phredator

The story, a teen sexploitation flick, leads one to believe that this will be a fairly shallow film. Well it's certainly not War and Peace. And it's certainly not going to win an Oscar.

But the movie does have a little bit of heart. You actually managed to care about Jennifer Lawrence's character a little bit and the kid a little bit. Not a lot. Again this isn't War and Peace. But let's say that if my expectations on drama and heart were zero then I'm pleasantly please to discover that this is at least a five or six on the feel-good scale. And that's kind of a home run for a movie like this.

The plot is as thin as tissue paper. Ferris Bueller hires Jennifer Lawrence to take his son's virginity.

But by the end you actually managed to care about these people a tiny little bit.

So within this framework, that would qualify as a home run?

Do not think at all when you watch this. And you'll be amused. Possibly even entertained.

And if that's not enough let's just say that you'll see more of Jennifer Lawrence than you've ever seen before.

How can a movie about the apocalypse be so long? At 3 hours this thing is a nightmare. It could easily be 90 minutes. The 1989 John Cusack film fat man and little boy covers the same material but is infinitely more entertaining.

So let's see. Oppenheimer is asked to make the atomic bomb. And he spends an inordinate amount of time wondering if maybe the bomb is bad or Communists are bad or whether he should sleep with another woman. And Iron Man pops up and decides he doesn't like Oppenheimer so he tells everyone that Oppenheimer is bad. And in the end everybody gets fired. Seriously why did this have to take 3 hours?

The cinematography was nice all of the technical stuff was nice. And half of Hollywood seems to be in the movie. I guess after covid everybody's dying for work any work. But honestly I would suggest that you just look up fat man and little boy and watch that instead.

Yawn. How did they make a movie that made me almost want to fall asleep while they're setting off an atomic bomb? That's what I'd like to know.

The promo, the production values, and the premise all got my attention. So I sat down to give this a look. It was filmed in Thai and is dubbed roughly in English. Overall I'd say this isn't a huge drawback. But you will notice it in essentially every single scene. This sort of thing is more acceptable when you're watching Godzilla then when you're trying to watch a serious drama.

Magic Camera makes people disappear. All right I want to know more. So I watch. I watch two episodes. And suddenly it Dawn's on me that there's nothing that this premise brings to the story.

If you want someone out of your life you don't need a Magic Camera to do it, you can simply eliminate them the old fashioned way. So this is a story about people who kill people who get in their way. It's not a new story at all. To that end I'm wondering what the point is of having a magical camera.

By the way if you did have a magical camera that could murder anyone simply by snapping their picture, would you be constantly looking in the lens yourself? Would you point the camera in your direction all the time? This is after all the equivalent of a gun. Who points a gun at themselves?

In a lot of ways I found this a reimagining of an episode of Dallas. Wealthy people, backbiting, treachery deceit infidelity.

And I suppose if that's what you want to see, essentially a Hallmark version of Dallas with a bit more gore thrown in, then I suppose this will be as passible as any similar work. And that's why I gave it a 5 out of 10. It doesn't get any points for Magic Camera. It doesn't get any points for breaking new ground.

This is just another episode of another soap opera.

Nothing wrong with that but don't be expecting me to sing its praises.

At the start, this movie seems far better than its obviously limited budget. There is a mystery, a puzzle. And our lead begins working it out. Invariably he "solves" it, only to discover that there is far more under the surface. Who made the puzzle, what will solving it do or rather unleash?

And then they switch pretty much entirely into dialogue. Exposition. Talk. Talk. Blah. Blah. What if there's time travel? What if there are aliens? What if there are evil time travelling aliens? Blah blah blah.

Let me put it this way. What if they remade Terminator but didn't have any scenes with the robot? What if you just had a couple of people talk for an hour about how there "might" be a terminator, a Skynet, doomsday. But the movie ends with you never seeing any of it. Just characters sitting in a room talking.

There are authors that can pull that kind of a thing off. Asimov in Nightfall for example. But it's rare. Extremely rare.

This movie is not that rare exception. It goes nowhere and does nothing. Points for at least considering a higher concept. But the authors are no Asimov. And this movie ends up being too long and muddled.

