User reviews

Firstly, until now I have refrained from reviewing most films on IMDb, including many that I've really enjoyed.....but I feel that I cannot let this film escape without comment. I can't believe Slater even considered doing this film, as I've enjoyed many of his films in the past, & this really isn't any where near his normal standards. Every aspect of the film, sadly including the acting, is awful - the directing, the editing, the so called special effects & the pathetic attempt of using embarrassing 'one-liners' to try & give it a comedy feel........ Absolutely awful - & hopefully I can put people off spending their valuable time viewing it!! Please choose carefully before accepting any more work Mr. Slater.........

I could understand if this was a funny crime film where all the villains are cartoonish bumblers. This is played for real. We have Slater, a con-author who tells everyone how to run their lives but has made a ruin of his own. He runs afoul of Gooding, playing a prissy, effeminate, yet somehow feared smuggler of all kinds of stuff and his gang of over-age thugs. The head thug is a dead ringer for Patrick Troughton, the second actor to play Dr. Who. As such its hard to take him too seriously. The others are kind of old to be slapping people around. Yet, this gang is talented: they manage to shoot people, beat up men and women savagely, shoot up a hotel, crash their car, all in broad daylight and in public without attracting the attention of a single cop. And, like the evil killer in a slasher movie, they are unstoppable. No matter how fast or where Slater runs, how well he hides, how many people are witnesses, the crooks always catch him and beat him up. After a while the chase scenes become pointless since you know Slater is doomed from the start. And no matter how savagely he or his girlfriends are thrashed, a minute later they are just fine, broken ribs and fractured jaws forgotten, with maybe a little cut on the forehead to address. If the film had been played as a take-off on other gangster films, it could have been funny and entertaining. As it is, it's a plot hole ridden mess. Maybe I'm too critical. Others seem to enjoy it.

It's simply incredible that two famous actors accepted to act in such a terrible Z-movie. The script and screenplay are so incredibly poor that it looks like a 5 year old child spent his time in writing this crap. Direction is something which made me hope there was no director, the result could have been better. Really, I can't save anything at all of this movie, the only nice thing is sometimes the soundtrack, but two songs repeated ad infinitum would result boring even if wonderful. Please, avoid this movie if you can, spend your free time in something more intriguing... like sleeping. And actors, were you really so short in money you had to accept it or there was a gun on your head to force you to?

This is a very poor film indeed and is not recommended if you have alternative choices. Cant fault Chrstian Slater, he acts impeccably, it is just he must work with a very below average script with some really cheesy and ineffective dialogue. There is no real continuity or coherency in the movie and there is no realism to the diamond dealings at all, the two women are just two charlies angels out of context. Sure there is action and thrills but nothing bolts together at all and you WILL leave the cinema or the DVD room DISAPPOINTED. thankfully its not a long movie and its over before it starts. The potential plot actually is very good, shame nobody worked on it before taking it to the big screen. Oh yes, was there a director for this film? I notice a name but doubt any professional contribution.

I'll start by defending myself for actually watching this; someone else made me watch it! This isn't so much a review, but more of a warning. DON'T WATCH IT! The plot if you read the back of the DVD sounds quite promising. A writer's (Christian Slater) fiancé is kidnapped and he finds himself being chased by violent thugs (led by Cuba Golding Jr) who believe he has some diamond that his fiancé stole from them. Nothing groundbreaking about the plot, but OK, could be a good Saturday night action film. Alas no! What we get could be reasonably described as a cheese fest. Appalling acting, an awful plot, dismal effects and shoddy camera work.

Perhaps the most depressing part about this film is watching the death of the careers of two previously promising actors. Christian Slater and Cuba Golding Jr, both have successful films behind them, but both have had a recent string of turkeys, and this should just about finish them off. However to be fair, they are probably the best thing about this film, as the supporting cast are well out of their depths.

At one point in the film, it feels as though it might just save itself in becoming a sort of spoof of action films. The fight scenes and dialogue are so bad it is hilarious. The people watching it with me were laughing harder than we have done with some comedies. The trouble is, the film isn't meant to be funny.

I think this film has one use, to show it in film school to aspiring actors, directors, cameramen etc and explain this is how not to do a film.

Lies & Illusions is an apt title. I felt lied to, deceived...cheated. Cuba Gooding Jnr and Christian Slater must have felt the same way when they saw the finished product. This film is remarkable. It is so utterly hideous that it is remarkable that anyone would actually allow it to be released. The script is weak, the acting weaker and the weird jazz-infused soundtrack is utterly incongruous. The 'special effects' are laughable and the camera-work and production quality are reminiscent of a high school drama project shot on a cheap camcorder. Don't ever willingly subject yourself to this film. I would be reticent to even subject my worst enemy to this abomination.

At the beginning I saw that in this movie plays Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christian Slater and I thought it's gonna be a nice movie. Then I saw the trailer of this movie and I understood that it will not be such a good movie that I suppose.

It is not a good movie and I do not recommend it because I did not like it and I can tell you that it is a boring movie and not an action movie. Although one thing that I liked in this movie is the performance of Cuba Gooding Jr. as a bad guy.

Finally "Lies & Illusions" is a movie to simply pass your time and nothing more.

How bad could a movie be, really? Watch this movie to find out!

The almost comedic element towards the end of the movie suggests its producers know how bad it is. It's almost inconceivable that

Unbelievable rubbish. Irrecoverable trash.

Gives B-grade movies a bad name...

Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr must be really resenting this little number on their cv's.

I've binned the DVD. It's that bad - not even worth passing on at any price.

It's not worth 10 lines of review text - it's a laboratory case of failed direction and production. The horror, the horror...

I would have rated this less than a 1 if it let me.

Definitely one of the worst movies I have ever seen With this cast, I thought it would be an OK movie.

The story line was terrible.

Action was awful.

It was so bad that it started to become a comedy.

Bad just doesn't begin to describe this movie.

I have seen better acting in adult films.

I am still in shock over just how terrible this movie was.

I want that hour and a half of my life back!

Wow that was painful! The film style used to film this movie made this movie so cheesy! Almost looks like a 70's style film... What a disappointment for Cuba & Christian. What where they thinking? They must be so embarrassed! The girls were very pretty and their fight scene was one of the best girl fights that I've seen. Even the cars weren't that great for being made in 2009. The airplane part was the kicker for me. LAME! I wish this sight showed how much money each actor got paid for their part. It would explain a lot.... I hope Christian does something better in the future. I've always like him especially in the Mob movie he did in the 90's. Christian plays a good sexy bad guy. I've always wondered why he isn't in more films. Oh well, I've heard all actors have at least one movie their not proud of.

This a movie that couldn't get worse! You can have any amateur director add the worse screen write, and then top that with a bunch of terrible actors, and finally you'll get what you have in this movie. It's really really hard to believe that Cuba will do this to himself. I mean, so much time, so much money spent on this crap? Why? What a waste of time! I'm glad I didn't pay to watch this movie. I fast forwarded through the fight scenes as they were the worst! As if they purposely wanted to make this movie so terrible. Or perhaps the editor mixed up the deleted scenes with the real scenes, or we could say there was a computer glitch, or human glitch! Whatever it was! It really nominated this movie for Razzie award! Please DO NOT watch this movie! Do NOT waste your time!

I don't normally react to a movie, most of the time I recommend it to my friends and I try as much as I can to be objective about the whole thing... but this movie is so bad, and the most disappointing part of it was that the two lead cast (Slater and Gooding) are actually very good in other movies. Slater was a joke and I would like to say that Cuba Gooding was the only good thing in the movie but I can't say it, even his performance was dismal (to say the least). Christian Slater was acting so bad the two other actresses seemed like they were good. The feel of this movie is the described in one word.."BLEAGH!!" (along with the gag reflex)

I can't believe Cuba Downey Jr. would stoop this low. Even Slater who is not a great actor to begin with, but has some charm, was absolutely awful in this flick. One of the most annoying aspects of this waste-of-time was the music in the background. What was that?

I admit the first 15 min I thought it was going somewhere, but in not time it was clear it was time to pull the plug.

The premise wasn't all that bad. A typical action/suspense plot were a husband does not know the true identity of his wife. But everything about it was wrong. You won't know how bad the movie is, until you've invested a good 15 to 20 minutes. The fighting scenes were ridiculous and Slater's bad acting just aggravated the situation.

This is one of the worst movies I have watched. Not only is the script juvenile, but the actors don't know how to act. Cuba must be on vacation with this one. I know he has been in some lousy movies, but this one "takes the cake". I seldom turn them off early but had a hard time lasting thirty minutes with this one. For some dumb reason the IMDb people require ten lines of review to post it. That is difficult with this movie as it does not deserve two lines of text, good or bad. I have to continue. Since this is my first IMDb review, I must say that it may be my last as I find the procedures to be dogmatic and ridiculous.

As an action comedy this film is fun. The DVD cover and the serious sounding corny title promises a harder edged action piece possibly disappointing some fans of Slater and Gooding Jr. in this while the film itself wants to be some kind of dark comedy. Right from the opening animated credits to the outrageous premise and goofy characters it says to me "dark comedy" why would anyone take this story seriously. Judging from the more whimsical original DVD cover art viewable elsewhere on the internet the seriousness might have been an afterthought a marketing ploy. The mixing of comedy and drama can be a risky proposition and best handled by experts with big budgets. Its the actors that make this film worth seeing and entertaining enough as a DVD rental. I give it the benefit of rating it as a dark action comedy with a 7.5 out of 10.

i give this 5 out of 10 stars purely for entertainment value. it was so freaking bad it was funny. this movie was like "hey lets take a great script and 2 great actors and surround them with porn stars (that keep their clothes on) and give them a $12 budget and see what lines they come up with". if you look at it that way it was cool as heck but if this was an honest attempt at a serious film uhhhhh... pure shite. i must fill lines for a post to be allowed so now I'm going to talk about how much i hate dog turds. i hate dog turds more than just about anything on the planet and this movie reminds me of dog turds. just rambling here so i can fill the lines and help you all avoid getting this movie unless you love bad acting and total cheese.

There are movies that are so bad that, after a short while, I just stop watching and move on. This one had Slater and Gooding who, given what little they had to work with, made it somewhat bearable for me although the script had Slater doing such stupid things that the whole thing was idiotic. They tried to make it somewhat humorous but they really should have gone all the way and made it a spoof of thrillers. Screenplay stunk. Direction was awful. Editing so so (although probably not given much to work with). Would never have completed watching it if Gooding and Slater weren't in it.

If you absolutely have nothing else to do, go ahead and waste some time. Otherwise, much better things to do.

I watched it in segments because I couldn't sit through it in one sitting. My wife asks me why I do it. I tell her: "to appreciate the good movies that much more" that I see.