A young woman tries to find her origins after having been abandoned as an infant at a cemetery wrapped in a cloth with satanic symbols, but as she gets closer to answers a malevolent spirit is telling her to leave.
Leave is about as cliched and predictable as you would expect it to be.
While it’s actually shot decently and at the very least looks great when it comes to camera angles and making great use of it’s setting. The rest of the movie unfortunately falls into the very forgettable category.
The acting is fine enough and the writing has it’s moments, but what ultimately puts the movie in the coffin is the large amount of plot holes combined with the terrible editing that will even make fans of the horror genre (myself included) very confused as to what is exactly happening. The whole idea of the movie that is presented in the first bit of the movie sounds interesting enough which is a demonic cult.
Yet for some reason the rest of the movie isn’t about that? While Satan is definitely mentioned this isn’t like The Omen or any of those movies that Leave suggested it was trying to be in the opening.
I really wish there was more to say here but the movie just does not have a whole lot too it, it’s forgettable and might serve better when you watch it with friends to watch some random horror movie.
When a successful MMA trainer discovers that her boyfriend, the reigning champion, has been cheating on her, she sets out to get revenge by training the one man capable of dethroning him: his arch-nemesis. What begins as payback quickly turns into a complicated and steamy love triangle.
The trend of turning Wattpad stories into movies continues and it isn’t getting any better. I honestly have no idea what to exactly say here other then Perfect Addiction is atrocious.
Take every horrible element from the young adult movie genre, put into a blender and you get this movie. The acting is horrible especially when combined with the writing, not even Ross Butler who even when he’s placed into not very good movies still manages to be one of the best parts. That’s not the case here however.
Perfect Addiction really highlights on why Wattpad stories just don’t work when it comes to film, a lot of them are way too identical to one another. Heck Perfect Addiction really felt like the After series but tweaked a bit (even has the same director who directed some of the movies.) at least with the After series every once and awhile you get scenes that are so bad they are funny. With Perfect Addiction you just don’t get that, it’s a painfully slow and dull movie that is so hard to sit through,
Perfect Addiction is available on Amazon Prime Video.
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic, but their charming adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
Before I start it should be noted that I have next to no knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons, I only know it by name and that they made three previous garbage movies based on it.
Anyway Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves I guess sort of serves as a reboot to the three movies I just mentioned. Dungeons & Dragons (2000), Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of The Dragon God (2005) and Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012) were a trilogy of movies that came out and well they were pretty bad, so fast forward to 2023 and there’s finally a solid Dungeons & Dragons movie?
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is definitely a huge surprise, there’s a lot going for it here and you would think would not work all that well but mainly due to the cast and a lot of the classic fantasy elements, there’s so much that works here.
The cast is quite strong here in particular Chris Pine, Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis are really solid. They all work well together and bring a charming and this sweet type of atmosphere to their group that you can’t help but smile at, Edgin Darvis’s (played by Chris Pine) story might not be anything new especially when it comes to the fantasy genre. However what does make it standout is how it’s done, it’s a sweet and heartfelt story that makes you really care for Edgin and want him to succeed on his quest.
The action scenes are quite well done, they aren’t going to break any new ground but there is absolutely no denying that they are filled to the brim with energy and really gets the viewer excited as well. The major thing I am pretty surprised they did pretty well with was the thing that I was mostly scared was going to take up most of the movie…the humor, the movie actually does a fairly decent job at balancing the humor and the character moments.
There’s some genuinely funny dialogue here that actually works quite well and adds to the overall sweet and heartfelt atmosphere of the movie, the one liners do get old but luckily they aren’t enough to stop Honor Among Thieves from being a genuinely fun time.
While Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves won’t break any new ground in the fantasy genre, it does offer something truly fun and very charming.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves releases March 31st in theaters.
Fearing the apocalypse, an insurance salesman embarks on a solo hunting experiment, only to face a traumatic incident.
Robert Machoian’s previous film The Killing Of Two Lovers (2020) was fantastic and one of my favorite films from 2020, so naturally I was pretty excited for his newest film The Integrity Of Joseph Chambers. Much like his previous film this was quite haunting!
Clayne Crawford gives one of the best performances of the year so far, he absolutely nails it especially when it comes to matching the atmosphere the film creates. There are moments where you could tell his character Joe is about to lose it like a ticking time bomb, the film itself is quite claustrophobic despite taking place in the woods. There’s this sense of being lost with very little help coming it’s quite chilling, there’s a question of mortality as well which is when things get quite disturbing as well.
