This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
You've Been Pranked!
Plot Overview
It's just turned April and high school
seniors in the L.A. burbs are anticipating their upcoming graduation.
Brady Mannion (Garrett Clayton) being 18 has joined the Marines
(“Ship out right after graduation”) but has yet to tell
his folks. He's visiting his best friend Sam Fuller (Gregg Sulkin)
on a rainy weekend, whose parents are away. They are going through
pizza & beer, Sam having put off studying for a history exam.
Their friend Jeff Mosley (Jack Brett Anderson) delivered an anchovy
pizza by mistake so they get another delivery, this one from Sam's
vacillating girlfriend Peyton Grey (Bella Dayne.) They decide
to play their habitual phone pranks to upload to their friend Roy
(Edward Killingback)'s website. It's just another day in paradise
except a past oopsie is about to catch up with them.
Those pranks may not have been as anonymous as they'd supposed. As bestselling author David Baldacci writes:
The super-thick steel walls had been supplemented by a copper coating. That measure, along with tons of dirt overhead, protected against prying electronic ears lurking in space and elsewhere. These men didn't particularly like coming to this underground room. It was inconvenient, and ironically, it seemed far too James Bondish even for their admittedly cloak-and-dagger tastes. However, the truth was the earth was now encircled with so much advanced surveillance technology that virtually no conversation taking place on its surface was safe from interception. (2)
A prank phone call from the previous
year had ticked off some dude who is calling for payback. He's
had time to find out all he needs to know about them, and he's out
for blood. The Web is wide open, the house is insecure, the parents are
away, the neighbors mind their own business, the only weapons they have are
kitchen knives, they can't call the police on their hacked cell phones, and
they've got no street smarts or martial arts training. Bummer!
Ideology
The man of mystery goes by Mr. Lee. The student of proverbs has a leg up on figuring him out. (Prov. 26:18-19) “As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?” The “casted firebrands” here would be a click of the mouse to send an electrical impulse to the computer deleting a friends request from Izzy (Connie Wilkins) a daddy's girl whom we see, once her deleted request is opened up, is looking forward to her dad's return. If he comes back from his business trip to find her kaput on account of some prank, that might rile him up, I would say.
Mr. Lee (Parker Sawyers) we see is dressed in a string tie and a
checkered shirt. He's not white collar, more a nuts and bolts kind
of guy. On the phone Mr. Lee (voiced by Philip Desmueles) admires
the American flag in Sam's yard. He's a patriot, believes in the second
amendment, would have left his wife (Sienna Guillory) a means to protect
herself when he's away. In Bible days that might be bow and arrows,
in modern L.A. a loaded
handgun. It's a sad fact that if there's a gun in the house,
all too often its owner awakens at night thinking she heard an intruder
and shoots a family member who was bumbling around unexpectedly.
Mr. Lee tells his targeted teens his
goal is to make them grieve over the loss of their loved ones just
as he had over the death of his.
Production Values
“” (2016) was directed by Alexis Wajsbrot and Damien Macé. It was written by Joe Johnson. It stars Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton and Bella Dayne. The stupid and misguided teens they played came across very realistically, Mr. Lee the stuff of nightmares.
MPA rated it R for disturbing violence, and language including sexual references. The teens had all too typical potty mouth. The camera angles and changes of focus were a real trip. The Internet shots were self-explanatory. The settings were after dark, best viewed in subdued room lighting. The dialogue was pretty easy to understand. The pace was well timed. Runtime is 1 hour 23 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was better than your average slasher movie, less sex and more thought. Pranks going awry is nothing new but now computer dangers are part of it. This will do for a horror movie.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four and a half stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotation was from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Baldacci, David. Saving Faith. Copyright © 1999 by Columbus Rose, Ltd. New York: Warner Books, 2000. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org