MOVIE: Between Worlds
STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Penelope Mitchell, Franka Potente, Hopper Jack Penn, Garrett Clayton, Lydia Hearst
RELEASE DATE: December 21st, 2018
WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Amazon Prime, Apple TV)
By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)
Joe (Nicolas Cage) and Billie (Penelope Mitchell) in Between Worlds
Have you ever watched a movie and think to yourself, “Wow….that was an idea that they actually ran with”? I feel like you could ask that question about a lot of the later Nic Cage catalog. But hear me out when I say that 2018’s Between Worlds is up there with one of the weirder premises and one of the most outlandish scenes that is equal parts uncomfortable, hilarious, and stupid. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Between Worlds is a supernatural thriller that follows truck driver Joe (played by Cage) who is haunted by the memories of his dead wife, Mary (played by Lydia Hearst). He meets Julie (played by Franka Potente) who has the ability to cross over to the spirit realm. She asks Joe to choke her so she may cross over to retrieve the wandering soul of her dying daughter, Billie (played by Penelope Mitchell). Joe and Julie begin dating, but as Penelope is recovering, she slowly becomes more and more infatuated with Joe. Slowly, Joe realizes that the soul they brought back was not her daughter, but that of his wife Mary. And she refuses to let Joe leave her again.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this, the plot is garbage with a bunch of plot holes and erratic pacing. It’s never explained how Julie has supernatural powers, and no one even is curious how this is possible. The script is all over the place as well. It felt like they ran out of time for filming so they cherry-picked the scenes to make the best story, but failed to make them come together in a cohesive way. The acting is terrible across the board. Even Cage can’t pull a good performance out of this. He overacts in his usual Cage fashion, yet it doesn’t help anything within the scenes, which is saying something.
Joe (Nicolas Cage) and Julie (Franka Potente) in Between Worlds.
I mentioned at the beginning that this film contains one of the most insane scenes I have seen. Now, I will tell you what that scene is. In all honesty, I don’t think you guys need to check this film out, but you do need to know about this. There is a scene where Joe ends up having sex with Billie, while at the same time, Joe is having sex with Mary in some sort of memory. In the middle of it, Mary/Billie asks Joe to talk dirty to her by speaking about memories. Joe then pulls out a book that is titled “Memories by Nicolas Cage” and begins reading abstract nonsense bits out of it. This whole scene was uncomfortable and what I would call a “WTF” moment. That scene couldn’t even save this film.
As of now on Nic Gauge, this beats out Willy’s Wonderland as the worst of the worst at the bottom of “Hot Mess”.
