I'm way out of order for this set of reviews. I started my at home review, but I was having some problems working out what I wanted to talk about in it. My monthly team-up review came in before I was able to finish the review I started, so I went ahead and got that review done, which would have been my Netflix instant watch. I went back to finish my other review but still had the same problem. In the meantime, I found the movie Jackals (2017) playing on one of the movie channels I have for free for a year. Since my new cable box doesn't have a DVR, I couldn't record it. However, it does allow you to watch a movie anytime you want, so I went ahead with watching it...which would be my next at home review. I guess it doesn't matter in the end what order I go in, but I like order! Anyway, Jackals is a movie that screened at a movie festival I went to, but I ended up skipping over it. If I remember right, I did so because it was a late night screening and I wanted to make sure I would get up in plenty of time the next day for the first screening that day. I'm glad that I was able to catch up with it.
Justin (Ben Sullivan) is kidnapped at gunpoint by two men but not without a fight. Eventually, the two men are able to put him in their van and drive to a cabin where Justin's family and girlfriend wait. Justin has gotten involved with a cult and has hired Jimmy (Stephen Dorff) to get Justin back and deprogram him. Justin wants no part of this though, even going as far as saying his name isn't Justin. As Jimmy and his family try to get through to him, the cult shows up to get their member back. Wearing masks to make them look like jackals, they will do whatever it takes to get Justin back into the fold.
Jackals was written by Jared Rivet and directed by Kevin Greutert. Now, I know that the family was worried about Justin being in a cult and all, but attacking and kidnapping him seemed pretty extreme to me. I assumed they tried other ways first, which all failed, so they felt this was their last resort. Perhaps taking him somewhere that the cult may know about was a mistake, but I understood the reason behind it. With the cabin being a favorite place for Justin in his childhood, they wanted this intervention to take place on neutral ground, so to speak. It takes a little while for the cult to show up. Meanwhile, we get a little bit of background on the different characters. It is believed that Justin left to join the cult because his parents have decided to get divorced, which seem like a really lame reason. His girlfriend, played by Chelsea Ricketts, has a son by Justin. Despite everyone wanting the best for him, especially his girlfriend, Justin just doesn't seem to care one bit. Often threatening his family with violence, usually by saying the cult will kill them all, I was never sure if he actually meant these things or if he was just trying to piss everyone off or both. One the cult does arrive, it does so in a slow way, not showing how many of them there are right away. Some get into the cabin, pretty easily it always seemed, but they never did so with numbers. I'm sure the cult didn't know for sure how many were inside at first or how well armed they are so I can see being careful at first. What confused me is after a while, they clearly should have known that the numbers game is on their side, so why not go on the attack? It made a more suspenseful movie by not having them do this and pretty much pick off each family member one by one, but that was my thought process as the movie went on.
The effects are actually pretty mild for this type of film. The effects mostly don't show up until the end of the film where we get burns and a sliced open throat. The effects are good, but I was disappointed in how mild they are. The acting was pretty good at least. The only one I didn't like was Deborah Kara Unger, who played Justin's mother. Her character just seemed to be there. The same expression most of the time and didn't seem to show an expression or feeling when I figured she would do so. On the other side of that is Nick Roux, who played Justin's brother. His character always seemed like he was ready to fight at the drop of a hat. Those were the bookends of the acting. Everyone else was somewhere in between that. Chelsea Ricketts plays the part of Justin's girlfriend and to my surprise, she ends up having a larger role than I was expecting. This turned out to be a good thing as I did end up enjoying her acting. I also like Ben Sullivan who showed some good acting throughout. Johnathon Schaech rounds out the actors for the family. He plays the dad and does a good job with his acting. Out of the cult, Alyssa Julya Smith and Jason Scott Jenkins stand out the most as Fox Girl and the cult leader.
