It Chapter Two

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Andy Muschietti
Screenplay:  Gary Dauberman, based on the novel It by Stephen King
Starring:  Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgard
Running Time:  169 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Twenty seven years after the Loser's Club confronted the evil shapeshifting "It", the killings and disappearances start again in the small town of Derry, Maine.  The town's librarian, Mike Hanlon (Mustafa), believes that It has once again resurfaced, and contacts the rest of the Loser's Club: Horror writer Bill Denbrough (McAvoy), fashion designer Beverley Marsh (Chastain), architect Ben Hanscom (Ryan), stand-up comedian Richie Tozier (Hader), businessman Stanley Uris (Bean) and risk assessor Eddie Kaspbrack (Ransone).  All of them vowed to return if It appeared again, but now they have forgotten that long-ago summer, and as adults may not be able to recapture the power that kept them alive as children.

The 2017 film It went on to become the highest grossing horror film of all time, and so a sequel was inevitable, although this isn't really a sequel, because the first film only adapted the first part of Stephen King's mammoth bestseller, and this film adapts the conclusion.  This is long, unwieldy and has some great moments but, when it's bad, it is really really bad.  One of the main problems is that it is never particularly scary.  Bill Skarsgard does well for the most part as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (It's favourite form) and his scene with a girl at a baseball field is genuinely chilling, but he sometimes verges on just being goofy.  It has numerous opportunities to kill the Loser's Club which It doesn't take.  Also it is full of surprisingly bad CGI, which looks more like something from a video game.  Also it is full of misplaced, clunky humour, which evaporates any tension or suspense.  There is a running joke throughout the film where Bill's novels are criticised for their weak endings, another gag involves a reference to The Thing (1982).  The cast are mostly okay, with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy being the standouts, although Bill Hader has some powerful moments.  The thing is that the characters are affecting as children in the first film, but are much less so here where they are adults in their forties.  Also they come across as pretty obnoxious at times.  The child actors from the first film (Chosen Jacobs as Mike, Jaeden Lieberher as Bill, Sophia Lillis as Beverley, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben, Finn Wolfhard as  Richie, Wyatt Olef as Stan and Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie) reprise their roles in the many flashback scenes.  Stephen King has a small role as the proprietor of a secondhand shop and acclaimed director Peter Bogdanovich has a cameo as a director, working on an adaptation of one of Bill's books.
The film opens very strongly and the ending has real emotional weight, and there are some good moments sprinkled throughout.  Mostly however it is pretty disappointing.

Bill Skarsgard in It Chapter Two

Paul

Year: 2011
Director: Greg Mottola
Screenplay: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, Blythe Danner
Running Time: 104 minutes
Genre: Comedy, science-fiction

Summary: Two British science-fiction fans, aspiring artist Graeme Willy (Pegg) and unsuccessful author Clive Gollings (Frost), visit the San Diego Comic-Con and go on a road trip to visit famous UFO crash sites. On their way they encounter foul-mouthed alien, Paul (voiced by Rogen), who crash-landed on Earth in 1947 and is currently on the run from the US Government. Graeme and Clive decide to help Paul, and so they set off across the US, along with devoutly religious Ruth (Wiig), who they are forced to take with them when she sees Paul. However, they are pursued by a trio of "Men in Black" type Government agents, headed by Agent Lorenzo Zoyle (Bateman), and controlled by the mysterious 'Big Guy' (Weaver). As well as Ruth's angry, shotgun-toting father (John Carroll Lynch).

Opinions: Actors and writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have previously worked together on the television series Spaced (1999-2001) and on the films Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). This film has a slightly different flavour to their previous collaborations due to them working without their regular collaborator, writer and director Edgar Wright. It is slightly more commercial and sweet-natured then their previous work. Very few writers/actors have such a strong connection with their audience as Pegg and Frost. They portray the "nerd" world with genuine affection, because they are part of that world themselves. Fans of science-fiction movies and comics will love the multiple references to movies, TV shows, books and comics, in particular Steven Spielberg movies such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
The film is aimed squarely at the kind of audience who know about Comic-Con, and are avid viewers of science-fiction movies and TV shows, but there is enough genuinely funny knockabout humour to appeal to non-fans. The humour in the film is very broad and bad-taste, but it's also leavened with a lot of sweetness. The friendship between Nick Frost and Simon Pegg provides a lot of the film's charm, Seth Rogen has a lot of the film's best lines as the wise-cracking alien, and Kristen Wiig is engaging as the repressed fundamentalist who finds herself liberated through her travels with Paul and co.
The film is a must-see for science-fiction fans, but there is also enough to appeal to general comedy fans as well. For an evening's entertainment it is definitely recommended.


Nick Frost and Simon Pegg have a close encounter in Paul