You know what that sound means? It's another
episode of Game for a Movie, where we ask, are
you game for a movie? My name is Mike. Welcome
to week two of spoopy season, as we call it.
Week one featured The Curse of Downers Grove,
which is about my hometown, actually, surprisingly.
This week is a little different, but of course,
we're going to talk about that after we get into
talking about what we are drinking. Today we
are drinking Lightning Drops from Resident Culture
Brewing right here in Charlotte. It is a fantastic
IPA. Obviously, you know this by now if you've
listened to the show a couple of times. I am
definitely an IPA guy. I actually really love
their can design. It is a black can. It feels
really like textured and everything like that.
Plus, it's just a cool looking can. I mean, it's
called Lightning Drops. It has to be some kind
of cool can, right? You can find this pretty
much anywhere over Charlotte because, truthfully,
it's one of those beers that everybody kind of
loves if you like IPAs. So let's jump into the
bad movie. This is our second bad horror movie
for the month of October, what I call spoopy
season. What everybody pretty much calls it spoopy
season at this point. But usually during this
time, I try to get as many horror movies as I
can down. This one was supposed to be recorded
and released last week. Things happen. And wouldn't
you know it that my son decided he wanted to
be born into this earth when I was supposed to
be recording and sending it and everything like
that. So very good reasoning for why this episode
is late. I have a beautiful baby boy. My wife
is doing quite well and so is our son. So we
are very happy getting into the swing of things
and everything like that. I'm a little tired.
I'm not going to lie. So sometimes you may hear
me. Trying to think of that correct word. It's
just what's going to happen. Sorry, because I
am just dealing with it. Obviously, if you've
had a newborn before, you know what I'm going
through. But I'm still going to try to give you
the best show I can with the limited sleep I've
had. And of course, because my son was born,
we need to do something like the movie Godsend.
God Send, just to give you a brief synopsis of
why this ties in like this, is about an eight
-year -old boy who dies, and then a doctor promises
the parents he can clone him and basically give
him his whole life over again. So he would be
born again, and he would live, and hopefully
this time, not die. So that is a brief synopsis
of God Send. Obviously, I'm going to get into
more details, but a couple things before we get
started. It was directed by Frank Callow and
Nick Hamm. pretty much have directed nothing
else since. Nick Hamm's got a couple projects
here or there, but nothing too crazy. And Frank
Callow's more of a producer and writer now, not
really as much of a director. It was written
by Mark Bomback. Mark Bomback is probably the
most successful of these. He has 16 writing credits
to his name, some of which are, he's got, obviously
we start with Godsend. He has Live Free or Die
Hard. He has Race to Witch Mountain and Unstoppable,
the Total Recall remake, The Wolverine, Dawn
of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet
of the Apes. He did the Divergent series Insurgent
and The Art of Racing in the Rain. He also wrote
all eight episodes of Defending Jacob, the TV
miniseries that was on Apple Plus. So luckily,
this guy didn't get stopped by this movie, Godsend.
This movie was released April 30th, 2004. It
is mystery thriller slash horror. It is PG -13.
It's about an hour and 42 minutes long. And The
Tomato Meter. So it is a 4 % critic score, a
20 % audience score. Highly rated as one of the
worst horror movies of all time. Thus why we
had to do it, of course. So that is a little
bit of the background of Godsend. A couple fun
trivia facts about this movie. Before the release
of this movie, Lionsgate Films set up two official
websites. One was the conventional site with
the movie information, everything like that.
And one was an email address and a phone number
for the Godsend Institute, which is the cloning
facility in this movie. And basically, if you
were to call it, it had a recorded message giving
the Institute's office hours, that kind of thing.
A few parents who lost kids. actually called
this number trying to see if it was a real thing.
I feel so bad for them. Luckily, the studio started
responding to them explaining that it was a movie
tie -in, so they didn't get their hopes too far
up, hopefully. But yeah, that's a little rough,
not going to lie. And then one other fun fact
about this, Robert De Niro stars in this movie,
and he had originally planned on merely providing
a brief cameo. However, the director, Nick Hamm,
heard that De Niro wanted to be in the project,
so he asked De Niro to participate in a few more
scenes. These were all filmed within a week.
Yeah, so that's all of De Niro's part is done
within a week, the entire shoot of the movie.
And De Niro later regretted this because his
name was splashed all over the advertisements.
