Ridiculous, manipulative, and utterly irresistible, this push-button thriller instantly qualifies as a guilty pleasure, even when you know it's just a B-movie potboiler with moxie to spare. Taking a savvy clue from Ashley Judd's Double Jeopardy and any number of endangered-female melodramas from Hollywood's golden age, Jennifer Lopez stars as a blue-collar beauty who marries the really wrong guy (Billy Campbell). Eventually, of course, she discovers his philandering and spends the rest of the movie in nomadic flight from his hot-tempered brutality. Bankrolled by her estranged father (Fred Ward), she protects her young daughter, but knowing she must face the inevitable showdown with Campbell, she buffs up with Krav Maga self-defense courses and... well, we won't spoil the "surprise." With Campbell doing everything but twirl his mustache, this shameless provocation is beneath the talents of director Michael Apted, but with J. Lo in charge, it's a revenge fantasy that's guaranteed to please.
