Nerve

Vee Delmonico (Emma Roberts) is excited to be accepted to a college in California. She is concerned about leaving her mother (Juliette Lewis) behind in Staten Island after a family tragedy. Her best friend Sydney (Emily Meade) shows her an underground internet game called Nerve. Participants are divided between players and watchers. Players do dares for money and watchers pay to watch the players on their 24 hour adventures. After being embarrassed by Sydney, Vee decides to play. Her first dare is to kiss a stranger and she picks Ian (Dave Franco). They are then dared to partner up on an exciting journey into the city.

The premise, the style, and the actors make a fun, thrilling action adventure in the city. There are little problems that can be overlooked for the most part. The conclusion is key and it does certain things to wrap it all up too neatly. It takes the fun dark web idea and slaps on a Hollywood ending. Overall, it was fun while it lasted.

I really don't understand all the horrible reviews for this movie. Its goal is obviously to be a mindless entertaining thrill ride, and to me it is succeeding. The direction fits the energetic nature of the plot, the actors are doing a great job (excluding Machine Gun Kelly who is clearly not an actor), and the writing may not be exceptional but it does the job. For sure there are some plot holes and overly cheesy elements but it usually comes with the territory for that kind of movie and this is one of the milder offenders. Personal plus: the whole soundtrack is fantastic and right up my alley!

If you consider the concept only, it could have been a decent film, if it were more along the lines of the manga, Dead Tube, it could have further potential. With the first act, it seemed to be okay, if you ignore the poor aspects the overall set up is good, when the moral matters are brought up the message is overly played, really pushing a message, whereas if you took the concept to Dead Tube, you could have a successful message if not so on the nose, a message played through the events and what is seen rather than the ending that is given. Much of the overall film feels as though something exciting is about to happen but is unfortunately lost to draw in viewers to the the message the film and studio try to push. It is unfortunate this is a missed opportunity, the cast were also an issue in that they were selected for attracting a younger audience. If we had unknown actors, with a darker plot we could be left with something that makes the viewer consider what they have witnessed compared to the message that is painfully spelled out.

Good idea that failed in execution. If you saw the trailer and read the reviews you might think that there's some depth hiding in the actual movie, but unfortunately, you'll be wrong to think so. The actors are the only bright spot. You'll see some well known and rising star faces who's acting was on point. The movie tries to win you with likable characters, scenes that show familiar problems to most internet users (e.g.Skype call glitching) and with a cute little morale story at the end but fails as it provides no depth to be discovered. Some scenes are super cringe worthy and left me feeling uncomfortable about my movie picking skills.

It's just one of those films you watch and forget about in a day, doesn't leave you questioning some character's decisions or the way it ended which left both me and my girlfriend disappointed. Overall 5/10.

This movie comes at the perfect time with the craze of Pokemon Go; a time when you literally see millions of people obsessed with an app - where you can find videos of hordes of people in NYC all running after a particular Pokemon.

This is essentially the premise of the movie: a new app (game) comes out that takes teens in a particular city by storm, except the consequences can be much graver.

As to not give anything away, I try to be brief:

The acting was great; the pacing was great, the color pallet and tone of the movie were all top notch.

That being said, the plot - as it developed - felt "obvious", I wasn't surprised by anything and I wasn't ever emotionally "moved." The movie knows what it is, and it does it pretty well - it's a teen thriller.

What the movie explores is far more important: the way people interact with each other when they are hidden behind a wall of anonymity. The movie has a good message.

The BOTTOM LINE: I rate movies on whether it is worth spending the $$$ to see at a theater, in my opinion this one is worth seeing at a matinée showing ($5), but probably not dolling out $12 - $15. I hope that helps.