Finally saw Avatar - the way of butter.

Meh.

That right. Meh. The film was certainly very pretty. The story was ok, though a bit disjointed in places. Perhaps a ten year production cycle makes it difficult to maintain continuity.

But the main thing is that I didn't really care about these characters. The mother cried all the time. Hard to like a character that's always crying. The father comes up with the brilliant plan to run and hide instead of standing and fighting for what's right. Hard to like someone who runs and hides. The kids, and the villians, and essentially all the other characters were frankly not that easy to distinguish. Everyone is blue CGI.

Pick a film at random. Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood. At no point in the movie did I have difficulty distinguishing between Clint, Morgan Freeman, the girl that provides the inciting incident, or any other characters in the movie. It's always clear who is who and what they are feeling.

Blue cgi characters in Avatar are certainly the most realistic that I've seen. But frankly they all look a bit the same after a while. Combine this with them being shot underwater or in endless eclipses, it starts to be a noticeable issue.

The first movie was all about "unobtainium". People came to take the mineral because it was valuable. In this movie, we don't mention that at all. But then they seem to remember that they need some reason for people to come to Pandora. So they mention that they can get this immortality serum from the whales on Pandora. Then they never mention it again.

This movie is largely about the powers that be launching a jihad against Jake, the hero from the last movie. Ok. I understand that if he's been trouble to them in the past, they'd want revenge. But now he's hiding in the forest. Not making any trouble. And now you've found out that you can live forever by harvesting whales. Is it really reasonable to commit the equivalent of an aircraft carrier's worth of resources to find a guy who was a problem 14 years ago?

Many people are killed attempting to get him. He's not even doing anything. Just hiding out. It's not like he's Bin Laden plotting another attack. He's literally just a has been who is hiding in the forest raising a family.

So I couldn't really understand the motivations of the villains either.

Pretty movie. That's for sure. Hard to distinguish the characters, harder to like the characters, and I didn't even really dislike the villains. So why am I watching? To see blue people swim in blue water?

FOR THREE HOURS?

Seriously, cut a full hour at least out of this thing.

Pass.

I must say that this movie is rather different from what you see in the trailers. Essentially this is a simple slasher film except instead of Jason there's a bear. There are actors but there's no acting. Characters talk for a little bit and then the bear finds some cocaine and eats one of them. Characters then Retreat a short distance away and resume talking so the cycle can repeat.

That's it that's the whole movie. It's not exciting it's not interesting it's not funny. It is violent.

But in terms of does this movie hit the mark, I would have to say it's a miss.

It's certainly not a horrible film. And there are much worse Productions out there. And if you just want to waste your time watching a slasher flick then this is passible. But to answer Russell Crowe's question "are you not entertained?" I must say no.

I spent $8 to watch this on a Tuesday. And frankly I think I overpaid by a couple of bucks.

Watch it on TV or not at all.

Sadly it's abundantly clear that the writers aren't familiar with Star Trek. And that seems odd considering this is a show about Star Trek.

From little things like having only five or six shots on a phaser (they have hundreds of shots), to having a subordinate sass an Admiral.

To having Patrick Stewart, an Android, complain about getting an adrenaline rush or telling Will to shut it. Yes he actually said "shut it".

Ridiculous Behavior by the characters. You suddenly receive an urgent distress call from an old friend who is clearly at death's door. Do you leave immediately or call for help ? Well if you're Picard you go to the nearest pub. I'm not making this up he actually did that.

Jonathan Frakes is the only recognizable character in the show. The only one who behaves pretty much how we recall from the Next Generation.

This is not Star Trek. The writers don't know what Star Trek is because they've never watched it. The characters do not behave in a believable fashion. The writing is laughable. I didn't find a single thing to recommend. But don't worry I won't be watching next week.

This it's just a bad movie all around.

All right we're asked to believe that four random individuals come to this Cottage and tell people that the apocalypse is upon us. All right that's a big claim. Do they offer any proof? They do not. They go on and on about what sort of people they are and how they believe but not why they believe.

I don't like any of the characters in The movie. There's no way to identify with any of them. The decisions they make are not reasonable. And never are we giving any explanation as to why we the audience let alone they the characters should believe any of this crap.

