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Invasion thrillers have been pretty popular over the past few years, and the
latest entry into the genre You’re Next attempts to up the ante with all the
gory killing you would expect plus a few twists.
The story
begins with a family reunion of sorts of a wealthy family at their secluded
mansion in the woods. For me the first sign of trouble was seeing the owners of
this place drive up in a Jeep Liberty. It just made me think, “Really? You own
a multi-million dollar home and you’re tooling around in an entry level Jeep?”
Sadly my “Why would they be driving a Liberty?” question would be the most
mysterious thing to happen in the entire movie.
It was all
downhill from there for director Adam Wingards mostly paint by numbers bore
fest. Australian actress Sharni Vinson, who emerges as the hero of this mess,
is the only member of the cast that displays any ounce of acting ability. Everybody
else may as well have been played by popsicle sticks with faces painted on
them. The acting is that stiff and wooden. The script isn’t doing them any
favors either, giving the human props virtually nothing to work with. Screenwriter Simon Barrett needs to find a new line of work if this is the best he
can do.
The movie itself progresses in a very formulaic manner, the first act is spent in painfully slow fashion as we await the arrival of all the family members until everyone is seated for a nice dinner. Then the killing begins as bad guys in animal masks proceed to take them out on cue to the heavy handed background score. You know someone is about to buy it every time the theater is filled with the ominous DUUNNNNN!
There are
many attempts at humor mixed in but it is done so poorly and flatly that it
just falls flat on its face. They could have hammed it up a bit and made this
thing fun but that never happens. The movie teeters on the brink of parody but
never gets there. By the time the ‘twist’ is revealed it comes as no
surprise to anyone with an IQ over 70.