I knew a little about Jackals going into it because I looked it up prior to going to the festival to see if I wanted to try to stay awake to watch it. I'm glad that I didn't, but not because I thought that this was a bad film. It has been getting harder to stay up late and go straight back to the festivals first thing in the morning. In that way, I'm glad that I waited and caught up with it now. I think I probably enjoyed it more watching it when I did instead of trying to watch it while fighting off sleep. Jackals is a bit of a slow paced film which normally doesn't bother me, but it did some this time around. I think that is just because I was waiting for something that never came. There are some pretty tense moments at the end of the film which is where I thought the film saved itself. This wasn't a great film, but it was still a fun watch. If you haven't checked it out yet, you just might consider doing so sometime.
3 out of 5 Someone needs to make a Cult about me
Justin (Ben Sullivan) is kidnapped at gunpoint by two men but not without a fight. Eventually, the two men are able to put him in their van and drive to a cabin where Justin's family and girlfriend wait. Justin has gotten involved with a cult and has hired Jimmy (Stephen Dorff) to get Justin back and deprogram him. Justin wants no part of this though, even going as far as saying his name isn't Justin. As Jimmy and his family try to get through to him, the cult shows up to get their member back. Wearing masks to make them look like jackals, they will do whatever it takes to get Justin back into the fold.
Jackals was written by Jared Rivet and directed by Kevin Greutert. Now, I know that the family was worried about Justin being in a cult and all, but attacking and kidnapping him seemed pretty extreme to me. I assumed they tried other ways first, which all failed, so they felt this was their last resort. Perhaps taking him somewhere that the cult may know about was a mistake, but I understood the reason behind it. With the cabin being a favorite place for Justin in his childhood, they wanted this intervention to take place on neutral ground, so to speak. It takes a little while for the cult to show up. Meanwhile, we get a little bit of background on the different characters. It is believed that Justin left to join the cult because his parents have decided to get divorced, which seem like a really lame reason. His girlfriend, played by Chelsea Ricketts, has a son by Justin. Despite everyone wanting the best for him, especially his girlfriend, Justin just doesn't seem to care one bit. Often threatening his family with violence, usually by saying the cult will kill them all, I was never sure if he actually meant these things or if he was just trying to piss everyone off or both. One the cult does arrive, it does so in a slow way, not showing how many of them there are right away. Some get into the cabin, pretty easily it always seemed, but they never did so with numbers. I'm sure the cult didn't know for sure how many were inside at first or how well armed they are so I can see being careful at first. What confused me is after a while, they clearly should have known that the numbers game is on their side, so why not go on the attack? It made a more suspenseful movie by not having them do this and pretty much pick off each family member one by one, but that was my thought process as the movie went on.
The effects are actually pretty mild for this type of film. The effects mostly don't show up until the end of the film where we get burns and a sliced open throat. The effects are good, but I was disappointed in how mild they are. The acting was pretty good at least. The only one I didn't like was Deborah Kara Unger, who played Justin's mother. Her character just seemed to be there. The same expression most of the time and didn't seem to show an expression or feeling when I figured she would do so. On the other side of that is Nick Roux, who played Justin's brother. His character always seemed like he was ready to fight at the drop of a hat. Those were the bookends of the acting. Everyone else was somewhere in between that. Chelsea Ricketts plays the part of Justin's girlfriend and to my surprise, she ends up having a larger role than I was expecting. This turned out to be a good thing as I did end up enjoying her acting. I also like Ben Sullivan who showed some good acting throughout. Johnathon Schaech rounds out the actors for the family. He plays the dad and does a good job with his acting. Out of the cult, Alyssa Julya Smith and Jason Scott Jenkins stand out the most as Fox Girl and the cult leader.
I knew a little about Jackals going into it because I looked it up prior to going to the festival to see if I wanted to try to stay awake to watch it. I'm glad that I didn't, but not because I thought that this was a bad film. It has been getting harder to stay up late and go straight back to the festivals first thing in the morning. In that way, I'm glad that I waited and caught up with it now. I think I probably enjoyed it more watching it when I did instead of trying to watch it while fighting off sleep. Jackals is a bit of a slow paced film which normally doesn't bother me, but it did some this time around. I think that is just because I was waiting for something that never came. There are some pretty tense moments at the end of the film which is where I thought the film saved itself. This wasn't a great film, but it was still a fun watch. If you haven't checked it out yet, you just might consider doing so sometime.
3 out of 5 Someone needs to make a Cult about me