The premise of the movie, convincing someone to kill themselves, could have been at least somewhat interesting from a storytelling point of view.

Instead I'm left wondering why the hell I bothered to go to the theater.

The story is not believable. The Mythos is not believable. The characters are not likable. The characters actions and decisions are not credible. And overall the movie is just screamingly not fun.

This film is not worth your time.

I tried to watch this. Really I did. But it plays out like intellectual suicide. All right it's a future world and it's lousy because of pollution blah blah blah. I can go with that premise. Then our hero takes off in a spaceship and is going to go to a wormhole. All right I'll go with that premise too. I can do that. Then they forget about relativity and there's no time dilation as the ship speeds up. So the writers of this know the term Wormhole but don't know anything about relativity. I can choose to look over that I suppose. But now I know that it's written by idiots. All right so now we cut ahead to the Planet of the Apes sequence where she crashes. That's certainly original. Oh did I mention she has a wise cracking robot companion? Annoying as hell. Okay so we're back in time now trying not to screw with the timeline too much. Okay. Robot goes fine somebody to help because the ship has crashed and Susie here is unconscious. What's the first rule about an injured person? Don't move them. Susie here has just crashed her spaceship but nonetheless the robot says quick pick her up and let's get her out of here. All right at this point I'm out. Maybe the average person in the audience doesn't understand about relativity. But who doesn't get that you don't move an injured person? There's been a plane crash or spaceship crash or Tardis crash or whatever. And the pilot is splattered all over the ground. You don't send your robot out to summon the nearest kid and have them toss your lifeless body on the back of an ATV and dump you in the nearest Factory.

This is moronic.

If your child is exceptionally slow with an IQ in the single digits they may find some passing Amusement from this dreck. But if they have at least a quarter of a brain functioning then they'd be far better off watching an old Scooby-Doo rerun. That's right I rank this as substantially inferior to an old Scooby-Doo rerun.

Save yourself.

To be sure I've seen this concept before. Something bad happens and suddenly everybody slowly going insane. In this case because they can't sleep.

And I can't tell you why. But I liked this treatment. The mom was likeable. Flawed but Noble. There seems to be a bit of depth to most of the characters. Here's a pastor but he used to be an addict. And now he along with everyone is slowly losing his mind. Here are the kids, completely out of their depth, barely able to even look at the situation let alone handle it.

The depth of character and the acting certainly helped. There's a lot of good sequences too. Complex long shots where people are weaving their way through sticky situations.

It feels like a good movie when you're watching it. And you're genuinely curious where this is going to go and how these people, who are completely out of their depth, can possibly get out of this.

There's no martians, no ghosts, no dinosaurs. Just a good solid movie. And I think you'll be entertained if you watch it.

Give it 10 minutes. I think you won't want to put it down.

Have we ever had a good movie open in January? No. Christmas and New Years are over. Budgets are spent. Holidays over. And it's back to work/school for everyone. So if you have a movie that you know is a dog (or garbage), this is the slot you pick to release it.

And so, the release date of early January is really all you need to know about this film. If anyone in the production had any confidence whatsoever, this film would be released in a different month.

But alas, like the protagonist, this film has no heart and no soul. It's hollow, empty, vapid.

In 1963 Rod Serling did an excellent 30 minute episode of the Twilight Zone called "Living Doll" which was easily eight times better than this film. And you know what? That episode was released in November. Go find and watch that episode if you would like to be entertained.

Odd thing is, I think this movie could have been saved. Would have been fun to have Megan Fox do the voice of the doll. That alone would elevate it a couple points. Make it a bit more campy, a bit more fun, and a lot more violent and I think you could have turned this 1 star into a 7 without too much trouble. Add in a decent director and you could have had something as fun as Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness.

But none of that fun is to be found in this corpse which never had a heart or soul. You see, January is where bad movies go to die. Save yourself. Stay away from cinema till March.

Rumor has it that as his health declined Bruce Willis churned out 700 films on a shoestring budget designed to capitalize on the Stars former glory.

