Lethal Eviction - Slumlords Gettin' Theirs!

Lethal Eviction

***

DVD

Directed By

Written By

Cast

uncredited to prevent spoilers

Remember, this week, Cassava Films (www.cassavafilms.com) is sponsoring me. "Serial Slayer" is on InDemand pay-per-view for the next month, so catch it, or pester your cable company. It's good stuff!

And you've noticed no credits this week--that's a new one, folks...and there's a reason for it.

I'm not crediting anyone this week. No directors, no writers, no cast, nobody. Because if I did it would destroy a key plot element.

You've probably caught on that this is an advance look at a movie that isn't even on shelves yet. So I have to be a little more careful than usual, lest Igive something away. And there's more than a little to give away, too.

So what we have here is what I like to think of as "The Super" gone horribly, horribly awry. We've got a slumlord running a rent-controlled building and

looking to sell. Considering he dies within the first five minutes, you can tell we'll be going a totally different angle here.

And indeed, we are. From one slumlord to two slumlords. Slumlords so aggressive that they're looking to get their rent-controlled tenants out of

the building, so they can quadruple (yes, quadruple--that's four times for those of you who don't like math much.) the rents. Slumlords so aggressive that they’ll stoop to any means necessary to get their tenants out of the building, or so it seems.

A father-daughter slumlord team, no less.

Which makes me cringe, in all honesty. But still, they work out well. Especially when you consider that this is probably one of James Avery’s first paying jobs since The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air stopped stinking up our television screens way back in the mid nineties.

James Avery actually manages to waver between doting father and mild psychopath, which is frankly an amazing juxtaposition that I can’t help but applaud, and Judd Nelson also manages to turn in a performance of no small quality as a psychiatrist with more on his mind than we think. For some strange reason, the drag queen reminded me briefly of Ashton Kutcher. Though I'm not sure exactly why....

The best thing about “Lethal Eviction” is that it’s actually rather creative, in its own little way. We have a microcosm of society, with the drag queen crackheads, the violent drug dealers, the holy roller on the third floor who lives with her two dogs and the two drunk burnouts who live with the violent drug dealer. We have plots and subplots and murder sprees and assorted whatnot going on all over the place.

A plot this complex, however, can’t escape without some minor flaws. For example, look at one of the final murders toward the end. Bathtub, drug injections, drowning...look familiar? It should! You're watching an entire sequence from "What Lies Beneath" except without Harrison Ford geezering his way through it! I really can't believe this was in there--it's so blatant a thievery that it should be arrested and locked up with the crackhead drag queen.

Worse yet, we have some unresolved plot issues--for instance, things like a detective finding jewelry and a medicine bottle in a medicine cabinet. How did it get there? There are guesses, of course...but the movie never does definitively state exactly what happened, and that would have helped. Audiences shouldn't have to make guesses about where the plot is going.

Okay, so this is a really rather minor gripe in a fairly solid overall field. Let's face it--"Lethal Eviction" is a class-A murder mystery, jammed to the gills with plot twists and red herrings. The deviousness of some of these will hit you by such surprise that you will not be able to help a gasp of alarmed amazement or two as some new fact is revealed.

The ending is nothing short of harrowing, with lots of darkened-room chases and perilous moments. If that isn't good enough, we also get a fantastic plot twist to close things out on. Just remember, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

You'll understand that much better when you watch the movie.

The special features didn't make an appearance for my advance screener, but I'm sure there will be some, eventually.

All in all, "Lethal Eviction" is a choice little murder mystery. It's not without its flaws, but you should get your money's worth from its enjoyment.

Politics Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more fertile grounds, leaving with us just the memories of 8-color rainbows, singing Korean women and couple of nuclear weapons. But who was this man whose next ambition would have been to get the next Nobel Peace prize? Here are just a few facts you should know about. more Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media’s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) 28.Feb 2011 Rebellion is cooking in the air. People are mad as hell, and not going to take...read THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF CREDIBILITY AND HOPEFULLY, OUT OF THE DOOR Opinion World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the governments of all the countries in the world as well as the operators actually in power in these countries with operating a criminal enterprise, the Galaxy warriors announced Today. more The Great OSCARS 2011 – or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read Top 7 Expensive Bordellos. Prostitution: Shakedown, Tier Down, and Priced Out 31.Jan 2011 According to a report of the Washington DC-based US Department of State, The Ph...read The Great Secret and Reason for the JFK Assassination 11.Oct 2010 The great question is why the great secret? On June 4 1963, President Kennedy s...read Don't Do it! The 3 Worst Times to Get Tattoos 4.Oct 2010 As a general rule, tattoos gotten after 2 am are a bad idea. But in a bigger pi...read

Travel Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read more TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?