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| Cynthia Bond in Def by Temptation |
Def by Temptation overcomes its chief weaknesses -- a silly script and a miscast leading man -- to become good, gory fun, which shows how an ensemble working with the right director and producer can surmount even those obstacles. More to the point, the producer and director, James Bond III, overcomes his own weakness, because he's also the screenwriter and the leading man. The premise is that the devoutly religious Joel (Bond), who plans to become a "world-famous minister," puts himself in temptation's way by going to New York to see an old friend, known as "K" (Kadeem Hardison). K takes to a bar, where he falls for Temptation herself, a sultry seductress played with flair by Cynthia Bond, whom we see picking up men at the bar and bringing them to bloody ends. Realizing who and what she is, K joins forces with Dougy, a cop played by Bill Nunn, to rescue Joel, calling his grandmother (Minnie Gentry) to their aid. Hardison and Nunn bring the film to comic life, and they're aided by some very funny special effects, one of which involves a predatory television set surmounted by a caricature bust of Ronald Reagan. (Yeah, you have to see it to get it.) Unfortunately, there's also a lot of misplaced religiosity at work in Joel's battle with Temptation, and the R&B songs on the soundtrack sometimes don't work with what's on screen, so the movie goes tonally out of whack at times. It stays watchable even then, thanks to Ernest R. Dickerson's cinematography. Samuel L. Jackson has a small role in flashbacks as Joel's father, a minister in whose footsteps he hopes to follow.
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