The Perfect Guy is a forgettable yet still watchable suspense thriller with fine performances from Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut while Michael Ealy is quite as effective outside of being a creep. That said, it is a plot seen in numerous number of Lifetime Original Movies just with better production values and talent.
The Perfect Guy
(2015)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Suspense, Thriller
Sony | PG13 – 100 min. – $30.99 | December 29, 2015
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** Click Here to Purchase The Perfect Guy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com **
THE MOVIE – 2.5/5 |
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Leah (SANAA LATHAN) is a lobbyist who recently has broken up with long-time boyfriend Dave (MORRIS CHESTNUT) as she yearns to start a family and he’s not ready for that sort of commitment. Two months later, heart on the mend, she meets Carter (MICHAEL EALY), by happenstance as the pair first met months earlier at a coffee shop, and the two hit it off after one night. The relationship begins well enough, him doting attention on her, impressing her friends and even wooing her parents, especially her father (CHARLES S. DUTTON).
Yep, all is well… until literally on the way home after spending the weekend with her folks, they stop at a gas station to fuel up, when a stranger approaches to admire Carter’s car and for that Carter whoops his ass before driving off. Clearly, this side of Carter scares Leah and she eventually breaks things off after giving him one more shot, as suggested by her best friend (KATHRYN MORRIS) to which he once again loses his cool and the relationship is officially over. Things go from bad to worse: Carter begins to stalk Leah and even breaks into her home, using a spare key he saw Leah retrieve following their first date, and uses his skills as an IT expert to installing spyware on her computer and followed that up later installing cameras inside her home and goes so far as to also taking her pet cat. That bastard! Leah starts to go out of her mind unable to shake Carter and even goes as far to go to the police. Detective Hansen (HOLT MCCALLANY) is understanding of her predicament but under the law his hands are tied as Carter’s actions are not provably illegal and in spite of his attempts to help, even interrogating Carter, it would seem Leah is on her own. And when Leah gets back together with Dave, Carter’s obsession grows.
I’m not the first to say this and sadly it’s a pattern with these kind of films, but The Perfect Guy, down to its generic title, is more or less a Lifetime Original Movie with higher production values and a respectable and mostly talented cast. The movie is at least watchable, mainly because there are so many unintentionally funny scenes than anything else, least of all suspenseful or thrilling. Michael Ealy makes for a creepy antagonist yet before that switch it flipped for his character, he never exudes charm. Sanaa Lathan, who I remember from AVP: Alien vs. Predator, makes for at least a believably strong lead but Morris Chestnut is easily the best thing about the entire movie in spite of having 15-minutes of screen time.
The Perfect Guy was helmed by David M. Rosenthal who has directed a variety of thrillers, the last was 2009’s A Single Shot starring Sam Rockwell and William H. Macy amongst others in an impressive cast. The direction itself is solid but with such a half-baked screenplay, not to mention an ending one has seen numerous times before, I suppose he did the best with what was given. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.0/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy slip cover, inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Lust and Obsession: Making The Perfect Guy (10:18; HD) is a basic making-of featurette with your canned interviews with members of the cast and crew. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Sony Pictures returns from a blind date with The Perfect Guy presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer shown in its original 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio. The picture looks nice but nothing extraordinary. Detail is decent enough and colors appear to be well balanced though given the story, it is a bit darker. Those night or darkly lit scenes come through nicely showing no signs of artifacts or aliasing and all around it’s a clean looking HD transfer. |
AUDIO – 4.25/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is fairly standard but effective. Dialogue levels are crisp and clear outlaying every “sinister” word from Ealy not to mention the over-usage of the score by Alti Orvarsson and David Fleming to the point it was a distraction rather than amping up the suspense. Still, it’s a satisfying lossless track that gets the job done but is hardly dynamic and does lack some depth with minimal usage for the LFE channel, though it does kick in a few times. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
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Overall, The Perfect Guy is a forgettable yet still watchable suspense thriller with fine performances from Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut while Michael Ealy is quite as effective outside of being a creep. That said, it is a plot seen in numerous number of Lifetime Original Movies just with better production values and talent. The Blu-ray released by Sony is basic providing for good video/audio transfers and a throwaway featurette.
Brian Oliver a.k.a. The Movieman |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.