User reviews

While this film won't win an Academy Award or any other glamorous award for that matter, it is a good film. The cast, for the most part, is what makes it as good as it is. The emotion and drama that's displayed by Viola Davis' character is flawless. Viola Davis, as usual, gives a wonderful performance in this film along side Jennifer Lopez. Although Jennifer Lopez's performance isn't as high caliber as Viola Davis' they both made a great pair in this film. Not anything different or original, this film is about two women who seek out and take revenge on the men who murdered their sons, it's that simple, or is it. Fairly written with some drama and a nice plot twist this film is enough to be enjoyed.

It's a touching and dramatic theme, and for that alone it has some merit and will appeal to some more than others. The movie feels a bit slow in the beginning, with the heavy drama, until it picks up about 40 minutes into it. Once I've made it that far, I became more interested and of course wanted to see how it ended. There was also a surprise that caught me off guard. Not the movie I'd save for the weekend, but it was satisfactory to watch overall. I thought that Viola and Jennifer did a good job.

One thing that the movie didn't do so well is the relationship between characters. Of course it's expected that the focus should be on the mother, but their interactions with others would have more depth if they developed the other characters a bit more.

This film tells the story of a grieving woman who lost her son because of a shooting on the street. She attends a mothers' support group, where she finds support from another woman who lost her daughter.

"Lila & Eve" is quite a good thriller! Viola Davis is very good as a grieving mother. She makes her character very sympathetic and really connects with the viewers. Her grief is deep and hurting badly, but not overdone. Then a twist comes; I thought a twist would be coming as there are clues shattered around the film, but I thought it was something else. The ending is great and offers closure in a subtle manner. I enjoyed watching this thriller.

Solid Revenge Chick-Flick Starring the ever Intense Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez giving another Workmanlike Performance, an Underrated Actress Lopez usually brings Spunk and believability for aggressive Females Everywhere.

The Movie is a bit Different, in the Thelma and Louise (1991) tradition of Two Women Driven beyond sanity and into a World that is distinctively Not Their Own. After Her Son is Innocently Gun Downed in a Drive-By, Viola Davis' Grief Cannot Comfort Her loss and She Snaps into Action with the Help of Her "Sponsor" Lopez.

What happens is Cathartic and Violent and ends With a Twist or Two. Engaging, Entertaining, and Well Done. This is an Unknown, Little-Seen Indie that is Worth a Watch for the Topical Story and better than Average presentation of a Mother's Pain and Revenge.

Nice movie. I won't give away any spoilers here, but there were a couple of nice turns with J Lo and what happened at the end with women's group and the cop. There were several other movies this reminded me of, but I won't tell because it could spoil it for you. The acting was nice and impressive. There were a few slow scenes and the women tracking down of some of the hoods was a little too easy, but overall it was worth watching.

This Lifetime movie is watchable if imperfect.

There are some things going for this mother's revenge thriller. Of course there are some unrealistic fantasy elements in the revenge sequences. It's not meant to be 100% realistic. It's laughable the way all the drug dealing baddies are dispatched. If you remember the Charles Bronson movies they all had this amusing ludicrous moments.

Viola Davis is a most effective actress and you feel her emotions of grief and depression. Jennifer Lopez in a non glam get up is competent - this is no JLo vehicle.

Overall worth one watch.

"Maybe we could help each other." Lila (Davis) is a loving mother who has just lost her son in a drive by shooting. She is frustrated at the lack of evidence as to who and why and is getting upset at the police who do not seem to be doing all they should. She joins a grieving mothers support group and meets Eve (Lopez) who has also lost a child. When she tells Lila they should track down the killer themselves things become violent, and Lila and Eve do all they can to avenge their lost children. This is a movie that started out with so much promise but began to become repetitive and lose its edge the longer it went on. The movie is still very good and worth seeing but the movie Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon was very similar, and I though much better. The biggest fault I have with this movie is that it was geared toward the Lifetime movie crowd but added enough to make it an R rating. The movie never really makes it out of the Lifetime feel and to me that hurt it. Overall, not a bad movie and worth seeing, but essentially a hard edge Lifetime movie that doesn't really appeal to everyone like it should. I give this a B.

I can't work out why the detectives failed in this film. Maybe their acting - it only seemed to become sincere in the last part. I think the quality was at fault - the sound wasn't as clear as it should have been.

