happy death day – Sarah Ames-Foley

Happy Death Day 2U [2019] directed by Christopher Landon
my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
rotten tomatoes: 68%

I’m a little biased because I’m writing this after listening to the Brunch review, but I do agree with a lot of their points. Their main issue with this sequel was that it lost sight of the original movie. In a way, I agree with that. It skips from horror to sci-fi, with some thriller elements. Still a dark comedy, but not in the same way the first one was. There is a hefty bit of suicide that comes across darker than intended. And honestly, the whole thing ended up pretty jumbled. They never made it clear how any of the science actually worked. The multiverse theory is briefly explained, but there are so many questions surrounding most of it. I’m not looking for scientific accuracy here, but a cohesive explanation would be nice. Also — you find out that she only lived through the same day 11 times in the first movie. I just don’t find it believable, it had to have been more than that. Especially with how hard she fell for Carter.

On the other hand, there were a lot of elements I really enjoyed! The humor was still there in a big way. I laughed out loud multiple times in the theater, something I rarely do. I’m sure I’ll re-watch it. I still enjoyed Tree a lot as a character, and think Jessica Rothe was just spectacular as her. I really liked the examination of her relationship with her mother and her grief, which I think went underexplored in the first movie and were used more for filler than anything else. I’ll be real, I almost cried watching this. That is not something I could have anticipated.

Overall, I liked it. There were a few bits that dragged on too much and plenty that could have been cleaned up, but it’s a fine addition to the franchise. I’m not sure I liked the idea of the possible third movie hinted at, but I guess we’ll see what happens.

Letterboxd Highlights

i’d die 12+ times for jessica rothe too
https://letterboxd.com/dianaprinceisbi/film/happy-death-day-2u/

Twitter | Letterboxd | Instagram

(Spoiler Free)

Although the majority of my content is and will remain book-related, I’ve been on a bit of a movie kick lately! So I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the movies I’ve seen. I also made an account on Letterboxd and I encourage y’all to join me if you’re interested! It’s kind of like Goodreads for movies, and I find it fun and interesting — you can rate and review movies, create lists of movies, and keep track of when you saw them.

Happy Death Day [2017] directed by Christopher B. Landon
rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
cw: (besides blood & death) ableism, fat-shaming, bi erasure

Now, I’m going to start off by saying that this isn’t a good movie. Don’t go into this if you’re looking for a cinematic masterpiece. Don’t go into this if you want a scary movie. Go into this if you’re looking for something goofy and fun. In my opinion, the best way to describe Happy Death Day is “Groundhog Day with cheesy horror” and if you like the sound of that, I’d say it’s worth a shot.

I had a couple of qualms with it, but I also wasn’t expecting a perfect movie. My biggest issue was probably the bi erasure–in the movie the main character sees another character watching a porn scene with two men in it, and then later says that he’s gay and doesn’t like women. Not the worst thing they could do, but kind of annoying. The love interest’s most redeeming quality ends up being… that he’s not a rapist. Kind of a low bar there.

I will say that there is a montage with Demi Lovato’s “Confident” that I just loved (I kind of have a thing for montages featuring great songs). I genuinely had a good time watching it. I laughed plenty, and find myself talking about it a lot. If this sounds like it’s your thing, I highly recommend you watch it. But if it sounds like something you wouldn’t like, I wouldn’t bother.

Twitter | Letterboxd | Instagram