Too much of everything

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

As Good As It Gets

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It appears creepy little Robbie Mueller (Jake Croker) has telekinetic power and people who want to harm him, tend to die. After being away from his home town for five years he is back in high school creeping everybody out with his knowledge of Drake's Equation, bad hair, and inability to smile. The only thing more creepy is Christian Slater playing a defrocked priest following him around wearing a gold gangsta cross.Robbie has designs for Heather (Emily Tennant) who shows as much emotion as Kristen Stewart. Her father is a small town detective played by Vinnie Jones who is as convincing as when he played Ivan Rudovsky.The film felt like I was listening to someone tell a story who doesn't know how to tell a story.I had "Carrie" flashbacks as well as "The Omen." The small Washington state town with a girl being liked by a guy with special powers had me thinking "Twilight" especially with the low end acting. There is a twist which I admit didn't see coming, because the clues were light and you were dragged heavily in one direction. So think twist, and if you get it before the last 30 minutes, I owe you a Scooby-Snack.The film might have some stoner camp value to it. Not a serious horror/thriller.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity

Father Henry (Christian Slater) investigates Robbie, a 12-year-old boy who seems to have supernatural powers. A bully was chocked to death by an invisible force. Five years later, Robbie Mueller (Jake Croker) returns to town focused on Heather Elliot (Emily Tennant) who tried to help during the childhood incident. Bully Greg wants her for homecoming. When Greg starts pushing Robbie, Greg is hospitalized by the invisible force. Father Henry has also returned. When Greg is killed, Heather's police detective widower-dad John Elliot (Vinnie Jones) investigates.The production looks weak and is no more than cable TV level. There is way too much sunshine for a dark horror. The cinematography and editing are basic. Even the kill is simple blood splashes and random guts. There is no real energy. The presence of Christian Slater and Vinnie Jones attracted me to this movie but that's never a guarantee of anything. Jake Croker is not leading man material. His character should be darker and he doesn't have the screen presence. Emily Tennant shows a little potential and actually tries to do some acting. The obvious twist is good but not completely done well. The production is so weak that it doesn't have anything to offer cinematically.

If you are old enough to remember both "Carrie" and "The Omen", this is the two wrapped into one; even the script writer couldn't resist referencing the latter. That being said, it remains to be seen if this idea is any more plausible than Vinnie Jones playing the detective, his English accent explained away conveniently by his having emigrated with his wife, now deceased.In "The Omen", the father of the Devil's spawn was totally unconvinced by the renegade priest; it was only much later that realisation dawned on him. Here, the detective allows himself to be convinced much more easily, probably because the villain of the piece has his eye on his daughter. Should any detective be quite so gullible? Well, in the UK at present, the police are frantically searching for a mythical paedophile ring at the heart of the establishment, and to date they have turned over the homes of one recently deceased former Home Secretary and our most decorated soldier, who at the age of 91 must be thoroughly bemused. The informant in that case claims that three underage boys have been murdered by this ectoplasmic conspiracy, so what price a humble detective from Hicksville, USA? Having said that, there is a splendid if dishonest twist in the climax, and only the tiniest of hints, easily missed, that it would play out so.

Don't be fooled by the title of this movie. There is hardly anything Wicked about it, other than the fact that people were tricked into watching it expecting a dark thriller horror and getting a weak teenage romance with paranormal undertones. The movie is about a teenager, Robbie, who supposedly is the son of the devil and has telekinetic abilities. When he was 12 he supposedly killed another boy who was bullying him without even touching him. Fast forward 5 years and the guy (played by Jake Croker) is back in town and attending high school there. He soon rekindles a friendship he had with Heather who is the daughter of a local policeman played by Vinnie Jones. She was his friend when they were 12 and soon there is a romantic entanglement between the two of them. Unexplained deaths then start occurring of the people who crossed either Heather or Robbie and the policeman together with a defrocked priest played by Christian Slater are trying to solve the mystery of what is going on.The good points of this movie are few if any. There is one twist in the story but it's not that difficult to figure out. The acting is not the worst out there but it's not great in any way or even decent for that matter. Vinnie Jones who is English and playing a police officer in an American town was an odd choice for the role though. There is a reference to him drinking a lot and yet we only see him have half a glass of wine throughout the whole film. The fact that no one reacts much when the unexplained deaths start happening is another odd thing about the movie. There is one scene where someone gets run over by a piece of farm equipment which shouldn't even be running as the engine was taken out of it. And yet everyone just goes on about their business as if it's a regular occurrence in their town. So overall I wouldn't recommend this movie. It could have been engaging and entertaining but it's neither of those things. It's bland, mostly badly acted and forgettable. A 3 out of 10.