM

This review is from: Lies and Alibis (DVD) HAD TO FILL MY QUEUE WITH NETFLIX & THREW THIS ONE IN WITHOUT MUCH THOUGHT--NOT A MISTAKE. NOW IT IS PART OF MY MOVIE COLLECTION. I BOUGHT IT THE NEXT DAY. IF YOU WANT TO SEE A MOVIE THAT WILL KEEP YOUR ATTENTION TO THE END--THEN THIS IS IT. ENJOY.

Tom Smith 2012-05-20 06:28:31

What a great movie! Classy of the Oceans Eleven style

My wife and I loved "Lies & Alibis" it was a terrific, sophisticated,classy movie of the "Oceans Eleven" genre.My wife and I both had the same, singular complaint. The sound mixingwas horrible. There were several occasions where the "background" musicwas too loud and despite repeated replays, we couldn't figure out whatthe character was saying.Despite the sound problems, the movie was FANTASTIC!!! It was aconfluence of many disparate lives. It was a combination of thesophisticated "Oceans Eleven" and some of the sophistication of "TheThomas Crown Affair".The cast (Steve Coogan, Rebecca Romijn, Sam Elliot and James Marsden)were terrific. The script was flawless. It's a complex story of aconfidence man who juggles many different "jobs" and all the falloutwhich can and/or does happen.If you liked the many faceted manipulations of strategy in OceansEleven and the sophistication of The Thomas Crown Affair, you'll love"Lies & Alibis".

DICK STEEL 2012-05-13 23:32:26

A Nutshell Review: The Alibi

A dream service for those adulterous men and women out there. A servicewhich takes your calls, handles all potentially tense situations ofprivate eyes and that suspecting spouse, essentially taking care of youon the side while you bang. Sounds good? I think so too, at least in abusiness sense.Ray Elliot (Steve Coogan) runs such a service. It's a money spinner,based on statistics that one in 4 men stray, and one in 10 women cheat.He advertises his risk management career through word of mouth, andtakes pride in his job in bailing clients out of seemingly explosivemarital situations. The pre-requisites? A calm cool mind that can spinout stories and tell them with a straight face.Lola Davis (the hot Rebecca Romijn) is his new management recruit, andwithout much orientation, plunges into the job head on. Initially youmight think the movie will develop on the above company politicsscenario, and have the two leads get involved with each otherromantically. But no, before you can get to see the next fling, themovie heads on to classic crime noir territory.On his last field job, Ray's client accidentally kills his mistress ina bout of S&M, and it's up to Ray to clear the mess up, violating oneof his principles that his company doesn't provide alibis for crime.However his reputation and integrity is on the line, and he has nochoice but to cover it all up.And you'll probably wince at the amount of challenges Ray goes throughin having this done, and having a price put out on his head. It'sessentially one heck of a caper, as we witness how Ray Elliot schemesand plot to get his rear out of situations that's seemingly impossible,and incredibly lucky to get out of. It's full of crossings anddouble-crossings, and while you might be lost at certain plot points,just hang in there as all will converge for the finale, leaving youwith a smirk, quite satisfied with the outcome.What's fun in this movie is the huge ensemble cast that play the manycharacters on screen. Another X-Men franchise regular, James Marsden(Cyclops) is here as the inept himbo Wendell Hatch, Ray Elliot's lastclient, and we have a myriad of characters like hit men, gangsters,cops, an unsatisfied wife, etc from a cast of Selma Blair, JamesBrolin, Sam Elliot, Jaime King, John Leguizamo, Deborah Kara Unger, andthe likes.One thing's for sure, having a huge network of those whom you havedeposited emotional or material help with, certainly will helpbucket-loads when the time comes. If you're up for a caper, then I'drecommend The Alibi, for its fun.

dima-12 2012-05-13 19:22:21

This is how I imagine Frank Tashlin does neo-noir

THE ALIBI is a smooth, elegant, neo-noir expertly shot by guys who didpre-cog scenes in MINORITY REPORT. It is very reminiscent of FrankTashlin's work. Tashlin was the Warner Bros. cartoonist who ended updoing vehicles for Jerry Lewis and Doris Day. While his cartoons werestrongly influenced by live action cinema, his live action features hada distinctive cartoonish element.Te same can be said for THE ALIBI which works as a very tightly knityarn and feels as precise as a special effects sequence. This precisionmakes the film flow smoothly and the directors deliver Hollywoodentertainment at its best.The cast is top-notch and the attached talent is the major asset ofthis production.The only major shortcoming of this feature is the complete absence ofemotions and character depth. The only character fully developed is themain character and it is a shame because other characters are too flatso the story fails to emotionally resonate. The screenplay feels likethe first draft and it seems that it was just a couple rewrites awayfrom being fully developed.This is why THE ALIBI is just a well made programmer while it seemsthat deep inside it possessed a much bigger potential.

