begy

It's actually a pretty good movie, but with one caveat. The main "twist" needed to be established from the beginning, which would make for a much better and actually coherent movie. On my first watch, I hated Junior (what a stupid nickname, BTW) as an obnoxious, misogynistic, and potentially abusive asshole that he seemed to be. And was baffled that Henrietta was somehow falling in love with him again - why? Because he was gonna leave into space and that somehow made him more sentimental about their shared past? And while I understood that there was going to be some sort of explanation later on, on the surface what was happening seemed just weird and nonsensical. Once the twist came up 2/3rds into the movie, I went back and rewatched it from the beginning. It was like watching a completely different movie, where characters motivations, actions and reactions actually made sense. I have to say some aspects of the story (like men in weird clothing running around and escaping on space shuttles) still remained ridiculous, but at least a narrative did emerge.

The ending, while it made me chuckle, was disappointing and seemingly out of tune with the rest of the story.

I'm giving it a slightly higher rating than it actually deserves, because clearly a lot of work went into this movie from a bigger than usual cast and crew, and the result is not horrible.

The writing is not the worst thing about the movie, because the premise was actually interesting (enough to make me want to watch the movie), there is some sort of a plot in there, and there is even an attempt at some character development. But the story is still weak.

The acting was pretty decent from most of the cast (the old man in the beginning, the asylum inhabitants and its female employees), with some exceptions (the goofy dude in the beginning, the evil doctor, the male orderlies). The main villain especially seemed extremely wooden and seemed to have a multitude of evil hobbies - as many as the writers could come up with/fit into the runtime. That being said, maybe it's not the actor's fault - maybe he was just following the direction he was given. I certainly felt that the actress playing the main nurse had to literally slow down her delivery or just act dumb in order to make the scenes more believable.

Which brings me to the directing, camerawork, and editing of this movie. All of that felt very amateurish, to the point that I think in the hands of a more experienced / talented director this could have been a much better movie. The scene transitions are non-existent. Plotlines are sometimes so disjointed, and in one case there is no explanation of how characters A and B, who were locked up in the previous scene, are now sitting and watching TV with everyone else. The "contemplative" scenery is simply hammered in at random points. Oh, and I immediately guessed that the director was male, when one of the female characters suddenly decided to lower her shorts to expose her ass to the camera. Or when the main character, who had been wearing a hospital gown, apropos nothing disrobed completely and started walking around like that. Or when the nurse finally decided to cover the naked girl, the closest thing at hand was a white bodysuit that was a perfect fit, which she called "kinky". Or when a bunch of women, who are in the middle of escaping from the asylum, decide to go take a dip in the pond/lake/river in the middle of the night, and undress down to their underwear (which is of non-standard design). I was expecting all of the actresses to completely undress at some point in the movie, but after this scene the gratuitous nudity was dialed back, so I stuck it out till the end.

Overall, you're likely to enjoy it only if you go with very low expectations and don't mind some violence in your movies, even if it's not depicted that well.