Y2K (2024)

As someone old enough to remember the kind of movies Y2K is an homage to, this one's kind of difficult to rate objectively. Because on one hand, this is a damn near perfect recreation of a type of late '90s genre/comedy hybrid that permeated the era. Aside from the genre-pivot (which feels like it's reverse-engineered from Krampus) and some of the gore effects being a little too advanced, this is more or less exactly what this movie would have looked and felt like had it been released in 1999. And making fun of Y2K paranoia was absolutely a popular pastiche as the millennium approached, so this wouldn't have felt out of place in theaters. Hell, I half suspect the only reason something with this exact premise wasn't released was studios, which relied much more on DVD sales and TV rights at the time, would have assumed there wouldn't be any interest in the film after January 1st, 2000.

So on one hand, this is the movie it sets out to be, which should be a win. Only the problem is the movies and trends this is mimicking were generally pretty bad. This isn't true of every comedy released around that time, but there was a common philosophy that you'd be better off making a movie that knew it was stupid than something trying to be sincere and coming off as stupid. Trying, in the 1990s, was generally seen as lame. Or at least movie executives seemed to have the impression teens believed that, so movies made for that demographic steered away from trying to deliver genuine emotional sentiment.

Galaxy Quest deserves a lot of credit for helping to retire that mindset; just one of many reasons to appreciate that film. But Galaxy Quest isn't a Christmas movie, and Y2K is, so let's get back on track.

Okay, technically Y2K is a New Year's movie, rather than a Christmas one, if you differentiate between those categories (which you shouldn't: they're intertwined in more ways than I care to cover here). In fact, it's a science fiction movie specific to New Year's Eve 1999, something it shares with the 1995 neo-noir, Strange Days (which is a far better film). Unlike Strange Days, this focuses on the infamous Y2K bug, a real threat that was neutralized by a tremendous amount of effort, despite misconceptions that since nothing catastrophic occurred, the danger must have been exaggerated all along (a fallacy this country makes more often than I'm comfortable with).

But right or wrong, it was a joke then and remains a joke now, though it's worth noting there was a sense of unease at the very end of that December. This movie plays with that, imagining a world where the Y2K bug transforms anything with a computer chip into a machine intent on enslaving humanity (or, as often as not, just murdering people outright).

That's a fun premise for movie set in an era that's been largely overshadowed by the seemingly endless nostalgia for the 1980s (which is actually recycled nostalgia for the '40s and '50s, but let's not dwell on that). I was excited when I saw the trailer for this, then less excited when I saw the middling reviews. I'm inclined to agree with the consensus this time: the movie is fun as a diversion, but it just doesn't live up to its potential. I think a lot of that is intentional - as I already covered, this mirrors the flaws of the movies it's replicating - but not every idea is a good one.

The movie opens as a sex comedy surrounding two horny high school teens, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who go to a New Year's party, where Eli hopes to connect with his crush, Laura (Rachel Zegler). Around the twenty-five minute mark, it pivots to sci-fi/comedy/horror, when the machines go haywire. It's all very silly, as ridiculously antiquated, bulky technology starts brutally murdering the characters, including Danny, which I found a little surprising (I expected him to survive for another half-hour). The survivors make their way to the school, picking up and losing allies along the way. The most surprising addition is Limp Bizkit singer, Fred Durst, who plays himself despite a 24-year age difference. I know this bothered some people, but honestly I'm so sick of deep fakes, being asked to suspend my disbelief was kind of refreshing.

Anyway, Laura is a brilliant hacker, so - with Eli's help - she uploads a computer virus and stops the robot uprising, which we also learn started in their town for some reason. I'm not sure why they didn't just say it was worldwide: that would have been more fun. At any rate, they save the world, get together, and go to college. And Eli has a heart-to-heart with Danny's mother, who's naturally devastated to hear her son isn't one of the survivors.

That was one of the few moments in the movie that almost broke the "don't actually try" rule. Another concerned a minor queer character dealing with internalized misogyny. In both cases, there was a kernel of something worthwhile on screen, largely because the performers seemed committed to putting it there. The issue is the movie wasn't working with them. I have no idea whether that's all that was scripted and shot or if the editor was overzealous, but the movie just doesn't devote the time to these and other relationships to make them more than asides. Hell, the same is true of the lead's love story.

I should probably say a little more about Laura, because - contrary to what I said at the start - she actually does differentiate in a few ways from her counterparts in most '90s genre/comedies. For one, she's the one with the skills needed to save the world, rather than the male protagonist who helps her. Only that does raise the question of why Eli is still the main character. We're not doing some kind of "Big Trouble in Little China" fake-out, nor does the movie offer any commentary on its focus on a male protagonist rather than a more appropriate heroine (and there's a lot that could be said on that subject, given the era this is referencing).

There's not much that needs to be said about the holiday elements. This is about a transition point in its leads' lives, as well as in time. The movie explores (albeit superficially) the evolving relationship with technology occurring around the turn of the millennium. The premise necessitated setting this on New Year's, but that doesn't mean the movie skips over the usual New Year's stuff (which also doubles as the typical coming-of-age stuff appearing in teen movies, regardless of when they're set).

This is Kyle Mooney's first film, and for all its faults, it shows promise. It'll be interesting to see whether his follow-up avoids some of the pitfalls preventing this from exceeding its limitations. It's frustrating the movie chooses not to try more (assuming I'm right about that being a choice). The false start, for example, never really manages to sell the illusion it's a teen sex comedy, and various gags where characters die unexpectedly are rarely as unexpected as the movie pretends they are (though the skateboard joke was pretty amusing).

Actually a good number of the jokes were amusing. And the premise was great. And those low-budget '90s mechanical monsters were delightful. I feel like I need to stress this wasn't an awful movie, or even really a bad one. It's an amusing enough way to spend an hour and a half, but at the end of the day it's a high-concept movie that's less satisfying than its own trailer.