Apart from that I really enjoyed this film. Both female leads were superb and totally believable. I liked the story too. Not so obvious and a good ending.

The morality of revenge has been used as theme in many occasions, Kevin Bacon and Jodie Foster have made similar works before. While it doesn't necessarily innovate crime genre, Lila & Eve works by displaying the intimate issue with strong performance. It's a story about two mothers seeking justice, yet ultimately absorbed by the vengeance in an attempt to cope with the overwhelming sadness.

Viola Davis as Lila is easily the best asset of the movie. She's completely believable as the grieving mother, often seen hurt and confused in highly sympathetic manner. She can draw audience interest and even suspense judgment as she dabbles in less savory acts. Since the movie almost entirely revolves around her trial, it's a boon to have a reliable lead.

Jennifer Lopez has a mixed record in acting. There are a couple of good movies when she delivered, but most of the material she worked were mismatches. The most advantage she has is she can appear to be not glamorous, as in Parker and The Boy Next Door. With Viola Davis, the chemistry is definitely present, she appears to be an integral part of Lila's story than just a guest star.

The movie is not without flaws though. It's hampered with a few crude developments. They can be a bit problematic, although not entirely jumping towards one-man-army action theme or overly bloody violence. Furthermore, the plot twist it tries to pull is predictable and it could've been more refined or subtle in its delivery.

Unfortunately, many elements of the movie are notoriously cliché. The vigilante thriller and the chasing cop aspect feel much too familiar. However, Lila & Eve has enough private sentiment to be emotionally engaging even though the cause might not be just.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's the era of angry cinematic women, and this time we get Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez as mothers who go on a rampage of violence to gain vengeance for the murders of their sons. In 1991 Thelma & Louise tried to teach abusive and pig-headed men a lesson, and now Lila & Eve face off against neighborhood gangbangers.

Director Charles Stone III is best known for Drumline (2002) and Mr 3000 (2004) and this high-stress thriller seems a departure for him, though he compensates with a talented cast. In addition to Ms. Davis and Ms. Lopez, we get detectives played by Shea Whigham and Andre Royo, and Michole Briana White as the leader of the support group.

Stories of vigilantism always skirt the line between gritty and far-fetched, and unfortunately this one leans a bit too far the wrong way. Watching these two women so easily track down their targets and then so effortlessly 'take care of business' is head-shaking when combined with the tricky plot twist. The side story focusing on the support group was actually the most interesting, as it provides a glimpse of the grieving process and psychological effects experienced by mothers of murdered sons. Even this part flies off the rails towards the end of the movie – though it was with the best intentions.

Jennifer Lopez at least seems to take some delight in her character … a role much less restrictive than that of Viola Davis, who is forced to play it straight and angry (and she is very adept at this). Mothers seeking vengeance is a cause I can support, but not more can be said about this film as the first rule of Fight Club

I think it's a good movie. Beautifully made. The color, the feel, the pace. It doesn't get boring. And it's emotionally touching. The leading actress is just great. And Lopez, considering the substance of her character that you come to realize later during the film, I think plays adequately, though people don't find her convincing. But, that's what she's supposed to be, cause she's a doer. She's the driving force, "the man" of this movie, while Viola is more of "a lady", more tender, empathetic and so on. So, I don't really understand, why people put Lopez down - she's done her part well.

The story is interesting. Cause it's a story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. No Jason Statham or Tom Cruise to fix the problem here. Simple, fragile mother gets to fix her life - bring murderers or her son to justice. To me it was just interesting to watch. While my wife's eyes were constantly wet. Thank to Viola's amazing performance, mainly.

This may be predictable (to some more so than to others), but it does have a solid idea behind it and the grieving aspect of it, is more than rock solid and gives the whole thing a ground to stand on. Jennifer Lopez may not be headlining any big Hollywood movies anymore, but she can still pull off major roles like this one (even if it was initially offered to another actress who had to turn it down due to another commitment she had herself).

While this is convincing, even in its way to turn things around, it does have this "break point", where people may get annoyed or disappointed where this turns to (quite literally too). But it stays in tune to the whole thing and gives a way into the mindset of our main character. Whether you agree or not and whether you think this is morally justifiable or not ...

