Save Yourself From John Henry

The Stream: Poor acting and direction mixed with a random storyline
The Big Screen: Some quality action, crisp scenery and cinematography
The Final Bill: Gory action shots can’t make up for a poorly directed film
-S2S: Movie Review
Director: Will Forbes
Writers: Will Forbes, Doug Skinner
Stars: Terry Crews, Jamila Velazquez, Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges | See full cast & crew »
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R (Very Strong Language)
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes
Platform: Netflix

Welcome back to Stream To Big Screen! This weekend I’m going to be honest with you. I got pressured into reviewing one of the films this week. John Henry, is the streaming film of the week. This is a modern day interpretation of the old folk tale of John Henry. The Netflix streaming film stars Terry Crews a John Henry – the rest of the cast we can completely forget. Let’s get to the quick review.

Ok, so I had not heard good things about this movie, but I was guilted into watching it. A dear friend of mine was equally guilted into watching this movie and just wanted to share the suffering with me. Here, Stream to Big Screen is coming to your rescue with this review. What works in John Henry is the slight action sequences. For a second, we get a slight feeling of John Wick-like shooting action, but it is sparse. The movie is bloody at times. While I understand that the language in the film is colloquial to some hoods, it becomes borderline obscene and excessive. The plot to the film feels just thrown together and it is exacerbated by a script that seems like it is high-school level. I felt like someone in Compton just read about John Henry in school and was like I can write a better story than this. I wouldn’t say its trash, but there’s just not any depth. The one thing that saves viewing this movie is the way the film was shot. I did enjoy the crisp, colorful, and cheap filming. On top of that, the soundtrack is almost dope.

Short and sweet, this movie is hot garbage but just good enough that you kind of have to tell a friend, “yo watch this mess Terry Crews and Ludacris thought was a good idea to be in”. Other than the pretty cool violent sequences, we get far too few purposeful laughs and a random and basic storyline. This film just gets one popped kernel because it’s free and we’re in quarantine. If this came out in the theater, we would’ve never heard from Ludacris again. If you are desperate for a laugh and intrigued by this thrashing, check out John Henry on Netflix.