While the numbers may be in dispute this film is clearly a part of the chronicle of the sorrowful real life decline of Mr Willis.

If you would like to witness the physical and mental decline of a human being in real time then I suppose this film might be for you.

But if you're anything remotely approaching a normal human being that I would recommend that you organize your sock drawer or wash the car or do literally anything else.

Because I don't think anything that you can do is going to make you feel as bad as watching this movie.

Go watch Die Hard. And forget this title ever existed. Because it doesn't.

A lot of movies of late have been overburdened with messaging, to the detriment of the story. The point of entertainment is... to entertain. If instead of getting entertained you get lectured, you stop coming back.

Barbarian does seem part of a new trend where effort was made to put entertainment first.

Does it succeed 100%? That's a high bar. It succeeds enough. This is not a great movie, but it is certainly a good enough movie. (doesn't stick the landing though).

If you watch this, you will not be berated for how your ancestors lived. But you will be treated to some fresh pacing and innovative camera usage. It has a "plausible" storyline. (no ghosts or aliens). And the characters are largely believable in their choices. Mostly.

While the premise of men being monsters has been done before, this is presented in a fashion which you haven't really seen before. And even though credibility goes out the window in the last 15 minutes, the movie has given you enough prior to this point that you can forgive a few shortcomings.

Important point. This movie does NOT have fountains of blood and/or gore. Not saying it's rated G. But Saw this ain't.

Not many jump scares. But MUCH of the movie has you a bit on edge and claustrophobic. That part is done fairly well.

It's a moderately well put together moderately fresh idea with some innovation on tone, pacing, and cinematography.

If you see this, I think you will walk away entertained. Even if you walk away saying that the ending came a bit off the rails.

Go see it. These days you could do far worse.

This movie succeeds in what it sets out to do. Namely be a spooky movie. Whether that's your cup of tea or not is another matter entirely.

So many movies particularly of late fail in what they're attempting to accomplish. So I do applaud the producers of this movie for actually getting the job done that they wanted to get done.

There's nothing new here really. It definitely has a bit of the vibe from it follows. And for the first 10 minutes or so they seem determined to replicate a lot of the camera effects from Unbreakable.

Over top of that toss in a good helping of story elements from The Ring.

Do the characters actions always make sense? Well is that exactly a fair question to ask in a movie where you're expected to believe in a supernatural Force making smiley people do bad things?

Alfred Hitchcock had his characters get into peril because he wanted them to get into peril. It didn't matter what was in the character's best interest. And we have a bit of that here. More than a bit.

But you're being asked to believe in a ghost story or something like it. So you pretty much have to go with it.

And I found that I could. I found the main character reacted not so dissimilarly for from how I might react when faced with a supernatural threat. She's freaked out a fair bit and yet she does what she's able to, to understand and overcome.

I have to say that in the end I walked away entertained. It's not a 10 out of 10 it's not going to win an oscar but I didn't go here to see Gone with the Wind. I went to see a scary story. Accomplishment unlocked: view a scary story.

View it in that way and I think you'll find it worth your time. Is it worth a rewatch? No, again this isn't Gone with the Wind. But I think you'll find this a sufficiently engaging time waster for a single viewing.

Boo!

I've watched the first three episodes and frankly after the first one I was hooked. This is interesting. I want to see what happens next. I see a man who was knocked down, picking himself back up. And although there is adversity along the way he seems to be making progress.

I like this show what can I tell you.

I've watched the first three episodes and frankly after the first one I was hooked. This is interesting. I want to see what happens next. I see a man who was knocked down, picking himself back up. And although there is adversity along the way he seems to be making progress.

I like this show what can I tell you.

This is a bad movie. A very bad movie.

I sat down to watch this late at night turned out all the lights set up the optimum atmosphere for watching a scary movie.

Starts out with some flashback to perhaps 100 years ago. At that time people were afraid of being buried alive and so they had a string running from the coffin up to the surface attached to a bell. Presumably if you woke up and found yourself in the coffin you could pull the string and ring the bell and summon help. Call it the 1800 version of being a prepper.

Anyway for whatever reason guy feels that grandma has been improperly buried and he's digging her up and the implication is that Grandma leaps from the coffin and attacks him.

