Short Attention Span Review - Ready or Not (2019)

Short Attention Span Review - Ready or Not (2019)

A lot of people hyped this one up, but the premise and the ad campaign didn't exactly rock my world. When I sat down to watch it this weekend, it started out fine, but I still wasn't sure that it would make good on all that noise.  And then it just started to click for me.  In a big way.  I cringed, I gasped.  I laughed out loud.  Not like when you type "lol," but like when you really do laugh out loud.  Anyway, the movie just seemed to get better and better, and unlike many pictures that gain such momentum, it absolutely nailed the end.  By the time the credits had rolled, I felt pretty sure that I had just enjoyed a new classic.  This is one of those ventures that holds massive appeal for me: a quirky and subversive vessel ripe with humor and gore.  Ready or Not is a great example of how to balance morbid guffaws with unexpected splashes of blood and guts.  There are tense moments, surprises, gratuitous displays of audacious mayhem, sly chuckles, big laughs, and even bigger laughs.  The script is a delicious oddity, the direction is sound despite a few offputting choices where the color palette is concerned, and the talent makes the most of the material.  This is the kind of film where it is so damn hard to pick a favorite.  Samara Weaving was a revelation as the spirited and tough heroine with a fondness for foul language--and great taste in shoes.  Adam Brody may have played the best drunk brother in the history of the cinema, and I guess that's a dubious honor, but it's an honor nonetheless.  Andie MacDowell paired warmth and an icy chill to perfection, while Nicky Guadagni put on a master class in creepy and intense.  And then there's Henry Czerny, who unraveled in glorious fashion, veering from practical and steady to outraged, incredulous, and hilariously unhinged.  Most importantly, the movie was just so damn entertaining.  It was a perfect example of the motion picture as a thrill ride, and I can't recommend this one highly enough.  Yes, I'm late to that party, but maybe I'm merely fashionably late.  Either way, Ready or Not is a blast, and I hope to find it playing on my television often.

Final Grade: A+

Ready or Not is a bloody good time at the movies.  Bravo!