Ice Cream Man | Film Review

 

An ice cream man (Ari Millen) sells treats to children, with murderous consequences.

Sometimes hearing bad things about a movie makes me more excited to see it than positive reviews, and this was definitely one of those times. I'd heard so many terrible things about the movie that I couldn't wait to see it for myself!

And the reviews are right, this isn't a great film. Though for the most part I did enjoy watching it.

From the beginning it's clear that the acting isn't going to be great. I think the majority of the kids did a good job, but generally speaking this isn't an acting masterclass.

But the thing that lets it down majorly is the writing. For a start, the characters are caricatures, particularly the child bullies. It's like someone wrote down the traits of a typical bully, mixed them up and threw them into the script with no accounting for individual personalities or anything that could have been used to develop the characters or push the story forward.

The CGI and effects leave a lot to be desired.

I actually thought the death scenes were quite fun. The movie leans into gore and being gruesome and it doesn't really let up in that respect. This is actually one of the better things about it; it shows the creativity of the filmmakers - it's a shame not much else worked.

I would have liked to get to know the main children a bit more, they worked well together and had a dynamic that would have been worth exploring.

The film has been compared to Weapons, and there's definitely some truth in that comparison, but it's a lot less grounded and, while fun, you really have to suspend your disbelief.

What really ruins things is the last 15 minutes. Even when the film is bad in the first hour or so it's fun and somewhat original. The ending just doesn't work at all, it ruins anything that might have been good about the rest of the movie, and it ruins any rewatchability the film had.

So overall, I actually didn't hate this as much as the general public did, but the ending really ruined everything for me, so it isn't one I'd recommend. Though I can definitely imagine watching it again (if I can forget how it ended).

3.5/10