The Devil's Mouth
Despite my complaints about new creature features, I decided to watch this direct-to-Prime movie. I already knew the movie had gotten low ratings and whatnot. I knew what I was getting into, but I wanted to continue this streak of watching poor movies. There's always a chance I could like the movie. The main draw is the two leading ladies, Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor. They were in Ready or Not 2 and Coyote vs. Acme, respectively. Those movies are far better than The Devil's Mouth. Both of them were very charming in those films. I've seen Newton in several other films, and she has such lovely energy. I had hoped that these charming women would be the saving grace of The Devil's Mouth. To an extent, they were, but the movie actively tried to sabotage them! So the movie is about a group of young adults vacationing in Thailand. They go on a guided tour to the Devil's Mouth, a cave that Kathryn Newton's character's dad loved. They make some bad decisions and become hunted by a bull shark. So it's basically Jaws meets The Descent. Maybe that sounds good on paper, but the execution was so flawed. One of the biggest reasons for the bad execution was the visual style of the film. Hell, there is no visual style! It's all grounded in reality, so you spend about 80% of the movie in a cave. There's no big natural light source. It's very dim, and it wears on the viewer quickly. They have small helmet lights, but that hardly helps with the variety. The primary location for this movie becomes pretty dull and murky. Admittedly, I did react to some moments where characters fall off certain spots or take damage from the rocks, but that's mostly because they broke the monotony of seeing a cave for close to 90 minutes. I think The Descent is a great film, and I felt the claustrophobia and danger of that cave system. It was so visceral, but The Devil's Mouth doesn't even come close to capturing that vibe. It would've been better if it was just a shark movie or even just a cave film.
Oh, and the shark. Unsurprisingly, it's completely CGI. There's no info about the budget, but it's clear that the CGI is shoddy. It's kind of crazy that Hungry has better CGI! The CGI was also rough when bodies are pulled out of place or during other unusual movements. For example, Sara (Kathryn Newton) pulls the remains of a shark victim. It's the top half of a body, but Sara was able to easily lift and lure the shark away from her. That was so silly. Most of the blood looked like CGI. One of the first major showcases of blood was hurt by the overly light shade. In the climax of the movie, Sara used some of her own blood to bring the shark to her. She squeezed on a wound to make it bleed and then flicked it into the water. That moment was so unrealistic, the blood was flung several yards down into the water. I think the best effect, which isn't saying much, is the jellyfish sting marks on Sara. She was attacked by several jellyfish in the first act. The shark kills weren't dazzling and were more or less the same. The movie is PG-13, which is limiting when it comes to shark violence. The shark would grab onto a body with its mouth, swim around with the body stuck, and then they go underwater, dying shortly after. Sometimes you don't even see the shark getting a bite, just the body being pulled down underwater. It was pretty silly how the shark acted as a serial killer. It stalked its prey and attacked when the opportunity presented itself. I suppose the cave concept was thought of because it limited the shark's coverage and territory, thus making it more likely to act as a serial killer. That's still a major reach. Going back to moments where characters fell or took damage from the elements of the cave, those were actually more gripping than the actual shark attacks. Even with those being good, the movie wasn't consistently thrilling or engaging. It was boring much of the time, and it felt a little too long. It's 106 minutes, but it felt longer than that.
Actually, one unintentional highlight of the film was when the first shark kill happened. It was only impactful because right after it happened, my phone got a notification. My notification sound is the Fatality announcement from Mortal Kombat 2! So it was as if the announcer said "Fatality" in response to that kill. That was funny.
