All Jacked Up and Full of Worms review.
Its unique title is as close as we get to a plot in All Jacked Up and Full of Worms. Essentially an hour-long bad trip…an even more fitting title may have been Wouldn’t It Be Gross If… The movie’s intention is to push buttons. Unfortunately, it chooses to push them randomly and picks ones you have no reason to care about.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms
Directed by Alex Phillips
Written by Alex Phillips
Starring Phillip Andre Botello, Sammy Arechar and Betsey Brown
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms doesn’t concern itself with plot. It doesn’t appear to concern itself with metaphor beyond the skin-deep drug allegory. So, we’re going to do something different with this review. Believe it or not our reviews usually strive to have a point somewhere in there. Maybe it’s about a film’s place in history, how it handles an underlying theme or what makes it scary. Maybe it’s just to highlight what makes it worth watching even if it doesn’t have any of those things. It may not always read like it…but some thought does go into how we approach reviewing a film. But All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is special. It doesn’t have a point. Neither will this All Jacked Up and Full of Worms review. What follows is a stream of consciousness about the movie.
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms doesn’t care that I think it’s terrible. I’m pretty sure it wants me to hate it. But I’m also sure it doesn’t know why. If there was some concerted manipulation at play to make people actively dislike what it’s doing…that would be a respectable use of one’s efforts. This comes across more like it was made without purpose. Without meaning.
So disgusting people eat worms to get high and then we follow them on their bad trip. Only nothing appears to have any meaning whatsoever. There’s nothing to read into. No symbolism. No point. It’s like someone decided to mock a David Lynch movie. Or maybe a Cronenberg movie but they didn’t have the money to do it. Either way they didn’t understand either director when they turned the camera on.
The worst part is that my favorite thing a movie can do is go off the rails. There is nothing I like more than movies that take wild swings to bring you feelings and places you’ve never had or been. But to go off the rails you must have been on the rails at some point. There is nothing in All Jacked Up and Full of Worms to tether you to the world. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing…but it sure was here. Oh…there’s also a serial killer couple that pops up at the end. No reason.
Our lead character is a crazy person who buys a baby sex doll to practice parenting. That’s right. A sex doll that is modeled after a baby. Ooh look how controversial! Stick it to those taboos Alex Phillips. Show the world you’re going to push that pedophilia envelope. And then they’ll all eat worms!
I’m glad that Alex Phillips got to make whatever he wanted and call it a movie. I truly am. I wish everyone had that opportunity. Not just aspiring filmmakers…I mean everyone. I wish every professional director got to do whatever they wanted with no notes and be true auteurs like Alex Phillips. Because almost all of them are destined to have better world views than Alex Phillips.
Everyone in the world of All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is unlikable. I never worry about writer/directors who put horrible things on film…I worry about the ones incapable of writing characters without any redeeming qualities. The way they see the world isn’t dark…it’s sad. But they aren’t making dramas because they don’t understand that their world view is depressing. Those are the ones I worry about.
There are some pretty good practical effects in All Jacked Up and Full of Worms. It’s usually interesting to look at. That Phillips has that talent only makes this more depressing. If something here meant anything it might even be something. But, again, there’s no point here. There’s no character arc. No growth. Nothing to learn. That doesn’t have to be a negative either…but if I don’t care about the people why would I care about their journey. If their journey doesn’t lead anywhere what was the point of taking it?
This isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen. It’s not boring. It’s just…pointless. It has nothing to say. It’s not pro or anti anything. It’s exactly what the title promises. Take a trip on some worms. With people you don’t like in a world you don’t care about. And nothing you see will matter. That makes it sound cooler than it is.
Despite the score you’re going to see on the bottom of the page I wish everyone would watch All Jacked Up and Full of Worms. Most people will hate it. But some people will see something new and have the opposite reaction that I’ve had here. Every trip is different.
Scare Value
Ok so…this All Jacked Up and Full of Worms review was a bit different than the usual. But that seemed like the most fitting way to discuss it. The truth is that I wish All Jacked Up and Full of Worms had made a billion dollars at the box office. Not because I think it’s a good movie (God no). Because then studios would be lining up to fund everyone’s off kilter passion projects. In the hands of someone who had something to say we could have gotten some memorable movies. Instead, we got this.
1.5/5
