Jamie Marks Is Dead
USA 2014
Written by Carter Smith, based on the novel by Christopher Barzak
Directed by Carter Smith

“Jamie Marks is Dead” is an exercise in boredom. While the cast may be nice (even though it was quite disheartening to see that Liv Tyler is now getting cast in mom-roles, and of a teenage son at that), I ultimately found this movie to be extremely dull, tedious and utterly pointless. Apart from the cast the only things that I liked were a couple of scenes (especially with the teenage girl-ghost) and the romance between Adam and Gracie (where I especially liked the matter-of-factly way they dealt with sex). Other than that, this did nothing for me. It seemed to drag on forever, I couldn’t relate to any of the characters (who were bland anyway; that I didn’t feel that we really got to know any of them obviously didn’t help), and apart from very few and very short scary moments, it’s void of any tension. It also didn’t help that Jamie Marks looked like a slightly older Harry Potter. Seriously, did no one notice that, or was it intentional? Anyway, that was just extremely distracting. Add to that the fact that the movie offers no real explanation for what’s going on (Why can Adam and Gracie – and only them – see him? And what was up with those words that Adam had to whisper in his ear all the time? Seriously, that was just weird, and also unintentionally funny) and you get one of the most pointless and unnecessary movies that I’ve seen in quite a while. My recommendation: Take some sleeping pills instead. That’s cheaper, quicker, and will ultimately have the same effect.
2/10

IMDB