And I'm not even joking if you look at the poster
and everything like that. Obviously, like the
kid's face is a big chunk of it because it is
about the kid being cloned, everything like that.
But then the second biggest face on this thing
has to be De Niro's. And he he definitely is
marked as like the and Robert De Niro, you know,
so it's it's definitely very abundant that Robert
De Niro's was used to sell this movie. It also
stars Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn Stamos,
who is Rebecca Romijn now, but she was Rebecca
Romijn Stamos at this point, and Cameron Bright
plays the son. You've probably seen him in some
things, I don't know, maybe here or there, but
definitely this cast, you'd probably recognize
those other three in a lot of other things. Alright,
let's talk about the details of this movie. So,
Greg Kinnear plays Paul Duncan, and in the very
beginning, he is running late for a birthday
party. As he is running late, he decides to cut
down an alley and he gets held at knife point
by one of his former students. But the guy recognizes
him and lets him go. So we learned that Paul
is a teacher and that he's apparently a good
teacher. Like, you know, everybody kind of likes
him, even the ones that haven't gone down a good
path at this point, especially since he gets
held at knife point down an alley. And this never
comes back, by the way. This is just to introduce
the character and show that, like, oh, yeah,
he's a teacher, and he's a good teacher. Good
for him. You know, that's all that happens in
this part. So he gets home, and his wife has
been waiting for him. Her name is Jessie, and
it's for their son, Adam. It is his eighth birthday
party. Adam is played by Cameron Bright, as I
said before, and Rebecca Romaine Stamos is Jessie.
So to apologize for being late and everything
like that, Paul gives Adam his present. And basically,
it's a red and white Letterman jacket that he
got for his eighth birthday. I don't know. Even
in 2004, that felt a little weird to me that
you got a Letterman jacket at eight years old.
But, you know, whatever, I guess. That's the
first scene is his birthday and that kind of
thing and setting the stage about it is his eighth
birthday and he's got this letterman jacket and
everything like that. We also learned that the
family has a job offer on the table. There's
a chance for them to move out of the city and
go to the suburbs because basically they have
offered Paul this teaching position in the suburbs.
And Jesse is a photographer. So she can take
it wherever she wants to go. They're kind of
hemming and hawing about it. But the point of
it is that Paul likes living in the city. That's
what we learn is he likes living in the city.
So it's the next day and Jesse agrees to take
Adam to get a new pair of shoes. These are the
Nike pumps. I love that we got some Nike pumps
in this movie. Like it's obvious Nike pumps and
everything like that. He also gets a basketball.
That's a pretty cool basketball. It's like a
black basketball. So, you know, I actually think
these are these are two things as an eight year
old. I would want those. I don't think I'd want
a Letterman jacket. I would like the Nike pumps
in a basketball. But he also has his Letterman
jacket as well that he's been wearing. So he
goes outside to test him out while Jesse pays.
The basketball rolls into the street and Adam
goes to retrieve it. And wouldn't you know it,
a car loses control, hits a median, and lands
straight onto Adam. He gone! See ya, Adam! So,
eight -year -old Adam, he's dead. Jesse is taking
it so hard, obviously, because, I mean, wouldn't
you? You just lost your eight -year -old son
because of your negligence, pretty much. You
just let him walk out in the streets, in the
busy streets of New York. You let him walk out
there and play with a basketball on the street.
That sounds like a you problem, kind of. So it's
been a couple days and they've been putting together
the funeral arrangements. And as they're walking
out, you can tell Jessie, she's like barely able
to stand at this point. Paul is doing everything
he can to keep her mobile to get through this
because she is just so heartbroken right now.
And they are approached by Dr. Richard Wells.
That is Robert De Niro's character. and he taught
Jesse in undergrad, so they do have a little
bit of a history going back and everything like
that. Well, Dr. Wells, he basically says, hey,
I know a place down the road. Why don't we talk?
I have a proposition for you. And even though
they're both pretty distraught, they say, okay,
we'll go listen to him. Why not? Because it is
somebody that does have a past with Jesse, so
why not? Dr. Wells specializes in fertility.
