5 OF THE BEST
IT CHAPTER TWO
OUT NOW (DVD, BLU-RAY, DOWNLOAD) / CERT MA / 170 MINS
Where you land on this concluding chapter of Andy Muschietti’s mammoth Stephen King adaptation will likely depend on your feelings on the first. For me, what it lacks in the Me-ish charm of the previous outing, it makes up for in sheer ambition. The brilliantly cast grownup Losers (Bill Hader and James Ransone are uncanny as the older Richie and Eddie) are saddled with a batshit plot involving inter-dimensional magic, cranking up the genre on such a grandiose blockbuster scale? Beneath all the set-pieces, the explorations of PTSD and small-town bigotry — and the characters you’ve come to deeply care for — remain. Viewed as part of the whole, it’s a flawed victory.
