I took a quick break from reviews to sort out some personal issues, but that doesn’t mean I stopped watching films. I should have solo reviews out for Jurassic World Rebirth and Superman posted soon. As for the other films that I missed posting reviews on during this hiatus, F1 was excellent (4/5), M3gan 2.0 was a little disappointing (3.5/5), and i watched a lot of mediocre to bad streaming films. None so bad the reach the Bottom 10, but just a lot of forgetable films I watched on my couch. What does this week’s trio of films have in store for me. I was only really looking forward to 1 of them, so it’s the only one that can underwhelm me. That’s good I guess. On to the reviews!
When Scream was rebooted a few years ago, It seemed inevitable that I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legends would follow suit. Here we are now with the first of those two being released, and this is a tricky one. While being in the same reboot/sequel realm that the new Scream films are in, this feels so familiar if you have watched the original 2 in the series. This film has forgotten all about 2006’s I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and you should too. Back in this one are the survivors from the first two films, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray (Freddie Prize Jr.), but our main focus is the group of friends that make a unfortunate decision one 4th of July evening. Of the new group Chase Sui Wonders and Madelyn Cline come off the best. It could be my nostalgia kicking in, but this new group isn’t as good as the original four, and this movie does not want you to forget about that original four either. It’s why this feels more like a sequel than a reboot. If this is you first time watching one of these, you are probably going to miss so things. It’s a film where the 1997 original especially is required viewing for a full experience with this new entry. As for this one, it’s fine enough for the most part. You get your red herrings as the bodies start to pile up, and the killer still has the ability to show up silently anywhere. The kills are good, even though they give away the first one in trailer that would have been a nice shocking moment. I was with this one for a good part of the the runtime, but when the reveals start to happen at the end, boy howdy did it lose me. To it’s credit, it does make sense when you look back at almost all the kills in film. It just annoyed me so much it sunk the whole film for me. There is also a mid-credits scene that works for me and the girl I was sitting next to, but we are from the generation that it would work for. Again, watch the first two entries in this franchise before you watch this. It will make things more enjoyable when you get all the references. Much like the Scream/IKWYDLS franchises in the 90’s/00’s, while Scream has the formula to keep churning these out, this film kind of showed that the I Know films don’t really have a lot to them universe wise. The mid-credits scene teases a sequel that feels like it could be interesting, but it also seems like they are going to run back I Still Know, much like this one not only takes the name of, but also takes the plot of the 97 original.
2020 was a fun year. The loneliness, paranoia, protests, and a virus that was affecting the whole world. What a time to be alive. It is this time period that Ari Aster has set his 4th feature film. I am a big fan of his first two films (Hereditary and Midsommar) but his third one (2023’s Beau is Afraid) happened to be the worst movie I saw that year. So, I went into this one very cautiously. The plot is very simple to boil down to. Set in May 2020 in the town of Eddington, New Mexico, we see a standoff between a sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and the mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). Joe decides to run for mayor because he doesn’t like wearing a mask in public (like a lot of us didn’t in 2020). There is a past between Joe, Ted, and Joe’s wife Louise (Emma Stone), but we never really see what that is. We are told at one point, but we are then told it is a lie, so cool. There is also Louise’s mother living with them during COVID, and a cult leader (Austin Butler). There is just so much in here that just fun. Do we really need to see the BLM protests again? All of this is supposed to be a satirical black comedy, but it just doesn’t work for me. It just sent me back to how awful that year was. Then, about halfway through, it becomes a different film, and that part of the film just wouldn’t end. You could easily cut 40 minutes out of this film and it will still work. I just don’t understand what happened after Hereditary and Midsommar that got us these last two films from Aster. I don’t imagine this film is going to make a lot of money in the Box Office, so where does that leave things for him after two films that were very divisive, and didn’t make money for the studio? Maybe he should make another horror movie. That seems to be where thinks work better for him.
Not a lot to say about this one, as I am so far out of the target demographic. This was aggressively ok. It played well to the kids in my theater, which makes it a success I guess. What I had an issue with if I had to say something is the music. This film doesn’t know if it wants to be a musical or not. We have I believe four musical numbers, all in the first two thirds of the film, and nothing after that. It is pretty uneven. This will probably do well when it hits Paramount+ in a couple weeks. The SpongeBob short before the film was as fun as always though.
The time has almost come. F4 is a lock for the top spot, and the question for Marvel/Disney is how much does it make. The studio desperately needs that film to put up huge numbers, so no pressure.
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Superman
- Jurassic World Rebirth
- Smurfs
- F1
I leave the state to go to Pennsylvania for a couple days early this week, but I am sure to return in time for the movie I have been waiting years for on Thursday. Please, please don’t let a Fantastic Four movie be bad again. Then, on Friday, it’s the sequel to one of the few Adam Sandler movies I actually like.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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