People are voting emotionally.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

If this direct-to-DVD crime thriller had an appropriate level of sex and violence, it might have been almost tolerable. Don't get me wrong. Bound by Lies was never going to be good in any meaningful sense of the word, but it could have been an adequate slice of low brow entertainment. After cramming a car chase, gun fight, explosion and furtive glimpse of breasts into the first 5 minutes of the movie, however, the rest is nothing but a bunch of actors stumbling through an inane plot while mouthing even more inane dialog. There's no nudity, no action, no comedy, no drama. It just slowly deflates like an ugly party balloon.Max Garrett (Stephen Baldwin) is a detective just back from suspension after a fiasco where he got a suspect killed and a witness disappeared. The movie opens with Max being interrogated about the disaster, interspersed with flashbacks to what happened. Max turns in his gun and badge for a 6 month suspension, then the story jumps forward to Max back on the force and none of the stuff that happened at the beginning has anything to do with the rest of the film. The witness who disappeared does not come back or anything like that.The reason Bound By Lies begins this way is obviously because someone realized the rest of the movie was duller than the proverbial dishwater and threw in an explosive prologue to try and disguise that for as long as possible. After that reasonably exciting opening, we see Max and his wife Diana (Gladys Jimenez) and get a brief look at her boobs. Then I watched the film for another half hour, waiting for more sex and violence, before it dawned on my that there wasn't going to be any. So, while I'll tip my cap to these filmmakers for tricking me, I'd also like to put my boot in their ass for wasting my time and attention.Getting back to the narrative, Max is called out to a dead body in an alley and meets his new partner, Lieutenant Eddie Fulton (Charles Malik Whitfield). Eddie thinks it's an open and shut case but Max wants to investigate and winds up interviewing Laura Cross (Kristy Swanson), an artist who lives in a building off the alley and takes bondage photographs. Kristy Swanson does not get naked in this movie. Randi (Natassia Malthe) is Laura's lesbian assistant. Natassia Malthe does not get naked in this movie. I'm emphasizing that to make sure you don't waste your time with this thing.Anyway, at first Max suspects Laura of being a killer, then it turns out her building's super (Kevin Chamberlin) is the killer and Max has to guard Laura while the super is on the loose. Max discovers an architecturally dubious attic where he can look through peepholes into Laura's loft. An art critic gets killed. Max and Laura fall in love. The super kidnaps Max's wife, leading to a rooftop showdown where the super ties himself to Laura with 50 feet of wire. No, the 50 feet of wire thing doesn't make any sense in the film, either. And to repeat, there's no nudity or violence while any of that is going on.The performances of Swanson, Stephen Baldwin and the rest of the cast are perfectly acceptable for this sort of thing. The direction of Valerie Landsburg is also perfectly acceptable for this sort of thing. The overpowering problem is that this sort of thing needs to have, and usually does have, a goodly portion of sex and violence. People taking off their clothes. People getting punched or shot or set on fire. Stuff getting blow'd up real nice. And there's none of that in Bound by Lies after the fraudulent first five minutes.This movie isn't aggressively horrible, but it is without any redeeming value. If you want to see Swanson and Baldwin in a film that succeeds at being an adequate slice of low brow entertainment, go rent Zebra Lounge. Do not spend any of you precious moments on this nonsense.

There isn't much to say about this C-Grade "thriller" really. Released as "Betrayed" in New Zealand, the DVD cover which is a homage to "Basic Instinct" is somewhat misleading, for while "Basic Instinct" was no masterpiece, it wasn't as terrible as this film. The plot is very weak, the settings plastic, the score terrible and the dialogue cheesy. The leads, Stephen Baldwin and Kristy Swanson are just going through the motions, though they do hold the film together, and Swanson looks very healthy. The rest of the cast are appalling, in particular the actors that play Baldwin's wife and fellow detective. So unless you want to watch C-Grade "thrillers" then don't actively seek out this film.

This clunker-stinker was just on ShowTime Too ... thank goodness I was actually working on the computer! Just hearing the insipid banter, throughout this waste of celluloid, was enough to make me actually BEG my wife to turn it off. She replied: (many times) "I can't turn away from this train-wreck!" And, yes, as noted by another poor reviewer who lost two hours of his life; even a bloated Kristy Swanson couldn't rescue this film version of nails on a blackboard. And as for Baldwin ... I don't think any explanation is needed? I would suggest that two hours of watching the Weather Channel is time better spent; you might actually catch a plot line and the ending will be far better!

I want to start off by saying that I am a HUGE Kristy Swanson fan. I never quite understood why the girl didn't blow up and take Hollywood by storm. So, you will understand why I am a little underwhelmed by the fact that this is the only work that she gets nowadays. A friend of mine works for a video store and, as such, gets to rent prestreet videos. Well, as soon as he saw this movie come in yesterday, he knew he had to bring it over (it's released next Tuesday, April 12th). The movie, although not terrible, is completely below everyone involved. It seems to me that post Playboy, Ms. Swanson seems to feel at home with playing a "Pamela Anderson type" character whose sexuality completely overwhelms her character. The premise goes like this: Stephen Baldwin (one of the worst actors ever; doing a serviceable job here, though) plays (what else) a cop who is assigned to the investigation involving the murder of a homeless man who has been thrown off a building with wire around his neck. Of course, his investigation leads him to the tenants of the building, that include Kristy (doing her best to portray a bondage obsessed top photographer). Well, the normal hijinks ensues and Stephen's married cop character succumbs to Kristy's feminine ways, while at the same time still suspecting her for the murder. Overall, the movie lacked any sort of tension, but the direction, cinematography, and acting were all better than could be expected for such too often explored terrain. Also, anyone expecting any nudity on Kristy's behalf may want to try something else. Although she plays the role with a certain amount of conviction, it is clear that it is not that kind of conviction (which I was pleased to find). In summation, only rent this if you are in the mood for a mediocre late night film and Wild Things (or any of its sequels) are all checked out.