wrlang 2012-05-11 02:27:09

fun situational comedy

Lies and Alibis is about a guy who runs a risk management company thatspecializes in giving cheating spouses alibis. He hires a new girl tohelp out and they fall for each other. Some well known actors help keepthe comedic situations funny. Turns out many people are looking forthis guy and he has done a good job of hiding in plain sight until now.He must scramble to give himself his own alibi while taking care of thepeople who exposed him to his hunters. I didn't expect much from thecover or the cast, but this was actually quite a funny movie with lotsof twists at the end. It's also done in relatively good taste whichmeans its good for everyone over 13.

2012-05-10 11:53:08

an Excellent Movie with a $6 Million Dollar Budget

I may be biased here but I thought this movie was excellent. It was filmed in about 26 days but for the time and the money the film crew produced an excellent movie.My reason for saying I may be biased is because I was in high school band and film class with the director Kurt Mattila. He was a very creative and funny kid back in those days and I am very proud that he made it big coming from nothing.

Frederick Warwick 2012-05-04 20:33:07

Droll humor at its best.

Deftly satirical, Byzantine in plot and wonderfully acted, this filmwon't be for everyone. Many more twists and characters than Get Shorty,this one actually tries and succeeds in social satire. Themes? Conmantrying to go straight is pursued by more temptations and murder threatsthan Jim Morrison. Threats to Coogan's character, Ray, are shrewdly andhumorously evaded. He's assisted, somehow, by a string of mistakenidentities, that left me at times amused and perplexed. But then again,I stumbled onto L&A on Indieplex and haven't seen its first third yet.And beginnings are a must. Looking forward to seeing entirety tonighton above channel!

2012-05-04 13:28:49

No laughs, but nice premise

If this is a comedy, someone forgot to put in something funny. Still, it's an interesting premise movie, and the 'plot,' such as it is, nicely builds up to a complicated grand finale that made me wonder just one thing: who exactly got shot at the hotel? The film isn't clear on that point, or was it just me? This could be a direct to dvd movie, though it does have some big names. It moves along fairly well.

Claudio Carvalho 2012-05-03 08:46:16

Funny Entertainment

The crook Ray Elliot (Steve Coogan), whose former partner Jack is undera five million dollars contract, believes in statistics and runs a riskassessment and managing business, actually a front for a company thatprovides alibis to adulterous people that cheat their mates. He doesnot accept to give alibis for crimes and he has just hired the alluringLola (Rebecca Romijn) to be his assistant. When Wendell Hatch (JamesMarsden), the reckless son of his wealthy client Robert Hatch (JamesBrolin), accidentally kills his masochist date Heather (Jaime King) ina kinky S&M game, Ray breaks his rules to protect his own name and hiresome guys to clean the bedroom and vanish the body. Sooner Ray has manyproblems to resolve: the police is in his tail trying to find a clueabout the disappearance of Heather; her jealous Mexican-Americanboyfriend wishes revenge against the murderer; Wendell is upset becauseRay told his father about the crime; Robert is angry and hires thehit-man Mormon (Sam Elliott) to kill Ray, but the killer is chasingJack. When the jealous Mormon sees his wife Adelle (Selma Blair)flirting with Ray, he decides to kill him. Without any option, Rayjoins his crook-friends to help him to resolve the situation.The beginning of "The Alibi" is too fast and confused and does notdevelop well the relationship between Ray Elliot and Lola. However,after the death of the masochist slut, the story becomes funny anddynamic, and the final plan of Ray is messy but hilarious. The cast ofthis film has good actors and actresses and in the end it is aworthwhile entertainment. The most incredible, Rebecca Romijn seems tobe more beautiful than ever. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Álibi" ("Alibi")

2012-05-02 19:09:11

not as good as you guys praised

not quite a likable british guy doing an unlikely shady alibi business in l.a., hiring another p.r. lady to cover his back is a nice touch, pretty but too tall for this guy. to hire such a pretty young lady who clueless but conveniently falls for you without obvious reasons is not but a pipe dream. to watch this cliched (mob, latino gang bangers, hitmen, hotel floors and room numbers mess ups and so on) action comedy and accept it as ridiculous as it goes, you've got to turn your brain dead first.

