I laughed quite a lot. This takes itself so goddamn seriously, it’s almost like it doesn’t know that it’s really fucking trashy. How does a director look at this material and think: yeah, I can make a serious thriller out of this. Besides being hilariously dumb, the dialogue and acting are truly on a whole other level. If the director comes out and admits that they intentionally parodied Will Smith’s “what are we, some kind of Suicide Squad” line in this, I’ll reconsider my score. Until then: 2/10

**The mysteries just keep unraveling** Just been to the cinema to watch Escape Room 2 the tournament of champions. Like the name suggests this is putting six people together like the orginal movie into different Escape Rooms, but this time it is people known as the champions basically people who have beat the game before, but obviously Zoey and Ben are the ones from the previous Escape Room movie and the only ones that where both of them made it out alive due to Zoey pretending to be dead when gassed in the hospital in the previous film. Then fighting to save Ben as well so both of them made it out unlike the others where there is only one winner per Escape Room. In Escape Room 2 these champions now face it head to head as they are tricked into participating in this Escape Room like last time, but with interesting twists and turns along the way. The Escape Rooms got even more creative with them becoming more complex, however I did feel like they kind of rushed over them unlike the first movie. Obviously this maybe intentional by the writers as it sets up Zoey and Ben's next chapter as Minos controls the game and only makes you think that you have some kind of control, which overall makes for an interesting watch and nothing is ever what it seems. Hoping for a third movie to tie it all off, which I hope the writers have taken this into account. I highly recommend this film a very fast paced continuation from the last movie with amazing set design incorporated into the VFX. The plot twists just keep on coming well done to Taylor Russell and Logan Miller for your amazing performances as well as the rest of the cast and crew on making this movie so mind bogglingly entertaining as well as leaving us on the edge of our seats wondering what happens next. Also one last thing is I have never seen a film do a previously before it was like watching a TV show, but I appreciated the recap at the start preparing us for the mysteries that is about to unravel. I definitely think movie movie sequels should do this as people can easily forget key details. 😲😀

The games continue in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. Six survivors of previous Minos escape room games are brought together for another series of deadly games. Unfortunately none of the new characters seem like champions, never displaying the intelligence or skill of a gamesman. Nor do the games themselves seem all that clever or inventive. Although, some of this could be explained by the final reveal. Nevertheless, there’s still a fair amount of intrigue to the games and a couple of exciting action sequences. Plot issues aside, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is a fairly entertaining film that delivers some good thrills.

Saw lite was okay. Some of the puzzles were pretty good, but I found the acting and dialogue to be sub par and often took me out of it. 5.4. Watch for the intense rooms if you like these types of flicks (I tend to) and try not to cringe too hard at the script.

Note: the home version is incredibly different to the theatrical release. Because of this intentional deception by the studio, to split audiences and confuse us, this is the first movie I'm rating a 1 on this website. I wish I could rate it 0. Not as "dumb but fun" as the original. The weird tertiary subplot with the family dynamic is really ham-fisted and unnecessary. Some of the logic here is far too preposterous and contrived, even for a wacky horror/sci-fi movie like this. For example, at the end where [spoiler]the dad is locked in the daughter's room, why doesn't he just use the code that he himself implemented to escape... did I miss a part where the daughter was faking her imprisonment the whole time or something? And if the friend survived the quicksand, what about the priest guy who fell through the sand too[/spoiler]? The movie often doesn't trust the audience, flashing back to scenes that literally happened 5 minutes ago, as if we're too dumb to remember and even then these revelations don't pay off, like [spoiler]what's the point in the character who can't feel pain, she doesn't do anything with this "superpower" to help anyone and just dies randomly[/spoiler]. The story here is not well thought out or plotted at all. These "contestants" die for little to no reason and we don't even get to see their fears realised, which was a big part of their character backstory and dialogue during their introduction. The whole plane simulation in the first act never came to fruition and should have been cut... what, was it meant to "subvert expectations" because they took a car and a train instead or some bullshit? Then show us that they avoided the plane crashing, 'Final Destination' style or don't bother including it at all. (Edit: I just found out the theatrical version is completely different to the version I watched at home, which includes a different ending where [spoiler]they're trapped in this plane sim, Amanda from the original movie is involved with the Minos corporation thing, and there's a subplot with Zoey's therapist that foreshadows the events of this movie[/spoiler]... why was all of this cut for the home release? I've never been gaslighted so bad, I'm so fucking mad lmao). This movie is filled with Chekhov's gun moments and doesn't follow up on ANY of them. Not to mention half of the puzzles are solved in the characters' heads without including the audience (they just yell the answers to each other). It is incredibly frustrating and unsatisfying. Then the movie suddenly wraps up and ends with an allusion to a sequel. Please don't.