And he offers them a chance to clone and rebirth
Adam. Basically take the DNA, replace it into
Jesse, and she would be able to rebirth him and
have Adam all over again. And one of the quotes
I put was, I've never done this before, but I
know I can do it. Jesse is kind of on board because
she just misses Adam so much and wants to bring
him back. Paul, however, is like, I don't know
about this. And especially because Dr. Wells
explains this process is illegal. But if they
agree to do it, basically, he's going to move
them 300 miles away and they need to sever all
ties with their family. Because if anybody finds
out about this, they find out that Adam's still
alive. That is going to get them all like all
of them are going to be are going to. be recognized
as, hey, you broke the law, you did this illegal
thing, and you're all going to jail. So he needs
them to move 300 miles away. However, Dr. Wells
is going to pay for it all. Not only is he going
to pay for it all, but basically he's going to
buy them a house. He's going to get Paul a job
at the local school. He's going to hook Jesse
up with a dark room for photography. All of these
things Dr. Wells is going to do, all they have
to do is just agree. Paul is still definitely
against it. Jesse wants them to do it. And one
of the things I pointed out was that Paul didn't
even want to move to the suburbs for a new job,
let alone move 300 miles away from the city.
But Jesse, of course, is feeling guilt. She wants
Adam back. And even though Paul is suggested
for trying for another child, they both agree
that it was hard enough the first time to get
pregnant, everything like that. With this, this
is a little bit more artificial insemination,
that kind of thing. So there's a little bit easier
a time to make it happen and make it stick and
everything like that. And especially because
Jesse wants Adam back. She doesn't want a new
baby. She wants Adam back. Paul decides that
he's going to look into it. And he finds out
that the institute that Dr. Wells works for is
the Godsend Institute. I wonder why they call
this movie Godsend. And he uses SearchSite .web
to take a look at the Godsend Institute. I just,
I love fake websites. So when in a movie there's
a fake website or a fake phone number or something
like that, it always takes me out of the movie.
Like always because I love it so much. SearchSite
.web or something like 555 -555 -555, you know,
like that kind of stuff that always... gets me
where i'm just like that's so good so of course
i had to make a note about search site .web and
then paul calls his buddy sam sam they needed
to talk about something else first i don't exactly
remember what but then they get on the topic
about the uh dr wells because sam had heard of
dr wells and thinks he's a genius so paul after
some convincing from sam even though sam doesn't
know what they were doing paul basically says
all right fine i'll do it so they go to the godsend
institute and then they also get shown their
new house that's this huge big house and like
It's gigantic. It's this huge property on this
huge piece of land. And I'm just sitting here
going, where is like the kind doctor who will
pay for a huge house in a new place to live for
like us? Because I would love this. This would
be amazing. I don't need a new child to be or
I don't need my child to be reborn. But if it
means that I could have this huge house in this
big piece of land, I'd consider it. Flash forward,
we go to an unnecessary childbirth scene. And
to watch this a couple of days before I lived
it in real life, this was surreal to me. Like
this whole thing was surreal to me. There was
no need for this scene except to show that baby
Adam struggled at first to breathe and then cries.
And Jesse realizes that's the same thing Adam
did the first time. So she's already like, oh
my God, it worked because it's already been,
it was like 40 seconds where he struggled to
breathe and then he cried. All right, so after
that unnecessary birth scene, we flash forward
eight years now, and it is Adam's eighth birthday
again. And Dr. Richard is a part of their lives.
He comes over. He has a gift for Adam. It turns
out to be a kite. And basically, he asks if Dr.
Richard would fly it with him. So Adam goes out
and flies the kite with Dr. Richard. Basically,
all of Adam's friends are about to leave the
party. So Paul calls Adam to say goodbye to his
friends. And Adam looks at Dr. Richard and then
looks back at Paul and doesn't go in. And it's
like very obvious, like, I'm sorry, you definitely
heard me. You definitely know what's going on.
Yet you're ignoring me for some reason. So it's
already getting a little weird. Something's not
quite right. and then there's this whole conversation
a couple minutes later in the movie. Dad, I've
been thinking. I don't think I like you so much
anymore. And then he looks at him and goes, Gotcha!
It was a trick. But it's... A, I don't know why
you'd say something like that. Just being a creepy
kid, just to be a creepy kid, I guess. But it
shows that something is changing inside Adam.
So assuming that night... Adam starts dreaming.
And the scene of him dreaming and having this
awful nightmare is also interspersed with a sex
scene between Paul and Jesse. It's very strange
because you're supposed to be focused on the
things that Adam's seen and everything like that.
