Rebel Ridge is one of the best Netflix original movies in ages, possibly ever, and after a long while on top of the Top 10 movie list, it has fallen to...a film that appears to be awful. That would be Uglies, which is a flashback to the YA era of 2005, based on a book from Scott Westerfield. It's...one of the more out there YA concepts I've heard. Here's the official description:
[Uglies] is set in a future post scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an "ugly," but then turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age of 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "Pretty".
Like most YA books of that time, it was trilogy, but the way this movie is being received, I would not guess Netflix is going to keep it going. The "Ugly' in question here is the not-ugly Joey King, a Netflix favorite since The Kissing Booth, and she's joined by Outer Banks' Chase Stokes. I chuckled a bit when I saw it was directed by McG, who did Charlie's Angels 1 and 2, Terminator Salvation and oh wait, The Babysitter? I really liked that movie. Anyway, Uglies is bad.
Uglies currently has a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, which is unusually low even for bad Netflix original movies, of which there are many. It's not exactly a fan-favorite either as it only has a 54% audience score. It does feel a bit a bit incestual given that McG, King, Stokes and even Laverne Cox have all worked on big Netflix projects and they were all just sort of thrown together. And Joey King is a good actress, so something just went wrong here. The source material does not sound great, to be honest, but who knows if that was the problem.
Rebel Ridge is just the polar opposite, a killer slow burn action film and a star-maker for Aaron Pierre. It's absolutely worth watching if you haven't seen it yet, and however unlikely, I'd really like to see a sequel. If not, just put Pierre in more stuff.
The rest of the movies list is your typical batch of licensed films, mostly kids movies like Shark Tale, Sonic and yes, still the Super Mario Bros. Movie which refuses to ever leave the top 10. Former #1, another stinker, The Deliverance is down to #8. Netflix continues its waffling between mostly trash and the rare film treasure.