Thursday, January 11, 2018

Wish Upon [2017]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]


The "be careful what you wish for" plot is a classic that has been done to death. The only way to really use that premise at this point is to have a new spin on it and maybe something to say. And in a way this movie does have a new spin. It plays with a couple new concepts including what if the main character were horrible and stupid? What if the consequences were totally arbitrary and didn't have some significant connection to the wishes? And what if the ending was totally unexpectedly hilarious? Sure, maybe they aren't good concepts, but they sure are new.

You remember when you were a teenager and had to suffer the embarrassment of your dumpster driving father looking for stuff to hoard outside your high school? Remember having the popular kids almost hit you with a car and then throw a soda all over your art? No? Yeah, me neither. Nothing about the main character's life resembles real teenage life and the dialogue was clearly written by middle aged men. The main's father gives her an interesting Chinese box he found in a trash can, which she conveniently wishes upon. Every wish she makes is superficial and foolish and leads to someone in her limited circle dying randomly with no correlation between wish and consequence. She wishes for money and popularity and even when she starts to notice how everyone around her is dying, she keeps wishing. She finds out through a classmate's cousin who can read ancient Chinese that after seven wishes, the blood price will be hers and that many people have died from using the box. Still she cracks under pressure and on wish six she wishes that her mother who commited suicide when she was young was still alive. Of course, this kills her dad. She makes one final wish to go back to the day she got the box and just as she was giving it to her classmate who's crushing on her and telling him to bury it, she gets hit by a car. It is hilarious.

Overall, this movie is worth a watch. There are a lot of laughs to be had with the bad dialogue, poor plotting, and "Final Destination"-style deaths.

Quotes:
"You're a selfish bowl of bitch sauce."

"She's a slut for wontons."

Spoon Rating: 6

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