‘Nerve’ is a Thriller based around a fictional viral online game that you can sign up for as a ‘player’ and have ‘watchers’ dare you to perform certain tasks for real money. When Vee decides to play the game for a little fun she quickly gets caught up in a fast paced contest against some very dangerously determined to win players. This is a film that instantly caught my attention and the attention of many due to the premise of the film and how odd and original the idea was. But i had my reservations because what sounded like a very fun and interesting premise might not have translated well as a full length feature film. But this actually turned out to be a very fun, fast paced thrill ride with a strong cast and was overall a very enjoyable film. It does get a little too ridiculous towards the end but you can still have a very fun time with this film.

Probably the best part about this film and the main reason it was so enjoyable was the way it built up fun and tension as the film went on and the dares got bigger. It constantly one-ups itself by giving characters all new fun dares to complete that up the stakes over and over. But none of this would have been nearly as fun if I didn’t care about the characters played by both Emma Roberts (Vee) and Dave Franco (Ian) who both bring a lot of energy to the film and their chemistry is constantly just flowing off the screen. It is so easy to get behind these characters and root for them as with both of their introductions the film does a great job at getting you on their side. The side characters in the film were serviceable at best a lot of the time, Vee’s friend ‘Tommy’ (Miles Heizer) was the only one with a story you actually cared about, but even then all of the spotlight was on Vee and Ian who were great lead characters for the film.

Towards the last 10 minutes as the film began to come to a close i started to lose a little bit of interest as they go for a very big, massive, OMG kind of ending that didn’t fit with the very simple and secretive nature of everything that happened prior. The film initially wants you to obviously suspend you disbelief in terms of the fact that authorities aren’t aware of the app, and that’s fine, easily done. But then they go so far with it in the end it just came across as silly and that directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman wanted a big finale over something that made sense in the world they built earlier on. But even with the terribly silly and extremely coincidental and cliche finale none of the fun throughout the rest of the film was taken away.

So in the end Nerve is a film that started off as a very interestingly rich original premise and delivered with a good fast paced film that if anything is just a lot of fun. Emma Roberts and Dave Franco are great in the film and they sell the thrilling aspects of the film very well. Definitely one worth checking out for some good entertainment.

7/10