The show feels like it’s both paying homage and mocking spy movies and it pulls it off with heart. The story is fresh and has a few good twists that, even if you see them coming, are satisfying.
Score: 1
Characters
I expected, from the trailers, that this would be a cringe comedy, but Dave Bautista brings warmth and humility to the role, and Chloe Coleman is both funny and precocious in the best way. One of the things I really appreciated about this was how competent each character was at what they do. The humour comes from them being out of their element.
Score: 1
Dialogue
Clever, fun, and often really funny. The eight year old’s sarcasm is spot-on.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The camera work is solid and the action scenes are very well choreographed.
The music was perfect for the movie and complimented it well.
Score: 1
Fun
The entire family loved the movie. It was funny and heartwarming.
Score: 1
Overall
One of the many films that got shuffled away to streaming because of the pandemic, it deserves so much more. It’s a fun, funny, and lovable movie.
Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
I’m frankly shocked and surprised that it took this long for someone to combine the slasher and the Groundhog Day concepts. It’s a beautiful mashup that works because these two sub-genres and surprisingly compatible. They both traditionally have horrible stuff happen to the main characters, they both usually involve death, and they usual end happily for at least one character.
This story works, not because of the twist, but because of how heavily it leans into the tropes.
Now that being said the first two loops are set up really slowly, however anyone who’s seen the trailer knows by the second day that the tension isn’t from the slashing but the loop.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The characters are mostly stereotypes with a few little tweaks. This is a weakness of both sub-genres. Because you live the same day over and over again, only one character develops, leaving the entire emotional outcome of the movie on the shoulders of the main character and their massive development.
Tree’s the heart of the film and without her and us feeling for her, this movie would fall flat. Thankfully it didn’t and she is awesome.
A lot of the characters are superfluous and feel like unused threads. The Vietnamese girl who sits outside the sorority house is a good example of an unused character.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue was quick, quip-y, and felt right for the characters. It’s fun but not poetry or super memorable.
You’ll laugh, but you won’t be quoting this one in twenty years.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The music is very much from a slasher but it’s unobtrusive and works really well. Visually this movie doesn’t need to be anything beyond a B horror style but doesn’t rest on expectations. The compositions, cuts, and references to other movies is fantastic. The transition where Tree gets hit by a baseball bat and falls into the next day is beautiful on it’s own, but the fact that it’s directly referencing a similar transition in Groundhog Day makes it ever so much better.
Score: 1
Fun
I love slashers and I love Groundhog Day style stories. This movie delivers exactly what I wanted from all of it and has a nice little twist. I’m very glad they changed the ending to what we see in the theatrical version.
Once it got going I didn’t even consider looking at my phone. High praise, considering it was my second viewing.
Score: 1
Overall
This is a movie that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and it certainly isn’t high cinema but it is exciting, smart, fun, and funny. If you like slashers or Groundhog Day stories, you’ll love this movie.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5
We reviewed the movie on Silver Stag Entertainment‘s Aurora Nominated show Nights at the Round Table.
