Reviews

Went to this not expecting much. Was shocked by how different it was from standard movie scripts. The "Redeeming" made me this it might by a Christian movie, and in an odd sense, I guess it was, but by far the most courageous such movie I have ever seen since the main topic is sex, starting in the form of pedophilia.

Typical European film made for critics not those looking for something to enjoy. Why are so many European films so emotionally dead? The sex here is dead as well if not twisted. No reason to see this if you are fan of sci-fi. The sci-fi elements are just a way to show the characters' alienation from reality.

This movie gets nine and a half stars for anyone seeing all the mainstream Marvel films. It ties everything together so wonderfully. Such clever writing. Only a couple of small problems, clunkers added by Disney to sell their woke version of political correctness, but on every other level, extremely well done.

People like Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron are under the illusion that real people are like people in Hollywood. We aren't. People in the real world have to be competent, not just attractive and amusing. There is exactly one good scene in this movie, when the Rogen character finds out a "secret" about his black friend. Everything else was completely predictable. Otherwise, by far the worst movie and the least funny we have seen this year.

At the beginning of the movie, there is an amazing ultrasound scene of an abortion that will stay with you forever. It should have been repeated later in the movie for dramatic purposes. Script, acting, and direction are all solid if uninspired, but there is surprisingly little emotional impact until the very end. The material is so powerful that the movie should be a must see. Despite "R" rating, should be shown to all teens in high school.

So many clever ideas here and enough emotional impact that I still teared up at the end, but this movie could have been so much better. This script needed a rewrite that fixed the "villains" of the piece. The great actors Keaton as the showman and Arkin as the banker are completely wasted in this movie because their actions in the movie make little or no sense.

This movie fails because Zachary Levi doesn't even try to make us believe that he is a specific person in a new body. The movie BIG worked because Tom Hanks captured the specific character of a child in an adult body. In this movie, the adult Billy Batson seems emotionally about five years younger than the child Billy. The child Billy is serious with serious problems. The adult Bill is goofy, giddy, and silly. This child Billy wants to find his mother. The adult Billy wants to eat snack foods. The adult Billy's character disconnects use from any emotional connection with the film. Why should we care about Billy's problems when he himself doesn't? There is some clever stuff in the script that is completely missed by the actor (and apparently the director) that would have helped us make an emotional connection. This is one of the few times where I would say that script was better than the execution of it.