Three Overrated Recent Releases: Thanksgiving, Eileen,& Dream Scenario

The overrated film – the unwanted opposite of the highly preferred pleasant surprise movie. There’s a definite aspect of every movie-watching experience that often goes overlooked, but that is supremely important to the viewer’s ultimate feelings once the credits roll: Expectations.

The three movies we’ll be taking a look at today are all movies that, due to what I expected of them going in, were big letdowns. These films all received very good reviews from critics, but I found each to be undeserving of such high praise. While I don’t think any of the films below are really awful, they are most certainly overrated.

Thanksgiving (2023)

TriStar Pictures, 107 minutes

Eli Roth is a filmmaker who’s created some pretty polarizing movies, but one thing I’ve always appreciated about him is that he takes risks. If you watch something like Hostel, The Green Inferno, or Cabin Fever, and you don’t like copious amounts of horror violence or thinking about some pretty disturbing things, you will hate those movies. You will have some sort of strong opinion on those films either way. Thanksgiving is not like any of those movies.

Thanksgiving is a run-of-the-mill dumb slasher. There’s nothing wrong with a dumb slasher from time to time, but these types of movies should just be a lot of nonstop gruesome fun. I don’t think Thanksgiving even achieves that. 

One major problem with Thanksgiving is the performance of our heroine, Jessica, played by Nell Verlaque. I’m sure she’s a very lovely person in real life, but Verlaque really can’t act, and she just has this “deer in headlights” look that she uses for most of the film. The rest of the cast is also bad, but they can’t compete with her.

With the exception of a few creative kills (which we see all of in the trailer for the movie) and the fact that it’s a horror movie centered around Thanksgiving, which is a really fun idea, this is such a “blah” film. I’ve found the recent entries in the Scream franchise to be just okay, but if you’re expecting something even on par with those movies, you’re going to be disappointed.

Grade: 4/10

Eileen (2023)

NEON, 96 minutes

Eileen is a mystery and thriller that’s light on both mystery and thrills. Despite its short runtime, Eileen somehow manages to be extremely boring. This is a movie where we spend most of our story waiting for something to happen. There’s a lot of buildup with a little, short payoff, and then our story just ends. It manages not to feel super anticlimactic only because the buildup is so lacking in creating any real feeling of tension.

The movie is centered around a young woman named, you guessed it, Eileen. Eileen works at a prison and lives with her abusive, alcoholic father. Her life seems like it will get more interesting when a new doctor, played by Anne Hathaway, starts working at the prison. If that sounds interesting to you, don’t get too excited because the movie is even more boring than that short description makes it seem.

The acting, as a whole, is fine; as is the entire look and feel of the film. This is just one of those movies where it’s not a great story and it doesn’t really have anything interesting to say, so why even make it in the first place?

Grade: 4/10

Dream Scenario (2023)

A24, 102 minutes

Dream Scenario is one of the best examples of wasting a good idea in a mediocre movie in recent memory. The setup for our story is great. A sort of bumbling middle-aged professor has his world turned on its head when he suddenly starts appearing in the dreams of people he’s never even met.

Nicholas Cage plays our lead, and he really nails these types of “down on his luck family man who just can’t get it right” roles. So, Dream Scenario has a great lead and a fun, creative setup, where does it go wrong?

Well, I think the screenwriter really didn’t know where to go with the story. The first 40 or so minutes of Dream Scenario work well, but after that the movie loses its steam. In the third act, things really go off the rails with a big misstep in what direction to take the story.

I appreciate creative films such as this one, but Dream Scenario could’ve benefited greatly from several more drafts of its script. What we get here feels like a well-made first draft that had potential to be a way better movie than what moviegoers actually received. I still think Dream Scenario can be enjoyed for Cage’s performance and its creative central idea, but definitely temper your expectations with this one.

Grade: 5.5/10