Happy Death Day

Overall, a fun movie. Not scary. Fun. This is a mystery filled with humor. MC Tree gets really sick and tired of reliving the same fateful day over and over. But, it was hard to like her. At first. She is self-centered. And, on top of that, she doesn't seem to really care about herself at all. Then you have her sorority house where all the girls are just as self-consumed. They make the mean girls in Mean Girls look nearly innocent as they call each other names throughout--'whore' 'bitch' 'slut' 'ho'. You don't feel any empathy for the girls because they are really unlikeable. So, at the beginning of the movie, I'm thinking, "How is this supposed to work? How am I supposed to care about Tree or about anything that ends up happening?"

Then Day#2 of Tree's death hits and already you start to see small changes in her. Good changes.

The meat of the film: wit, red herrings, and more wit. Tree has an awesome sense of humor that most girls would be too self-conscious to display. She's a good role model.

Caveats: In addition to the name-calling, there are some crude sexual innuendos that just made me dislike the characters even more, and a TV scene where two guys make out and then a later comment by Tree to the guy watching the show that "Love is love" and "Go get your man ass" (Hollywood gets love wrong again here).

The plot twist works here and Tree's eventual love for life and others pours through all of the misdirection and subtle thrills. Even better, there's a positive message, a lesson learned, that explains Tree's earlier behavior and allows us to root for her.

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