The one character screams because it's supposed to be scary. But I don't know how to describe this other than to say that the scene was utterly and completely not scary. Maybe it's the timing maybe it's the music maybe it's the acting or the complete lack thereof. But there was absolutely no suspense no anticipation and no scare.

Fade to Black roll the opening.

It's now present day and husband and wife are going to vacation in some cottage or whatever. The details aren't important but for whatever reason they feel like they should tell you all about it anyway. None of this makes me feel the least bit scared. Husband is constantly apologizing that he has to work. Wife does not appreciate husbands sacrifices. So thus far the husband apologizes a lot and the wife is ungrateful. And they both talk endlessly about the history of the cottage whatever.

So we're about 5 minutes into the movie now and neither of the characters that I've seen seem at all interesting to me. I don't like these people.

The couple go to bed. Quick cut. Wife wakes up to find husband is working on some proposal for work. He again apologizes to her for not having enough water beside the bed for her. Every single time that husband has had dialogue he's apologized. I hope the Monster eats this guy. Wife smiles, she does that all the time, almost in a Stepford fashion. And she goes to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.

Now they are in this old Cottage in the middle of nowhere. While I'm watching this I can literally hear half dozen sounds from my own house. The refrigerator coming on, the hot water heater, the wind is making the attic rattle a little bit. Every house makes random noises.

Our Starlet Susie hears a noise. And she jumps like it's the most terrifying thing in the world. They're in a strange house and they don't know any of the sounds but when she goes to the kitchen she hears a noise and she almost loses it. Doesn't seem plausible to me. Frankly the chick seems a tad hysterical if she's going to melt down every time she hears a random noise and a strange house.

Then she looks at the kitchen window and sees a woman walking outside. Not a ghost or a headless horseman or Jason Voorhees, just a regular woman.

And suddenly Susie Starlet decides that she's Fay Ray and screams at the top of her lungs while dropping the water pitcher.

I can't begin to tell you the number of times I have looked outside a window and seen a person walking. People do that you know. They walk. They walk the dog they walk to get groceries they take out the garbage. There's a million reasons why a person might be walking outside. And never in my life if I've been Disturbed by the sight of a neighbor walking where I might reasonably expect them to be.

But Susie Starlet screams her lungs out, like a complete hysterical idiot.

Now here's what I think was going on. I think the writer of this had seen other horror movies and is familiar with the concept of the flashback. So he decides to open this film with a flashback. But he knows nothing about building suspense or character development or pretty much anything.

So he makes the flashback scene in An utterly lifeless fashion.

And then when he makes the cottage scene he's decided that Susie should be frightened by something outside. And maybe he even has an image in his head as to how this will go. But he has no Talent whatsoever for conveying what's in his head on to the page in such a fashion that it shows us what he's thinking and feeling. Clearly he feels that Susie should be terrified. But he doesn't show us why. All he showed us is that her husband apologizes a lot for working and she freaks out for no discernible reason.

He has made two unlikable characters, neither of which the audience can identify with. He is utterly failed to create any real sense of tension or unease. And he hasn't the slightest clue how to create a jump scare.

And I look at my watch and we're only 7 minutes and 37 seconds into the movie.

I'm not going to live forever. I only have a limited time on this Earth. And there's so much to see and so much to do.

I am not wasting another second of my precious existence on this train wreck of a movie. I don't care if it wins an Academy Award I'm not watching another second. Spoiler. It's not winning any awards.

Go find somebody that you love and give them a hug. Take your kid out for a milkshake. Build a shed in your backyard. Paint the living room. Do anything other than wasting your ever so precious existence on this bit of nothing.

That's it I stopped watching after 7 minutes and 37 seconds. I hope you this review has spared you wasting even that much time.

Straightforward, clear, to the point, are not ways that you describe this movie. Neither is good.

This is more like an arthouse project or an abstract painting than a movie with a story and a point.