Luqman 2012-05-01 21:13:11

Fun

A beutiful girl, a cool boss, a happy ending, a complex, but pretty believable plot,an interesting angle (What if people who have affairs have someone really clever looking out for them?)-what's not to like? This was fun, and the girl was just too much. I had no real problem with this movie, -great casting, lot's of fun.

2012-05-01 07:41:55

Truly Funny

This review is from: Lies and Alibis (DVD) This is a truly funny. One of the best films I have seen recently. The ending is completely unpredictable.

simonmars 2012-04-28 01:27:21

You're wrong Tristan

A mate of mine told me to stay away, said it was Coogan trying to shedold Alan and be 'cool.' But, being a Coogan fan, I checked it outanyway, and I have to say, it's a great film. From the get-go you getthe feeling that you're in for a fun ride. Its got twists and turnsthat would make any farce fan sweat. Coogan isn't trying to be cool itthis, he is cool! Its hard to believe its the same guy we know and lovehere. Its also hard to believe that it was so over-looked. With thecast it has, even without Coogan, its strange that it didn't get totheaters. I highly recommend this surprising little gem, watching it islike discovering the 3rd man or The Original Ladykillers for the firsttime. Well done.

MBunge 2012-04-27 12:58:52

Knowing when to say "when" is an underrated skill in filmmaking

This movie is like a gigantic tangle of string. I mean gigantic likethe size of a big house with a two car garage on the end of a cul desac. At first glance, the loops and twists and turns are impressive butit's really nothing more than one long, boring strand. The sheer sizeof it can be overwhelming but when you think about somebody spending somuch time just tangling string, you're overwhelmed by such a wretchedwaste. As the string tangler should have stopped after a couple ofhours and found something better to do, these filmmakers needed to stoppiling one plot contrivance on another and make a single one of themwork well.Let's see how far you can get into the plot of Lies and Alibis beforeyou want to say "Enough!" and go watch an episode of Mighty Morphin'Power Rangers. Ray Elliot (Steve Coogan) is a former con man who'sfound an unusual way to go straight. He runs a security firm foradulterers. When people want to cheat on their spouse, they hire Ray'scompany to cover up for them and provide them with airtight alibis.While in the midst of hiring the statuesque Lola (Rebecca Romijn) as anew associate, Ray is recognized by a thug (Henry Rollins) who mentionsthat there's a 5 million dollar contract out on Ray's old scam artistpartner. Ray is then called away to deal with a client emergency andafter helping the wealthy and horny Robert Hatch (James Brolin) concealyet another affair from his wife, Ray is hired to help Hatch's son dothe same. So while Wendell Hatch (James Marsden) spends the weekend ata bed and breakfast with his girlfriend, Ray pretends to be Wendell ata broker's convention to fool his wife.Are you still with me? Well, Wendell accidentally kills his girlfriendand cajoles Ray into covering that up, which he does by calling on thethug who recognized him. That thug works for a Mormon hit-man (SamElliot) who then decides that Ray absolutely must help him with alibisfor his murderous work, which Ray seemingly consents to while dodgingthe amorous advances of one of the Mormon's wives (Selma Blair). ThenRay discovers that Robert Hatch is looking to kill him to permanentlycover up for his son's deadly mistake, while the police have alreadytraced the missing girl back to Ray, who also finds himself the targetof Hatch's driver (John Lequizamo), the enraged boyfriend of Wendell'snow dead girlfriend. There's also a cold blooded assassin coming afterthe 5 million dollar contract on Ray's old partner and a bit ofconfusion as to whether Ray knows where his old partner is, whetherhe's alive or dead or even if Ray is himself his old partner.Compounding that confusion is Ray's quest to find a corpse.And of course, Ray and Lola make googoo eyes at each other, even thoughshe makes him look like a member of the Lollipop Guild, as Ray schemesto lure everyone involved in this whole snarl to a hotel where they canall get their just desserts.I don't know about you but by the time it got to the Mormon assassin, Ihad had just about enough of this movie. It was all too much tobelieve, especially when Ray is always portrayed as so slick and incontrol that there never seems to be even the slightest bit of dangerin any of it. When you wade through it all, you're left with thereality that Ray is a long, boring strand. He's not interesting andhe's certainly not sympathetic. So this convoluted tale boils down tothere never being any real risk for the main character and the viewernot caring even if there was.Lies and Alibis might have found some way to work if it had focused onRay and Lola, Ray's unusual business and one other thing. Maybe theproblems posed by the Hatch's, maybe the people gunning for Ray's oldpartner, maybe the Mormon assassin who wants Ray to cover up hiskillings. Glopping them all and more into the mix doesn't work.Unless a house-sized tangle of string sounds to you like a great ideafor a tourist attraction, don't bother with this film.

