Video shops, Limp Bizkit, and AOL Immediate Messaging are on full show in “Saturday Night time Stay” alum Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut “Y2K.” The movie explores the premise: What if, on New Yr’s Eve 1999, all of the worst fears in regards to the flip of the millennium truly got here true? The outcome performs extra like a live-action model of “The Mitchells vs. The Machines,” the place computer systems, boomboxes, and video cameras flip into hellish Transformers and wreak havoc on a small Midwestern city, all whereas setting their sights on world domination.
The set-up is stable, and in the best arms, it might have blended early-2000s nostalgia with a extra compelling story. However because it stands, “Y2K” revels in its personal tongue-in-cheek humor, bombarding viewers with an infinite stream of references to Tae Bo, Yamaguchi’s, the Taco Bell chihuahua, and ripping blended CDs. In doing so, it forgets probably the most essential component: crafting an enticing story with characters value rooting for.
After a protracted expositional stretch that types characters into highschool cliques (the skaters, the favored children, the science nerds), we get the same old setup of who’s excited by whom. However as quickly because the clock strikes midnight on New Yr’s Eve 1999, issues take a flip: blenders, rubbish disposals, and ceiling followers immediately develop minds of their very own, forcing a gaggle of unlikely teenagers to flee for his or her lives as their classmates are obliterated. The thought of machines gaining sentience was an actual concern in 1999, however, after all, it by no means got here to fruition, and we shortly moved on.
The movie follows highschool junior Eli (Jaeden Martell, from the “It” motion pictures), a socially awkward outcast, and his greatest good friend Danny (Julian Dennison, within the budding Jonah Hill position because the comedian aid), who determine to crash a cool child’s social gathering in hopes of impressing women. Eli’s crush, Laura (Rachel Zelger, the star of the upcoming “Snow White” remake), is after all there, and she or he’s depicted as a mix of in style woman and tech-savvy wizard. At one level, somebody refers to her as “Binary Code Barbie.”
As chaos ensues, an assortment of teenagers manages to flee the home, evading chainsaw-wielding microwaves and killer computer systems. They discover shelter in numerous locations throughout city, together with a video retailer, the place the most effective shock of the film awaits: Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. However whereas Durst’s presence provides a sure grounding to the movie, he alone can’t salvage the shortage of chemistry between the characters Mooney focuses on—notably Martell and Zelger, who share no spark or chemistry. Actually, their “peak” romantic second takes place inside a porta-potty careening downhill.
In the end, “Y2K” is little greater than an assortment of nostalgic visible gags, needle drops, and disposable characters—aside from Durst, who gives some semblance of realism by taking part in a calmer model of himself. Cinematographer Invoice Pope (identified for “The Matrix” movies) lends the movie a glossy, polished look that compensates for Mooney’s lack of psychological depth within the screenplay. Whereas a film like this doesn’t essentially want deep characters or intricate themes, it nonetheless wants one thing to make up for these shortcomings, reminiscent of higher pacing or rhythm.
I suppose it’s simply a kind of days.
Y2K is now taking part in in theaters.