Anyone else reckon that Jaeden Martell is Dan Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan’s secret love child? His mannerisms are positively Potter-esque throughout this daft sci-fi millennium caper. Those of us around at the time will remember all the fuss about the issues surrounding the year 2000 causing all the world’s computers unsolvable problems as we couldn’t just refer to years by their last two digits any more. Resilience tests were going on all over the shop, but loner “Eli” and his best/only pal “Danny” (Julian Dennison) are just planning to spend the event watching “Junior” on VHS. A few swigs of booze from the locked drinks cabinet embolden them though, and so they head to a party where he hopes to chat with the love of his life. “Laura” (Rachel Zegler) is a bit out of his league so things aren’t exactly promising, until midnight arrives and the household gadgets start to eradicate his rivals. They’d better get out of the place and regroup at an old building where tech is nowhere to be found. Before they can, a tragedy for “Eli” really focuses his mind and that of his new friends on the problem in front of them, and they have to come up with a solution quickly before the rapidly evolving robot population enslaves humanity to do it’s bidding. The production itself isn’t half bad, with loads of creativity turning old microwaves, CD players and chainsaws into menacing monsters, but the acting is all pretty mediocre and the writing renders most of the characters a little too two-dimensional. That said, Mason Gooding shows up to bring a little extra eye-candy to the proceedings and there’s a fun contribution from over the top Kyle Mooney as the hippy “Garret”. It’s not exactly original, and has the look of something from a teen television channel to it, but there is the occasional laugh here and it’s not the worst.

CinemaSerf

22/03/2025