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Reviews
Video Girl (2011)
If you've seen Honey - no need to watch this
Meagan Good, as usual, is beautiful in this film, but the film is predictable and in a lot of ways, not relevant. Made in 2011, the concept of the video girl is long gone. None of the music channels actually show music videos anymore and haven't in a long time, so it's kind of hard to believe that being a "video girl" has the sway it had in say, 1996.
But the plot...well, there are things that happen, that don't seem to have any point to the story, like her sister getting shot (which, like everything else in this movie, you saw coming a mile away). And that's the problem: there is nothing new or original about this movie and you can see exactly what's going to happen and when before they even show it to you. It makes a for a predictable and boring watch. It just seems like all of the actors in this movie were weighed down by a poor story and script and just tried to make the best of a bad situation. I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you have to have something on in the background while you take a nap on the couch.
The Sacrament (2013)
Not worth it if you know the story
I will make this short and sweet.
If you know the story of the Jim Jones cult - don't watch this movie, it holds nothing for you.
If you have never heard of the Jim Jones cult - this is a good way to introduce you to the story...or you could just watch the documentary about it...it's up to you.
That being said, the acting is good, and the plot (if you don't already know it) is scary. This film leads you into the dark world that you have only heard about but never thought was real. This is basically the story of the Jim Jones cult without calling it the Jim Jones cult. Instead, it is Eden Parish, a utopia for people who reject society's impositions on them and move out of the country to a remote location in Africa somewhere. Without giving too much away, the story slowly unravels and you will find that nothing is as it seems.
Carrie (2013)
Lacks the punch of the original
I watched this hesitantly because I am a big fan of the original Carrie and not a fan of Carrie 2, but I thought I would give it a whirl.
It's not so much that the movie was bad, it's more that it lacked any real punch. Trying to modernize the story, it would seem odd that Carrie can use the internet at school to learn about telekinesis, but not about her own body. It was believable in the original Carrie that Carrie would not know about her period unless her mother told her, that was before sex ed became a normal part of school and pre-internet. Now it just seems unbelievable for Carrie to be so in the dark about her own body.
Also, the timelines don't match up. Was she home-schooled or not? It appears others have known her since 6th grade, but how could that be when she was supposedly home-schooled all of her life?
Honestly, none of the characters in the movie move you in any way. You're just there, watching things unfold instead of being a part of the film and wanting nothing more than for Carrie to be able to fit in, like you did in the original Carrie. In this adaptation, you can hardly even tell why they make fun of Carrie - she's not that awkward (although they try to make her seem so by putting her hair in her face in every possible frame), she's not ugly - she's merely the victim of a religious zealot mom - and even that doesn't have the punch of the original.
Finally, in the original Carrie, her powers were mostly unknown to her, new and untested. When she finally unleashes them, it's hardcore, unforgiving, and does not care who it reaches. In this adaptation, Carrie plays around with her powers, trying them on for size, and when the infamous prom scene appears, there's no surprise, no punch, no, "holy cow" moment. It's very lackluster and when it ends, it simply ends...you feel nothing for anyone in the movie. It just wasn't good.