I found BETRAYAL to be a fun B-movie thriller from director Mark L. Lester, the man who made the superlative COMMANDO back in the day. He's working with a much smaller budget here but the film is much better than its IMDb rating would have you think. It's essentially a road movie in which a mother and son get into difficulty with some drug dealers and decide to head off for a while, only to end up taking along a hitwoman hitchhiker being pursued by the mob.This film is on the cheesy side at times, but it's generally pretty well made and certainly fast-paced throughout. There's always some violent action in the form of shoot-outs going on to keep your mind occupied, and enough oddball characters to bring to mind movies such as TRUE ROMANCE. An ageing Erika Eleniak plays the protective mother while Julie du Page has a ball as the femme fatale. Elsewhere we get Louis Mandylor and Tom Wright reuniting after MARTIAL LAW alongside smaller parts for old-timers James Remar and Don Swayze. It's no masterpiece, but it did entertain me.

BETRAYAL is terrific little crime actioner, a Mark Lester job, that entertains from beginning to end. A lethal lady, played by sexy Parisian actress Julie Du Page, is on the run with a million bucks of mob money. Several people, including a police detective played by Adam Baldwin of SERENITY fame, are hot on her trail. She ends up in the company of a mom (the luscious Erica Eleniak) and her teenage son (Jeremy Lelliott), and all hell breaks loose when the son finds the money. Plenty of people die, there are some car chases, and the ending features a decent cat fight between the two Eleniak and Du Page. I am with those who think Eleniak deserves better roles than she normally gets, but better she is working than not at all. "B" movie stalwart James Remar plays an FBI agent who hooks up with Eleniak, although he is given little to do. The focus is on the two extremely beautiful women, which was fine with me. Du Page has a shower scene, guys.

Betrayal is a B movie all right, but it has a plot with interesting angles and delivers good entertainment, some suspense and many hilarious moments. The main character is a teenager with a low IQ but a high sense of responsibility – in short an Anti James Dean. His mother, a single mom, is totally broke and he wants to help them get out of their misery. So he takes on a job: delivering bags he does not know what's in them. Even the first delivery goes wrong because the boy wants to help a guy who is writhing and retching on the ground. It's a trap and the boy sees the bag snatched away from him because he showed empathy.He goes back to mom, after a while the gangsters shoot into the house and the boy tells his mom everything and says that he is sorry. Mom says it's bad, but that she is even MORE sorry than he (this exchange seems to be inspired by Dr. Strangelove and is repeated several times throughout the movie). They decide to flee to granny who is living far away, but have not the money to buy a train ticket. Luck strikes as in the queue in front of the railroad ticket office they meet a sexy young lady who says she had her driver's license removed, wants to travel to the same destination and offers them to finance a rental car )which is terribly unreliable, as it will turn out). Big, big coincidences, but not entirely impossible or unbelievable.The sexy lady is, of course, a contract killer who carries millions in cash in her aluminum suitcase and is pursued by the police and the mob she stole the money from. Mom and son are used as a shield, and the son gets some sexual education on the way. That this weird triangle works so well can be credited to the involved actors who do a good job. Especially Jeremy Lelliott is very convincing, he is quite likable and displays the necessary goofiness for the part.A lot more happens in this movie, coincidences abound and the good people win in the end. My favorite scene is the son's coming home to the deserted house he and his mom supposedly have left for an undetermined but certainly pretty long time. He carries the aluminum suitcase with its precious content and is pursued by the mob, the corrupt police, the honest police and the sexy lady who is a killer. But he quietly goes to the fridge, takes out a ready to eat dinner and switches the TV on, where just that moment, just on that channel there is some news about the mob, the sexy lady killer, his mom and their exchange. Speak of an ideal situation. Life really should be that way, sometimes.You single moms out there, take an example from this movie, do hide a revolver in the exhaust hood of your kitchen too – just in case. It might come in handy, as Betrayal amply proves. And the gun will remain well greased over any length of time.

As thrillers go, there are a few surprises here. For awhile the film seems as though it might go in an interesting unexpected direction before it heads back into standard thriller mode. Had the main protagonists been male, the story would have been too obvious. Putting women in the "tough guy" leads made a nice variation. Still, you cannot expect too much. Once the final chase starts, it's all more or less by the numbers.The music tries very hard to add tension where there isn't any. The pacing tends towards slow. The story has more than enough holes in it. The acting is okay, but not inspiring. With almost no nudity and no steamy love story it is definitely not an "erotic thriller". The entire production value is equal to the average cable channel movie of the week.Neither it's theatrical title (Betrayal) or it's DVD title (Lady Jayne: Killer) really fit. It's not a bad film, but I couldn't recommend it. Still, I spent 90 minutes watching it, maybe you'd like to do the same.