Three Way

THREE WAY is a modern-day attempt to update the classic 1940s film noir genre to a modern setting, featuring a protagonist up to his neck in murky dealings as he attempts to turn a planned kidnapping to his own advantage. The title and the inclusion of some extraneous sex scenes make this look like an attempt to plough the same furrow as WILD THINGS, but this is nowhere near as good.

Dominic Purcell's protagonist is one of the worst things about this: he's ineffective and weak throughout, and you just wish he'd man up and throw a punch here and there. None of the other cast members are particularly good, with Gina Gerson's role a limited one - she seems to be included for name value alone.

Although the convoluted plotting could have been interesting in better hands, often the writing feels lazy here and many sequences which should be suspenseful just aren't - they're boring instead. After I finished watching, I couldn't help but consider this a waste of time.

Well, I should have known the underlying rule in soft porn flics. The girl you want to see with her shirt off never takes it off. Where is the justice? Ali Larter with two sex scenes and nothing more than a naval. I can't believe she stooped to this movie, same with Gina Gershon. This movie was garbage. The "unexpected plot twists were expected, predictable, and worthless. What crap! Trust me on this one, this is 88 minutes of your life that you'll NEVER SEE AGAIN! Ali Larter and Gina Gershon both keep their clothes on the entire movie, and the plot sucks. Your lead guy plays such a moron that you hope something bad happens to him. The lead girl is annoying and the ending doesn't fool anyone, it's still crap. Avoid at all costs.

"3-Way" is not as good as the cover makes it look. The director's "hip" visual style is only obtrusive. For example, in the beginning we can't be sure if the action is taking place in a motel room or on a boat! But even when the pieces start falling together, the story only gets stupider. The dialogue is often idiotic and the plot is contrived ("I was in the right place at the right time") and convoluted; for a "plan" movie to work, you have to believe that the plan has at least some chance to succeed - the plan in this film seems doomed from the beginning. Dominic Purcell is a charisma-free lead, all the girls are pretty (especially Joy Bryant), but the best acting job by far is done by a really creepy Dwight Yoakam. (**)

Lew (Dominic Purcell) is a carpenter with a past, who accidentally hears the conversation of two lovers in a car in an isolated spot about a kidnapping of a woman of a wealthy local family. He architects a plan with his girlfriend Rita (Joy Bryant) to steal the ransom from the couple, but things do not work how planned. "3-Way" is a erotic and sexy film-noir, with a very reasonable story and very beautiful actresses. There are many plot points and double-crosses, and I found it interesting. However, the commercial conclusion spoils the film. The director and the writer should have seen the masterpiece "Body Heat" and offer an end more suitable for such amoral story. The participation of Gina Gershon is minimum, basically to give her name to the credits. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Seqüestro, Chantagem e Morte" ("Kidnapping, Blackmail and Death")

Some truly stupid behavior (excused, in part, by every criminal in this movie being a rank amateur) hampers an otherwise passable crime movie about sloppy blackmailing, sloppy kidnapping, and not-always-sloppy plots within plots. Despite the foolish actions, the dialogue and performances are good, especially those of Dominic Purcell and Gina Gershon. Ali Larter looks fantastic, and the locations are nice even if the time-lapse scenery jumps get a little tiresome by movie's end.

Worth a look for fans of the genre, but by no means the soft-core porn flick some posts here (and the title - I wish!) suggest. Well, one scene, and no, it features neither Gershon nor Larter.