Endless

Riley and Chris are two high school graduates madly in love, but a tragic car accident separates them. She blames herself for the untimely death of her boyfriend while he remains stuck in limbo. Miraculously, the two find a way to reconnect. The movie is badly written, has a weak characters' development and a simple and been done to death plot. It's simply a bad but mostly entertaining movie.

Rating: 5.

Riley (Alexandra Shipp) and Chris (Nicholas Hamilton) are teenage lovers about to be torn apart... but not in the way you think. Riley is about to turn her back on her talent for comic-book art to follow her parents' wishes: to study law on the other side of the country in Georgetown. Chris is from the other side of the tracks - aren't they always in these films? - living in a one-parent family with his mother Lee (Bond-girl Famke Janssen).

But fate is about to push them even further apart as - with an advert as to why drinking, texting and driving don't mix - Chris is killed in a car crash. Tragedy - when the feeling's gone and you can't go on! Can their love for each other reach beyond death itself, and if so, at what cost?

We've been here before of course with the Demi Moore / Patrick Swayze hit "Ghost" from 1990. That was an Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg and screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin). Will "Endless" - a teen-love version - match this potential? Unfortunately, without a potter's wheel in sight, it doesn't stand a ghost of a chance.

It feels like it's not for the want of trying from the five youngsters* at the heart of the action, with Eddie Ramos and Zoë Belkin playing the lover's best friends and DeRon Horton being the limbo-trapped ghost-guide equivalent to the subway dropout from "Ghost". (* I say "youngsters", but most seem to be in their late twenties!) )

All seem to invest their energy into the project. Unfortunately, with the exception of Alexandra Shipp, the energy is not matched with great acting talent. Poor Nicholas Hamilton (the bully from "It") seems to have a particularly limited range, with his resting acting expression being "gormless".

None of the adult actors fair much better, and I found Famke Janssen particularly unconvincing as the grieving mother.

As I said, the exception here is Alexandra Shipp, who had a supporting role in "Love, Simon" and a more centre-stage role as "Storm" in the otherwise disappointing "X-Men: Dark Phoenix". Here she remains eminently watchable, but is hog-bound by a seriously dodgy script.

If you read my bob-the-movie-man blog regularly, you will know I reach for my flame-thrower at the appearance of voiceovers. And the start of this movie made me shudder with fear as a "tell, not show" approach was followed. It's a mild blessing that the script - by Andre Case and O'Neil Sharma - used this device purely as a slightly lazy way to set the scene and the voiceover didn't rear its ugly head again.

However, on a broader basis, the screenplay doesn't excite with predictability being its middle name. Worse still, it contains lines of mansplaining dialogue that are absolute stinkers. Frustratingly, the story just doesn't really GO anywhere, despite the opportunities to do so. There's an absent father angle, and I was just begging for it to be RILEY that was being told to have the confrontation... but no! And there are whole sections of the movie that defy belief, with a police investigation in particular appearing completely incompetent. The result is that it adds neither drama or tension.

Through my career in IT I've had the great fortune to travel to a number of small cities in Canada, and all have appealed with their consistently picturesque qualities and consistently quirky individuals! Here we have the cities of Kelowna and Vernon in British Columbia playing California, and the drone cinematography (by Frank Borin and Mark Dobrescu) displays the dramatic lake-filled scenery to the full.

With so many cookie-cutter movies out there, it feels like the non-horror "Ghost" recipe (or "Heaven Can Wait" / "It's a Wonderful Life" / "A Matter of Life and Death" / delete per your preference) is well overdue for a makeover. Unfortunately, director Scott Speer's attempt just isn't good enough to fill the void. And that's a shame.

(For the full graphical review, please check out bob-the-movie-man on the web or One Mann's Movies on Facebook. Thanks.)

Riley Jean Stanheight (Alexandra Shipp) is driving a car with boyfriend passenger Chris Douglas. There is a car accident and Chris is killed. Riley recovers and blames herself. Chris is dead walking the Earth with fellow dead man Jordan.

The blame for the accident is misplaced all around. The tail lights and the texting are contributing factors but these kids are beating up on themselves in an over-the-top melodramatic fashion. Of course, it's a teen melodrama but this is done in a weak way. There are elements in the ghost connection that is intriguing but it's not well developed into something dramatic. This movie lacks real drama.

Just a little cautious cry to all of you that have just lost someone dear or close. dont watch this one unattended . because its so extremely emotional, and might give you the urges. because its a film of loss, its a film about the 5 phases of crises-management, and it has the ability to make you believe that the ghost are really there, and combined with a heartbreaking kind of score it will open the floodgates of tears, even from the grumpy old ones.

its like the hydra, it pops out a new head from time to time, and ''endless'' is like a rip off of ''ghost'' and ''always'' that really popularized the topic of is there a life after death. these films did make a big impression on me then in the early 90's and still does, maybe thats because im so darn in love with my then girlfriend , now wife.

but as a ripof the story aint good enough, the choice of actors and score are dead on target though, but its far too much sorrow that tucks you into a darkness that you wont feel comfortable with. .the filmography and choice of locations are well done but as a worthy flick of surviving the crisis it aint.

so if you love the metaphysical , wannabelieve parapsychological topics that arises in the film, then have a go, a lovestory of death it is, even though built on the clichees of the past, its a small recommend from the grumpy old man

Recently adding some mystery to your love story seems to be the thing to do. It's not a new thing mind you. It has been done in movies like Ghost (which this happily, at least in Germany, references) to name another "oldie". The thing those movies have in common: you have to suspend your disbelief ... quite a stretch at places to be completely honest.

So if you don't question almost anything in this and accept the very strange but also completely flawed concept ... there is something to enjoy here. The main actors really try their best to give the movie some gravitas. They kind off achieve that ... but again it all will depend on your mindset. My cynical (better?) half of myself would have quite a lot to say about this ... but again, this was not made for that "audience". So while for some endless love may sound fantastic, others quite literally may feel sick just by the thought of it ... not that this doesn't get dark too - but there's always light at the end of the tunnel .. isn't there?