But then it goes back to them having sex. And
it's just like back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth. Adam is seeing his old self in
the window. It looks like a... school classrooms
and everything like that and he also sees these
kids locked in these classrooms that look to
be on fire and so he starts like walking because
of these dreams and everything and then he collapses
paul and jesse see him collapse and they're worried
about him and they talk to dr richard and basically
dr richard goes well he may be different now
that he's crossed the age he died at you know
we don't know we've had this whole time scripted
because you know what it's like year zero to
eight years old now he might be different because
we don't know we're in uncharted territory and
everything so that's a good enough answer for
at least jesse and a little bit paul too i mean
he's at least happy with it and everything one
of the other things adam saw in his nightmare
was this drawing And it's like a really creepy
drawing and he recreates it when he's out of
the nightmare. The next day, Adam is biking home
and basically cuts in front of Paul's car. And
Paul gets like really mad at him because he just
didn't want to get him run over again. And especially
if it was him that did it, he just needs to be
more careful and that kind of thing. And this
kind of like triggers Adam and he starts booking
it away from Paul and he goes into the woods
near their house and he finds this abandoned
shed. And basically he's in the shed in the middle
of the woods reaching out towards something and
he's sleepwalking again like this. This is sleepwalking
again. It's not really. him doing this he's just
kind of going through the motions that kind of
thing and the thing he was reaching for because
paul catches him and was like able to pick him
up and take him back to the house uh the thing
that he was reaching for was an axe so paul is
like okay we need to take him to a specialist
we we need to do something something's not right
here something's screwy everything like that
but dr richard's just like it's nothing we're
good um Dr. Richard's office is some kind of
like evil lair office. He has like a wood desk,
files everywhere, dark red curtains. He sits
in the dark and he like keeps clicking these
like metal balls in his hand. He just kind of
keeps turning them like that kind of thing. And
while we see this, we also have a scene of Paul
at school teaching the kids about DNA. And he
has an epiphany about how certain genes are on
and on or off, even though they are present.
So like these, everybody has these genes and
basically came to the conclusion, well, what
if some of these genes are on, some of these
genes are off? So he has that idea. and basically
tells the kids to read chapters 4 through 100
or whatever he says before he runs out. And,
you know, as all movies go, he just leaves his
class with no repercussions. Nobody actually
cares that the teacher just up and leaves. And
Paul drives to the Institute to talk to Richard.
And Richard's basically like, yes, that's how
we got Adam in the first place, is we turned
on certain genes so that they were specific to
Adam. Basically, Richard's saying, this is what
we planned to. This is what we had. This is no
big deal because this is what we always wanted.
We turned on these certain things because this
is what we wanted Adam to be. Paul just kind
of drives home. He's not happy with that answer,
but at the same time, he doesn't know what else
to do at this point because he thought he had
this answer figured out. And that he could turn
off, maybe with the help of Dr. Richard, turn
off the sleepwalking one and the stuff he's seen
and everything. When Paul gets home, Adam is
kind of like not listening to him again. So Paul
gets mad, screams at him and grabs him like really
hard. And Jesse starts getting a little nervous
about Paul. Like everything's a little screwy
now where she just doesn't. trust him the same,
or at least she's a little weary of him. Paul
is trying to convince Jesse to get a sleep expert,
and he has been talking to Sam about a potential
sleep expert. You know, Sam, the guy that told
him earlier that Dr. Wells, Dr. Richard is a
genius, that they should do this and everything
like that. And Jesse's kind of like, wait, you
talked to Sam? Why'd you talk to Sam? We were
supposed to sever all ties. Nobody's supposed
to know we're here. This is not supposed to be
what we do, anything like that. And he was just
kind of like, well, I just needed to find somebody
to try to help. And I found the sleep expert.
Well, Jesse doesn't want to talk to the sleep
expert because she just assumes that Dr. Richard
is handling all of their problems. So Adam is
now taking a bath and he keeps hearing noises,
including the door opening. So he keeps looking
outside the shower curtain because he doesn't.
taking the bath he has the shower curtain pulled
versus having it open so he keeps like pulling
the curtain looking behind to see if the doors
open that kind of thing and finally at one point
the shower curtain pulls down and is stuck over
him and he's just kind of like freaking out and
then paul like gets in and the curtains magically
back up and adam is fine also adam saw somebody
under the curtain He doesn't know who exactly,
but he saw someone under the curtain. And so
like Paul is trying to calm him down. And Adam
says to him, something bad is going to happen.
