GOING VIRAL

Name: GOING VIRAL
Item: GOING VIRAL
Author: Review

"Family-Friendly Retro Romp "

Content: +1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

GOING VIRAL is a family-friendly science fiction comedy on Amazon Prime. Set in an alternate 1980s universe, the movie follows 15-year-old Beckett O’Connell. Beckett’s dream is to go viral. Beckett strikes a deal with a sinister artificial intelligence named Mr. Viral to gain overnight fame. However, Beckett’s friend goes missing. Beckett discovers he’s the only one who can stop Mr. Viral and save not only his friend but everyone entrenched in the villain’s virtual reality. However, will Beckett’s desire for fame stop him from saving the world?

GOING VIRAL is a lively nod to 1980s pop culture. The visuals in GOING VIRAL are engaging. They definitely reflect the 1980s aesthetic the movie’s seeking. GOING VIRAL also delivers a timely message for children about the dangers of tying their identity to social media and fame. It stresses the importance of humility and genuine relationship over viral fame. MOVIEGUIDE® does advise some minor caution for younger children due to some scenes of peril, science fiction action and a scary main villain. Overall, GOING VIRAL is fun retro romp for families with some valuable moral lessons.

Content:

(BB, C, V, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview teaches children to have real, genuine relationships over ones built on a desire to get famous, and movie shows the importance of friendship, sacrifice and humility;

Foul Language:

No foul language, some minor name-calling like “jerk” and “dork” there is also one use of “what the heck”;

Violence:

The sinister AI could frighten younger viewers, detectives are investigating missing children, sci fi action and peril throughout includes various creatures, a child crashes on his skateboard, some blood is shown, and character does increasingly malicious pranks, including dropping barf on someone, to get famous;

Sex:

No sex (an unmarried couple kisses);

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

No explicit alcohol, but there is a party scene with a large bowl of punch;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs;

Miscellaneous Immorality:

The children disobey their parents, but there are consequences to their actions.

More Detail:

GOING VIRAL is a family-friendly science fiction comedy streaming on Amazon Prime.

Set in an alternate 1980s, the movie follows a 15-year-old boy named Beckett, who’s struggling to go viral on the recent craze of virtual reality. When his parents go on a business trip, Beckett and his sister host a party at their house. Here viewers meet some of Beckett’s friends, as well as the girl of his dreams. Unhappily, bullies embarrass Beckett by making him spill his drink on his crush.

The next day at school, Beckett is embarrassed further after being dared to do a skateboarding trick and failing miserably. The poor guy can’t catch a break.

That night, Beckett receives a mysterious ad while spending time on what they call V-TV. The message from Mr. Viral claims he can make Beckett famous overnight.

Beckett makes a deal with this mysterious personality, and he instantly is famous the next day at school. Beckett loves his newfound fame, but Mr. Viral continues to push him to reject his morals for the sake of keeping up the viral videos. Thus, Beckett is more popular than he thought possible, but at what cost?

When Beckett’s best friend goes missing, he must make a decision to revel in his fame or sacrifice everything to save his friend.

GOING VIRAL has nods to classic 1980s pop culture throughout its running time. However, the movie manages to balance these references with a poignant message for today. It stresses the importance of real-life friendships that are not built on fame and popularity. The movie also does a good job of showing that identity should not be in virtual reality or social media.

The visuals in GOING VIRAL are engaging. They definitely reflect the 1980s aesthetic the movie’s seeking. GOING VIRAL also has some great performances from the main teenagers in the story. This all serves the movie well, making GOING VIRAL a good, wholesome family watch.

MOVIEGUIDE® does advise some light caution to younger children, because of some scenes of peril and the scary villain.