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!

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.

20 mins into this, I loved it - I was all in for the ride, then, you know, that la dee da, bulls*** ending happened. I really wish they'd gone dark with that ending. Actually, every moment after Vee snitches to that cop should be changed, I feel like up until that point it was so good. I was still entertained, but the magical hacker network taking down everything... in record time, uuugh, it was so, typical. Also, Vee's brother, he played Nerve, right? That's how he died?? lol, I can't've been the only one that thought that - why mention him at all, why even have a brother, if he's not central to the story or some breakthrough?? Him being "the fun was" can't've been it, can it?

This movie was good, almost great. Strong 6/10.

'Nerve' is one of those films that quietly went under the radar at the cinema, but seem to catch on via word of mouth.

Truth is it's a decent film, inspired by a YA book. It also acts as a vehicle for up and coming talents such as Emma Roberts and Dave Franco, who both give good performances.

Roberts in particular shines in every scene, and it is her character of Vee who goes through the biggest journey throughout.

The plot doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, but it is an action packed film, that proves entertaining.

If you can stomach the fact that it's really just people doing lots of irresponsible things then you'll enjoy the film. Parents thinking of letting their teens watch it should be wary though.