{"id":6934,"date":"2019-02-12T14:15:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T19:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6934"},"modified":"2019-02-12T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T19:16:00","slug":"review-happy-death-day-2u","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6934","title":{"rendered":"Review: HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The follow-up to the 2017 horror take on \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d is not successful deja vu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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By leaning heavily into goofy science-fiction and using the slasher conceit as a broad and obvious background plot device, the cleverly titled \u201cHappy Death Day 2U\u201d is one messy sequel. Picking up where the first one left off, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) finds herself in a new time tripping dilemma. And the root of it all is a machine invented by science major, Ryan Phan (Phi Vu), the hapless roommate of Tree\u2019s boyfriend Carter (Israel Broussard). This machine has disrupted time, and when it\u2019s reactivated, the dreaded time loop that trapped Tree in the first film starts over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A time machine is at the heart of this misguided sequel.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But once Tree reenters the loop, little things seem different, and that might not be such a bad thing. After all, if you wake up and everything that\u2019s broken in your life is magically fixed, why would you want things any other way? If there is one coherent theme in \u201cHDD2U\u201d it is the idea that maybe perfect isn\u2019t the way life ought to be. It\u2019s the imperfections that make our existence meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a doubt, \u201cHDD2U\u201d isn\u2019t trying to intelligently deal with weighty existential questions. Rather, it\u2019s a cheesy science-fiction\/horror\/comedy mashup that never quite knows what story it wants to tell. The script co-written by \u201cHappy Death Day\u201d scribe Scott Lobdell and director Christopher Landon is intentionally all over the map. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The killer or killers return, but have little purpose in HDD2U.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a movie that uses the time travel mechanism to experiment with many comedy, horror, science-fiction, and dramatic narratives, never settling completely on any one of them. And by leaving the viewer consistently uncertain, it\u2019s impossible to fully engage with the material. The characters, including Tree herself, are entirely unreliable. This approach could have worked, I suppose. But when the weakest elements, the overly sentimental\/dramatic ones involving Tree\u2019s mother, raise their ugly head, we\u2019re snapped completely out of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rothe has fun with the character, which is the film’s sole highlight.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the ride is fun in bits. Rothe throws herself into each recurring version of her character, as she\u2019s jerked from universe to universe. There are scenes, particularly ones involving Tree\u2019s often violent demise, that are worth a giggle. But when Tree starts to doubt even herself, the ungainly story-lines fray apart unconvincingly. This leaves the viewer with nothing to hang onto. And don\u2019t get me started about the non-sensical end credit tag that teases yet another one. It\u2019s such a bizarre turn that it reminded me of the ending of 2018\u2019s miss \u201cThe Predator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phi Vu, playing Ryan, faces down his doppelganger.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with bringing back characters that worked in a first derivative adventure and turning them loose in a bonkers new tale. But \u201cHDD2U\u201d loses sight of what made the first film work\u2014identifiable rules. This time around, logic is jettisoned in favor of comedy and cheap sentimentality. The uneven, inconsistent tone is not a foundation worthy of a feature motion picture. And ultimately, \u201cHDD2U\u201d is a collection of scenes, some fun, others leaden, with nothing to mesh them together and no one character, not even Tree, that you can trust and embrace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second time around gets messy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[213,238,105,1270,184,1268,1269,121,103,104],"class_list":["post-6934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-happy-death-day","tag-horror","tag-israel-broussard","tag-jason-blum","tag-jessica-rothe","tag-phi-vu","tag-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6942,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions\/6942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}