3/10
New York is wild - nothing seems normal - everything seems out of place.
11 August 2005
When you look at the title of this film, what do you think the word Def means? At first, I thought that it may have something to do with the hearing of the main character. Perhaps he would fight this evil while having a physical defect. If you thought the same as I, well ... I hate to tell you this ... but you are wrong. I believe that this is actually a misspelling of the word "death". Now, I cannot be certain, but if you watch this film than look at the title it only makes sense. Imagine if this film were called Death by Temptation, wouldn't you know more about what this film was about than if it were called Def By Temptation? I believe that by shortening the title, the filmmaker lost some of their audience. A word of advise to those looking to title films out there ... always complete the entire title no matter the length, you will yield better results.

Now, let's get into the "nitty gritty" of this film. The acting was amateur, the cinematography was preschool standards, and the overall plot of this film reached further than I could when I was in high school. Kadeem and Samuel L. Jackson headline this film, but it is really a film about Joel. Why isn't his face on the cover of this film? This may have helped as well because then viewers would not have been so anxious to see just Jackson or Hardison, they would have wanted to see what this film was truly about. This was nothing more than Troma capitalizing on two more famous people than the main character played by James Bond III. Not even Jackson could perform well in this film. His portrayal of a father/minister seemed too over-the-top and controlling. I needed more substance, and I think this is what was generally missing from this film. Substance. By the second succubus killing, I didn't care anymore. I felt that they had spent too much time on her, because she was the "beauty" part of this film, and therefore rushing the remaining portion of the movie.

If you were to ask me the question about "K" and Joel being friends, I would not have believed it. The characters were so poorly written and acted that you could tell that they were just going through the motions. Then, as if brought out of thin air, "K" befriends Dougy (the undercover Federal Agent) to fight this evil creature. AND ... where did Grandma come from? These actions were taking place over the course of one night, how could she suddenly get from North Carolina to New York without being winded? If I were "K" or even Joel, I would question the Grandmother more than the succubus. If you watch some of the comments before the film, there is an interview with a gentleman from Troma that talks about how the camera guy left at the end of the film to "bigger and better things", and you shouldn't be able to tell the difference in one camera style from the other. Well, this was yet again another wrong statement. The end of this film was nothing like the beginning, and the change of camera style was very evident. Needless-to-say, I was impressed with one aspect of this film. There was one scene when "K" was chewed into the television, and I thought that was a very well produced shot. Why couldn't the rest of the film be more like this?

Overall, I wasn't impressed with this one. It did make me interested in seeing more Troma films, but definitely stay clear of the one entitled Def By Temptation.

Grade: * out of *****
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