As expected, the cast of 20-somethings were somewhat annoying. Some of them lacked character, and you just know they're going to be shark food. It's almost insulting how obvious the victims are in the film. The very first victim of the shark was a diver who hardly had any dialogue. I complained about the drama and backstories of characters in Hungry and Spider Island. It's more justified and generally a little better in this film. But it didn't do a lot for the movie overall. What was more offensive was the repeated blame-game situations. So many moments and kills were followed by debates over who was to blame, even toward the end of the movie! One of the worst turned out to be a dream sequence, but the fact that it felt so real is a damning sign. The worst one that actually happened was when Sara told Max that they tried her way and it was a bust. After over an hour of shark attacks and heavy-duty trauma, saying something like that is absolutely wild! That's something the viewer should think on their own, but when the movie is saying it out loud, it feels so wrong. On top of that, the audience already knows Max is very problematic. There was no further need to shove that in our faces. Lana Condor played Max. Holy crap, it was day and night between her character in Coyote vs. Acme and this film. She was likable in Coyote vs. Acme, and unlikable in The Devil's Mouth. It was definitely intentional for Max to be problematic, but they went at it way too much, while also still wanting to make her kind of sympathetic, especially toward the end. It's kind of similar to one of the characters in Hungry. I felt bad for Lana Condor. I could see the effort in her performance, but the script and directing repeatedly ruined her. The dialogue she got was so bad, as if the writers actually despised this character more than the audience. Her boyfriend, James (Nico Hiraga), took part in the blame game at one point, telling Sara that she is at fault for letting Max be in charge. This is deep into the movie, where they have to go through various air pockets and risky paths to find a way out. At that point, saying shit like that is a total dick move. It's strange too because James is supposed to be one of the nice guys. He has a somewhat decent monologue, even though it was obvious foreshadowing. One of the characters who lacked a lot of definition was Greg, played by Gavin Casalegno. He was a pretty generic jock except for one random quirk, a fear of blood. A childish saying would be repeated multiple times to calm the guy down. It was so damn goofy, so the sooner he died, the better. That fear of blood was brought up at the start of the shark attack. It didn't come up when Sara got all those jellyfish sting marks. They were red and looked like blood streaks. The smartest character in the film was Wat (Tayme Thapthimthong), the tour guide. He was fine, but then they turned him into a jobber for no good reason after he wisely made a decision after the shark made its presence felt.
Kathryn Newton was the MVP of the film for me, the most likable character in the cast. That's not saying much, but I still mean it as a compliment since some of her natural charm shines in this muddy film. Unfortunately, like Lana Condor, she was given some shallow and horrible dialogue. Oh my goodness, she had some overly obvious shit, which wasn't helped by the monotype or bored delivery from the actress. Even if she said these lines in distress, it would still be a sign of a bad script. For example, when someone dies, she says something along the lines of "They're gone." Yeah, duh! Lines like that make me think the 2 writers couldn't think of anything clever or impactful, so they just rely on filler. Sometimes Newton's reactions were lacking, which I think is a sign of bad directing. She screams at certain points, but there was a lack of consistency. She doesn't shudder in terror enough. Sara also had a newly formed fear after the jellyfish attack. She would put her hand out as a sort of test. When it trembled, she tried to stop it, as a way to get over her fear. She only did that twice, the 2nd time was near the end of the movie! So it felt like they forgot about that new quirk of hers for much of the runtime. The biggest strength of Newton's performance was the physicality. I don't know how much of the swimming she and the cast did, but she seemingly did a lot. The rock climbing was also impressive, and I'm pretty sure that was her for most of that. She was very physical in Ready or Not 2, so I'm inclined to believe she did some stunts in The Devil's Mouth. Toward the end of the movie, seeing her climb up a rocky wall while her hair was tied up in a pigtail was enticing. She's beautiful. But that image also made me think that she would play a great Cassie Cage! If there's ever a live-action Mortal Kombat movie with Cassie Cage, they have to get Newton. It was frustrating how the dialogue made Sara appear dumb, but then you see her being smart and taking risks that paid off.
One minor positive about this movie is the sight of the Thai islands. In the first act when they're traveling to the cave, I was reminded of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film. The main characters traveled by boat to a remote island for the tournament. That was an actual location in Thailand, and I recognized some of the big rock formations and the overall area. Toward the end of the movie, I also recalled Send Help. Some of it was filmed in Thailand, the primary island location is set there. Maybe it's bad that this movie reminded me of far superior films. The Devil's Mouth is better than Hungry and Spider Island, but it's yet another lame creature feature in 2026. Jeff Wadlow, who directed Kick-Ass 2, among other movies, failed to make a thrilling shark film. The screenwriting pair failed to write compelling dialogue. Instead, a lot of their dialogue sabotaged the performances of Lana Condor and Kathryn Newton, the latter of whom was easily my favorite actor in the film. She and Condor deserved better. Hell, the shark deserved better. Specifically, it deserved better CGI. At least the CGI was better than in Big Shark, but I'd much rather watch that movie again than this. The Devil's Mouth is a largely forgettable creature film, void of compelling filmmaking. It's pure streaming fodder. Seriously, it's best to have this playing in the background while you're doing stuff. Paying attention to this film is sadly not rewarding.
