A womanizer and a gold digger team up to pursue two robot versions of themselves.
I really don’t have much to say here, Robots had a lot of potential to be interesting but sadly it doesn’t amount to much.
Shailene Woodley is definitely trying here and the movie itself at least looks decently made, there’s a few shots here that are nice to look at. But that’s where the positives end.
Somehow the movie makes the concept of Robots taking over incredibly dull, with a very tacked on political message that really does not come together at all. The movie quickly turns into a mess, the road to get to the end of the movie is a rough one. I absolutely hate using this word in my reviews but Robots is about as boring as watching paint dry, there is very little going on and none of the characters are given proper development.
After an unexpected breakup, a travel executive accepts an assignment to go under cover and learn about the tourist industry in Vietnam. Along the way, she finds adventure and romance with her Vietnamese expat tour guide.
When it comes to original films Netflix has been having a very rough year so far, a lot of the movies have ranged from being flat out bad to painfully below average and sadly that also applies to A Tourist’s Guide to Love.
A Tourist’s Guide to Love does have it’s positives such as the performances from Rachel Leigh Cook and Scott Ly who really do try their hardest with what they are given, plus the chemistry between the two is admittedly very charming and there’s plenty of cute moments in there as well. There’s some decent looking shots here which is mainly due to the Vietnam setting.
Everything else however is about as predictable as you can get with a romantic comedy, the movie mainly focuses on getting to the finish line and calling it a day. You have a lot of the usual story beats that have been done better in other films, honestly the worst offense of the movie is that it’s just very forgettable. It’s one of those Netflix Originals where you will forget about it as soon as you finish watching it, mainly due to it feeling like every other Netflix romantic comedy film.
A Tourist’s Guide To Love is available on Netflix.
Following two youngsters reeling from bad breakups who connect over a particularly eventful day in South London.
One major thing I love about film is every once in awhile you get that film that is so unexpectedly incredible and comes out of thin air…Rye Lane is definitely an example of that.
For starters David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah are both incredible as the leads, the chemistry between the two is compelling and very raw. The conversations between the two is truly sweet, romantic and brings the viewer into their conversation. When you combine that with the camera movement and the angles the film uses you get a personal type feel while also feeling invited to the conversations the two have.
The blend of humor, romance, heartwarming moments and a bit of drama is all incredibly well balanced that really paints a beautiful story that’s straightforward but at the same time very compelling, Rye Lane definitely has some elements from Before Sunrise and the other two movies of the trilogy. But the film makes them it’s own by presenting tons of witty dialogue and combining that with character driven moments that ask a lot of questions about ourselves and love.
Rye Lane is such an engaging film that really hits you in the right spots when it discusses love, it puts the theme of love in the spotlight and shows how two strangers can connect and really fall for each other. The film itself is handled with so much care and heart that you can’t help but smile, it’s truly a beautiful film that I absolutely recommend giving a watch.
A young woman with dreams of being a superstar joins an underdog Atlanta praise-team choir in the lead up to the national competition.
Praise This is what you get when you mix Pitch Perfect and Jesus together, it has a praise team in a competition and story beats you will easily recognize from other movies.
Chloe Bailey is hands down the best part about the film, she is very talented and especially when she gets to sing. She also gives a pretty solid performance in the acting department as well, she takes the script which admittedly is on the weaker side and does the most she can with it.
There’s a few jokes here that work decently well and the first half of the movie is pretty solid for what it is. It’s mostly the second half that really starts to follow several story beats some of which are very similar to Pitch Perfect, I will give it credit that the movie isn’t preachy with it’s religious themes (it’s not even that religious to be quite honest.)
The movie does turn some songs into gospel or worship songs such as Cardi B’s “Money” some are definitely more noticeable than others, but they never get to the point of being KIDZ BOP level of bad.
Honestly there really isn’t much more to say, if you have seen Pitch Perfect or any of these other singing competition movies (heck some dance movies are a lot like this too) you have already seen Praise This. However if you are a Chloe Bailey fan I do think you will really like this one.
It is the height of prom season, but high school senior Mandy Yang has her sights set on a singular goal: attending Harvard. When she finds out she has been deferred, she is determined to do whatever she can to get herself off the waitlist, even if that means asking the one person who represents everything she abhors, all-star jock Graham Lansing, whose father is a powerful senator and Harvard alum.
Every once and awhile you get a Disney+ Original movie that doesn’t completely feel like Disney Channel original movie in disguise, Prom Pact definitely surprised me for this particular reason, it definitely seemed like it was going to be yet another high school movie with Disney paint over it.
While yes Prom Pact does have the usual elements that a lot of high school movies have, there is something here that a lot of these movies often miss…charm, there was clearly a lot of love put into the movie especially with the cast. Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim are both fantastic and give genuinely charming performances that the viewer can easily connect with, even some of the side characters are great Margaret Cho does a pretty good job with some decent comedic timing.
