Saturday, May 17, 2025

Home Sweet Home: Rebirth - Not As Bad As I Thought Would be


When this movie's poster was placed in the biggest Indonesian cinema chains, I was quite intrigued but did not give too much thought about it until I saw the trailer. To be honest, it did not look too promising then. However when the film was finally released yesterday and it played in the cinema very near my home, I felt it was very convenient and decided to give a try by myself as my wife was not keen on the movie. All right, let's just get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Jake (William Moseley - The Chronicles of Narnia movies, The Royals TV series etc) who worked as police in the US was having a vacation in Bangkok with his wife Prang (Urassaya Sperbund - Love You to Debt, Thai Cave Rescue mini series etc) and their young daughter Loo (Akeira Hadden). Their supposedly wonderful trip was disrupted at first when they met with a mysterious monk named Chan (Alexander Lee - 3 Peas in a Pod, Moorim School: Saga of the Brave TV series etc) who seemed to know a lot about Jake.

However, it became a complete disaster when Mek (Michele Morrone - Another Simple Favor, The Trial mini series etc), a violent person appeared in the mall where Jake's family were spending time and started shooting all the visitors. As Jake tried to apprehend Mek, he would later realized that it was not just random crime but also involved supernatural forces related to him.

So why was the evil forces targetting Jake and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was unexpected. I actually did not expect anything too much from the movie as I said above, so I set my bar pretty low when I began watching. But after a less than impressive early part, the movie started to get interesting when Mek appeared and started shooting people at random. The exciting thing though happened after the climax of that incident, cause by then the horror intensified and supported by decent special effects (except the CGI of burning buildings that looked too obvious) and sound effects.

As the story continued, I was quite surprised when an important fact was revealed that I did not see coming. I thought it was an intelligent move which probably would not surprise fans of the game who most likely could have guessed it. Yes this movie was indeed based on very successful 2017 Thai video game titled Home Sweet Home that also spawned sequels and spinoff. Since I never played the game, I did not have any prior knowledge of the premise. Needless to say though that it was definitely the main attraction for making the film. Btw it was directed by Alexander Kiesl and Steffen Hacker who did not seem to have major feature film experience in the past.

Now I read the movie had poor reviews by audience who did not like the acting. In this part sadly I had to agree cause sometimes the cast did not look convincing in their roles. Good thing the action part was still OK enough. The ending was also something that I thought was quite satisfying for story such as this. There was however one poorly executed part during the finale. I thought it was illogical for the bad guy not doing what he was supposed to do when he got all the time in the world. The film itself had a duration of 93 minutes. I waited till the closing credits finished but there was no mid or post end credit scene.

Overall this was something that I thought was a little better than expected. It had some decent action and exciting moments. The story was OK but I liked the smart "twist" if you want to call it that way and the ending. However the rather poor acting and a small illogical part in the end did not make the movie best enjoyed. I could certainly understand people's views, but as a movie with such premise, I thought it was still watchable. Just not up to the level of very good one. So if you want to see film with such attributes, you are welcome to give it a try. But if you do not feel comfortable after reading many bad reviews, then better skip it. I myself thought it's not as bad as most people say and certainly not worse than some totally awful ones out there.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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