And Paul's like, I won't let anything bad happen
to you. And Adam goes, not to me. Remember earlier
how like Adam kind of said to his dad, like,
I don't know if I like you anymore. This is starting
to get a little like, okay. Something feels like
it's going to happen to the parents. You know,
something's going to go weird. But so far, we
don't know what's happening. We don't know if
it's actually real, if it's just something that's
happening in Adam's head, or if Adam is literally
suffering a psychotic break. So because Paul
talked to Sam, Jesse goes over to talk to Dr.
Richard, and basically they convene over lunch
and wine. dr richard's house this is again interspersed
with another scene and it's adam getting into
a swinging contest with his bully roy because
you know that's what all kids do when he starts
swinging basically he gets really high and he
starts spitting on the boys and a teacher sees
this tries to stop him she like takes him off
the swing and is just like what are you doing
why are He gets in trouble with the principal
because he's spitting now. And everybody knows
he's such a good boy and everything like that.
He really hasn't shown anything too crazy at
school or anything like that. But all of a sudden
it's like he's spitting on kids and it's just
a little weird. This is all interspersed why
Dr. Richard is having Jesse at his house making
her lunch and having some wine. And I put, I'm
calling it now, Dr. Richard is trying something
with Jesse. I don't know what. but something.
He's also trying to convince Jesse to make sure
that Paul doesn't leave because this is still
illegal, everything they've done and everything
like that. So if Paul starts getting cold feet
and wants to go talk to people and somebody finds
out it is still illegal, they could still get
in huge trouble and go to jail. So after this
whole thing, Paul convinces Jesse that they should
take Adam to a second opinion. So they take him
to Dr. Lieber and Dr. Lieber. kind of is like
a child psychologist, that kind of thing. And
we learn about Zachary through Dr. Lieber. Zachary
is the boy who lives in Adam's dreams. And not
only that, Zachary wears a red jacket with white
sleeves. It turns out to be the Letterman jacket.
So we learn a little bit about it. Not exactly
everything. And so they're driving back from
Dr. Lieber. They now know about Zachary and everything
like that. And Adam starts having another terror
while they're driving home. And Paul pulls over
and is like pushing him for information because
he just wants to try to get him through it. If
he pushes him for information, basically Adam's
going to find out the end of this and he's going
to be able to get away from these night terrors.
One of the things that Adam says is he sees this
woman getting hit by a hammer by Zachary. And
then at the end, because Zachary turns around
and you see his face in the night tear, Adam
asks, did I die? And he might be starting to
see his first life in his dreams. And Paul is
very convinced of that. Jesse strongly disagrees.
So it's the next day in class. Adam is doing
the assignments, his teacher says. And the teacher
asks them to draw their house and their family.
which Adam again draws the house on fire, and
he signs it Zachary. A nice little inter -scene
basically to show, well, Zachary might be getting
a hold of Adam now. After that day, he's going
home, and he passes by the stream, and he sees
Roy, his bully, and all the other boys that started
bullying him, trying to cross a stream. And basically
Roy is like, come on, you pussies, like come
cross the stream, blah, blah, blah. Come do it.
Come on, you pussies. What are you doing? And
nobody wants to go with him. So Roy keeps going
further up the stream, but the other boys are
no longer there. Paul is driving home and he
just so happens to drive past the stream and
he sees Adam's bike, but he doesn't see anybody.
and then we see Roy he's looking at something
in the stream and he gets hit by something we
have no clue what but he gets hit by something
meanwhile at home in her dark room all of Jesse's
pictures are torn and messed up including several
with Adam's eyes cut out so all of these pictures
she has hanging are of the new Adam but she has
a box in the corner that's like a safe and that
safe has pictures of the first Adam, and those
are untouched. So she's happy about it because
at least new Adam doesn't know there was an Adam
beforehand. And she does get kind of startled
about the phone ringing. It's Roy's mom who is
calling and said he still hasn't gotten home
from school. Has anybody seen him? Of course
they haven't seen him. Paul... Doesn't think
anything of it. He didn't realize anything at
this point because he just saw Adam's bike by
the stream. He doesn't know that Roy was also
there. Adam has another night tear and they're
just like, OK, we need to bring him in for testing.
So they bring him to Dr. Richard. And while he
is dreaming, he admits the name Zachary Clark
at St. Pius and that all the other kids think
that Adam is Zachary. To try to get him to snap
out of it, Paul is yelling Adam, Adam. Adam,
Adam. He's yelling Adam at the boy. And finally,
to get him to snap out of it, Dr. Richards says,
Zachary Clark. And Adam just kind of comes to.
