CW: crude language and occasional bloody violence
Where the fuck did this come from?
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have made an anthology out of bits of 1980s pastiche complete with fake videotape grunge and period appropriate music that isn't just tactical needle drops.
Not everything lands 100% but it has such heart you'll forgive it.
They keep alluding to Tom Hanks then suddenly he's in it with a hear him before you see him cameo that probably took an hour to shoot but is perfect.
In fact everybody is perfect for what they're needed to do and none of this smells of being focus grouped to death. It's like they just had solid ideas and stuck to them instead of polishing them until they had no texture.
At the end over the credits there's a fake music video for the rap duo and it's great. At one point there's a ninja gearing up scene to the strains of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica. When Pedro Pascal goes into a video shop he asks for "Big Trouble in Little China". The bands in the punk club get several songs onscreen and they're _good_ emulations of that thing.
Not big and clever but if you've any appreciation of 80s video store culture very worth your time. 8/10 because it's different without trying to be special.