Netflix’s monthly list of outgoing titles is typically met with plenty of heartbreak and upset from subscribers, but one movie on the streamers October 2023 leaving list may have actually sparked some relief. Amid titles like The Expendables, The Rental, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Reservoir Dogs was the 2019 Adam DeVine-starring comedy Jexi, a film that some may have considered to be among the worst movies on the platform. The movie got the boot from Netflix on Oct. 2.
Directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, Jexi stars DeVine as Phil, a man addicted to his cellphone who has no friends and a nonexistent love life. His life begins to turn around when he is forced to upgrade to a new phone that comes with Jexi, an artificial intelligence life coach, virtual assistant, and cheerleader that helps Phil begin to get a real life. However, Jexi isn’t all as it seems, and as Phil becomes less dependent on his phone, Jexi morphs into a tech nightmare that’s determined to keep Phil all to itself. The movie, released in the U.S. on October 11, 2019 by CBS Films and Lionsgate, also stars Alexandra Shipp, Michael Peña, Rose Byrne, Justin Hartley, Wanda Sykes, Ron Funches, and Charlyne Yi.
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The film’s star-studded cast and hilarious plot unfortunately wasn’t enough to win much critical praise. In fact, Jexi proved to be pretty unfavorable among critics, who gave the film a measly 21% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads, “It’s hard to tell whether the lack of laughs in Jexi is a bug or a feature, but this AI rom-com is sorely in need of an OS update.” Zaki Hasan wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, “Jexi feels hopelessly out of step with the moment. Despite its subject matter, it’s a flip phone movie in a smart phone world.” Meanwhile, Mediaversity Reviews’ Laura Hindleywrote in her review, “the entire premise of Jexi, that a broken man needs to be fixed by a woman, has no place in modern-day filmmaking.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Jexi, though. Although the film didn’t receive much love from critics, it was viewed much more favorably among the audience, who gave it a 71% fresh rating. One person dubbed the film “a silly stupid movie,” adding that “it was funny and the underlying message was good.” Somebody else said, “When we decided to see this movie I didn’t think it was going to be that good but WOW did it surprise us. It was a great movie!”
More than just some good audience reviews, Jexi pulled in quote the audience when it arrived on Netflix in October of last year. The film at one point rose to become the fourth most-popular film on the streaming service, rabking among other titles like The Redeem Team, Last Seen Alive, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, and Luckiest Girl Alive. It’s position on the ranking fell over the following days before Jexi disappeared from the list altogether.