Basically, he thinks that. Dr. Richard is hiding
something. So to get him to admit it, Paul threatens
to tell the world what he has done, like what
he has been doing at the Godsend Institute and
everything like that. And Dr. Richard looks at
him and goes, what we've done, Paul. Realizing
that he's kind of beat at this point, Paul gets
his family and they start driving back. They
start driving past the stream. And as they're
driving past, the police are pulling Roy's dead
body out of the water. Paul's now convinced that
because he saw Adam's bike at the stream the
other day and because Roy disappeared and Roy
is like one of his bullies, he's like, oh, Adam
did this. And the only reason he got away with
it is because the other boys saw Roy by the stream
showing off and they just think he fell in, you
know, hit his head or something like that. They
don't think anybody did anything. Adam gets away
with it scot -free. All right, we're going to
take a quick break. And by taking a quick break,
we're going to give a shout out to our friend
Josh from Your Next Favorite Movie. So he's not
been podcasting as much as he used to in the
past, but his podcast was Your Next Favorite
Movie. You can follow him on X slash Twitter
slash whatever the fuck we're calling it at YNF
Movie Pod. That's YNF Movie Pod or Your Next
Favorite Movie Pod. And Josh still plays around,
even though he hasn't been podcasting as much
lately, still plays around, guesses on the guessing
game. And we're always happy to give him a shout
out because he's such a good dude. And so there
you go, Josh. Congratulations on getting it.
I know you haven't seen the movie, but you figured
it out anyway. So congratulations. Here's your
shout out for the movie Godsend. So congratulations,
Josh. So now that Paul is convinced that Adam
has killed a kid now, he needs to go to the city.
and figure out more about Zachary Clark because
all of his answers are in the city. It definitely
is in the city. And so he drives to St. Pius,
which is the school. It has been closed for a
while, and Paul breaks into the school. Essentially,
what Paul discovers is that the reason the school
closed was there was a fire there that occurred,
and it's just like in Adam slash Zachary's picture
that he's been drawing and his vision that he's
been having. including there is a perfect copy
of that drawing hanging on the wall in the school
that just so happened to not burn down. So he's
able to see this picture that his son has been
drawing, that he's been recreating from his vision.
So now he's figured out that St. Pius has been
burnt down and everything like that. So he decides,
okay, maybe I'll get more answers at Zachary
Clark's house. What he finds at the house was
that it was burnt down and it now has new owners
that rebuilt it. Now, the new owners don't really
know anything about the Clark family, especially
Zachary, but they do know that there was a nanny
who used to work there before it burned down.
Her name's Cora Williams, and Paul is able to
find her and go ask her some questions. So when
he's talking to Cora, she was talking about how
Zachary would be bullied all the time and he
would start acting up. And then he started the
fire. After the fire, Cora kind of sensed that
this kid, something was not right with him and
that Cora knew she had to do something. So she
tried to strangle him with the shower curtain
and couldn't do it. Like she couldn't, she couldn't
kill the kid. And I mean, yeah. totally understand
that thought uh i wouldn't be able to do it either
but zachary didn't say anything about it so cora
and zachary just had this secret but she just
stopped kind of working for them so she didn't
come in the next day that next day zachary killed
her uh his mother with a hammer and then set
a fire in the house to hide any evidence and
he ended up dying in that fire and basically,
like, what about the father? Like, where was
the father? And she goes, he was at the hospital,
like always. And Paul's like, he was a doctor?
And Cora goes, yes, but seemed more like a scientist
to me. And this is when Tubi decided to take
a commercial break. They had just broken the
case, essentially. They now know that the father
was a doctor or a scientist and wasn't there.
When the mother was killed with the hammer. And
when Zachary died in the fire. Paul is driving
back from the city. And he leaves a message for
Jesse. Basically saying. Get away from Adam.
Something's about to happen. Find Dr. Richard.
But Jesse can't answer the phone. Because she
is in the dark room. Where she found new Adam.
Who has the pictures of first Adam. He was able
to open the safe. And now is kind of like scaring
Jesse. So she freaks out and she smashes the
one light bulb in the room. So it's just in the
dark while he's like having to talk with her.
And we now learn that Zachary kind of has taken
over. There's no more Adam. This is Zachary.
