MadisonBailey – Credits Rolling

Based on You’ve Got Mail and The Shop Around the Corner, Maintenance Required follows Charlie (Madelaine Petsch), who runs the mechanic shop that she inherited from her father. Together with her best friends Kam (Katy O’Brian) and Izzy (Madison Bailey) the business has become a staple in their neighborhood. When a big time car dealership moves in across the street, Charlie’s business is threatened. What she doesn’t know is that her business rival Beau (Jacob Scipio) just so happens to be the person she’s been confiding to online for months.

I really wanted to like this film. Romcoms are always a good idea and the fact that this one was a remake of one of my all time favorites certainly peaked my interest. Unfortunately it all fell apart for me rather quickly and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It did have potential, but that potential just never really saw the light of day.

I have been a fan of Pestch’s since her Riverdale days (Cheryl Blossom was my spirit animal). Now that the show is over and done with, I have been looking forward to seeing what she would do next. While she’s already tossed her hat into the horror genre ring, I had not yet seen her do something more contemporary and I think it really suited her. The character of Charlie is one who is one hundred percent dedicated to her job. She’s so dedicated that she lets other parts of her life take a backseat. Although she had to make some difficult choices, she always stayed true to herself. I was not familiar with Scipio prior to this role and while I thought he and Pestch had decent enough chemistry, I did not like his character one bit. I know that was the point, but I wish we had seen more of a backstory to him to garner some sort of empathy.

What I did enjoy about the film was the friendship between Charlie, Kam and Izzy. You could tell that they had each others’ backs no matter what. The way that Kim and Izzy in particular would always show up for Charlie and help find ways to keep the business going was so sweet. Everyone deserves friends like them! Their scenes together really lit up the screen; that was the true love story.

Overall, Maintenance Required was not great. It had some flickers of promise, but it never came to fruition. It had some pretty big shoes to fill and yet it just fell short. There was a magical spark that I couldn’t help feel was missing and that just made watching it through difficult.

Rating: ♥️♥️

Four students were murdered twenty years ago. Lucy’s (Madison Bailey) sister Summer (Antonia Gentry) was one of them. While she’s always tried to forge her own path, it’s clear that Lucy will never fill the void that Summer left behind. When she accidentally time travels, she has the chance to get to know the sister she never had. But uncovering the decades long mystery becomes difficult for if Lucy alters the timeline, she will cease to exist.

If you saw Prime’s Totally Killer from last year, then you know more or less what to expect from this film. The similarities are endless, but what I really enjoyed about Time Cut was the time period in which it was set. Being transported back to 2003 was such a nostalgia trip. Reliving the velour sweatsuits, platform flip flops, French tips and initial necklaces had me feeling like a preteen again. Throw in a banger of a soundtrack with tracks such as So Yesterday by Hilary Duff, Complicated by Avril Lavigne and All You Wanted by Michelle Branch and my heart was soaring.

The cast did a good job in their respective roles. I’ve been a fan of Bailey’s since the early days of Outer Banks and I am familiar with Gentry thanks to Ginny and Georgia. Seeing the two of them team up and as sisters was enjoyable. I felt like they had a natural chemistry. Griffin Gluck, who portrayed Quinn, was a welcome addition. I like how he helped the sisters track down the killer.

Though the film started off on the right foot, it seemed to lose its way around the midpoint mark. It started with a dip in which some scientific jargon had to be explained and then it didn’t really bounce back afterwards. I did have an inkling as to who the killer was and though I was proven right, it wasn’t in the way that I was expecting. The twist was certainly different, but ultimately confusing and could have been explained better.

Overall Time Cut is a fun little slasher flick that is perfect for this time of the year. I would have liked for it to be a bit more fleshed out and with some more gruesome kills, but the nostalgia trip alone made it worth watching.

Rating: ♥️♥️♥️