One major thing that Robert Machoian has shown he absolutely nails it with is combining the atmosphere with the cinematography and making it haunting, he showed this in Killing Of Two Lovers and he most definitely shows it in The Integrity Of Joseph Chambers. And what a really clever way to take full advantage of the setting and make it as thrilling and disturbing as possible, the story may come off as a survival film but there is so much more to it than that, there’s so much here that grabs the viewer’s attention and hits you with chilling atmospheric moments.
The Integrity Of Joseph Chambers might not be for everyone but if it sounds like your type of movie I absolutely recommend giving a look even if you are curious!
The Integrity Of Joseph Chambers is available on all VOD platforms.
Two best friends race against time to stop the woman they’re both in love with from committing murder.
God’s Time has been compared to Good Time directed by the Safdie Brothers and it’s very easy to see why, it uses very similar styles, editing and such to really drive the narrative home. But God’s Time takes those elements and makes them it’s own.
As said before the film has so much style to it, it’s quick and sharp plus has this chaotic energy to it that really brings the viewer into the whole experience. The plot might seem straightforward at first but it quickly evolves into madness and is quite effective at doing so, the performances combined with the direction are a lot of fun and really get the viewer energized as well.
The main flaws mostly comes in with characterization and the ending (kind of), the characters don’t get as much development as they needed. There’s just enough for the viewer to care for them, but the movie does hold back on development that could have been even better. The ending isn’t necessarily bad it’s more that it was a bit lacking, the movie just sort of ends after awhile and leaves you with a “wait that’s it?” moment.
That isn’t enough to stop God’s Time from being a solid film that has lot of creative ideas that for the most part are executed really well!
During the summer of 1999, an 18-year-old amateur ballroom dancer has an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend’s older brother.
I wasn’t completely sold with Goran Stolevski’s previous film which came out last year You Won’t Be Alone. But one major thing that I absolutely love about film is that the exact same director can come back and direct something you really loved which that is the case for Of An Age.
Of An Age is a beautiful film from beginning to end, it’s a queer coming of age film that really explores the two main characters and their relationship between one another. Thom Green and Elias Anton both do a fantastic job here as well as Hattie Hook in the supporting cast they give some of the best performances of 2023 so far. The writing is very down to earth and really strikes with character development and a lot of themes that really get the viewer emotional.
The film itself is beautiful to look at between Stolevski’s camera cuts that really make scenes feel that much more important, Green and Anton being centered in several shots as well as seeing every expression in great detail is truly mesmerizing. Of An Age is striking with it’s theme of finding yourself and trying to figure out who you are.
After a virus kills all of the Earth’s adults, rival children battle for control of an abandoned theme park.
The Park is pretty much if you took any of those Young Adult dystopian film adaptions that were popular in the 2010s and mixed it with some horror elements. That might sound like a neat idea on paper but unfortunately there’s a lot lacking that ultimately hurts the movie.
It should be noted that the cast does a solid job in their respective roles, there aren’t really any standouts but they all blend in their talent quite well so it works either way. The filming combined with the location is quite neat as well, it does match the type of atmosphere that the movie is going for.
The movie falls apart when it comes to writing and story in terms of story it’s about what you expect from a dystopian movie, all of the adults are wiped out due to a disease so now they kids need to learn to survive. In this case they battle for a abandoned park. There’s nothing wrong with that to be clear, but it really doesn’t do anything to really standout very well. Writing wise there just isn’t much here unfortunately, while there are some decent character moments that try to connect the audiences with the characters. It isn’t nearly enough to save the movie.
The Park also suffers from a very bland third act that sort of just ends, the movie definitely needed a bit more time to be cooked in the oven. As 80 minutes wasn’t enough time to get it’s ideas off the ground. Overall The Park is definitely not a bad movie, there was clearly a huge amount of effort and passion put into it, the ideas of the movie just don’t fully come together unfortunately.
Bestowed with the powers of the gods, Billy Batson and his fellow foster kids are still learning how to juggle teenage life with their adult superhero alter egos. When a vengeful trio of ancient gods arrives on Earth in search of the magic stolen from them long ago, Shazam and his allies get thrust into a battle for their superpowers, their lives, and the fate of the world.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is a sequel to Shazam which came out in 2019, I actually really liked Shazam, it was a charming movie that a lot of solid jokes and I really like the whole family element in it as well. At first I was decently excited for Fury Of The Gods but after awhile as trailers and more information about the movie came out, I couldn’t help but feel something was missing from the first movie. But the trailers from the first Shazam didn’t completely sell me so maybe I would be surprised once again? That did not happen here unfortunately.
