Scooby-Doo (2002)

Director: Raja Gosnell
Stars: Mattew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar
Runtime: 86 minutes

Synopsis: After an acrimonious break up, the Mystery Inc. gang are individually brought to an island resort to investigate strange going on.

Verdict: The live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo is simultaneously the best and worst thing to exist. Worst because it is objectively a bad movie that was justifiably trashed by critics upon its release. And best because it knows it, and uses it to its advantage in the best possible way.

Written by James Gunn and directed by Raja Gosnell, the film is essentially a parody of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" in which the perfectly-cast gang travel to an island resort to come to the bottom of sinister things going on there that may or may not be initiated by an underground cult. The self-aware approach to the story, which somehow got away with a PG rating, is, to me, the only correct way to make a live-action adaptation of the beloved show. It's a movie that doesn't give two shits about anything else than sneaking in jokes aimed at adults while maintaining a kid-friendly facade. It's a movie I learned to enjoy more as I grew up, and one that I'd personally classify in the "guilty pleasure" category. It's dumb, it's crude, it's immature, and it has some of the worst CGI I have ever seen, but the fact that it is perfectly aware of all that is exactly why I have so much fun with it.

"Scooby-Doo" is both of its time and ahead of it. I can't think of a movie that embodies the 2000s so well and it's a project that would never be greenlit in today's world. And that's exactly why it must be preserved at all costs.

FINAL GRADE: 7/10