No.327 : When We First Met (2018)

 

When We First Met at the IMDb

Watching this film you may get the feeling that it’s Groundhog Day, not because it's is a funny and well crafted piece of original entertainment, but because it rehashes large portions of the Bill Murray classic. That’s not to say it just rips off ‘Groundhog day’ - it also rips off ‘Big’ and ‘Back to the Future’ too.

Still these films are all 30+ years old so let’s see if this modern take adds anything to the overly familiar genre. Adam Devine, who you’ll know from the ‘Pitch Perfect’ films as well as ‘Why Him?’ stars as Noah, a jazz bar pianist, who is attending the engagement party of Avery and Ethan. He remembers that three years ago he met Avery at a Halloween party and fell for her. He wasn’t able to seal the deal however, and the next day Avery met Ethan and his chance was lost.

He gets drunk and gets a ride home from Avery’s photographer flatmate, Carrie. The pair stop off at Noah’s jazz bar and he forlornly wishes in the antique photo booth that he had the chance to do things differently. Happily the photo booth seems to have been made by the same people who made Tom Hanks’ ‘Zoltar’ machine and Noah wakes up three years earlier on the day of the fateful Halloween party.

He spends a lot of time coming to terms with his situation but eventually chooses a different costume and approach towards Avery to get out of the friend zone and into the loving relationship he thinks is his destiny. As you will probably guess things don’t go to plan and after the party he wakes up in a now changed present to see where he is and what kind of relationship he has with the elusive Avery. As the present days flounder he retreats back to the photo booth to try again...and again.

Sometimes he’s rich and discontented - others see him branded a stalker, or with Avery but with her not loving him. Will his repeated trips back in forth in time lead to the problem being fixed or does his true route to happiness lie in a different direction?

This Netflix film was OK as a Sunday afternoon distraction but it offered nothing new and the outcome was no real surprise. The whole film was essentially that scene in ‘Groundhog Day’ where Bill Murray tries to fast forward his romance plans by remembering lots of details about Andie Macdowell’s life and creeping her out. No self respecting film will ever let the hero profit with such knowledge and, as ever, they demand that their character learn, grow and accept some truths before he can move on.

Of course there was no reason given for the magic in play and that’s fair enough, but acceptance came easy to Noah and at no point did he try to but Facebook shares or bet Leicester to win the league. Still, it said fantasy on the tin and that’s what you get.

I liked that they didn’t make the love rival an asshole, with Noah coming off the worst due to his manipulative machinations. The same scenes played out several times and it would have been good to have seen them from different perspectives, as it did come across as a bit dull and lazy.

There were no laughs or surprises, but the young and good looking cast seemed to be having fun and, if you don’t demand too much, you may get a slice for yourself.

Best Bit : Oh I’m Fat Now  ‘W’ Rating 14/23

No.61 : Warlock (1989)

Warlock at the IMDb

The good police folk of 17th century Boston have done a fine job in capturing slick back hair baddie Julian Sands. Sadly their long title sequence walk through the town gives him ample time to escape through a handy time bubble. Only witch hunter supreme Richard E Grant is on the ball and dives in after him. As movie law dictates the bubble deposits them in contemporary Los Angeles, where their battle continues.

Sands is on a quest to reunite three sections of a book, a task that offers the reward of revealing God’s name and the chance to unravel humanity. He gets his orders through a phoney medium who is most surprised to be channelling the devil himself. She also provides Sands with a handy page finder in the form of her eyes which swivel about in his palm, offering directions.


Grant on the other hand falls into the lap of Kassandra “with a ‘K’” played by the cello girl off ‘Fame’. She is a bit sceptical at first of Grant’s bad acting and furry coat but comes around when Sands curses her to age 20 years a day. The trio get into various scrapes one of which suggests that Grant was wrongly omitted from Great Britain’s Olympic javelin squad. As you’d have guessed from the off the pages are eventually assembled and the bad word is about to be spoken - can the world be saved? I’ll give you a clue - there were two sequels to this masterpiece.

I quite enjoyed this piece of 80s hokum. It is basically a straight steal from ‘The Terminator’ with time travelling warriors having a dust up in contemporary LA with a modern girl brought along for good measure. There are loads of fish out of water moments with Grant getting the phone, cars and planes all wrong. He does get a four foot weather vane onto a plane so good work there - I got manhandled for having toothpaste!

The special effects are rubbish to the point of ridiculousness with Sands’ flying especially ropey. The dialogue is atrocious and when married to Grant’s Scottish accent it’s often watch through your fingers time. Sands as the cold evil bad guy is as scary as Big Bird but he gives good value with his cold bloodied killing of a child and portentous speeches.

‘Warlock’ is a poorly written and terribly acted piece of nonsense that employs pathetic effects and is predictable throughout. Quite taken by its cheezy charms though!

Best Bit : Eye, eye, they’re over there!

‘W’ Score 14/23