4/10
Why Did I Get Married Again?
I watched the first movies in this apparent franchise in February, so I had to watch this. It sucked ass. The first two films also sucked, but they had some hilariously over-the-top moments. The final act of the 2nd movie was pure insanity. The third movie had a lot of soapy melodrama, but was largely unfunny. 16 fucking characters, almost every one of them had some subplot, but they're forgotten about. Those that weren't forgotten were more or less wrapped up in a very long, syrupy talking session involving most of the characters, with TP himself pontificating about marriage, parenting, and other shit. The first two movies had more craft. This film felt so cheap and is strongly representative of how much worse TP has become as a filmmaker. So much padding in this extremely thin narrative, there was even a blooper reel. Rather than being funny, the blooper reel shined a very damning light on Tyler Perry as a director. For example, a lot of rushing. He forgets the names of some actors. To be fair, the young cast members were largely forgettable. Some of his directing and comments came off as rude. The only big laugh I got from the entire film was in the blooper reel. Michael Jai White, who was decent in the film, had to deliver a line that addressed the absence of Patricia, Janet Jackson's character, in the first two movies. The explanation was stupid and contradictory, but Michael Jai White's reaction to that line was funny! The MVP of the film was Tasha Smith. She still had a banging body, perhaps even more banging than in the previous 2 films. Her delivery was still loud, booming, sometimes obnoxious, but more often enjoyable. Hell, the other women returning from the previous film looked great as well. It was nice to see the returning cast members. Not Tyler Perry, of course. It was such a drab film.
3/10
Despite my complaints about new creature features, I decided to watch this direct-to-Prime movie. I already knew the movie had gotten low ratings and whatnot. I knew what I was getting into, but I wanted to continue this streak of watching poor movies. There's always a chance I could like the movie. The main draw is the two leading ladies, Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor. They were in Ready or Not 2 and Coyote vs. Acme, respectively. Those movies are far better than The Devil's Mouth. Both of them were very charming in those films. I've seen Newton in several other films, and she has such lovely energy. I had hoped that these charming women would be the saving grace of The Devil's Mouth. To an extent, they were, but the movie actively tried to sabotage them! So the movie is about a group of young adults vacationing in Thailand. They go on a guided tour to the Devil's Mouth, a cave that Kathryn Newton's character's dad loved. They make some bad decisions and become hunted by a bull shark. So it's basically Jaws meets The Descent. Maybe that sounds good on paper, but the execution was so flawed. One of the biggest reasons for the bad execution was the visual style of the film. Hell, there is no visual style! It's all grounded in reality, so you spend about 80% of the movie in a cave. There's no big natural light source. It's very dim, and it wears on the viewer quickly. They have small helmet lights, but that hardly helps with the variety. The primary location for this movie becomes pretty dull and murky. Admittedly, I did react to some moments where characters fall off certain spots or take damage from the rocks, but that's mostly because they broke the monotony of seeing a cave for close to 90 minutes. I think The Descent is a great film, and I felt the claustrophobia and danger of that cave system. It was so visceral, but The Devil's Mouth doesn't even come close to capturing that vibe. It would've been better if it was just a shark movie or even just a cave film.
