Bullet Points: Lady Jayne Killer aka Betrayal

It is time once again to let the ladies of action take center stage as I review the 2003 film, Lady Jayne Killer aka Betrayal. Let me start by saying I’m not sure which of the two titles I hate more. One of the stars of the movie is in fact named Jayne, she is also in fact a lady and she is also in fact a killer, but the title doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Then there’s the alternate title Betrayal. And while the movie does have plenty of betrayal it is such a generic name I can see why they tried to be more unique and call it Lady Jayne Killer. Either way before I started watching I was hopeful the movie was better than the poor title choices.

• Choose Your Own Premise: This movie is about a beautiful but deadly woman, who works as a hit woman for the mob, her name is Jayne Ferré (Julie du Page). When she is given an assignment to kill a guy who stole a million dollars from the mob, she gets it half right… she does kill the guy, but then she keeps the million dollars for herself making herself a marked woman in the process. OR maybe this movie is about Emily Shaw (Erika Eleniak), Shaw is divorced and raising her son Kerry (Jeremy Lelliott). Her cheating ex-husband is not pulling his weight and Emily is feeling the financial crunch. Seeing that his mom is struggling and wanting to help out, Kerry reaches out to a friend who hooks him up with a job delivering drugs. Things go awry and Kerry is jumped and the cocaine he was paid to deliver does not get to the intended recipient. This makes the drug dealer who paid Kerry to do it upset and he’s soon doing drive by of the Shaw house and shooting the place up. Which premise did you choose? Congratulations! You picked the right one.

• Intersecting Roads: These two story lines come together when Jayne and The Shaws are both at the bus station looking to get out of town for the reasons I listed above. Jayne wants to meet up with her partner in this million dollar heist, Alex (played by James Remar). The Shaws are leaving town to spend some time with Kerry’s grandmother. But when Jayne overhears that Emily doesn’t have the money for bus tickets, she hatches a scheme to rent a car with the Shaws and hitch a ride with them. The mob would never expect she was on the road with a mother and her son going to visit grandma.
• Don’t Ride With Strangers: Jayne actually confesses that she is an assassin at one point during the road trip, but the Shaws think it is just Jayne’s French sense of humor and she did originally give them the cover story that she was an actress. But as you may expect before this road trip is over, they do in fact learn that she IS an assassin and she’s major trouble. Well, at least Emily figures that out. Kerry isn’t thinking clearly. It’s not all his fault, he’s a teenage boy and he’s got this French lady basically mind effing him right in front of his mom at various points in the movie. When the trio stop at a motel run by Patrick Swayze’s brother Don, Emily runs out to get them food. Meanwhile Kerry and Jayne are taking showers in their respective, but adjoining rooms. Kerry sneaks a peek at Jayne in the shower and even day dreams the scenario pictured below… but during all this he also finds the million dollar briefcase and figures all the Shaw’s money problems are solved, so he takes it all and heads home.

• Cat Fight?: Now Jayne is pissed and she wants Kerry in a different way than her flirting and innuendo from earlier in the movie, now she wants him… DEAD! She also wants her stolen million bucks back. When you throw in the protective mother Emily Shaw, who obviously does not want her only child dead, you’ve got an all female powder keg!

I did not have really high expectations for this movie, the whole title fiasco got this one off to a bad start in my eyes and I hadn’t even watched a second of the film, but that may have helped this movie’s cause because when it was all said and done I thought this was a decent little movie. I may have set the bar low, but the movie told a story with a few twists and turns along the way to keep it interesting, it was based in reality… Emily didn’t suddenly become a super killing machine, but was a strong woman going up against another strong woman who definitely was a killing machine. Something you don’t see a lot of in action movies.

The cast was solid and featured some familiar faces through out. Obvioulsy Erika Eleniak from Baywatch and Under Siege fame, I already mentioned James Remar earlier, one of his fellow co-stars from The Quest, Louis Mandylor played mob boss Frank Bianci. And two of the cops in the movie were played by Adam Baldwin and Street Fighter’s own, Damian Chapa.

I watched this one for free on the Popcorn Flix app, so if you like getting a deal this movie is for you. Or if  you are really into MILFs I would also say this movie is for you!