Y2K Review: A Cringeworthy Computer Crash
Is this the ’50s or 1999? Huey Lewis famously asked that question in his song from the near end of the 20th century. And what a time to be alive, that was. From boy bands to AOL Instant Messenger, SNL alumni Kyle Mooney seemed very nostalgic about the turn of the century. But with a new millennium came the infamous year 2000 problem, where there was widespread panic over computer errors. Nearly a quarter of a century since then, we know that there was no computer apocalypse. But Mooney directs a film that dares to ask, what if there was? Buckle up for Y2K.
Y2K is the kind of movie that should be really funny, but somehow, it ends up as one of the worst movies of 2024. This is a disaster comedy that’s so painfully unfunny that it made me question my own sanity. I sat in a crowded theater and watched a theatrically released comedy movie, mustering up nothing more than a few occasional chuckles from my audience. I had a bad feeling about the film when the first few jokes didn’t land, and like most comedy movies, when the beginning doesn’t make you laugh very much, it’s not a good sign for what’s to come.
Someone must have missed the memo that when you make a disaster comedy, the comedy is supposed to be intentional, and the unbridled disaster is meant to reflect the events in the story, not the quality of the movie. At the center of Y2K is a group of teenagers at a New Year’s Eve party. Eli (Jaeden Martell) wants to confess his feelings for Laura (Rachel Zegler), the cute girl at school, and his best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) encourages him to do so. These three share the most cliché character dynamic of every high school movie. When this idea has been done so many times before, what is the point of seeing it again?
Now, this is where you say that what makes this movie special is that it’s set during an apocalypse. And to that, I say that Y2K is a combination of the brash teen dynamics of Superbad and the insane apocalyptic premise of This is the End. What is the difference between this movie and those movies? Those films were funny. And they had Seth Rogen. The first few scenes give you a look at what the entire film will be like: a long series of jokes that don’t land. It feels like it’s trying too hard to be an entertaining teen movie, from the slow motion to the needle drops. Everything feels like a forced, deliberate choice rather than something organic that comes out of the situation.
So, the first half hour is your basic teen comedy without the laughs. But once Y2K hits, the movie shifts into something different. The machines start attacking humans, leading to very graphic deaths. Think Final Destination on cocaine. The movie pulls absurdity from how insane the kills are but does not commit to it after a while. There aren’t nearly enough fun kills for a movie like this, but at the very least, I wanted the chaos to feel insane and over-the-top. But Mooney does an awful job of directing the performances.
We’ve seen chaos directed perfectly by Sean Baker in this year’s Anora. However, Mooney has each character wait for the other person to finish talking before they speak. When the characters speak individually, the chaos feels low-energy, less like a natural response to the crazy situation, and more like a script from which the actors do not deviate. The script makes baffling decisions, such as throwing in a serious moment that belongs in a large-scale action blockbuster early in the film. This movie is a tonal mess. For example, we have a very serious death that immediately gets followed by a comical one. It’s so strange to see how this movie treats the death of teenagers, but it’s even worse that it can’t seem to decide how it feels.
Y2K is so disappointing because it’s the type of comedy that should tear the roof off with laughter, but my theater was mostly dead silent. It has one-note dialogue that does not make you feel anything. It’s such a stupid movie that also wants you to take it seriously at times. Why not embrace the stupidity and commit to being a comedy movie? Balancing funny and serious tones is an incredibly challenging feat, and Mooney fails horrendously. The emotional character moments are contrived and trite. From predictable punchlines to one extended celebrity cameo that isn’t going to register with anyone under the age of 30. That cameo isn’t that funny, but writers Mooney and Evan Winter seemed to think it was absolutely hilarious.
Because of how unfunny this movie was, it just came off as a badly directed sci-fi thriller. It got so painful to sit through Y2K that there was a moment in the final act where I very nearly stood up and walked out of the theater. But I remembered I had to finish the movie to review it, so I sat there in agony. So many moments are so unfunny that I wasn’t sure if they fit under the legal definition of a joke. It would not hold up in court, I’m telling you. If the year 2000 looked anything like this, I’m happy it’s in the past.
SCORE: 1/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 1 equates to “Awful.”
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Source: Comingsoon.net