Oh, and the shark. Unsurprisingly, it's completely CGI. There's no info about the budget, but it's clear that the CGI is shoddy. It's kind of crazy that Hungry has better CGI! The CGI was also rough when bodies are pulled out of place or during other unusual movements. For example, Sara (Kathryn Newton) pulls the remains of a shark victim. It's the top half of a body, but Sara was able to easily lift and lure the shark away from her. That was so silly. Most of the blood looked like CGI. One of the first major showcases of blood was hurt by the overly light shade. In the climax of the movie, Sara used some of her own blood to bring the shark to her. She squeezed on a wound to make it bleed and then flicked it into the water. That moment was so unrealistic, the blood was flung several yards down into the water. I think the best effect, which isn't saying much, is the jellyfish sting marks on Sara. She was attacked by several jellyfish in the first act. The shark kills weren't dazzling and were more or less the same. The movie is PG-13, which is limiting when it comes to shark violence. The shark would grab onto a body with its mouth, swim around with the body stuck, and then they go underwater, dying shortly after. Sometimes you don't even see the shark getting a bite, just the body being pulled down underwater. It was pretty silly how the shark acted as a serial killer. It stalked its prey and attacked when the opportunity presented itself. I suppose the cave concept was thought of because it limited the shark's coverage and territory, thus making it more likely to act as a serial killer. That's still a major reach. Going back to moments where characters fell or took damage from the elements of the cave, those were actually more gripping than the actual shark attacks. Even with those being good, the movie wasn't consistently thrilling or engaging. It was boring much of the time, and it felt a little too long. It's 106 minutes, but it felt longer than that.
Actually, one unintentional highlight of the film was when the first shark kill happened. It was only impactful because right after it happened, my phone got a notification. My notification sound is the Fatality announcement from Mortal Kombat 2! So it was as if the announcer said "Fatality" in response to that kill. That was funny.
As expected, the cast of 20-somethings were somewhat annoying. Some of them lacked character, and you just know they're going to be shark food. It's almost insulting how obvious the victims are in the film. The very first victim of the shark was a diver who hardly had any dialogue. I complained about the drama and backstories of characters in Hungry and Spider Island. It's more justified and generally a little better in this film. But it didn't do a lot for the movie overall. What was more offensive was the repeated blame-game situations. So many moments and kills were followed by debates over who was to blame, even toward the end of the movie! One of the worst turned out to be a dream sequence, but the fact that it felt so real is a damning sign. The worst one that actually happened was when Sara told Max that they tried her way and it was a bust. After over an hour of shark attacks and heavy-duty trauma, saying something like that is absolutely wild! That's something the viewer should think on their own, but when the movie is saying it out loud, it feels so wrong. On top of that, the audience already knows Max is very problematic. There was no further need to shove that in our faces. Lana Condor played Max. Holy crap, it was day and night between her character in Coyote vs. Acme and this film. She was likable in Coyote vs. Acme, and unlikable in The Devil's Mouth. It was definitely intentional for Max to be problematic, but they went at it way too much, while also still wanting to make her kind of sympathetic, especially toward the end. It's kind of similar to one of the characters in Hungry. I felt bad for Lana Condor. I could see the effort in her performance, but the script and directing repeatedly ruined her. The dialogue she got was so bad, as if the writers actually despised this character more than the audience. Her boyfriend, James (Nico Hiraga), took part in the blame game at one point, telling Sara that she is at fault for letting Max be in charge. This is deep into the movie, where they have to go through various air pockets and risky paths to find a way out. At that point, saying shit like that is a total dick move. It's strange too because James is supposed to be one of the nice guys. He has a somewhat decent monologue, even though it was obvious foreshadowing. One of the characters who lacked a lot of definition was Greg, played by Gavin Casalegno. He was a pretty generic jock except for one random quirk, a fear of blood. A childish saying would be repeated multiple times to calm the guy down. It was so damn goofy, so the sooner he died, the better. That fear of blood was brought up at the start of the shark attack. It didn't come up when Sara got all those jellyfish sting marks. They were red and looked like blood streaks. The smartest character in the film was Wat (Tayme Thapthimthong), the tour guide. He was fine, but then they turned him into a jobber for no good reason after he wisely made a decision after the shark made its presence felt.
