Shower Beer Vol L: 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) Oh. What. Fun. - (Amazon Prime) They loaded up on the cast here. I might say this was the big budget holiday movie of the season considering I didn’t notice anything theatrically coming out. We have the classic family with adult kids is hosting Christmas, and each character is dealing with something in their lives that is only exacerbated by coming back home and dealing with familial problems. Michelle Pfeiffer is the bell cow here and carries the load, but honestly her story isn’t even the most interesting one to me, which I think is actually a strength of the movie. In the end this is incredibly watchable, and might make it into my like every three years Christmas rotation. Could’ve landed some of the comedic bits a bit better, especially with Dominic Cessa’s character, but I thought all the arcs played out really well and it’s very well acted.

2) Predator: Badlands - (Digital rental) Since Dan Trachtenberg got his hands on Predator I’ve been like cult leader of his fan club. This is on par with his previous two entries, and really does some fucking incredible world building. The Alien tie in with the Yutani Corporation being front and center is badass, and how the hell did he craft a story that made me actually care about the Predator? The set pieces are insane, and are able to use the unique weaponry and creature design that we can only get from a Predator movie. I’m not totally caught up on my lore with the franchise so if there are a few recycled ideas in here I didn’t know, but it all felt fresh and the world the movie takes place on was really sick. Dan Trachtenberg you’re a genius and I hope we have another one of these coming soon.

3) The Christmas Classic - (Netflix) Probably the second worst Christmas movie I watched this year after Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point. The difference here is this thing doesn’t have high hopes for itself. It starts off with this really jarring animated sequence that lasts so long I had to fast forward a bit to see if I clicked on the wrong movie. The cinematography is utterly appalling and gross in every way and things are lit like a softcore porn is about to break out. Malin Ackerman is better than this, and to think she was once in Couple’s Retreat and Watchmen and is now slumming it here is honestly kind of hard to watch. The movie does have a few hilarious moments when Reno 911 alum Carlos Alazraqui (not checking the spelling on that) shows up as a tv personality named Dick Mountain, which is what my next gmail account will be.

4) The Floor S4 - (Hulu) I’m Rob Lowe, and this is The Floor. No guys I’m not Rob Lowe, but I do watch this show every season. Season four introduces a new concept where of the 100 contestants on the floor, we have two representing each state. The issue is they do absolutely nothing with this, and it has no effect on the game it’s just basically for funsies. There’s something there if they could figure out how to make it meaningful in some way, or have the contestants on teams or something. I do start to worry that we’re running out of categories for this show, or if we’re going to have to start repeating some from earlier seasons. One other thing I found utterly hilarious from this season was people on the floor getting chummy with those surrounding them and making these stupid fucking pacts or promises never to challenge each other, only to go against it at the first opportunity. The way these people reacted when they had to play under those circumstances was probably more dramatic then when Judas betrayed Jesus it was the biggest thing to ever happen to them in their lives.

5) Four Christmases - (HBO Max) I have an interesting relationship with this film because I’m a massive Vince Vaughn fan, but this is probably in my bottom half of his movies. I know it is a Christmas staple for a lot of people, and I probably watch it every other year. The scene at the mega church where he plays Joseph in the nativity play is iconic and classic Vince Vaughn so that alone can get me through the movie. “God there’s so many ways I can play this!” The concept is great fodder for humor even if all but probably one of the families are such caricatures of regular human beings that it’s hard to relate in any way. The ending is great and een though this isn’t in my top ten Christmas films, its never one I will walk away from if somebody else puts it on.

6) Invasion U.S.A. - (Tubi) It’s crazy to say, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Chuck Norris movie until this one. It definitely was exactly what I was expecting. In this film we have a bunch of random communists teaming up to invade the United States through the beaches of Miami. Think Red Dawn, but in this case our antagonists fucked up because they didn’t realize Chuck Norris is residing in the swamps of Florida to put an end to their scheme. The villain is a guy named Rostov who is ruthless, and probably from any Eastern European country. You can just throw a dart at a map and you got it. He has a prior relationship with Chuck Norris’ character, and shits his pants anytime Norris is mentioned. The Uzi and explosion budget on this movie alone is very respectable, and while it takes no time giving us any real rhyme or reason for anything happening, it’s very fun and stupid as you would expect it to be. On Tubi the amount of commercials that come with the film are a bit rough, but it’s a free service so it’s hard to complain too much.

7) Spirited - (Apple TV) I’m not sure how you take a Christmas movie with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell and make it this insufferable. It’s a musical, with dog shit songs which is probably our first problem. Reynolds looks like he just wants to get out of there and have the check clear, and Ferrell is playing his classic “I’m overly excited and emotionally clueless” character which we’ve seen at least five time in movies. Octavia Spencer does her best, but cannot save the movie as she isn’t given the ball enough. There is a unique spin on the Christmas Carol plot which I did kind of like, but it’s wrapped in a turd wrapping paper here with no other redeeming qualities. I remember this coming out and getting surprisingly little word of mouth which I thought was odd at the time, but after seeing it I get it. Also it’s just over two hours long which is not something it can justify.

8) The Muppet Christmas Carol - (Disney +) My second favorite Christmas movie of all time. Basically a perfect film in every way. Michael Caine goes all out (as you should with the muppets) and he is having the time of his life. The music in this is following a strict bangers only rule. Scrooge is getting worse to open the film goes so hard you’d think it sets a bar that the rest of the movie can’t clear, but then you get to One More Sleep Till Christmas and it’s already topped itself. The idea to have Stadler and Waldorf split the character of Jacob Marley is brilliant, and Fozziwig (although he needed a bigger role) and his annual Christmas party might be my favorite scene in the film. Animal doing his best to somehow not go ham on the drums and play what he’s asked, only to fucking lose it and go Travis Barker is hilarious. If you’ve never seen this movie you have to watch it next Christmas.

9) Jingle All The Way - (Disney +) Running through my must watches every Christmas, and Jingle All The Way is firmly in that list. One of my favorite Christmas movies behind the likes of All I want For Christmas, Home Alone, and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Arnold has never been better as Howard Langston. Yes he is insanely miscast as this mattress salesman in suburban Minnesota, but that’s part of what makes it work so well. Every time I watch this I find Sinbad’s performance less funny, and the late Phil Hartman’s more iconic. His line “I’ve been following a family of deer down by lake Minnetonka…” is one that I wedge into the conversation like once a week because I find it so hilarious. He was doing all he could for Johnny, and yes he was benefitting as well by bagging every wife in his cul de sac, but players play so don’t hate him. The non alcoholic egg nog he offered Liz I thought was a nice gesture, even considering he came onto her unrequited prior to that. We should all take off the white wig and stop judging. The last fifteen minutes get a bit ridiculous even for this movie, but it’s a great time and will get you in the holiday spirit.

10) Regretting You - (Paramount +) When my wife asked if we could watch this I rolled my eyes at first, but I’ve seen this play out before. I begrudgingly throw on some film that she read the book of, and fifteen minutes in I’m absolutely hooked and asking more questions than a fucking homicide detective in an interrogation. With this movie if you saw the trailer you basically know the entire plot. What you don’t know is how bad of an actor Dave Franco can be, and how captivating it is to watch. The melodrama works to an extent, and McKenna Grace as the angsty teen had me fired up to argue with my parents again like back in the old days. Ultimately I don’t think this movie is good, but I have to say the run time flew by and I was enjoying some of the dialogue in it. I don’t think I’d ever say it’s a must watch, but if your wife also asks you to throw it on I wouldn’t put up too much of a fight.

-JH