Tricked

A bizarre, mostly ineffective piece of work, Tricked is broken down into two separate yet distinctive parts – with the first half devoted to a documentary detailing its making and the second featuring the ensuing, shortened thriller. In terms of the former, Paul Verhoeven and his producers emerged with a four-page script and essentially crowdsourced the remainder of the storyline – with the bulk of the movie’s screenplay penned by online fans and aspiring filmmakers. It’s an oddball experiment that doesn’t, given the ineffectiveness of the final product, seem likely to become commonplace, and it’s clear, ultimately, that Tricked will ultimately go down as one of the weakest entries within Verhoeven’s admittedly erratic filmography. This is despite a periodic emphasis on appreciatively salacious plot developments, including one late-in-the-game moment that almost singlehandedly justifies the picture’s entire existence. Still, Tricked is a forgettable wisp of a movie that doesn’t, even at about 50 minutes, manage to sustain one’s interest – with the preceding documentary faring just as badly (if not worse).

** out of ****