Jake Peffer Watches

Okja is the latest original film to come from Netflix. It experienced a little controversy when it premiered at the Cannes film festival for being a film from a streaming service. However, I think once that audience watched the film their minds quickly changed. Our story follows a multi-national corporation, the Mirando Corporation, which has successfully created a new species of animal that they call "super pigs." They send 26 of these super pigs to different farms across the world to be raised and taken care of and within ten years time they plan to use the meat from these pigs to sell to the mainstream. One of the super pigs, Okja, is sent to a farm where she is taken care of by a young girl named Mija (An Seo Hyun) and her father. Mija and Okja are the best of friends and spend all of their time together. The farm is visited by members from the Mirando Corporation including Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal) to take Okja to New York now that she is a fully grown pig...

What would you do if your child was taken from you? Halle Berry shows us that a parent will stop at nothing to get back her son in Kidnap. Berry plays Karla Dyson, a single mother who is overworked at her job as a waitress. She finally gets some time to spend with her son Frankie (Sage Correa) and decides that they are going to have a day out at the park together. Everything is fine until Karla has to take a phone call and steps away from Frankie for just a couple of minutes. In that time Frankie goes missing and Karla sees him being dragged into a car by an unknown person. She attempts to stop them in the parking lot and sets off on a long car chase to try and get back her son. We've seen this type of film before so the story is nothing new. You would think with this being a pretty regular setup for a film that the filmmakers would take the opportunity to try and do something do with a familiar story. That's not the case here at all. From the moment that Frankie is tak...

There is nothing like a modern-day Western. Westerns are a genre that continually get forgotten and I'm not sure why because when they are well crafted, westerns can be some of the best movies. When done the right way with great direction, amazing writing, and great performances you get a film like Hell or High Water. Hell or High Water stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as a couple of brothers in West Texas who resort to robbing banks in order to save their family's ranch. Hot on their trail is Ranger Marcus Hamilton, played by Jeff Bridges, who is determined to track down these boys and put them behind bars. As the boys get closer to saving their family's ranch, the closer the ranger gets to putting a stop to the boy's crimes. This film kind of came out of nowhere for me. It opened during the later part of the summer with not a lot of promotion but was surprisingly met with overwhelming reception by critics. After seeing the film it is easy to see why their is...

Cheerleader follows the character of Mickey (Catherine Blades), a high school cheerleader who's got it made. She's one of the more popular girls in school, has a group of girls she considers her best friends and a boyfriend to round it all out. Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend break up which leaves Mickey feeling hurt and used. Being the quite the promiscuous girl, Mickey decides to get back at her boyfriend by going out with another guy to make him jealous. She chooses Buttons (Chris Bert), one of the nerdier boys in her school, as the guy she's going to go out with. Going out with someone like Buttons with either make her ex-boyfriend extremely jealous or cause him to lose his mind. This little film was quite the surprise for me. On the surface it doesn't look like there is much to offer other than a typical revenge type of story but director Irving Franco is able to put together a solid drama about the awkwardness and hardships of being in high school. On...

Cardboard Boxer stars Thomas Haden Church as Willie, a down on his luck homeless man who is a genuine soul. He spends most of his days roaming the streets, doing what he can to earn a little money for food and reading the diary of a young girl that he found in a dumpster. His nights are a little more exciting thanks to a couple of young guys paying the homeless folks on Willie's block to fight one another. Willie knows it's not the right thing to do but he will do whatever he can to earn some extra money to take care of himself. While this is a small film it certainly has a lot of heart. Director Knate Lee does a nice job and showing this man's hardships having to live on the streets and the conditions that some of these people have to deal with on a daily basis. None of this would be possible without a good performance from the leading man. Thomas Haden Church gives a lot of depth to his character, which is great considering he doesn't say much, and is able to ...

A secret government agency run by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) puts together a team of super villains to execute black ops missions to help protect the citizens of the country from super human beings such as Superman. Waller and the agency may have more up their sleeve than the team realizes but they are willing to do whatever they can to gain freedom from being imprisoned. Their first mission, to stop an evil force in the form on Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), a magical witch who has taken the form of archaeologist June Moone. The best parts here are the members of the cast who do give good performances and do their comic book characters justice, Most of the film is focused heavily on Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Both actors do give really good performances and are the definite highlights here. It's great to see Will Smith finally get a good role to play because it feels like the last few things he's been in have either been average or just ...

The Shallows tells the story of Nancy, a college medical student who travels to a secluded beach that was one of the favorite spots of her late mother. Nancy arrives and immediately sees it as the paradise that her mother always told her it was and the perfect place to surf. As the day goes on she meets a few locals, takes in more of the scenery and eventually comes in contact with a great white shark. After being attacked by the shark she finds a small spot of rocks where she is stranded about 200 yards from the shore. With no one around and nothing in her reach to help her she must find a way to get by this shark that won't stop stalking her. For a film set up like this where we have essentially only one character for the duration of the film, you need to see a fairly strong performance by that actor. Thankfully, Blake Lively gives it her all here and carries the film from start to finish. This is a tense film that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Watching this girl ...