Vacation Friends (2021) - Movie Review

My come-up as a film critic is tied to a very specific subset of the old YouTube landscape: The caustic critic. The hyperbolic, foul-mouthed, ‘woe is me for choosing to watch this shit’ kind of entertainer, where just about every review choice was a film the reviewer didn’t like for bonus reaction fodder. Sure, some of these folx are still around, but it’s not the default like it used to be. Honestly though, even with how much progress I’ve made from when I was just a wannabe copycat trying to make it on YouTube… some of that is still in my DNA as a critic.

Part of that hyperbolic vitriol (born out of a shared ancestry from Mystery Science Theatre 3000) might lead someone to react to a comedy film they don’t like as if they’re being tortured against their will; like something that could traumatise them for life. Except I've gone through that shit without any hyperbole whatsoever. Readers who have been following me since way back when might remember when I looked at the 2015 reboot of Vacation, which to this day remains the single most painful experience I’ve ever had engaging with any form of media, let alone film. So when news hit that the directors/writers of that same film were co-writing another film with ‘Vacation’ in the title… well, cue the horrified flashbacks with The Sound Of Silence playing in the background. And while I can safely say that this isn’t nearly as egregious as Vacation 2015, that’s not to say that this is free of problems. Far, far, far from it.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020) - Movie Review

Okay, after what happened when I tried this last year, I want to make sure I get it right this time. So let’s take it from the top.

The latest release from mediocre action director McG wouldn’t even cause a blip on my radar usually. After 2017’s The Babysitter, a surprisingly fun slice of splatstick horror, I’m willing to give the man another chance. Or, rather, yet another one, since when I tried out Rim Of The World in good faith, I found myself questioning why I ever bothered to give him the benefit of the doubt in the first place. The Babysitter is still an amazing flick, and rewatching it in prep for this follow-up has proven (for me, at least) that it holds up to repeat scrutiny, but maybe it was just a fluke and the only truly great thing McG has ever directed. But now that the sequel is in my hands, I really, really hope it holds up.

Rim Of The World (2019) - Movie Review

The latest release from mediocre action director McG wouldn’t even cause a blip on my radar usually. After 2017’s The Babysitter, a surprisingly fun slice of splatstick horror, I’m willing to give the man another chance. I mean, that film had him venturing right out of his comfort zone and that seems to be a good fit for him, and his latest is a coming-of-age sci-fi adventure flick that looks like one big load of 80’s Spielberg worship. I’ll admit, I was genuinely looking forward to this one. It took less than ten minutes for me to realise that I had made a terrible mistake.

When We First Met (2018) - Movie Review

Over the last handful of centuries, romantic comedies have become the sub-genre primed for mocking, containing all kinds of insipid clichés and story tropes that breed incessantly within it like the world’s least useful petri dish. Over the last handful years, time travel narratives have been in vogue, primarily those involving the lead character reliving the same event over and over again, trying to get it "right" and make everyone happy (or, more likely, just themselves). These two worlds have intersected before, like with last year’s Naked, but this is a truly harmonious synergy. A feat of filmmaking that manages to highlight the utter worst of both worlds to create a shining example of why this shit needs to stop.

The Babysitter (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Shy and meek kid Cole (Judah Lewis) gets picked on by a lot of people in his life. The only major exception is his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving), who is his best friend. However, when he decides to stay up late one night to see what Bee gets up to when he goes to sleep, he discovers that Bee isn’t quite what she seems and unless he can keep on his toes, he may end up being sacrificed in the most literal way possible.