We encounter two characters a man and a woman roaming the snowy woods hunting. He tells her a story of a better place where there are two towers with clean beds and food etc. They can't drink the water from the stream because it is poison? (this will never be explained) She falls and breaks her leg. (this will never be explained) Then there is poison gas?? (this will never be explained) So the man runs through the woods suddenly unaffected by the poison gas (this will never be explained), finds the woman and takes her to these twin towers. (this will never be explained) The towers are like hotels. Inside they find clean rooms, food, soap etc. This much makes a degree of sense, possibly the only time the film makes sense.

Man puts magic bandage on woman's leg. (this will never be explained) Broken leg begins to heal at astonishing rate. By next day she is able to run up the stairs to top of building without limping (this will never be explained) Man says to woman that he made up the tower story to give them strength while they wandered through the woods. But these towers are real, it's safe so they should stay here. He emphasises that there is safe water here (this will never be explained)

They find audio tape and player (this will never be explained) At various places there is writing which does not appear to be from any human language. (this will never be explained) Man finds "instruction book" in strange writing by a power panel. Man eventually figures out how to turn on the power. Hotel now has power - no explanation where the power comes from. Entire rest of countryside seems to be empty forest with these two towers which have no visible means of getting electricity (or water, or food, or soap, or clean clothes, or the hundred gas lanterns they find).

About this time you are really wondering what is going on.

Man finds empty pool in other building. In it is weird guy who is waxy catatonic, essentially a poseable doll. (this will never be explained) weird guy has audio tape. Man poses weird guy, fusses with his handkerchief. Takes tape back to player. Plays that tape and another. One has annoying distorted noise, another has musical distorted noise. (this will never be explained) Woman comes in and man tells her it's music. It's not and it's unclear why he would say that.

Eventually, woman is unhappy or something, goes to other building finds weird guy and eventually teaches him to dance (this will never be explained) Weird guy gets weirder (this will never be explained) then man returns and rescues woman by throwing weird guy back into empty pool pretty much where they found him. (this will never be explained).

Blah blah blah, they turn out the lights in the buildings. Credits roll. (this will never be explained).

Where is this place? Why is the water poison? What was the poison gas? What's with the poseable weird guy? How does the hotel get power or food or anything? What's with the alien writing? Where did these people come from, where are they going and what does it all mean? None of this will ever be explained.

That's it folks. A train wreck from hell if ever there was one.

Some people claim they like this film (this will never be explained).

Genuinely disappointed in this episode. Suddenly we're supposed to believe that a 98 Pound showgirl can outfight Spear.

Not believable. Not plausible.

How many times has spear fought single-handed against 100 armed men (and sometimes monkeys)? And suddenly a little Mary Sue is able to outfight him one-on-one?

It's an insult to the audience and an insult to the character.

This could have been handled much better. She's a leader she should have had her subjects fight for her.

There's such a thing as suspension of disbelief. And then there's such a thing as asking too much of your audience.

This was in my humble opinion a bridge too far.

Genuinely disappointed in this episode. Suddenly we're supposed to believe that a 98 Pound showgirl can outfight Spear.

Not believable. Not plausible.

How many times has spear fought single-handed against 100 armed men (and sometimes monkeys)? And suddenly a little Mary Sue is able to outfight him one-on-one?

It's an insult to the audience and an insult to the character.

This could have been handled much better. She's a leader she should have had her subjects fight for her.

There's such a thing as suspension of disbelief. And then there's such a thing as asking too much of your audience.

This was in my humble opinion a bridge too far.

Genuinely disappointed in this episode. Suddenly we're supposed to believe that a 98 Pound showgirl can outfight Spear.

Not believable. Not plausible.

How many times has spear fought single-handed against 100 armed men (and sometimes monkeys)? And suddenly a little Mary Sue is able to outfight him one-on-one?

It's an insult to the audience and an insult to the character.

This could have been handled much better. She's a leader she should have had her subjects fight for her.

There's such a thing as suspension of disbelief. And then there's such a thing as asking too much of your audience.

This was in my humble opinion a bridge too far.

Genuinely disappointed in this episode. Suddenly we're supposed to believe that a 98 Pound showgirl can outfight Spear.

Not believable. Not plausible.

How many times has spear fought single-handed against 100 armed men (and sometimes monkeys)? And suddenly a little Mary Sue is able to outfight him one-on-one?

