Stephen King fans have made a key realisation over Jenna Ortega’s newest movie.
Ortega stars in the film alongside The Weeknd as well as Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough, so you’d think on the cast alone that the film would be at minimum okay.
Instead, however, Ortega’s newest cinematic outing has flopped critically, being met by a lowly 16% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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The film, called Hurry Up Tomorrow, was written by The Weeknd, who plays a a fictionalised version of himself, and accompanies his new album of the same name.
Why is Hurry Up Tomorrow attracting the interest of Stephen King fans?
The movie has had fans making one single point – that it is incredibly similar in concept and execution to Stephen King’s Misery, made into a 1990 film.
Hurry Up Tomorrow features Ortega as a crazy fan, obsessed with The Weeknd, creating obvious links to Misery. The film, based on a Stephen King novel, sees an author’s self-professed biggest fan trap him after an accident, claiming to be nursing him back to health.
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Some early reports surrounding Hurry Up Tomorrow suggested it was a remake or reimagining of the film, though that has not been a feature of the subsequent marketing for the film.
The comparison has remained, however, with several reviews comparing the two films.
Pitchfork made the comparison clear in their similarly negative review, saying: “To an extent, Hurry Up Tomorrow shares DNA with Misery, the Stephen King novel turned film that raises complex questions about fame, pop culture, and the extremes of fandom.
“Unfortunately, these ideas are just kind of slapped on the surface of Hurry Up Tomorrow, which fails to penetrate deeper into the lives and motivations of its characters.”
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Fans on social media made the same connection, with one posting to X to say: “Hurry Up Tomorrow is literally Misery by Stephen King.”
What have fans and critics been saying about the film?
As you can probably guess from the 16% on Rotten Tomatoes and snippets of the above reviews, it isn’t good.
One viewer said that the Ortega and The Weeknd led film was ‘one of the worst of the decade’, saying: “Easily one of the worst movies of the decade, a movie that can't even be saved by a powerhouse of a performance by Jenna Ortega.”
Another said: "As a big fan of The Weeknd and [director] Trey Edward Schults, Hurry Up Tomorrow was a baffling letdown.
“I can see the genuineness trying to reach out but it kept getting pushed down by its overly self-indulgent nature.”
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This was an opinion shared by critics, with Clint Worthington writing for RogerEbert.com in his half star review: “It’s vapid, meandering, and insistent on its own profundity as a tale of an artist reckoning with fame.”
Hurry Up Tomorrow is available to watch in cinemas now.
Topics: TV and Film, Film, Jenna Ortega, The Weeknd, Barry Keoghan, Reviews, Stephen King
Michael Slavin