Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Only now does it occur to me... BETRAYAL (a.k.a. LADY JAYNE: KILLER) (2003)

To begin "Lesser Lester" week:

Only now does it occur to me... that although it ended as hilariously and disastrously as a television series possibly can, and though it peaked near its halfway mark thanks to brilliant performances by Jimmy Smits and John Lithgow... in the end, I'm glad that DEXTER happened... even if only for the reason that it saved James Remar from being buried in movies like BETRAYAL (a.k.a. LADY JAYNE: KILLER).

James Remar is glad, too, even though he doesn't look it.

I believe I have isolated the exact moment when James Remar decides to phone in his performance.  It is while he is being held at gunpoint by his scene partner; literally, and perhaps also metaphorically.

Said scene partner is Erika Eleniak (former Playboy Playmate, BAYWATCH cast member, and UNDER SIEGE cake-jumper) who––to be fair––is really doing her best.

Conversely, James Remar has thrown in the towel.  He stares emptily, past the despair, past the paycheck, past the art and the craft.  He spends most of the film driving around in a car and on the phone, a hallmark of "we only have so-and-so on set for X amount of hours"-style filmmaking.

Don't worry, James.  If you behave yourself, there's a cameo in an X-MEN movie in it for you.

In case you were wondering what LADY JAYNE: KILLER actually is, it's an early 2000s Cinemax-style actioner directed by genre master Mark L. Lester (COMMANDO, CLASS OF 1984).  I apologize for the glib assessment, but this is a fruitless, through the motions thriller that most likely involved tax write-offs.  Adam "Not-Alec's-Brother" Baldwin (FULL METAL JACKET, D.C. CAB) is in this thing, too. 
What I'm essentially saying is that instead, you should go watch COMMANDO for the thirtieth time.

3 comments:

Henry Swanson's Glasses said...

God, please keep these gems going.

Sean Gill said...

Henry,

Glad you're enjoyin!––I hope to continue the lesser Lesters at some point.

Maurice Mickelwhite said...

You know, I’ve only just noticed how much James Remar looks like Helmut Berger in these pics. Now that’s a buddy film I wanna see.