I like movies, but I’m not one for gossip.  I remember switching the channels and the clicker falling on Access Hollywood or one of those shows and the host was showing us pictures from a distance of Brad and Angelina loading their car full of groceries while Angelina was holding a baby.  The host and co-host were speculating as to what exactly was in the grocery bags.  Shoot, I don’t know… milk, Similac, wheat bread and diet coke?  Who gives a damn?  Brad happened to wearing an International Harvester cap, and they spent another five minutes theorizing on what that actually represents.  Perhaps it was by the door when he left the house?  Who in the world cares about this stuff?  Well, obviously a lot of people or these shows wouldn’t be so damn popular.  Tara Reid, as we all know, is virtually a staple of tabloid news.  Dangit, show up drunk at one party or two and now everybody wants to give you a hard time.  This unwanted (I guess) attention hasn’t stopped Ms. Reid from working as she spits out films at such a pace, I wonder how she even finds the time wear lampshades at Hollywood shindigs. 

In the political intrigue action thriller ‘Silent Partner’ Tara Reid plays Dina, who appears to be a Russian prostitute.  Yes, Russian.  She speaks a little Bolshevik, and generally maintains the accent throughout with the very, very few lines she was actually given in this film.  The Russian minister of finance, with whom Dina has some kind of relationship with rudely interrupts one of her whore sessions.  He is very disappointed in Dina, but he hands her a silver briefcase, informing her that she’s the only one he trusts.  Soon this man will take his own life, or so we are led to believe. 

Next we meet Gordon Patrick (Nick Moran) who is basically a CIA accountant.  He is attempting to secure a lucrative financing package for Russia, but things hit a bump when there is word of the suicide of this Finance Minister.  Much to Gordon’s

surprise, the CIA director dispatches him, as opposed to an actual field op, to investigate the situation and make sure the loan program doesn’t get derailed.  What Gordon finds out is that there is deception every freaking where.  Nobody is telling the truth, his every move is bugged, his Russian liaison is dirty, the U.S. Ambassador is suspect, and soon he is accosted by this trampish, fake fur wearing hooker who claims to have some vital information.  You see, the gub-ment thought that they would send a boy to do a man’s job and the plan would go ahead as scheduled, but they totally underestimated Gordon as he flipped the script hard on those suckas and managed to survive to get to the truth.  Or did he?

Andrew Stevens Entertainment, who has truly dumped some truly suspect fare on to an unsuspecting public didn’t do such a bad job with ‘Silent Partner’.  The character Gordon Patrick as played by Nick Moran was very well realized and though he did do some rather amazing things later on the film, considering his accounting roots, he never really became a superman and basically stayed within the boundaries of his characters limited abilities.  Tara Reid certainly gets a bad rap, and I’m sure she brings a lot of this nonsense upon herself, but as far as this movie goes, she was effective.  Nick Moran was the true star of the film, as he had the most screen time and had to do most of the heavy lifting, but Director James D. Beck handled both of his stars well. Ms. Reid didn’t have to rely on that accent to carry her though the movie, and simply had to do a lot running and jumping and screaming.  There was a crying scene in a tub that was fairly lame though.  And speaking of screaming, someone teach this girl how to do it properly.

There was a lot of action in the film, with car chases, shootouts, and lots of running and jumping as I just said, but in my opinion there was far too much of it and didn’t really add to the story.  They could have trimmed a lot of that stuff, because after a while it just became dull and repetitive.  The narrative which centers around money laundering, vice presidents and hidden cameras, was a little over the top, and considering the audience for such a film, became a little too convoluted... particularly the rather confusing closing frames.  I’m just letting you know that I don’t appreciate getting confused watching a DTV movie.  That, my friends, just isn’t cool.

‘Silent Partner’ was way better than I expected to be, but since the expectations were so low, I guess it wasn’t hard for it to achieve that meager goal.  Nonetheless, this was very slick, well done, decently acted production and it’s good to see that Ms. Reid can do some quality work in-between her drunken rampages.  You go girl.