Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

Lies & Illusions Blu-ray Movie Review

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Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 28, 2009

I'm just a writer.

The direct-to-video market is filled with movies that deliver lame, slowly-paced, poorly-conceived, and lazily-executed motion pictures, many of which feature stars well beyond their primes. Starring Christian Slater (Heathers) and Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Daddy Day Camp) and the latest from legendary Director Tibor Takács (Mega Snake, Ice Spiders, Mansquito), Lies & Illusions is the most recent example and a poster child for all that's wrong in the market. Clichéd to infinity and beyond, as predictable as the barking dog next door, and just as annoying, Lies & Illusions makes for a gut-wrenching 93 minutes of Bad Movie Time that only a reviewer that's forced into watching it for the sake of all of Blu-ray-dom could possibly endure.

"Has it really come to this?" Slater ponders.

Self-help guru Wes Wilson (Slater) has just written a bestseller, Finding Love in the 21st Century. He seems to be living the dream, a popular and soon-to-be married author who's on top of the world -- until it all comes crashing in. His fiancé, Samantha (Sarah Ann Schultz), is assaulted and vanishes. She's presumed dead, and Wes is forced to move on with his life. Nevertheless, he learns that Samantha was secretly renting a safety deposit box in Spokane, Washington, and the deeper Wes digs, the more he learns that Samantha was living a life of lies and illusions. As the time passes, Wes' life appears to be headed nowhere. Now a second-rate author with dwindling sales and no new ideas, he seems on the verge of hopelessness when a new woman, a journalist named Nicole (Christa Campbell), walks into his life. Slowly regaining his footing, Wes finally seems to have a purpose in life -- until he's confronted by the mysterious Isaac (Gooding, Jr.), a man who claims Samantha stole millions of dollars worth of diamonds from him, and he wants Wes to help him get them back. Unsure of where to turn or who to trust, Wes finds himself ensnared in a dangerous game of lies and illusions with seemingly no way out.

There's not one single redeeming aspect to Lies & Illusions. It's a movie that just gets everything wrong, except, perhaps, for its runtime; at 93 minutes the movie still moves along at a snail's pace, but at least it quits before it brings about an apocalypse. With no rhythm, a lame story, poor acting, and terrible production values, Lies & Illusions often plays out far worse than a garden-variety direct to video bomb. The script is borderline insulting; there's nothing that comes as even remotely surprising once the plot is established. The reappearance of a character, the identity of another, and the story's ultimate outcome are never in question. It's as generic as those white cereal boxes that just say "CORN FLAKES" in big black letters; there's no variety, no pizzaz, and no mystery as to exactly what's inside. The only "illusion" here is in the title, and Slater and Gooding, Jr. don't even give the "illusion" of good performances, though their efforts sparkle next to that of poor Sarah Ann Schultz, who may now be the poster child for "she seemed like she was just reading her lines."

Not only is it bad, but Lies & Illusions can't even seem to decide what it is. Is it a Comedy? An Action picture? A hybrid heist picture á la the Oceans movies? The answer is none of the above. Though the movie seems to incorporate elements of each, they're never developed to a sufficient extent to precisely label it. Lies & Illusions is everything and nothing, something of a black hole in the realm of motion pictures that's so bad that one can't even have fun making fun of it. It's too tiresome an experience even for Mike and the 'bots of "MST3K" to truly and sufficiently lambaste. Even the soundtrack stinks; it sounds like it was cobbled together in Garageband over the course of a weekend. But hey, at least audiences finally get to see Christian Slater in a pink bathrobe.

Lies & Illusions Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lies & Illusions debuts on Blu-ray with an ugly 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. The transfer's most noted aspect is its pasty and lifeless flesh tones. Not only do faces have absolutely no definition or detail, but they vary drastically in shade from one shot to the next. Fine detail is virtually non-existent elsewhere, too; while a few shots exhibit a borderline average level of texture and detail -- for instance a brick building façade -- this is, overall, one of the least visually-appealing transfers on the market. Interior shots feature poor lighting which tends to flatten out the image even further, and the same may be said of the many outdoor scenes that are often defined by gray, overcast skies. Lies & Illusions features a limited color palette that's heavy on blacks, whites, and shades of gray. When colors do pop up -- for instance the pink bathrobe Wes wears -- looks overblown and completely unnatural. Also featuring variable and generally unimpressive black levels, Lies & Illusions' 1080p transfer scrapes the bottom of the picture quality barrel.

Lies & Illusions Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Though Lies & Illusions boasts a PCM 5.1 uncompressed soundtrack, one wouldn't realize it without seeing it displayed on the receiver. The opening sequence at the party delivers a decent front-heavy atmosphere; music plays with ease and clarity and with a solid foundation in the percussion section. A few scattered sound effects -- clanking silverware and partygoer chatter -- find their way into the mix but only across the front. Through the rest of the movie, this track provides only the absolute basics and virtually no back-channel presence. Rain falls only across the front half of the soundstage in one scene, completely failing to immerse the listener in the moment. Gunshots sound like cap guns, and an explosion at the end is the only thing that comes even remotely close to providing a halfway decent sonic experience. Dialogue reproduction isn't as crisp and accurate as that found in most other soundtracks, but there's never any problem in understanding what the characters are saying, if anyone cares.

Lies & Illusions Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Lies & Illusions manifests on Blu-ray with only two special features. First up is The Making of 'Lies and Illusions' (480p, 11:04; yes, the movie can't seem to decide if it's called Lies and Illusions or Lies & Illusions), a nuts-and-bolts piece with the obligatory collection of cast and crew interview pieces that feature the actors discussing their characters and the plot, juxtaposed between several scenes from the film. Also included is the film's trailer (480p, 1:44), billing it here as Lies and Illusions, rather than Lies & Illusions.

Lies & Illusions Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A terrible experience all around, Lies & Illusions fails to live up to its name, providing neither and in their place featuring a dull plot with "twists" and "turns" that come straight off of page one of the "what not to put in your movie" section of Filmmaking for Dummies. Appropriately enough, Lies & Illusions has been given a Blu-ray release that's best described as "abysmal." Featuring poor picture quality that, in its defense, probably looks about as good as its going to considering the source; a rudimentary soundtrack; and two throwaway extras, passing up Lies & Illusions seems like a no-brainer.