A Review Of Y2K: A Movie Just Like The Time We Handled The Original Y2K

Fine… That might not be true, but you’d only know if you were there.

Not sure where they got my computer plug from, but I see what they’re doing here.

After the first trailer, I knew it was my destiny to see this film. That is because I am of this era. I was a member of the pre-internet world of magazines and catalogs where you could order eight albums for a penny until they started overcharging you for records you never asked for. (That’s how I once ended up with a Collective Soul record.)

I am sure many of you think of Mike Dynamo as a peer, but that would only be true if you too were an 80s baby. I was there when the real-life Y2K happened. That was the era when we thought computers would link up and kill us all. Those were scary and dangerous times!

Luckily, I thought I was going to live forever, so "The Year 2000 Bug" didn't matter to me. I'd survive like I always did. I also felt I could help repopulate the planet when the chips were down… just like my father taught me.

My attitude wasn't the most popular at the time.

Some people started putting action behind their apocalyptic madness. They make “bug-out bags” and build panic rooms like today’s billionaires. I remember a couple that didn't have a basement spending $20,000 to put one under their house. There were families taking camping trips to abandon all of their technology. There were even religious types under the impression that Y2K was code for "the rapture" where Jesus would pull the most worthy, body and soul, all the way up to live in heaven! I wonder how religious those types might be so long after being wrong about that rapture business. Leave a comment if you know anything!

Ultimately, many folks spent their life’s savings preparing for an apocalypse that never came. I hope all those people who did that in the original Y2K predicament went to therapy and didn't start picking up guns and firing at other humans. Wouldn't it be weird if people did that?

Yeah...

What Is this Y2K movie about?

Let's sum Y2K up like this:

"Y2K is a raunchy teen comedy with numerous teen murders."

One of these characters isn’t going to make it. Can you guess which?

The first thirty minutes is all about a boy who likes a girl he can't talk to. His best friend tries to help that kid get over himself and make contact with the "girl of his dreams," and talk to her in real life rather than America On-Line (AOL). Eli (Jaeden Martell) thinks it would be easier to be the women's basketball equipment manager and paint his action figures. His best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) thinks there must be more than this provincial life, so after doing TaeBo workouts with his mom, these guys make big plans to go to a big New Year's Eve party and take a bunch of Eli's parents liquor along for the occasion. If you've seen any trailers for Y2K you can guess where it goes after that.

Should I Watch Y2K?

It depends. How much do you like the 90s?

To enjoy this film you had to live through the '90s or be a big fan of that time period. That's what Y2K does the best. Everything in this movie is hella 90s. Everything feels like it did the year I graduated from high school. Even the needle drops are on point. For me, that's where the real fun of this film is. It drips THE 90S so hard all over its universe. Whether you're made up of memories or love, you'll enjoy that element. Even all the kids dying don't mess that up, because they'll be new kids singing Tubthumping before you know it.

Being born in 1984, director Kyle Mooney was the perfect age to make something like Y2K. Properly capturing the feeling of that era would be too hard for anyone too old or too young. This time before the year 2000 feels like a different planet. At least we have the same problems to fuss over. Imagine if we went from Y2K to the Star Trek future over these last 25 years. Being in a Star Trek future means we wouldn't get any of the madness we left behind. We could be zipping across worlds and beaming around galaxies if we had put our problems aside and worked together. But who cares? I prefer quality needle drops in 90s movies anyway.