The Stream: Too many trite and bland characters populate this teen comedy.

The Big Screen: A funny angle on the apocalyptic, horror genre.

The Final Bill: Y2K has a funny premise but not enough plot to to sustain a feature film.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Kyle Mooney
Writers: Kyle Mooney & Evan Winter
Stars: Kyle Mooney, Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Rating: R for bloody violence, strong sexual content/nudity, pervasive language, and teen drug and alcohol use.
Runtime: 1 hour 24 minutes
Production Companies: A24, American Light & Fixture, Strong Baby
Platform: In theaters December 6, 2024
Notable Trailers: Companion, One of Them Days, Den of Thieves 2, Wolfman, The Brutalist, Babygirl

Hey, Streamers! It’s almost time to party like it’s 2025. I guess it is a good time to take a look back at the time when we were partying because it was 1999 about to become 2000. Unfortunately, we were under the threaten of a major technological catastrophe dubbed Y2K. Saturday Night Live’s Kyle Mooney directed and co-wrote this horror comedy about that fateful night called, Y2K. In this movie, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), high school juniors and best friends, go to the blowout New Year’s Eve party, so that Eli can kiss his crush, Laura (Rachel Zegler). When the clock strikes midnight, things go haywire, and people start to die bloody deaths. Is that Y2K bug actually real? Stoner-vibes, old computers and late 90’s pop music hijinks ensue.

Y2K is a funny thought stretched to a 90-minute movie. That’s it. The plot is so basic and underdeveloped that you can’t discuss it without spoiling the movie. Moreover, the setup of these nerdy best friends going to the cool kid’s house for a big party is so cliched and tired that it almost makes you check out right from the start. It’s a mix of Superbad and Can’t Hardly Wait but it’s New Year’s Eve instead of post-graduation. You know exactly where that part is going. When the movie takes the turn it inevitably has to, there is a bit of a spark, but that’s it. It never really catches fire. There are some initial shocks, but the movie really flatlines because the story doesn’t go anywhere interesting and it’s not that funny. The characters are annoying and dumb but not in a fun way – just bland and boring.

It sounds like I hated this movie, which I didn’t. It just is kind of boring when it could have been really fun. I’m not upset. I’m just disappointed.

Ultimately, Y2K is not a movie, but a sketch stretched to the length of a movie. There is a clever premise, but it is never fleshed out to more than that. The characters are cliched and annoying, and the laughs are few and far between. Mercifully, this movie is short, you won’t waste a lot of time. There’s no need to trek to the theater for this. Just wait with a handful of popcorn for it to appear on a streaming service.