Customer Reviews

Lies & Alibis

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So states the risk management owner of a service that creates 'cover lies' for adulterous affairs. And up to a point that statement makes Ray Elliott (Steve Coogan) seem like an honest if distorted service provider, covering the tracks with high technology so that cheating husbands can have affairs without the danger of their wives' discovery.

Smartly written by Noah Hawley and directed with style by Matt Checkowski and Kurt Mattila, LIES & ALIBIS delivers a new twist to suspense films laced with comedy yet filled with tension, murder, and all manner of underground derring-do. Ray Elliott is a smooth talker who manages to discreetly provide protection for business men who cheat on their wives using photographers to set up situations, falsifying credit cards and names and hotel room reservations, staging gifts for suspicious wives to stave off their concerns, etc. All proceeds well until Ray's primary client Robert Hatch (James Brolin) hires Ray to cover his son Wendell's (James Marsden) Santa Barbara bed and breakfast, pre-wedding escapade with a S&M girlfriend of one Hannibal (John Leguizamo) - a spree that carries out a bit too far in that the girl is dead by Wendell's inadvertent orders during the 'game'. Sam takes on the voluptuous Lola (Rebecca Romijn) as his new assistant and discovers she is as brainy as she is beautiful. He employs her to help his cover of the murder (Ray had switched IDs with Wendell in a planned alibi cover for the fling), breaking his own rules, and Lola ends up saving the day through a manner of crosses and double crosses that fling off the screen so fast that it takes powerful concentration to keep the story progress straight - just the way coordinated crime behaves!

The manner in which this spree takes place involves a large cast including Jon Polito, Deborah Kara Unger, Selma Blair, Sam Elliott and a fine crew of bit players. Steve Coogan and Rebecca Romijn make the whole caper tick like a time bomb, giving the film elegance and just the right balance of noir and romance. The rapid-fire cinematography is by Enrique Chediak and the always dependable Alexandre Desplat provides the musical score (with a heavy nod to Offenbach's Barcarolle from 'Tales of Hoffman'). For an evening of fast-paced intrigue, romance, tension, and creative writing and acting, LIES & ALIBIS is a sure bet. Grady Harp, December 06

I picked this up because I wanted something new and I like Steve Coogan. It may not be the best movie I've ever seen, but it's deffinately better than some of the stuff out there. It's clever, funny, and if not entirely original at least it's entertaining and fast paced. I'll admit I'm still not quite sure what Rebecca Romijn's character is there for other than to dress in white and be sexy. If you're looking for a decent Friday night movie this is a pretty good bet.

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.

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!

Lies and Alibis feels like a premise in search of a plot: Steve Coogan's an ex-con man who's spotted a gap in the market and now provides alibis for cheating husbands and wives only to find himself in the frame for murder when one of his clients accidentally kills a woman. With a similar plot engine to Coogan's earlier The Parole Officer - man suspected of a crime he didn't commit has to use his clients to save him - it's the kind of US film Peter Sellers might have made during the early 70s lull in his career and which you'd expect to see on an airplane. But while it highlights Coogan's weaknesses as a conventional leading man and is very short on laughs without have a smart enough payoff to compensate, it's brisk and harmless enough. But James Brolin really should lay off the Peter Falk impersonations in future.

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

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.

This is a truly funny. One of the best films I have seen recently. The ending is completely unpredictable.

This movie has a lot going for it. interesting characters, good banter, nice twisty plot, and great comedic moments. Some of the subject matter is a little dark, but in the end it's fairly uplifting. Worth owning, worth recommending.

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.