As I have mentioned before on this site, I was married to somebody else before my lovely Sarah. So unfortunately, I know a thing or two about controlling spouses. People who try to force them their loved ones into things they would not normally do and make the least insignificant things into overly important ones. It is a terrible harmful practice and leaves both partners scorned. Thankfully I learned to love again. Let me see what I will think of another controlling drama entitled N-Secure.
A horse carriage rides across the city. We see a young couple, David Alan Washington (played by Cordell Moore) and Robin Joyner (played by Essence Atkins). Later at Chez Philippe, they enjoy some dinner and share some time at their fireplace where David gives Robin a necklace and then we get a romantic night. The next morning, David wakes up and starts his meticulous daily routine before telling Robin to get up and make him breakfast.
At work, David seems on edge when a co-worker Denise (played by Toni Trucks) brings him some late reports. He also goes on to meet Denise’s cousin Tina (played by Denise Boutte) while co-worker Harold (played by Thomas Miles tries to hit on her. We shift our focus to see where Robin is at.
We find that she is sitting among her friends which include Jill (played by Tempestt Bledsoe), Kim (played by Caryn Ward) and Leslie (played by Elise Neal) at a local restaurant. However, we learn that Robin seems to have a curfew of sorts and has to leave early while the friends shake their head and worry about her. Of course, she gets home late and gets berated by David for being all of three minutes late.
David, mister OCD and Mr. Controlling proceeds to tell her to get her butt in gear to plan the wedding and gives her a guilt trip over his father. She has 7 months and 18 days (David’s birthday) to get this together. If she doesn’t? Then she can go back to live with her mother. Meanwhile, Jill shares a nice dinner with Issac (played by Lamman Rucker) and then gets proposed to in the middle of the restaurant. Yeah, I think I am going to gag.
David gets a visit next day at the office from an old military friend, Hooks (played by Rick Ravanello). They share drinks and we learn that David was in the Marines with Joe Hooks here. What a surprise. Next day, he invites Tina and her cousin Denise to a dinner party. Then we get a ridiculous odd moment where David berates a couple of Japanese businessmen in their native tongue because they remark that she has a shapely rear.
It appears that we fast forwarded a bit because now tomorrow is the wedding between Robin and David. Robin tells Jill that she doesn’t love David. But Robin throws it off as jitters. In last minute preparation, Robin works closely with Issac as they figure out the music list for the following day. Things start to happen. Oh crap, I think we can guess what is about to happen. Jill and David (you read this right) pull up in separate cars. But what will happen next in this little torrid drama?
As Jill says in the movie, “This is unreal.”. Yeah, it is. I really have a hard time caring for anybody in this movie among the main characters with the exception of Jill’s character. David is a controlling little prick and Robin is not much better since she goes ahead and cheats on David with Issac who was also supposed to get married. The rest of the supporting cast is about as interesting as paint drying.
That is basically the problem here. As the movie moves from scene to scene, we really do not care what happens to anybody. In fact, the set could blow up and I still would be wondering why I just wasted an hour and forty five minutes watching this. It is a soap opera but Luke and Laura are rolling over in their General Hospital grave if this actually passes for enjoyable viewing.
Video
The video is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation in 1080p resolution. The presentation is a lot better than I expected. Color is strong and there is a lot of detail in this limited set movie. There are not too many outside scenes but they are handled fairly well. Definition is well done and it looks good without trying to wow the audience with flashy pieces.
Audio
For the audio portion, we get a 5.1 English DTS-HD audio track. Audio is also strong especially on the couple of music pieces that we find littered through this presentation. Dialog is clear and well executed and we even get a few environment sounds. Surrounds are used but lightly not to de-emphasize the action. Subtitles are included for English SDH, French and Spanish.
Special Features
- Automatic Trailers: Fox Blu-Ray and Big Mommas, Like Father, Like Son.
- Inside N-Secure 22:19: For the next twenty minutes or so, we will listen to Carla Ferrell from the Steve Harvey Morning Show do an interview segment with many of the show’s stars. I am sure the few fans this movie have will enjoy this segment but is very much the piece of fluff you would think it is. It is also a very low quality featurette. The video is very poor. What exactly did they film this with, a stationary camcorder?
Final Thoughts
The African-American community deserves better movies than this. It is rare that we get an all black suspense thriller in the first place and it is extremely unfortunate these credible stars get such a terrible script to work with. As a result of this script, we have no reason to see this movie. The only reason to see this movie to be honest is if one really has a thing for Essence Atkins and would like to see more of her.
The disc is at least decent with very good audio and video. The featurette is okay, but I am almost thankful that I did not get more extras to work through. It is a very tortuous movie to work through and I can not recommend this movie to anybody walking this great green Earth. Who am I supposed to like? Who am I supposed to care about? These questions will go about as unanswered as any plans for a sequel. Good riddance.
