Not great

“Guilty as Sin” was part of Sidney Lumet’s dark period; it’s a laughably bad erotic thriller not worth remembering for anything other than that it was laughable.

It stars Rebecca DeMornay as a hot shot criminal defense attorney who gets way more than she bargains for when Don Johnson’s (possibly) lady-killing gigolo wants her to defend him.

“Women do what I want them to do”, says Johnson, who oozes a slick, manipulative confidence here that supplies the movie with some of its few menacing scenes. DeMornay has less to do and spends much of it looking like a deer in the headlights.

What begins in somewhat Ok fashion eventually turns silly- see Johnson has problems with boundaries and, in a scene of atrocious, crazy-eyed acting, he lets us know exactly how unhinged his character really is. What is a defense lawyer to do with a client like this? Well, anything but how this incredibly stupid, contrived storyline chooses to handle it. A chilly Johnson then spends a lot of time explaining all of his misdeeds, for no other reason than the film is shockingly lacking in any sense or thrills beforehand.

DeMornay soon finds herself caught in having to defend him, mostly because the script requires her to. The courtroom procession takes up much of the second half but it’s superfluous to what is actually going on and the way these erotic thrillers go, we already know it can only end one way. Usually there is some eroticism to these kinds of thrillers but other than a forced scene in the beginning where DeMornay turns into a submissive minx, this is almost titillation-free and despite Johnson’s best efforts, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for thrills either. Of course there is an ending fight between the two of them, but ironically enough, that’s where this movie scores its biggest laugh.