I’ll start with what worked because there were a few parts of Fury Of Gods that were genuinely great. The performances from Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren were all very solid. They played their characters quite well and were actually far better than the villain from the first movie. There’s one scene at the beginning that captures the whole family element quite well and that’s the Holding Out For A Hero scene, which is genuinely a lot of fun and the use of the song is quite great (you can honestly never go wrong with that song). There’s some other action scenes that are decently fun but that’s really all there is to them.
And that’s sadly where it ends for me, everything else ranges from being embarrassingly bad to very below average, for a movie that is supposedly about magic it most certainly lacks in it. It’s a huge step down from the first one outside of making the villains much more memorable, the family elements are nowhere near as strong as they were in the first one. Sure the other characters get to do a few things here but when the third act comes around they are completely sidelined. The character development is also incredibly lacking as well, there’s very surface level development that doesn’t give the viewer enough information about the family at all, instead it’s just small character traits that are very one note.
The humor has such a downgrade, while the first movie’s humor wasn’t exactly perfect. There were moments where there were genuinely funny jokes that were charming. Fury Of The Gods doesn’t have that, a lot of it is just poor writing that tries to come off as a joke and even resorts to a Skittles product placement that is just baffling (it really comes out of absolute nowhere, I mean sure Skittles appeared in one scene before but it still makes no sense), a lot of the magic that made the first one so charming is just not here. There’s also a cameo that is towards the end of the movie, I’m not going to say who it is. All I will say is that it it’s horrible, it’s the very definition of forced and is only there to get claps and fingers pointing at the screen.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is a very frustrating movie, it had potential to be really solid and take what the first one did really well and do it even better. Unfortunately that’s not the case here, instead you are left with a forgettable comic book movie that does very little to stand out and is a huge step down from it’s predecessor.
After the suspicious death of her brother, a priest, Grace travels to the Mount Saviour Convent in Scotland to find out what really happened. Once there, she uncovers murder, sacrilege and a disturbing truth about her own past.
Consecration is just Prey For The Devil repackaged and is a bit better but that is really not saying much at all.
By far the best part about Consecration is Jenna Malone’s performance, she does a genuinely decent job here and actually brings a couple strong moments here and there. The movie is at least decently made, there’s a few shots here that do look nice enough and some of the slow burn elements are at least interesting (that is until the movie completely moves on from them.)
Everything else however? A lot of it is elements and plot lines you have seen in far better religion based horror movies but done worse, there is so little to say because everything here is just a repeat. The movie presents some good ideas to explore but fumbles the ball very quickly when it comes to actually exploring said ideas, you might get one or two scenes that look like they are actually going to explore the idea but the very next scene the movie quickly moves on.
The third act really shifts in what it wants to be and really starts to bring nonsensical plot lines into the mix that were never even explore throughout the movie, making the viewer have far more questions than answers. Which is perfectly fine if it’s done well but here it most certainly is not.
After millions of people vanish and the world falls into chaos, a charismatic leader rises to lead the UN. However, his intentions are more sinister than they appear.
I’m not entirely sure why I even bothered watching Left Behind: Rise Of the Antichrist, it’s a sequel to the 2014 Left Behind the second adaption to the first Left Behind novel (you know the one with Nicolas Cage?) The movie was garbage outside of one Nicolas Cage moment (where he yells sit down on an airplane) there was absolutely nothing redeeming about the 2014 Left Behind.
Enter Kevin Sorbo who somehow makes an even worse movie with Left Behind: Rise Of The Antichrist, it’s honestly difficult where to start with this movie. Because this is such a huge mess, a lot of it is Kevin Sorbo wandering around until his Jesus conversion and that’s when the movie gets even worse. It starts to be preachy and is complete and total nonsense especially in the writing department, the major problem is the movie for whatever reason decides to insert conspiracy theories in the middle of the plot.
Between conspiracies about the COVID-19 lockdowns, anti-vax, anti-mask and so on, which really confuses me isn’t this supposed to be sequel to Left Behind? What does any of these topics have to do with The Rapture? Which leads me to believe that Kevin Sorbo put these topics in out of anger because of what was happening, which is a form of filmmaking that as far as I’ve seen almost never works and it most certainly doesn’t here.
Putting a heavy emphasis on those topics sacrifices a lot in the writing and character department, as well as just not making any sense why these topics are in a movie about The Rapture. If you wanted to make a movie about those topics then make a movie ABOUT those topics not insert it into something that has nothing to do with it.
Even if you took those topics out of the movie, it would still be horrendous. Between the acting, writing, the very empty direction and the overall movie being a complete chore to sit through. It’s a complete mess of a movie that somehow makes the 2014 Left Behind look like competent movie.
Left Behind: Rise Of The Antichrist is available on all VOD platforms.
Jerome Reviews... 