Summer of 84 (2018)

You can't take an idea that's been done fifty times in the last few years and just do it again with a lower budget, a less appealing cast, a dumber script, and a better score (by Le Matos).Summer of '84 is like the Mormon-cinema version of Stranger Things: derivative, painfully uncool, and joyless, but with unexpectedly competent production.It has an imitation-of-an-imitation-of-an-imitation quality, which is interesting for 20 minutes. (Unfortunately, this movie feels longer than Doctor Zhivago.) If Fright Night was a charming B-movie reimagining of Rear Window, and Disturbia was a ripoff of Fright Night made by people who never bothered to see Rear Window, Summer of 84 is a ripoff of Disturbia made by people who never bothered to see Fright Night.After this movie, Ready Player One, and the dire Hot Summer Nights, the whole 80s nostalgia craze seems to have run Its course. Most of the fond remembrances of mid-80s suburbia seem to be coming from people who were born in 1995, and who are under the impression that John Hughes and Steven Spielberg were capturing the period with documentary realism.On a positive note: this movie left me with deeper respect for superficially similar but smarter and more soulful movies like My Friend Dahmer, and for some of the more innovative recent genre movies like Thelma, Hereditary, Coherence, Berberian Sound Studio, Rubber, and Annihilation.

This was a great movie and I loved every second of it... Growing up I watched lots of movies and tv shows with my favorite movies always being the coming of age classics: "Goonies" and "Stand By Me". Later on in life, I always looked for coming of age movies that could meet my standards. Even with newer movies like "The Edge of Seventeen" (2016) I still wasn't very satisfied. For the first time in a while, I walked away from a movie theatre actually satisfied and my expectations and standards were fully met.If I could sum this movie up in a few words for anyone interested in watching, it would be; A coming of age movie with a similar nostalgic feel of Stand By Me and the Goonies with a thrilling storyline that'll have you on the edge of your seat...

If you like Disturbia you will enjoy this movie. Almost a remake of the Shia LaBeouf movie from 10 years ago before he became a wacko. No surprise that the cop is the killer.

Following Turbo Kid, this 80's drama-horror, is a suspenseful thriller that follows a group of teens uncovering the identity of serial killer moving from town to town kidnapping children. Summer of 84' doesn't leave much to the imagine when it reveals its antagonist 15 minutes within the film.