Review:

Imagine a round-table at the Nickelodeon studios. On the fall is a giant cork board covered in posters for 2017's It and Stranger Things. A man at the front of the room pitches a made-for-TV movie for the weekend before Halloween. They quickly hash out a Teen Nick mystery/thriller. That night, a man breaks in and steals the script. The next morning, that man presents his script to the HBO offices. They add some profanity and make the main characters all super horny stereotypical teens and pepper in a little blood. This "new" movie is essentially Summer of 84. Our group of 4 teenage boys are much less relatable and likable than their obvious comparisons in It and Stranger Things. For most of the movie, the three less important kids get no real characterization until over half way through the film, where they each get a throw away scene that serves no purpose other than to humanize them. I don't hate the characters as much as I thought I would after getting a sense of the PG-13 Teen Nick vibe Summer of 84 works with, but they are missing any chemistry with each other and I don't buy them as a group of friends. The acting was fine for the type of movie it is and there were no problems with the cinematography, but it doesn't do anything fun or unique. My only real problem was with the plot and it was a pretty big problem for me. Minus one scene at the end, if you took out the language, this could have easily been sandwiched between ICarly and whatever vampire/witch movie Nickelodeon is playing on Halloween. It pitches itself as a mystery, but that feels like a stretch and the posters would have you believe it's a horror and its definitely not. They are clearly drying to capitalize on the popularity of It and Stranger Things, but beyond the group of teens doing things element, they have nothing in common. Summer of 84 is predictable and very safe. They don't seem to care to much about the plot, with time passage being nonsensical. There is one scene where the characters go through some trash cans and leave the trash all over and 5 minutes later the main guy is looking out his window and it's all gone with no one to have cleaned it up. Some scenes have the day pass unreasonably fast and all of a sudden, it goes from full on day time to pitch black night with no sense that time is actually passing. I liked the idea and I like the whole "kids on bikes" genre we seem to be in the throws of, but Summer of 84 is half-assed. The ending is rushed and an unreasonable tonal shift. I have some other plot issues that fall into spoiler territory, so I won't go into those. Summer of 84 feels like a lazy cash-in that drags through the first 2 acts and then throws everything at the wheel and rushes through a strange finale. This can easily entertain a group of friends as a movie night, but it's not going to send all your guests home wanting to see it again.