To my own surprise, I have to say I was impressed with Jennifer Lopez's performance. Having seen most of her movies, I was convinced that she was one of the lousiest actresses around. I thought she was completely hopeless. She is so one-dimensional in all of her movies, that I was sure she is simply not capable of portraying anyone other than herself. So, compared to her other movies, this is, thus far, her finest performance, I think.

The movie is not perfect; I thought the whole story was a bit underdeveloped and rushed, but it's watchable. It is not exactly the quality I'd expect from a Hollywood thriller; it has the feel of a made-for-TV flick.

The twist was the highlight of the movie. Didn't see it coming. Nice one.

Worth a look. Like I said, it was interesting to discover that Jennifer Lopez is not entirely talentless after all.

Not too surprising that Viola Davis gives a strong performance as a mother who has a very interesting nervous breakdown after her son's murder from a drive-by, and good for Jennifer Lopez who I can't remember the last time was in something really worth seeing. Her role as another grieving mother out for vengeance rather than justice was a turn in a different direction.

And the movie relies a lot on the strong performances of their star power. Though it acts like a mature version of Death wish, the movie is predicable like an action movie, and though I was expecting elements from the action genre, I was also expecting the movie to be a way better than a Made-for-TV cable movie starring an old TV star.

Maybe you should wait to see it on TV as well.

Was not sure what to expect from this movie but was pleasantly surprised. As mentioned before, it wont be up for Oscars but the main characters play their roles very well. It is rather dark and emotional but sadly does smack of the real world. Anyone with intellect will be able to separate the surrealism from the realism but the movie does grip you in a way that your curiosity to how it ends will get the better of you. There is a twist and trust me, even the movie addicts and experts among you, will find this a tough one to predict. For me, J-Lo plays one of her better roles in this movie. I feel her acting skills express maturity in this role and its pretty consistent. If you are a die hard fan of hers, you will like this movie.

Sure,

shooting a man next to a full diner and nobody comes out to see what happened? A cop that knows the truth but let's the perpetrator walk cause out of sentiments?

Bad guys that wait long enough so the girls can take out guns out their purses and shoot them?

What a lame movie!

When I see the positive reactions I guess that we are dealing with a lot of people that are satisfied with thin plot lines and are just happy with the ending of this movie when justice is served.

I wonder if there isn't anyone on the million dollar movie set to correct those lame mistakes that are made in this movie.

Lopez can't act for a dime....it is time she gave this up.

The casting in 'Lila & Eve' seems very strange. Two female lead roles, one filled by a superb actress with two Academy Award nominations, and one filled by - well, Jennifer Lopez. It feels like Daniel Day-Lewis doing a film alongside Kevin Hart. Charlize Theron was originally cast in the role but had to drop out and it's easy to see why. The role simply wasn't big enough for her. It's a lead role, but it's also not in a way. Make no mistake the film belongs to Viola Davis and Lopez is simply there to give a film a bit of a kick, which you will understand once you've seen the film. The unfortunate thing though is that while her role may give the film a kick, her performance has the opposite effect. She comes across as a soap opera star and completely takes the audience away from the seriousness of any scene she's in.

Lopez aside however, it's not a bad film. Davis is great in the lead role and manages to cover up some clunky written dialogue. There's not a lot of creativity in the action scenes either, but at least they're plentiful and violent enough. Make no mistake, this is no chick-flick. The twist is well executed and adds a point or two to the film. Overall it's a surprisingly good watch.

A half decent 'action' flick that kicks off with a promising start but then just really doesn't go anywhere, meandering around what could have been some much-needed 'BANG BANG PEWWW PEWWW' moments. Viola Davis is still brilliant however and Lopez was better than she was in 'Gigli' but not as good as she was in 'Out of Sight'. The twist comes around with about twenty minutes to go and, credit where credit's due, I wasn't actually expecting it. But the whole reveal is so pointless and makes TOO much sense for a twist anyway, it doesn't have any affect whatsoever. The story chugs along as if the twist never happened. If you're looking to kill some time, watch this.

6/10 I enjoyed the performances from Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez it was a good movie with a twist I didn't see coming. It was action, drama all in one. A def must watch.

Viola can act almost anything - but she doesn't have much to work with after her son is killed in a drug deal gone bad. She then meets Lopez at a mom's support group - but JLo takes her down a revenge road she really doesn't want to travel.