Paul knows exactly where to find Dr. Richard,
apparently, and drives to the funeral for the
boy, Roy. Basically, Dr. Richard was there because
he was trying to get the family to try to recreate
Roy and use the Godsend Institute and everything
like that. Paul starts yelling at Dr. Richard
and Dr. Richard admits that he messed with the
genes to try to bring Zachary back. And now he
is reverting to Zachary. And this is all because
Dr. Richard is the father. who wasn't there when
Zachary killed his wife slash his mother slash
Zachary's mother. And now he's trying to bring
Zachary back. Paul says he's going to the police.
And there's just, if he gets arrested, fine,
whatever. But Dr. Richard is able to hit him
with a large object and leaves him to die in
the church because he set it on fire. And mind
you, this church was just filled with mourners.
Like there was just up 40 people at least that
were in this church. They didn't have this conversation
just alone after everybody had left the church.
Basically, there was still a bunch of people
in there and they were having this conversation.
Yet it's now empty and it's on fire and Paul
is now left for dead while Dr. Richard kind of
gets away with it. Adam slash Zachary now has
run out of the dark room and just runs to the
woods. Jesse is trying to follow him and she
just keeps yelling out Adam in like this really
cheesy way. But she finds the shed and she goes
in. It's essentially a shot for shot of the vision
and Jesse in the shed where basically. she turns
around to see Zachary slash Adam with a hammer
about to kill her. Although this time Adam has
an ax instead of a hammer. So we think that Jesse
is going to die, but somehow Paul was able to
regain consciousness and get all the way to the
shed to catch the ax before Adam swings on Jesse.
Catching the ax was able to like break Adam out
of his trance as Zachary. Now he was able to
take control again. And then it just goes to
six months later. There's news position, news
exposition of the Dr. Richard escaping and disappearing.
The family is moving to a new house because they
don't want to live in that town anymore. And
because, I mean, let's face it, the only way
they could afford it was because of Dr. Richard
and everything like that. So they're moving to
a new house. Adam is working with some new doctors
who say this change will be good for him. They
also admit that he seems depressed, like he seems
depressed, but he's not like this might be good
for him. He might be able to snap out of it,
make new friends, start all over as Adam with
no more Zachary. So Adam's in his room kind of
like exploring and everything like that. And
all of a sudden he hears the closet. There's
something in the closet. And so he walks that
way. And he opens it up, and there's nothing
there. Cool. We're good. Adam has control again.
And then he turns around, and you see the red
and white letterman jacket pull him into the
closet and close the door. I thought that was
the end of the movie. I thought that was it.
But no, whoever walks out, walks out. And we're
left to question if it's Adam or Zachary in control
now. And that's it. That is Godsend. Overall,
this movie's... I mean, it's not good, obviously.
Especially with a 4 % and a 20%. It's a lot of
ham -fisted dialogue. I think that's my main
problem with it. It's just like... When everybody
has these feelings, they just say what they're
feeling instead of just doing it and everything
like that. There's no acting. There's all this
speaking about it and then acting. So you know
exactly what everybody's thinking and everything
like that. That's my biggest problem with it.
The acting is wooden. Nobody does a good job
acting in this movie. It's tough because a lot
of these guys, especially somebody like Greg
Kinnear, I actually really like as an actor.
So it's tough to see him in this. I think he's
trying, but it just comes across as so wooden
because it's so melodramatic, his character,
the whole time. Every time there's something
with him, it's so dramatic. There's no playing.
He always has something happen and he's just
like, oh. god adam's adam's fucked up oh this
is so bad this is so bad i gotta do something
about this i gotta do this i gotta do that i
gotta go talk to richard i gotta go go to the
city i gotta go figure out who the zachary kid
is there's always something where it's like it's
just one note he's always the dramatic melodrama
guy and everything like that and maybe that's
it for all these characters kind of um The only
one who probably has a little bit of depth is
Adam, more so because we see scenes of him having
fun and then we see scenes of him struggling
with the fact that Zachary is taking over. So
it's tough because all of these characters are
kind of like one note. Jesse is either just depressed
or she's skeptical or... She's scared like those.
And that's the thing. It's all base level stuff
with that. It's all base level emotions. There's
no depth to these characters. And that's. Now,
I keep saying that's what the problem is and
everything like that, but that's truly what it
is. It's I think that's why this movie fails.
I honestly think the idea is kind of fun. It's
not like it's something we've seen before. It's
something we'll probably constantly see. But.
I think it's a decent idea of a movie. That's
another thing that works against it in this case
is the fact that it is a little basic. Like,
you know what's kind of going to happen. None
of this felt surprising. The big reveal was supposed
to be that the father of Zachary was Dr. Richard.
