The story opens with a number of subplots that one way or another come together at the end. The main plot concerns author Teddy Ramons (Tom Berenger) who has written a rather generic self help book called "Reach Me." It is basically face your fears and just say no type of thing. The book goes viral and obtains cult status as Teddy tries to remain anonymous.

Reporter Roger (Kevin Connolly) is attempting to discover the author's identity at the request of his boss Sylvester Stallone, who plays a small part. Wolfie (Thomas Jane) is an LA cop who enjoys killing bad guys and then confessing about it. He had a great opening scene. There is also a mafia captain using two hit men to recover money from a movie deal. Another subplot consists of a woman (Kyra Sedgwick) who just got out of prison. Many people are using his self help book for motivation.

At times the film felt like a grindhouse, other times a drama. There is some formula writing which makes you think you are watching a romantic comedy or Lifetime film. The film fails if you try to put it into a category, but doesn't fail overall. Then again, it doesn't soar because it was all over the place. Good characters. Fair plot.

Worth a rental.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Somehow, over the last several weeks, I've encountered more than three John Herzfeld movies - Switchback, Escape Plan The Extractors, Cannonball (he acted in that Roger Corman produced film) - and now this film.

To get the cast he needed for this movie, Herzfeld started with old friend Sylvester Stallone, who he's known since the two were roommates at University of Miami. Stallone's participation led to other actors joining the cast at lower salaries. Herzfeld also brought on another old friend, Danny Aiello, who used the role of Father Paul to recover from the death of his son.

After the founder of Perfect 10 magazine Norman Zada backed out of his investment and sued the filmmakers for a million dollars (I'm not going to say that Zada is a copyright troll because I don't have the millions to defend myself from libel, but the facts kind of speak for themselves if you look into his thirty lawsuits over the last few years). The film was finally funded via Indiegogo.

Reach Me is all about a self-help book that unites a world full of different characters. It's based on Herzfeld's memories of seeing prosperity theology-based televangelist Reverend Ike and reading Napoleon Hill's self-help book, Think and Grow Rich.

Much like Magnolia or Crash, the story starts as unlinked characters before bringing them all together. There's Kyra Sedwick as an ex-con, Thomas Jane as an undercover cop, Kelsey Grammer as a mob boss named Angelo AldoBrandini, Nelly as a hip hop star who claims to have written the book, Tom Berenger as the book's actual author, Terry Crews as one of the author's friends and even Danny Trejo, Chuck Zito, Tom Sizemore and Cary Elwes.

Stallone paints in the film and the cover of the book was actually painted by him. So there's that. This is the kind of movie that I endured only because I've set the near-impossible goal of watching every single one of his films. Otherwise, I would have never had to suffer through it. If you told me that it was a religious movie, I'd almost believe you.

The reason I enjoyed this film was the acting shown by Stallone especially in the scene where he's yelling at the kid while painting.That is the scene that stays with me out of the entire film. I believe if anyone truly likes watching films should give it a second chance and see what differences you find from the first time you watched it you might be surprised