\u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come,\u201d<\/a> which takes off from that same moment. But the mood does not remain light. Uttering that last line, Grace (Samara Weaving) then collapses into unconsciousness and is carted away by ambulance. And her troubles, of course, are just beginning.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard to pinpoint why this next level of Grace\u2019s very bad wedding night, again directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, feels darker and heavier \u2014 and hence, less enjoyable \u2014 than the original, which managed to maintain a bouncy feel, even with bodies combusting at an absurd rate. But if we have to blame someone, we\u2019re gonna go with the doctor from \u201cThe Pitt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yep, that would be Shawn Hatosy, and we\u2019re sorry, dear handsome Dr. Jack Abbott, but we never thought you could be such a downer. There\u2019s a particularly odious scene where Hatosy\u2019s character, Titus, seems to echo the murderous Shakespearean protagonist that he is, come to think of it, probably named after \u2014 Titus Andronicus. His twin sister, Ursula, is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, and together they\u2019re quite the depressing duo.<\/p>\n
But back to the plot: Grace had triumphantly stayed alive \u2018til dawn in the first movie, thus winning the dastardly game she\u2019d been forced to play moments after marrying Alex, her rich boyfriend. Required by family ritual to draw a game card from a deck, she\u2019d unluckily drawn hide-and-seek, which meant she had to hide while the extended family hunted her down with weapons both antique and modern. Only gritty Grace survived.<\/p>\n
The supporting cast of the first movie, including Andie MacDowell and Adam Brody, is not back (duh). In their place is a new group, including Hatosy, Gellar, Elijah Wood as the attorney who runs the grim proceedings, and Kathryn Newton as Grace\u2019s sister, Faith.<\/p>\n
Or should we say estranged sister. Faith shows up at Grace\u2019s hospital bed, having not seen her in years, because she was listed as Grace\u2019s emergency contact. There\u2019s a detective in the room, too. Grace is now, annoyingly, suspected of arson and murder.<\/p>\n
But soon none of that matters. Because, it turns out, Grace is being hunted yet again \u2014 not by her in-laws, the Le Domas family, which is gone, but by four other families jockeying for the High Seat on the council that rules the world. <\/p>\n
And so Grace is captured, and everyone converges on a Newport, Rhode Island, estate with a gorgeous golf course, for another night of hunting. Is Grace up to the challenge of this new level of play?<\/p>\n
Of course she is, and so is Weaving, who proves yet again that she\u2019s better than the material: expressive in both fear and feistiness, a good screamer, and able to step back for an occasional moment of humor. Lookalike Newton proves an appealing companion, and of course Faith and Grace stop bickering and start bonding \u2014 did you expect anything else? \u201cI tried to invite you to the wedding,\u201d Grace says helpfully at one point. Reminder: the wedding ended in a bloodbath.<\/p>\n
Speaking of a bloodbath, deep into the movie\u2019s production notes comes an icky statistic: Some 250 gallons of stage blood were used for the film. Maybe all that blood was needed, but the extra 15 minutes of run time, compared to the original, feel unnecessary. You start to wonder when dawn will come.<\/p>\n
And while most of the deaths have a cartoonish element, there\u2019s nothing cartoonish when Titus is involved.<\/p>\n
No, there is little to redeem this truly mendacious character. So fair warning: If you\u2019re still in the middle of the current season of \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d where Hatosy\u2019s Abbott is busy being heroic and also taking off his shirt, it might be better to wait a bit before you watch him here, doing the very opposite of saving lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come,\u201d a Searchlight Pictures release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association \u201cfor strong bloody violence, gore, pervasive language and brief drug use.\u201d Running time: 148 minutes. Two stars out of four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we last left our new bride, Grace, at the end of 2019\u2019s \u201cReady or Not,\u201d she was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":683618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[99366,86986,1578,32725,171,42166,4221,79801,287086,195595,240060,53,47339,198938,287085,240065,67,132,68,13621],"class_list":["post-683617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-brody","tag-andie-macdowell","tag-associated-press","tag-elijah-wood","tag-entertainment","tag-film-reviews","tag-homicide","tag-jack-abbott","tag-jocelyn-noveck","tag-kathryn-newton","tag-matt-bettinelli-olpin","tag-movies","tag-sarah-michelle-gellar","tag-shawn-hatosy","tag-titus-andronicus","tag-tyler-gillett","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-weddings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116296664284334341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}