“The Perfect Guy” is another film added to the list of banal stalker films. Both Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy do a wonderful job for their performance, but unfortunately, the film’s storyline plays off as too simple, too banal and fails to scare anyone. If anything, “The Perfect Guy” is just an average film and nothing more.
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TITLE: The Perfect Guy
YEAR OF FILM: 2015
DURATION: 100 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Color, 2:39:1 Aspect Ratio, English, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish and English – Description Audio 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: PG-13 (Violence, Menace, Sexuality and Brief Strong Language)
RELEASE DATE: December 29, 2015
Directed by David M. Rosenthal
Story by Alan B. McElroy
Screenplay by Tyger Williams
Story by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish
Based on the Marvel Comics Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Executive Producer: Glenn S. Gainor
Producer: Tommy Oliver, Wendy Rhoads, Nicole Rocklin, Darryl Taja
Co-Producer: Valerie Bleth Sharp
Music by Dave Fleming, Atli Orvarsson
Cinematography by Peter Simonite
Edited by Joan Sobel
Casting by Venus Kanani, Mary Vernieu
Production Design by William Arnold
Art Direction by Dennis Bradford
Set Decoration by Lisa Clark
Costume Design by Annie Bloom
Starring:
Sanaa Lathan as Leah
Michael Ealy as Carter
Morris Chestnut as Dave
L. Scott Caldwell as Evelyn
Charles S. Dutton as Roger
John Getz as RenkinÂ
Tess Harper as Mrs. McCarthy
Kathryn Morris as KarenÂ
Rutina Wesley as AliciaÂ
Holt McCallany as Detective HansenÂ
Jessica Parker Kenndy as Rachel
David Starzyk as Frank
After a painful breakup with her long-term boyfriend (Morris Chestnut), successful lobbyist Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan) jumps into a passionate relationship with a charming stranger, Carter (Michael Ealy), who seems to be the perfect guy. But, after a sexually-charged courtship, she sees a violent side of him and dissolves the budding relationship. In a jealous rage and fueled by insane revenge, he turns her life upside down.
From David M. Rosenthal, the director of “Janie Jones”, “See This Movie” and “A Single Shot” comes “The Perfect Guy”.
Featuring a story by Alan B. McElroy (“Spawn”, “Halloween 4: The Returh of Michael Myers”, “Wrong Turn”) and a screenplay by Tyger Williams (“Menace II Society”, “Decalogue”), the film would earn $59.5 million in the box office.
The film stars Sanaa Lathan (“AVP: Alien vs. Predator”, “Out of Time”, “Something New”), Michael Ealy (“Seven Pounds”, “Underworld: Awakening”, “Think Like a Man”), Morris Chestnut (“Kick-Ass 2”, “The Call”, “Boyz n the Hood”), L. Scott Caldwell (“The Fugitive”, “The Net”, “Lost”) and “Charles L. Dutton (“Alien 3”, “Gothika”, “Roc”), “The Perfect Guy” will be released on Blu-ray in Dec. 2015 courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The film begins with lobbyist Leah Vaughn (portrayed by Sanaa Lathan) and her boyfriend Dave King (portrayed by Morris Chestnut) going to a party. Because the two have been dating for two years and as Leah is getting older, she brings up the fact that she wants to married and have children. Dave is not ready for marriage or children and the two end up splitting up.
Leah ends up meeting IT employee Carter Duncan (portrayed by Michael Ealy) and the two hit it off wonderfully. The chemistry between both are wonderful and her family and her friends absolutely adore him.
But when the two go to San Francisco to meet her parents, a man asks Leah about Carter’s Dodge Charger at the gas station and for some reason, Carter attacks the man and the gas station’s owner asks the two to leave.
Distraught by the violent act that Carter committed on the innocent man, she breaks up with him.
But within the next few weeks, Carter begins stalking Leah, breaking into her house and going through her belongings, hacking into her computer and stealing her cat. She immediately goes to the police department and meets with Detective Hansen and issues a restraining order on him.
Meanwhile, Dave returns to rekindle their romance but the two are not aware that Carter is still stalking her.
VIDEO:
“The Perfect Guy” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:39:1 aspect ratio).
In order to create a more mysterious, darker vibe for this film, the film was shot primarily at night using Sony digital cameras and anamorphic lenses. Picture quality is very good as closeups show great detail and skin tones look natural. But the choice to shoot during the night gave the film a chance to showcase its more mysterious, darker atmosphere of Los Angeles.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for the lossless audio, “The Perfect Guy” is presented in English and French 5.1 DTS-HDMA, English and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Descriptive Audio.
The lossless soundtrack is dialogue and musically-driven. There are moments of action and also sounds of rifle shots that are utilized more towards the end of the film. But surround channels are utilized for ambiance (at the club) or for its action scenes.
Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Perfect Guy” comes with the following special feature:
- Lust and Obsession: Making the Perfect Guy – (10:18) A featurette on making the ton and world for “The Perfect Guy”.
EXTRAS:
“The Perfect Guy” comes with a slipcover and an Ultraviolet code.
Typically, when a film is not screened to critics before its release, it’s most often not a good sign.
And with “The Perfect Guy”, it was not screened by critics and as was expected, the film would not receive any positive reviews from film critics.
But let’s move away from the critic reviews and focus on the film at hand. “The Perfect Guy” is a stalker film which we have seen in many similar films in the past. Film such as “Disclosure”, “Unfaithful” and many other films in the similar style of story, but the question is, how do you try to improve on the banal stalker film and make it stand out from other films?
Unfortunately, the screenplay by Tyger Williams doesn’t try to do anything different and director David M. Rosenthal, relied on the story, as if it was enough to satisfy audiences.
The good news is that the film made more than its original $12 million budget and earned over $59 million in the box office.
The bad news is that if you are expecting something scary or frightening, when it comes to the antagonist, the film doesn’t stray towards the darker side of stalker films. The worse you are going to get are uses of technology, a stealing of a cat and the antagonist using the victim’s toothbrush.
The writing is a bit too safe but I suppose if the film went the “Fatal Attraction” direction, would audiences be more excited if the film had more horrific scenes? Probably not.
Sanaa Lathan did a good job playing the main lead as a woman who is being stalked and will do all that she can to fight back. But the main star of the film was its antagonist, Michael Ealy as the mysterious Carter.
I knew women who went to the theater to watch “The Perfect Guy” just to see Michael Ealy who’s popularity continues to go up and it’s good to see him play a darker role than the usual guy in a romantic comedy.
If anything, both Lathan and Ealy did a wonderful job and were able to bring out their characters during the more steamy or more darker moments of the film.
As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality is great. Closeups show wonderful detail and while the film was shot primarily at night, the characters were well-lit and has that mysterious and darker feel to the overall film. Lossless audio is primarily dialogue, music and ambiance but overall audio was very good. And as for special features, there is only one included.
Overall, “The Perfect Guy” is another film added to the list of banal stalker films. Both Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy do a wonderful job for their performance, but unfortunately, the film’s storyline plays off as too simple, too banal and fails to scare anyone. If anything, “The Perfect Guy” is just an average film and nothing more.