It's an insult to the audience and an insult to the character.

This could have been handled much better. She's a leader she should have had her subjects fight for her.

There's such a thing as suspension of disbelief. And then there's such a thing as asking too much of your audience.

This was in my humble opinion a bridge too far.

This is not a good movie. Plot is essentially "Mars Needs Women". Yet it is oddly acceptable in a 2am viewing kind of way. It's not a good film but I liked it?

Yes, it's not a good film but I liked it.

99% of what airs these days is garbage. This is the 1%.

I highly recommend watching it on a big screen in 4k. The cinematography is top rate. Seriously the film is almost a kaleidoscope at points. Just beautiful. In particular there are many scenes where there is a visual Duality between the observer and the participant. A little bit like the effect in Quantum Leap where a character sees someone else in the mirror. But this is done in a broader richer more luxurious fashion than I've seen before. It's quite good.

It's story about a girl who reminisces over the sixties and finds that when you dig up the past you dig up "ghosts". I won't spoil the story but this film does not go in the directions that you think. You need to unravel almost the whole thing before you appreciate where they're going and what they're doing. And doing that was for me quite an enjoyable ride.

It's a thoughtful film, a smart film, a Beautiful film with a satisfying story and incidentally an excellent farewell to Diana Riggs.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

There are some horrible movies out there. This is not one of them. This is also not a great movie. I would rank this as passible if your standards aren't too high.

At various points in the movie you get a really really strong Final Destination vibe as characters try to avoid their fate.

The movie could have been done much better. The hero of the movie is not a particularly likeable character and yet I think she could have been made likeable in the hands of a competent writer.

Also the rules are poorly fleshed out and contradictory.

Nonetheless it was moderately distracting to watch this girl who'd been given short shrift in life become drawn in by the lure of a magical wish box with a Faustian bargain.

I've seen all of the parts of this story done better in other movies.

But I've also seen it done worse.

As I said, if you have low standards than this movie may be acceptable to you.

This isn't Star Trek. It never was. One day Real Trek will be back and this Abomination will be forgotten forever.

Until then I'd rather watch Seinfeld reruns than watch this.

Did you want to see a movie about The Sopranos? Then this movie might be for you.

Is this a great movie like The Sopranos was? No. This is definitely not a bad movie though.

This is a passible movie. Mildly entertaining. Certainly not up to par with The Sopranos. But you could do worse.

The thing is, why would you make a movie where the best anyone could say about it is "you could do worse"?

And would you want to spend money to watch such a movie?

Meh.

Difficult to describe.

Megan Fox was very hot. She is now...fairly hot? Kind of hot? Moderately attractive? Is that enough to carry a movie?

What if we add an intriguing premise like she's handcuffed to her dead husband? Is that enough to carry a movie?

What if Megan Fox can't really act? Is that enough to cause a movie to fail?

What if the plot is as credible as Home Alone but as funny as... Lord of the Rings? Is that helpful?

The answers to all the above are NO. Nonetheless, this is not a bad movie. It is certainly not a great movie. You aren't going to spend a half an hour talking about it with your friends. But it's a satisfactory attempt at making a mediocre film.

Not all movies are Avengers Endgame. Not all movies are filled with intense drama, and skin, and great writing, and great acting, and great stories, and characters that everyone likes.

Some movies are middle of the road affairs. That's what this one is. It's kind of like a whodunit. Why is Megan's hubby dead and cuffed to her? How will she escape? ...and that's pretty much it.

So you go to see this movie to see a moderately attractive Megan Fox, and to watch her endeavor to extricate herself from sticky situation while displaying as little acting ability as is necessary to get the job done.

If that's what you want to see, then this movie is enough.

If you enjoy the music of Olivia Newton-John then maybe buy her album and listen to it.

But in the 21st century it's a little bit too weird to watch everyone suddenly burst into song. In particularly the 20 minute extravaganza at the end.

This is a musical. If you like the music I guess you like listening to this movie. But it's not really a movie. More of a, I don't know, visual poem or Optical interpretation of song??

I suppose there's nothing wrong with that but if you're looking for traditional movie with you know a story characters plot yada yada then run away.