Parallel is a decent idea for a movie that is funny and peppy… and then it’s neither of those things. I don’t think it did enough damage to itself to be unwatchable, but when you feel distracted and bored when you were grooving along to the movie’s pep just twenty minutes earlier, that’s unfortunate.

The film is about four friends who stumble upon one of them there mirrors to parallel universes. So what are a bunch of twenty-something tech entrepreneurs going to do but hop into each new reality and find something they can take advantage of back home? But will their greed and paranoia get the best of them? Yes. Yes it will.

The first half of this movie has a playful energy that was a lot of fun to watch. The camera work is lively and creative, the characters reasonably interesting, and so forth. None of this is the smartest take on parallel worlds theory in film but, at the same time, it’s not aggressively stupid or contrived. I suppose more imagination (and budget) could have gone into making each parallel universe more elaborate… but they didn’t go that way.

But, yeah, once the needs of the drama kicks in, the movie kind of stops being fun or interesting. One or more of the characters goes looney tunes and we get a whole load of melodrama and mustache twirling. It was disappointing with the premise they could do pretty much anything and they ultimately picked a path of least interest.

But, hey, it’s still a better movie that I expected it to be. It’s certainly watchable, especially in that first half. Ultimately disappointing though.

Score: 76