Too much of everything

Thanks for the memories!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

James Bond III's ambitious "Def by Temptation" has entertaining characters, is done with style, and its theme is pretty universal; it doesn't necessarily have to apply just to religion. It deals with the challenges one faces on their way to finding their purpose in the world and the battles they fight with themselves.The writer / producer / director also stars, as Joel, a divinity student from North Carolina who's uncertain of his future and thinks that visiting his brother 'K' (Kadeem Hardison), a film actor, in NYC will really do him some good. He finds that the city is, in his own words, a "wild" place. He won't find a better example of this aspect than the super sexy form of a predatory barfly, known only as Temptress (Cynthia Bond). She targets the horny men around her, and is in actuality a demon who knows that her greatest achievement will be the corruption of a pure soul such as Joel. 'K' comes to realize that this lady is bad news and tries desperately to save his brother.The movie is enhanced by the moody and striking lighting schemes courtesy of the talented Ernest Dickerson, who of course went on to be a fine director in his own right, although Dickerson would have to leave the production early, forcing Troma boss Lloyd Kaufman to step in. Bonds' movie is equal turns gory, atmospheric, comedic, and erotic, and is overall an impressive effort.Bond himself is admittedly quite low key in the lead role, but is inherently likable and one does want to see this guy rise to the challenge he's facing. Hardison lends his strong comic energy to his role; one particularly funny scene has Joel modelling various choices in clothing. Cynthia Bond is extremely alluring in the antagonist role; we can see that she would be pretty hard to resist. Bill Nunn is highly amusing as barfly Dougy whose attempts to pick up the ladies too often don't work out. It turns out, though, that Dougy has a surprise in store for characters and viewers alike. Melba Moore has a fantastic cameo as Madam Sonya, and it's likewise great to see Samuel L. Jackson as Joels' minister father, although fair warning to those who want to watch this movie for him: his screen time is quite limited.There's a lot of blood splashed around for all of us gore hounds watching; an early scene where the red stuff pours out of a shower faucet is visually powerful; the eventual demon makeup is not too bad although Bond never does stress the horror elements of his movie too much. There IS a fun moment where a character is yanked into a TV, and that's certainly one of the highlights.Those looking for B genre pictures that are above the norm would be advised to give "Def by Temptation" a look, as it really is nicely done.Eight out of 10.

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 *****

Atmospheric, erotic, sleek, poignant, original? Def By Temptation is none of these. Painfully slow, painfully boring. Terrible cinematography, lighting and editing. Terrible acting. Terrible music. Nothing worth seeing.Samuel L. Jackson is prominently featured on the front and back of the DVD box, and the DVD menu, and his name appears first on the front and back of the box's credits. He's barely in it!The DVD box states there is "Commentary by Fangoria Managing Editor Michael Gingold" and "Commentary by VideoHound author Mike Mayo." Think that means there's feature- length audio commentary by them? Think again! They are seen talking about the movie for less than two minutes each in videos in the special features section. There is only one audio track for the movie, and no commentary track by anyone.Cynthia Bond, playing the "Temptress" is not pictured or even credited on the box. Little wonder! She's a very homely looking middle-aged woman. Still, she's one of the main stars of the movie, and that's hardly fair to her to not credit her on the box.Not sure what this what was shot on. DVD has full-frame presentation only.

This is more than a, 'blaxplotation' film. It has deep, 'religious overtone's' Director Bond was attempting to make a point to that, 'male unsatisfied lust'! Doing this by way of a scary demon temptress called, 'Temptation'! It was meant to scare, and make you think. (Unfortunately a fixed film budget can only go so far when you're making a horror film which requires special effect's on the order of the, 'Exorcist'.) Mr. Bonds point was well taken here! I recommend the rental!