Obscure Movie Review: Jump Tomorrow

As much as I realize that most people prefer to watch the sort of movies that everybody else is watching and reviewing, one of the things I enjoy reviewing most on this blog are movies that most people probably haven’t heard of, but which are really great films. They don’t have to be Fine Cinema, but they’re excellent examples of the genre they represent. Essentially, I take a chance on films that might be bad, all so I can find the ones that are really good.

(This is also one of the reasons I love Netflix. It’s very good at recommending movies to me based on my past reviews. (It better be–I now have 1,964 reviewed movies in their database.) Essentially, I don’t have to trust a random reviewer at this point. Netflix almost always estimates my review within a star. If it says I’ll give a movie 4.1 stars, chances are it’ll be 4 or 5. Almost certainly at least a 3. That’s really handy, and it makes me able and willing to watch some movies I never would have given the time of day to before. Incidentally, this is a feature I would love GoodReads to develop. It’s one thing to know what everyone else thinks of a book, but having a fairly reliable estimation of what I’ll think of that book–that would be great.)

I had never heard of Jump Tomorrow. If I were back in the days of Blockbuster, I never would have checked it out. An independent romantic comedy with the following description:

A young Nigerian man on the verge of being in an arranged marriage, suddenly questions his situation after an encounter with a stunning Latin woman, who is also about to be married.

Yeah. Not really my cup of cocoa. But Netflix told me 4.1 stars, and I wanted something light and fluffy for Denisa, so I gave it a shot. We were both glad I did.

It’s quirky in a way mainstream romantic comedies only try to be. The film is pretty bare-bones, as it should be for only costing $1 million to make. I really liked it because it kept things up in the air, entertaining, and yet with enough art house vibe to make you think about some of the scenes instead of just mindlessly consuming them.

Better yet–for those of you out there who wish I’d review more family-friendly-fare–this one is PG. It’s also available on Netflix Instant, which is a big plus.

Was it the best movie I’d ever seen? No. But it’s a solid three star (out of four) movie that you probably have never heard of. Quirky fun. Give it twenty minutes, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be hooked, too–assuming you’re looking for a romantic comedy, that is.

Anyone else out there seen this one already?