 Thanks for checking out this movie review video So this is for the 2020 release the rental which was directed and partially written by Dave Franco Yes, James Franco's brother who you've probably seen in some films such as 21 Jump Street. I was trying to remember 21 22, which I do like and think is a great comedy He's mainly been known for his acting, but this was his first feature film directing And I think he actually is showing some promise although overall I would not recommend this film And I'll tell you why I'll tell you the good things and the bad things with this and since it is a new release I'm not gonna really give you spoilers on this film because if you want to watch it yourself Please do that because like I say all the time in these videos I'm gonna give you my opinion what I think overall and in this case Obviously, I'm saying I don't like it, but I'll tell you good and bad But you never really know unless you watch it for yourself How you're gonna feel because there have been plenty of films where I don't like them But people love them or I love it, but people hate it, you know, it's it's individual It's individual for every person. Everyone experiences films in a different way So I'm not definitive on my opinion. No one is really it's always up to you So I always say that every film was worth watching at least once just to make up your mind on how you feel about it So anyway, like I said, Dave Dave Franco did this one Written by Franco and also Joe Swanberg who has written a decent amount of scripts for films Some of the most recent ones he did for when it all digging for fire 24 exposures Drinking buddies and happy Christmas. Gotta slip a Christmas one in there if you're a lesser known film make Film writer and want to be making money Stars Allison Bree. She's the biggest name in this now. Obviously. She is married to Dave Franco So he probably got her for a discount. I would guess but that may be a little bit presumptuous Maybe she was like I need to be paid normally for this. I don't know You would always think there's like a spousal discount, but you never know for sure Obviously, she's best known for certain things like glow community Glowing community were probably the biggest things but she's also been in things like promising young woman horse girl and the Disaster artist. So yeah, so very quick little synopsis of this It's about two couples who decide to book what's equivalent to an Airbnb Out in a very remote area and then once they get there things aren't exactly as they thought they would be with each other and also with the situation and that's all I'm gonna Say because if I go much further, I'm really gonna spoil some stuff and then like I said, I'm not gonna do that So if it sounds interesting go ahead and check it out, but I was not a fan The opening scene very importantly sets up the main film location as very remote And it does a very typical thing that a lot of films do when they're trying to go for a you know Remote setting they show you the journey going there, you know, they follow the car winding through all you know the small roads through the woods just to give you the idea that The characters are going a long distance. It's pretty out there and then once you get to the location They always show you a shot that there's really no one around there now I will say though the shooting location was gorgeous very nice shooting location I'm sure that cost them a pretty penny unless They own that house. I don't know maybe it was one of their houses because you know You think that Dave Franco and Allison Brie probably have a good amount of money at this point. So maybe that was their house I don't know but the film was three point four million dollar budget So maybe that's where a lot of the budget went potentially. I don't know I do know where that budget didn't go and that is practical effects, but I'll talk about that in a little bit There is an early line of dialogue that kind of winks to the audience about you know kind of The underlying theme of the film or what's really it going on at play here It's a little bit misleading at the same time, but it's kind of this wink to the audience saying we all know This is going somewhere. I'm sure you've seen the trailers. So and and on that note actually This is definitely one of those films is probably best not to have seen any of the trailers before you see it You know, it's not a hundred percent what you see in the trailer and that's important But it really does give you way too much information and actually I think the trailer is a way better Version of the film than the film, which is not a good thing. Definitely not a good thing There are long stints without music and the score overall is pretty subdued. That's one of the things I really liked about this film I'm a big proponent of being very restrained with your score nowadays We went through a very big time period for decades of going huge with the score for films And and that was appropriate for the time But I'm so glad we've kind of gotten to this point where it's more restrained It allows you as an audience member to kind of take Take in what's going on around you without being led by the hand too much by the music because the music can Dictate your feelings and dictate what there the you know filmmaker is telling you is supposed to be going on in that Scene so I like how subdued it is There's stuff in this film that is very predictable Which is fine if it's executed well I don't think it was executed very well in my opinion and when I'm talking about being predictable I'm not saying like the big ending, you know, that wasn't super predictable and I'm glad The idea of the ending is good That's I'll talk more about that in a minute But the the idea is good what I'm saying for predictable is Having a lot to do with the characters and their relationships and kind of the issues they end up having that stuff is very predictable You can really see it coming a Miles away So it kind of feels like a lot of the exposition that happens in the film ends up being a real waste of time For that reason The pacing is definitely slow. It definitely should have been edited down Now I'm gonna give you an example about this. This is a pretty long example It doesn't get interesting in the least bit until about 37 minutes in okay, then it backs off again Until you get to the 50 minute mark, which is where it becomes kind of engaging But then they backpedal pacing wise and interest wise until you then get to an hour and five minutes in and Then it starts to actually get better, but even at that point. It's still Poorly paced and slow overly slow. So really any sort of tension you really could have had ends up getting killed in this film the true murderer is pacing in this movie Because there's there's like no tension really. I mean you get it for like quick little snippets here and there but like There's like no tension because the pacing is so bad. It's so slow now to give you an idea I'm giving you all these marks of the interesting points at like 37 minutes 50 minutes an hour and five minutes And then the very end of it. It's an hour and 28 minute runtime