And you always knew Dr. Richard had something
to do with this. There was always something about
him. You never thought he was innocent. You always
knew whatever was going to happen at the end
was going to be because of his doing. Or he was
going to do something sleazy. Because again,
in the middle, I thought it was more so that
he was going to try to make a move on Jesse.
I didn't really think it was going to be, oh,
I tried to recreate my kid. You always knew there
was something that was going to be the moment
when that happened. So that's one of the issues,
too, is that it really is, okay, you're on this
line of this movie, and kind of the whole line
of this movie, you know where you're going. Like,
it's A to Z, and by part C, you know... what's
going to happen by part STU, you know, like that
kind of thing. I don't know if that's a good
way to explain it, but that's kind of what it
felt like where I knew something was going to
happen with the doctor. Maybe I didn't guess
it amazingly well, but I always knew there was
going to be something with the doctor. You always
kind of knew that Adam was going to be fine by
the end of this. And truthfully, you kind of
also thought that Jesse and Paul would be okay
too. At least Paul, because Paul the whole time
always had something where he's like, I need
to do this. I need to do that. I need to do this.
So you always knew that Paul was probably going
to make it through. Jesse could have gone either
way, but I thought she was pretty much safe.
And that's the thing. I think it was predictable.
Was it bad? Yes. Was it terrible? No. It's. Exactly
like how The Curse of Downers Grove was. The
first three quarters of the movie were pretty
decent. It had me kind of interested. This was
kind of interesting. It was a decent enough idea.
But the execution was just poor. And it was predictable.
And that kind of made it fall a little flat.
And then the performances on top of it didn't
help anything. So overall, it could have been
worse. I don't think it deserves a 4%. 20 % probably
right around there. That's probably a little
more what it deserved. Just because, like I said,
it was predictable. It wasn't scary. And that's
part of another issue if you're going to call
it a horror movie. There's no real scares in
it. The only scary thing I think was the end
with the closet. And that was more so because
really because I wasn't paying attention anymore.
And all of a sudden that just loud noise happened.
But that one was a little more out of nowhere.
And I was I was OK with that. I think that was
probably something that I was I was a little
more for was the ending there. I think that was
the best scare. But even that, like it was kind
of predictable on that, too. So no real scares.
Predictable story. Wooden acting. Sucks because
I do like Greg Kinnear a lot. Rebecca remains
fine. Robert De Niro, take him or leave him in
certain movies. This one probably could have
left him. And Cameron Bright as Adam slash Zachary
was pretty okay. Definitely could have been a
lot worse. I said 20 % Rotten Tomatoes score
feels about right, so I guess that brings me
to a 1 out of 5 genes turned on versus off. I
guess that's fair, right? Because 1 out of 5
is 20%. Yeah, that's about right on the math.
It wasn't great. It wasn't awful. Just kind of
one of those things where it was there. This
is a movie that existed. I can definitely see
why a lot of people don't know about it. I can
see why it fell through the cracks. And I can
see why this is not one I'm going to watch again
next year during Halloween time. So, yeah, that's
my thoughts on Godsend. That's my thoughts on
Godsend. I'm not going to recommend anybody see
it. like i said it was fine it was they set out
they made this movie i wish it would have been
less predictable because i do think it's a fun
idea but overall predictable and and that's what
hurt it and that's what's going to constantly
hurt it is that it's predictable you you kind
of know right away off the bat what you're gonna
get so Yeah, that's week two of spoopy season
for the Game for a Movie podcast. If you have
some bad movies you want to send our way, find
us everywhere at Game for a Movie. We are taking
bad movie suggestions always because I always
write them down, even if I don't get to them
right away. We have another spoopy episode coming
out next week or the week after. Like I said,
I'm dealing with a newborn. Production is a little
more slowed down. I'm trying to get back on a
rhythm, but I do have at least four movies planned,
even if it falls sometime into November. The
next one, I got Claire to watch with me, and
that's kind of something that I'm shocked by.
But yeah, so she might hop on as well. We'll
see. I might get her thoughts on the next one
we did. I'm looking forward to that one because
it... it has some fun on it so uh yeah we'll
talk about that one for next week's episode but
thank you guys for tuning in to listen to me
talk about godsend i've been your host mike on
the game for a movie podcast where we ask are
you game for a movie i'll see you next time