Shower Beer Vol IX: Stuff We’re Watching

Hey there fellow movie and television fans. If you've ever listened to our podcast you know that the second segment of our show is called our "protein shake" where each bro discusses things that are "in our cup", or what have we watched lately. Well recently I've been watching too much shit to bring up on just the podcast, so with the help of our creative team (Nate Thurmond) we decided to blog about a few of the things we've seen recently that we wanted to discuss that we might have left out. We're naming it after the greatest pre-gaming invention of the 21st century, the shower beer!

Here are the things I've seen lately as well as the link to their IMDB page if you want a little bit more info to see if it's something down your alley. In addition, I write Letterboxd reviews for all the movies I see without any spoilers, but I might go into a bit more detail in this blog than I do over there.

1) Creed III - (Amazon Prime rental) I'm a pretty big fan of the Creed franchise, and I was really intrigued when I saw Michael B. Jordan was making his directorial debut with this one. Jonathan Majors is pretty captivating as the villain, and it somehow keeps itself afloat without the inclusion of Rocky at all. The boxing scenes go in and out of being realistic, but are really well choreographed. Overall I liked this a lot, but I'm not sure how much more juice is left in this franchise to be honest.

2) The Little Mermaid (2023) - (Theaters) I haven't been impressed with most of the Disney live action movies, which I don't feel is a sentiment that many people would oppose. I had some hopes for this one because there are some absolute banger songs, and Halle Bailey has a golden set of pipes. I was also pretty intrigued when Javier Bardem was cast as King Triton. Ultimately when the movie is underwater it's pretty entertaining. It absolutely stops dead in it's tracks when they reach land, and the guy playing Prince Eric is atrocious. It's also egregiously too long at two hours and fifteen mins. If this could've came in at a cool one hour forty mins it would've been the best live action adaptation Disney's put out yet.

3) Air - (Amazon Prime) I'm a big sports guy, and even overly dramatized sports stories told in movies have always been down my alley. I went into Air kind of rolling my eyes at another collaboration with Matt Damon and Affleck, but this was surprisingly good. Affleck still has his chops as a Director, and the origin of Nike as the shoe giant it is now plays such a big part in the story that even if you know the Michael Jordan portion of it like the back of your hand there is still quite a few interesting moments. Definitely recommend this one.

4) John Wick: Chapter 4 - (Amazon Prime rental) You know going into any John Wick movie that the action is going to be mind blowing, and Keanu Reeves is going to give a weird, but incredibly entertaining performance as the titular character. I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but why the fuck is this movie so long?? Clocking in just under three hours, it becomes exhausting and I don't have the adrenaline to maintain my focus with this type of film for that long. Also, partly due to the length, and now having four installments in this franchise, the lore of the Continental and all that it encompasses is starting to collapse in on itself. I don't particularly care because I watch these movies for the action, but at this point I'm so confused as to who holds what position within the organization, and even what the point of half of these fights are.

5) The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story - (Youtube Original) Our legal counsel Rony Seikaly and myself are completely un-ironically huge fans of the Backstreet Boys. This Youtube original documentary highlights the man who built their boy band, along with N'SYNC and many others in the mid to late 90's, Lou Pearlman. I had no idea about this story, and the bait and switch that Lou Pearlman ran so it was pretty crazy to hear about this. If you are a 90's kid like me and into the music of that time, you'll get a kick out of this. They also have interviews with members of the big groups he represented which really helps paint the picture of what exactly was going on.

6) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - (Theaters) As a kid I lived and breathed Beast Wars the animated series, so when I heard this was coming out I was all in. I enjoyed the first Transformers, and really liked Bumblebee as well. This movie is definitely in the upper half of the franchise, but I wanted way more of the Maximals over the OG Transformers. I'm not a huge fan of Pete Davidson in this as they try to make it his movie, but when the Beasts are on screen they kick ass, and the final scene of the movie has me unapologetically excited for what could come in the future. I'll admit I'm like a pig in slop with shit like this and I don't even feel bad about it.

7) Cam (2018) - (Netflix) I can't remember now where I saw this movie recommended as a sneaky good thriller from a few years ago that fell through the cracks. I really wish I could though so I could shit on them for having no taste whatsoever. I love a good horror/thriller, and anything involving social media or the internet has me hooked. Unfriended: Dark Web is one of my top 200 movies of all time. This is an utter piece of shit that never has any interesting ideas, tension, and in the end the resolution doesn't even really make sense. The characters are boring and none of them have two brain cells to rub together. Stay away!

8) Winter House S2 - (Peacock) Just as a pallet cleanser, the wife and I are always working our way through some reality series that's really trashy, or watching some cooking shows which I like to update you on from time to time. Our obsession for about the past two years has been both Summer House, and Winter House from the Bravo family of reality TV which you can find all on Peacock. The premise, take about ten mid twenties to mid thirties people, let them vacation for a few weeks in Vermont, and get them hammered drunk every night. You can imagine what ensues. I would die before I spoiled what happens in this show for you guys out there, but I'll say season one of Winter House was to me more interesting based on the hookups we had going on, but season 2 definitely ramps up the in-fighting and the testosterone is at full blast.

9) The Flash - (Theaters) My most anticipated movie of the Summer (albeit in what I am looking at as a bit of a down year for Summer movies) and one that I knew I had to see opening day to avoid spoilers. Well, fuck the internet because I literally saw it the Thursday it came out at 11am, and people online still felt that I had waited too long and needed to just make posts about surprise cameos from the film. Regardless, I think it is a very solid outing from DC, although it definitely has it's flaws and things that bother me. Seeing Keaton again as Batman almost made me cry, and Sasha Calle is awesome as Super Girl. I still hate Ezra Miller both as a person and a performer, but there is enough charm in this movie still to overcome that.

10) Extraction II - (Netflix) This movie has the second greatest action sequence I've ever seen committed to film in my life, don't @ me. The greatest in my opinion is the palace and freeway fight in The Matrix Reloaded. Chris Hemsworth is such a physical presence in this, and it had me locked in the whole way through. I really liked the first Extraction so this was on my radar for awhile, and this movie keeps the momentum going. I'm fully in for a franchise now, and with some of the fun casting choices they've made I'm really excited to see what they could do going forward. Definitely give this a poke and bust out your best picture and sound setup for it.

-JH