and that's with credits It's not a long film, but it feels insanely long for how slow it is. That's bad That's a very bad now that lets you know that most likely if this film was you know Tightened up edited down to what it should be for the actual story and for actual best film impact It would be very short In comparison to what this runtime is it may be around an hour Probably about an hour, but the problem is and I've talked about this before and other reviews and a whole video of its own is that We have this issue where studios a lot of the times are like it has to be about an hour and a half So if you're well under that with your film then they're like no you got to add more stuff Or a lot of times we'll just kind of let them know up front, you know for this type of film This is the type of runtime we're looking for basically because They have formulas that they go by and they think they know everything So with a 3.4 million dollar budget you would think they would have some decent practical or even CGI effects in this But they don't they are disappointing to say the least there are many moments in this Where you're like okay cool. They could really go for it here, and then they don't I Feel like this movie is a series of missed opportunities in my opinion Like you see as an audience member where it could go and be really good and none of those paths at any point are actually chosen They literally choose the most boring bland path possible at pretty much every turn and that sucks That becomes very frustrating from a viewer standpoint because you're like oh, we're gonna get some something interesting Oh, we're gonna get something fun here nope hopes dashed with With gusto They could have easily cut this to be a PG-13 film, and it would be about the same film You wouldn't miss anything trust me. You wouldn't be missing anything if they cut this down to get a PG-13 rating Straight up. That's also bad There are people though. I'm not saying this to knock on actual PG-13 films because there are really good PG-13 films specifically PG-13 horror films One that the only one at the moment that really pops into my head other than you know gremlins is Actually, I think it's gremlins too because gremlins one I think was still at a PG I may be wrong on that it may have been gremlins one that got the first PG No, I think it's the first gremlins that got the first PG-13 So that one that was a great one, but more recently the happy death day film the first happy death day film I haven't seen the second one That was a good PG-13 horror film in my opinion at least decent This I don't know Pretty weak ending, but how they chose to do the end credits was interesting I did like there's a little bit of impact in what they chose to do with the end credits And once again, I'm not going to go into what that is because that's too spoilery But there is it makes you think a little bit further than the actual story that's been Delivered in the film and that's good when a filmmaker can make you do that. So that was a really good inspired choice But the ending just kind of fizzles out the whole film is just a giant fizzle out. It's you know, it's not so good There's a very good idea here But the script chose to make the most bland choices at every turn like I said The script is the biggest problem with this because Franco showed that he can direct, you know, it cinematography wise. It looks good Directorially it looks good. There's some really nice shots in this looks pretty inspired. It looks good The acting is really good, you know, all the technical stuff other than the editing and you know the lack of use of practical and CGI effects is good It's the script is the biggest problem. The script just did not happen as it could have and should have in my opinions other I don't know Whether they had people Look at this script Ahead of time and kind of offer suggestions on it or not, but it doesn't feel that way I don't know Film had major pacing issues. Like I said, it goes heavy on relationships and the insecurity within relationships that's kind of one of the big themes amongst the actual characters and that Really ends up feeling like it is the main focus of the film where I feel like it really shouldn't be For what's going on. I mean there are films that kind of take a theme like that And they encapsulate it in a horror film And it works really well because you have a good amount of the actual overall story and the horror aspect of it That's and at the same time you have this other, you know, like relationship aspect of the film But it felt like they went way too hard on the relationship aspect and really wanted to nail that stuff down which I said as I said is very very predictable and It felt like the The horror Story aspect of it was kind of an afterthought It really was at least for planning purposes of you know, this is where we're gonna take it and yeah, I just But there's a there's a great idea there. Just like I said, it's very badly written This plays off of the kind of new social norm of renting homes from random people online It was only a matter of time before someone actually made this film This kind of speaks to something that horror films just do in general over the decades and that is There's some sort of new technology or there's some sort of new social norm or there's some sort of new Thing that comes about within society that somewhat that enough people step back and say, you know, this is kind of a little bit weird And when you really think about it, there are things that could be very scary about this And that's the approach that this took to you know Doing things like air b&b and it's a great idea It's just not executed well at all So I wonder if why a lot of people were saying that this was one of the great horror films from 2020 or a great film from 2020 I wonder if part of it comes from The idea being pretty original And I also wonder if it comes from the name de franco and also elson brie i'm just saying I hope that's not the case, but You never know with this stuff Anyway, obviously I wasn't a fan of this but I would love to hear other people's opinions on this film And you can put that down in the comments and we can talk spoilers in the comments. That's totally fine Go ahead spoilers in the comments and we I would love to hear other opinions on it And point out to me like what do you think I missed about it in a nice way? Obviously in a conversational way What do you think I missed about it that you really loved about it? Because it can help me kind of see that perspective a lot of times and I'm totally open to that Uh, so out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm giving this one and a half stars I can't recommend it But like I said make your own mind up and it's totally good if people love that film because people are gonna love every film And that's cool Um, do me a quick favor though. If you are not subscribed Well, first of all if you are subscribed already in my channel, you are awesome Thank you very much and if you want to be one of those awesome people Please hit the subscribe button. 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