2012-04-25 20:38:31

Poor showing

I like Steve Coogan, and Rebecca Romijn is easy on the eyes (even if she's made to look 7 feet tall in this movie), but this flick- as promising as it sounded- was just not up to snuff. It was kind of as if they were trying to mix a Guy Ritchie movie with the Sting, but it just didn't work. And even though Steve Coogan is a hilarious comedian, this wasn't funny in the least. Why cast one of the world's best comedians in a dull, half-hearted gangland adventure? Without any laughs, the convoluted plot and implausible romance failed to hold up this lead balloon. Someone give Mr. Coogan some material he can work with!

Jeff 2012-04-25 00:31:27

About as clever as they come.

Ex-grifter has a successful business providing alibis for cheating husbands and wives. Business is great until something goes very wrong.I had an advance look at this gem. Not sure how they're going to promote it, but if you want to see a smart, funny, sophisticated movie, this is it. Memorable performance by James Brolin, who acts against type and really pulls it off.I don't know when it's going to be released.

2012-04-25 12:22:34

The Adjustment of Perception.

Well, this time the Ross Stores ultra-bargain DVD bin was really depleted. I could only find two movies that looked anywhere near interesting. One was "Lies and Alibis" staring Steve Coogen and Rebecca Romijn. I'd never heard of the movie nor either of the actors, but I'm not really up on Hollywood goings on. I got the idea the movie was a comedy and might provide a restful break in between two ultra-action flicks. Well, it offered mild amusement, very mild.It seems that Coogan and hire-ee Romijn had a business providing the Southern California population subset with too much money and not enough mates a way or two of getting around such pesky problems while maintaining the appearance of the up and up. Lies and alibis were their specialties and the truth was whatever they could make it up to be. Their business involved the adjustment of perception. Under unusual, and expensive, circumstances a whole new "Truth" scenario might be established to placate offended significant others. It was a lucrative business, but sometimes things could go very, very wrong. In one particular case, one of their clients ended up with the corpse of his lady friend and it resulted in the intrusion of some really, really bad guys who were out the right the wrong. Of course, the police became heavily mixed into the whole brouhaha. Was it worth watching? Not really. The filming and sound were okay. The acting was so so. The language seems to dwell on the vulgar euphemism for the lower opening of the digestive system. Would I watch it again? Well, no. I could see giving it 2 1/2 stars, but my rating system won't allow it, so I'll round the rating up to three just because Rebecca Romijn is so pleasant and nice looking.Gary Peterson

TrevorAclea 2012-04-25 01:48:54

A premise in search of a plot

The Alibi feels like a premise in search of a plot: Steve Coogan's anex-con man who's spotted a gap in the market and now provides alibisfor cheating husbands and wives only to find himself in the frame formurder when one of his clients accidentally kills a woman. With asimilar plot engine to Coogan's earlier The Parole Officer – mansuspected of a crime he didn't commit has to use his clients to savehim – it's the kind of US film Peter Sellers might have made during theearly 70s lull in his career and which you'd expect to see on anairplane. But while it highlights Coogan's weaknesses as a conventionalleading man and is very short on laughs without have a smart enoughpayoff to compensate, it's brisk and harmless enough. But James Brolinreally should lay off the Peter Falk impersonations in future.

2012-04-23 23:09:35

Poor effort

Poor film, poor story. Listening to Steve Coogan do an American accentwas cringe-worthy. About 1 minute into the film I knew it was going tobe a stinker, but I persisted to the end...and was not rewarded for mypersistence. The twists were obvious, the humour was poor and very muchun-coogan. I agree that most reviews of this film seem to be written to boost itspopularity. I picked this film up for £2, and it proved you get what you pay for.I'd never heard of it before buying it, and I wish I'd not bothered!If you like Steve Coogan, you'll dislike The Alibi! Don't bother. Pickup some old Alan Partridge instead, much funnier.

Dicky Yanuarman 2012-04-23 19:29:41

good

i wanna see this movie because i difficulty get it on VCD rental in my place, i 'm so curious to watch the story about it