Nerve has more suspense than brains

Movie Title:   Nerve

  

Grade:  B

Rating:  PG-13, 96 minutes

In a Nutshell:  “Nerve is a 24 hour game like truth or dare minus the truth.”   

This suspenseful movie is made for teens who are obsessed with themselves and think everyone else is too.  It appeals to adrenaline junkies who want to be “instafamous” and offers an interesting commentary about social media.

Teenagers will probably think this movie is super cool.  Be forewarned:  Do NOT try these dares at home…or any other place.

Themes: 

• “Are you a watcher or player?” - Nerve game
• “Life is passing you by.  You need to take a few risks every once in a while.” – Sydney (Emily Meade)
• Everyone has an inner desire to be famous.
• “It’s easy to be brave in a crowd.” – Vee
• Even though we can be anonymous online, there are still very real consequences to our virtual actions.

Things I liked:

• This is surprisingly entertaining.  The action is non-stop.
• Pretty good music soundtrack, although it usually tells you how to feel in almost every scene.
• I like the size of Sydney’s cell phone.  Ha ha
• It’s definitely suspenseful.
• Emma Roberts and Dave Franco have great chemistry together.
• New York City and Staten Island vistas at every turn.
• Hey, this isn’t a remake! Finally, a summer movie that isn't a remake of something else! There is, however, another movie made years ago with Michael Douglas called “The Game”, which has a similar story but without all of the digital effects and social media aspects.
• Almost every scene has neon in it.  The movie feels young and energetic.
• Some movie critics say there isn’t really any resolution in the end, but I actually thought it worked.  It was fast, but then so was the entire movie.

Things I didn’t like:

• The idea is that the camera sees everything, yet there is no one actually there filming at every angle.  Don’t think very hard, because most of the things in this movie don’t make sense.
• This is what happens when you have kids with more time than brains.
• The loss of a loved one and the inability to move on is a clichéd background story.  The movie doesn't spend very much time on character development, but does insert a brief backstory that fuels the motivation for each character.
• NOT a spoiler alert: I don’t appreciate that they make the cops out to be the bad guys. 
• I hate it when people are afraid to report crimes being committed because then they're labeled a snitch.  Isn't the crime a LOT worse than being a "tattle-tale"?  One of the rules in the Nerve game says "Snitches = stitches.”  I wish people felt more safe reporting crimes in general.

Interesting lines:

• “I don’t want space.  I want you.” – Nancy
• “I’m sorry.  When you said ‘live my life’ did you mean live my life in your shadow?” – Vee
• “Vee, do you really trust that guy?  He’s the one who got you into this mess.” – Sydney

“I’M the one who got me into this mess.” – Vee

Funny lines:

• “You guys are the dumbest smart kids I’ve ever met.” – Nancy (Juliette Lewis)
• “Crazy first date, huh?” – Ian (Dave Franco)

“Is that what that was?” – Vee (Emma Roberts

Tips for parents:   

• There is a LOT of VERY risky teenage behavior.
• Direct democracy = mob mentality.  Talk to your kids about why America's Founding Fathers did all they could to prevent our government from being a direct democracy and why they chose to create a Republic instead. 
• Do your kids know about the “Dark Web”?  They probably know more about it than you do.
• Farting.  More farting.
• Profanity.
• You see people text crude comments on their cell phones.
• You see 2 teens in their underwear.
• You see another 2 teens making out on a bed at a party without all of their clothes on.