Catching Faith 2 (2019)

Catching Faith 2: Directed by John K.D. Graham. With Bill Engvall, Lorena Segura York, Lauren Chavez-Myers, Erin Ross. The Taylor family struggles with drama and heartbreak as they face a football injury, an illness and a career change, all while planning a wedding.

“Kill or be killed is the golden rule of the Game of Death. Unfortunately, seven millennials have ignored that rule. Now each oneu0026#39;s head will explode unless they kill someone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the simplest terms, this film is u0026quot;Jumanjiu0026quot; meets u0026quot;Battle Royaleu0026quot;. Others have said u0026quot;Jumanjiu0026quot; meets u0026quot;Natural Born Killersu0026quot;, which also works. Either way, it is the premise of u0026quot;Jumanjiu0026quot; (a board game that takes on a life of its own) re-interpreted with a horror theme. In a sense, even u0026quot;Jumanjiu0026quot; could be seen as a horror film with its spiders and snakes, but the creators never went that dark.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGiving credit where credit is due, u0026quot;Game of Deathu0026quot; is an excellent concept, and it is actually shocking that it took someone this long to think of it and develop a script. The creators took the concept, and then added excellent filters and touchstones. There is some humorous splatter gore that will draw comparisons to u0026quot;Dead Aliveu0026quot;, for example.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe standout actor in the film is Erniel Baez Duenas, the proverbial pizza guy. Initially his character is rather obnoxious, but increasingly becomes the most human and someone audiences might be able to identify with. In a film with such shallow plot, it is a testament to his skill that we are able to go through a small range of emotions towards the character.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnother strong point of the film is how it will have audiences considering entry-level ethics questions. Is murder acceptable if the alternative is death? Would suicide be morally preferable to murder? Are some lives more valuable than others? And it throws in the interesting math that eight players must kill 24 people – does this suggest the moral answer is suicide, because eight deaths is better than 24? Unfortunately, despite some promising ideas, the film really suffers from a disappointing execution (no pun intended). We are treated to excessive padding on the running time with slo-mo shots that reveal nothing, cell phone footage of inane conversations and gratuitous party moments. These inclusions feel like an afterthought to stretch the picture from 45 minutes to (barely) feature-length. The script comes out feeling woefully underdeveloped, which may be due to the filmu0026#39;s origins as a web series. I am unclear whether the series was remade into a film, or just edited together. Either way, it does not work in the longer format.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough there is a surreal running gag of manatee nature documentary excerpts which were amusing for inexplicable reasons, the film as a whole is half-baked and would benefit greatly from a complete mulligan. Perhaps the picture is more interesting for a younger or drunker demographic than this reviewer is a part of, but even they would have to be disappointed on some level.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Game of Deathu0026quot; is playing July 15 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. The picture is brought to us courtesy of production companies La Guerrilla (in Montreal), Rockzeline (in Paris) and Blackpills (in Paris).”