HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (2019) movie

Genre              |   Horror Thriller

Classification   |   TBA

Running time   |   TBA minutes

Released         |   14 February 2019

cast

Jessica Rothe ... Tree Gelbman
Israel Broussard ... Carter Davis
Ruby Modine ... Lori Spengler
Suraj Sharma ... Samar Ghosh
Rachel Matthews ... Danielle Bouseman
Steve Zissis ... Dean Bronson

director

Christopher Landon

writer

​Christopher Landon ... (written by)

cinematographer

​​Toby Oliver

music

​Bear McCreary

film editor

Ben Baudhuin ​

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

Ryan Phan: We're scientists. We solve the problem.

Stephanie Butler: [to Tree on Lori] You really think I was going to let some little whore break up my marriage

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HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Stuck in a time loop, college student Tree Gelbman must die over and over again to save her friends from a psychotic masked killer.

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 13 February 2019

​Pop ​Movee Rating

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U is a wildly entertaining sequel to the 2017 Serial Killer sub-genre Horror flick that saw protagonist Tree Gelbman endure events that were across between the Bill Murray classic GROUNDHOG DAY and the Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Thriller EDGE OF TOMORROW!

Jessica Rothe returns as Tree, but, this time, she and co-star Israel Broussard have a few friends along for a time-tripping, universe-bending mystery that sees an all-new version of the Banyule University “Baby” mascot mask serial killer terrorise campus students again, again and again...

Christopher Landon, who directed the first film, pulls double-duty on the sequel; not only directing but also writing the screenplay. Landon has carved out a niche as something of a Horror specialist over the last few years. He’s written four PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films, along with the wickedly funny but hardly seen SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (containing, arguably, one of the funniest, most eye-watering sight gags you’ll ever see in a movie!)

What isn’t surprising is that Blumhouse Productions is, once again, behind the film’s production.

It’s hard not to admire Jason Blum’s business model for making movies...

Why spend $190 million, when you only need to spend $9 million?

While $9 million is a step-up from the first movie’s $4.8 million budget, HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U will make a stack of money at the Box Office. Even if it only pulls in $50 million globally, the film will still be profitable for Blum and his distribution partner, Universal Pictures. Just to put that into perspective, HAPPY DEATH DAY made $125 million globally when it was released. Adding the money it would have made from its home entertainment release, the financial outcome is a seriously profitable movie.

Even if HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U is not the kind of film you might see at the cinema, it’s important to support a low budget, second-tier franchise entries not just because they’re entertaining, but they help continue to bankroll a diverse range of cinematic endeavours...

The success enjoyed by Jason Blum’s Horror movies has allowed him, in turn, to expand his ambition as a Producer and support the production of some genuinely great movies. It may be a surprise to learn that Blum is also the Producer of movies such as the critically-acclaimed WHIPLASH, Jordan Peele’s GET OUT and Spike Lee’s 2018 Oscar nominated BLACKKKLANSMAN.

Blum’s producing credits are not the only surprise about HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U...

Perhaps the biggest surprise of HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U is that Christopher Landon manages to make a sequel that is not just more entertaining than the first film, but also pulls off the unique trick of being a dark Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction 100 minute feature that delivers an emotional resonance totally beyond what viewers might expect from such a “B-Grade” style movie.

Yes, HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U is - quite unashamedly - a “Kitchen Sink” movie.

Landon’s screenplay cross-pollinates genres in an effort to satisfy as many viewers as he can. The great thing about this is that his Director skills are good enough for him to successfully capture on film what he wrote on the page. Landon’s visual translation makes sense to the viewer because he understands exactly what he is doing with his material...

Without doubt, some of what he wrote must have sounded completely ludicrous, but the manner in which Landon and Film Editor Ben Baudhuin cut the movie together, it all manages to make sense.

Part the way through the film, a couple of the characters question Tree as to her ignorance about the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies. She shrugs off their questions, telling them she’s never seen any of Marty McFly’s adventures. If the viewer has picked up on the film’s genre influences by this point, the exchange between Tree and Ryan (Phi Vu also returning for the sequel), puts it up in lights as to the inspiration for HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U.

It’s pretty clear that Christopher Landon isn’t ignorant to the Robert Zemeckis trilogy of movies and he’s deliberately used BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II as a template for his own sequel. Despite its Serial Killer plot, Landon injects a real sense of adventure into his story, filling every sequence with action, humour, drama and thrills.

When it’s all said and done, Jessica Rothe remains the heart and soul of this new film…

Despite being a couple of years older, Rothe still manages to pull off the role of University student Tree with aplomb…

This is what the Pop Movee review of the 2017 film said about Rothe…

The real joy is the unearthing of a new “Scream Queen” with Actress Jessica Rothe, whose performance single-handedly lifts HAPPY DEATH DAY from a middle-of-the-road B Horror movie to a real star-making turn that shows a young, versatile across who takes the less-than-Award-acceptance material she’s given and takes it to a place better than anyone could have expected for a movie of this ilk.  

In HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U, Rothe plays her part a little more broadly than the first film and it’s obvious that she’s really worked on her performance skills between then and now. What’s most impressive about Rothe’s performance this time around is the genuine emotion she brings to the scenes where Tree has make some genuine adult choices. She must decide whether or not she stays in the universe into which she’s been thrust or return to the one where she’s already had her fair share of anguish.

Besides Rothe, Phi Vu’s Ryan gets a significantly expanded role along with Rachel Matthews, whose self-absorbed, somewhat vacuous Danielle is used as the butt of many of the film’s jokes, including an unexpected post-credit sequence that takes the franchise in an entirely new direction!

The subject matter of HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U may not appeal to everyone but it’s hard not to admire the enthusiasm with which Christopher Landon, Jessica Rothe and the film’s supporting players throw themselves into their work. Yes, it is a “Kitchen Sink” movie, but it’s a lot of fun with some genuinely touching human drama at its core.

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

Happy Death Day 2U - Wikipedia
​Happy Death Day 2U (2019) - IMDb
​Happy Death Day 2U (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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