Kathryn Newton was the MVP of the film for me, the most likable character in the cast. That's not saying much, but I still mean it as a compliment since some of her natural charm shines in this muddy film. Unfortunately, like Lana Condor, she was given some shallow and horrible dialogue. Oh my goodness, she had some overly obvious shit, which wasn't helped by the monotype or bored delivery from the actress. Even if she said these lines in distress, it would still be a sign of a bad script. For example, when someone dies, she says something along the lines of "They're gone." Yeah, duh! Lines like that make me think the 2 writers couldn't think of anything clever or impactful, so they just rely on filler. Sometimes Newton's reactions were lacking, which I think is a sign of bad directing. She screams at certain points, but there was a lack of consistency. She doesn't shudder in terror enough. Sara also had a newly formed fear after the jellyfish attack. She would put her hand out as a sort of test. When it trembled, she tried to stop it, as a way to get over her fear. She only did that twice, the 2nd time was near the end of the movie! So it felt like they forgot about that new quirk of hers for much of the runtime. The biggest strength of Newton's performance was the physicality. I don't know how much of the swimming she and the cast did, but she seemingly did a lot. The rock climbing was also impressive, and I'm pretty sure that was her for most of that. She was very physical in Ready or Not 2, so I'm inclined to believe she did some stunts in The Devil's Mouth. Toward the end of the movie, seeing her climb up a rocky wall while her hair was tied up in a pigtail was enticing. She's beautiful. But that image also made me think that she would play a great Cassie Cage! If there's ever a live-action Mortal Kombat movie with Cassie Cage, they have to get Newton. It was frustrating how the dialogue made Sara appear dumb, but then you see her being smart and taking risks that paid off.
One minor positive about this movie is the sight of the Thai islands. In the first act when they're traveling to the cave, I was reminded of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film. The main characters traveled by boat to a remote island for the tournament. That was an actual location in Thailand, and I recognized some of the big rock formations and the overall area. Toward the end of the movie, I also recalled Send Help. Some of it was filmed in Thailand, the primary island location is set there. Maybe it's bad that this movie reminded me of far superior films. The Devil's Mouth is better than Hungry and Spider Island, but it's yet another lame creature feature in 2026. Jeff Wadlow, who directed Kick-Ass 2, among other movies, failed to make a thrilling shark film. The screenwriting pair failed to write compelling dialogue. Instead, a lot of their dialogue sabotaged the performances of Lana Condor and Kathryn Newton, the latter of whom was easily my favorite actor in the film. She and Condor deserved better. Hell, the shark deserved better. Specifically, it deserved better CGI. At least the CGI was better than in Big Shark, but I'd much rather watch that movie again than this. The Devil's Mouth is a largely forgettable creature film, void of compelling filmmaking. It's pure streaming fodder. Seriously, it's best to have this playing in the background while you're doing stuff. Paying attention to this film is sadly not rewarding.
4/10
Why Did I Get Married Again?
I watched the first movies in this apparent franchise in February, so I had to watch this. It sucked ass. The first two films also sucked, but they had some hilariously over-the-top moments. The final act of the 2nd movie was pure insanity. The third movie had a lot of soapy melodrama, but was largely unfunny. 16 fucking characters, almost every one of them had some subplot, but they're forgotten about. Those that weren't forgotten were more or less wrapped up in a very long, syrupy talking session involving most of the characters, with TP himself pontificating about marriage, parenting, and other shit. The first two movies had more craft. This film felt so cheap and is strongly representative of how much worse TP has become as a filmmaker. So much padding in this extremely thin narrative, there was even a blooper reel. Rather than being funny, the blooper reel shined a very damning light on Tyler Perry as a director. For example, a lot of rushing. He forgets the names of some actors. To be fair, the young cast members were largely forgettable. Some of his directing and comments came off as rude. The only big laugh I got from the entire film was in the blooper reel. Michael Jai White, who was decent in the film, had to deliver a line that addressed the absence of Patricia, Janet Jackson's character, in the first two movies. The explanation was stupid and contradictory, but Michael Jai White's reaction to that line was funny! The MVP of the film was Tasha Smith. She still had a banging body, perhaps even more banging than in the previous 2 films. Her delivery was still loud, booming, sometimes obnoxious, but more often enjoyable. Hell, the other women returning from the previous film looked great as well. It was nice to see the returning cast members. Not Tyler Perry, of course. It was such a drab film.
3/10