The story itself as I said before is very much in line with a lot of other high school movies, but luckily it is entertaining the whole way through. If you have seen one high school movie you probably know what to expect, but as I said before the charm is what makes this one standout. The message of the movie is great and the execution on sharing that message is pretty well done, the writing has it’s hiccups but for the most part they really kept some of the interactions as natural as possible.
Overall Prom Pact is by far one of the better Disney+ originals and is even something I would recommend checking out.
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.
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.
A socially awkward, environmentally conscious teenager named AJ is dragged to a coastal holiday park by her painfully ‘normal’ family, where she becomes unexpectedly captivated by a chlorine smelling, sun-loving lifeguard named Isla.
I really don’t have much to say about Sweetheart, it’s a very sweet little film (no pun intended) about trying to figure out who you are with some family dynamics.
The performances are all quite great and really move the film at a satisfying pace, the direction is solid enough to the point where it captures plenty of heartfelt moments. The family dynamics in the film are quite interesting and really give the film the extra push it needs.
Admittedly Sweetheart is very familiar in a lot of areas, if you have seen a lot of coming age films in the past you probably know what to expect. However I still can’t help but feel that the movie is still genuinely interesting. I’m not exactly sure why but I think it’s mainly due to the writing, which does actually feel like it captures how teenagers or everyday people talk.
Overall Sweetheart is a cute little movie that for the most part accomplished what it was sent out to do, it might not be one of the best coming of age stories. But it’s still a very satisfying little movie.
A young single mother raising an 8-year-old daughter struggles to take care of her father, who’s been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. While trying to secure a decent nursing home, she runs into a married friend and they begin an affair.
Something that I’ve always appreciated about Mia Hansen-Løve’s films is she always captures the sorrows, beauty and much more in very grounded situations. The situations themselves tell the story through the character’s actions and the writing always does such a beautiful job describing of what’s been showing, that is the exact case for One Fine Morning.
Léa Seydoux once again really hits it out of the park with another strong performance, she plays such a grounded role that has so many moments that really show her at her best as an actress. Mia Hansen-Løve goes all out in making the film work as much as possible, her very naturalistic approach of filmmaking truly works here especially when combined with the camera work that’s just so pleasing to look at. The acting from everyone else is truly fantastic especially Melvil Poupaud who takes on a role that is quite frankly very hard to pull off, playing a character that can be easily written off as “unlikable” but still manage to make the viewer believe him when he says he cares for Léa Seydoux’s character is quite the accomplishment.
As far as writing and direction goes like I said before there’s this very naturalistic approach to it, Mia Hansen-Løve makes sure to take this approach and stay with it throughout the film. It gives the film a very grounded look and feel that immediately connects the viewer especially with the interactions between the characters. It’s a beautifully written film that should most definitely be seen!
Fate brings ambitious hotel manager Alejandro and movie star Sophie together when the shoot brings them to Alejandro’s hotel. Despite their radically different lives, Alejandro and Sophie begin to secretly meet at midnight.
At Midnight is directed by Jonah Feingold who’s previous film I actually really liked which was Dating & New York, so despite a not very good trailer I was hoping that I would actually like At Midnight…that did not happen.
At Midnight is essentially a huge romantic comedy plot point checklist, it checks all of the key moments that need to happen and doesn’t bother to make itself standout among a very crowded genre. Monica Barbaro isn’t bad here but she isn’t enough to save the movie from being very forgettable, the writing is about what you expect it’s painfully dull and despite being 1 hour and 40 minutes it’s a complete chore to sit through.
It’s unfortunate because I do think with a far better script and much more focus this could have been a decent little romantic comedy, Diego Boneta and Monica Barbaro are honestly not bad here and do have a few moments of great chemistry. But unfortunately the rest of the movie is really holding that back from being even better.
At Midnight is available on Paramount+
2/10 F
With their relationship at a crossroads, Michelle and Allen invite their parents to finally meet. As it turns out, their parents already know each other, maybe a little too well.
In hindsight I should have probably skipped this one after I saw the terrible reviews Maybe I Do was getting, but the cast was just too interesting to pass and I was very curious how they can screw up this bad with a great cast.
The main issue with Maybe I Do is it presents itself as a comedy but lacks so much charm, there’s a few jokes that might get a chuckle out of you, but for the most part almost all of the jokes fall flat. The idea of the movie itself might be interesting at first, but it quickly becomes repetitive as it goes on. The movie doesn’t seem to know when to properly utilize it’s own idea and do something interesting with it.
The lack charm also comes from the characters who are one dimensional, the performances are all forgettable. They aren’t necessarily anything I would call bad, but despite the cast being quite strong very little is done to show their talent.
Jerome Reviews... 