Shower Beer Vol LVI: 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) Man on Fire S1 - (Netflix) Yaya Abdul Mateen has had a busy year between this and Wonder Man, and I’ve liked both shows. I have no real connection to the Denzel film this is based on, but I’m kinda interested in checking it out now. Mateen plays a Marine who is struggling with PTSD after an awful incident in which a team he’s in charge of gets brutally slaughtered, and we see the trope of the “I’m never going back into the field”...until the guy has to here, but it’s fleshed out pretty well across the seven episodes. I won’t spoil anything, but I’d bet if you have ever seen any show or movie ever you can take a decent guess at what is really happening here. There are some great kills and I enjoyed the Brazilian setting so I had fun with this. If there is a season two I’d imagine I’ll give it a poke.

2) Haunt - (Prime Video) No clue how I came across this, but even when it’s not October I’m always down for a good haunted house movie. Here the ste up is a group of college students stumble across an odd looking haunted house on Halloween night after a few drinks, and they can’t help themselves but to check it out. Things go off the rails pretty quickly, and this movie does try it’s best to avoid the classic stupid choices by characters where you’re like “ok well you’re obviously going to die”. There is a pretty big sub plot with the main character and some trauma from her childhood that while tactfully done, really has no place in this kind of film and ends up being a bigger part of the narrative than I thought going in. The ending is kind of interesting, and after some internet research I think I had it totally wrong. I’d say around Halloween this is something that might end up being an every other year watch for me.

3) Celebrity Jeopardy All Stars S4 - (Hulu) I love both Celebrity Jeopardy, and Pop Culture Jeopardy because unlike the original, I actually know some of these answers so I don’t feel like a failure in life for a brief stretch. This series was particularly interesting as we had the champion from the past season of Celebrity Jeopardy, Ike Barinholtz, slotted into the semifinals and waiting for his next round of opponents. Another thing I loved, and understand why Jeopardy can’t do it normally due to runtime, but there were three rounds of Jeopardy, with the triple Jeopardy round having three daily doubles. It really ups the stakes, strategy, and ensures that the best man or woman win. I won’t spoil who comes out the champion here even though I myself fell victim once again to an internet spoiler ruin it for me, but the final episode is pretty interesting so check this out.

4) Sea of Love - (Digital rental) I feel like in the late 80’s Al Pacino made dozens of these movies, and they all work to varying degrees. The murder mystery and procedural aspect to this movie is really interesting, and the gritty way they capture New York is something that feels like when done poorly it ruins a movie, but that’s not the case here. It tackles dating through personal ads, which feels like the precursor to the internet dating craze that we’re in the middle of now. John Goodman does his usual John Goodman thing, and the police chief is great too. I’m too lazy to look up the actors name, but he’s an awesome character actor from stuff like Saving Silverman and the Jessica Biel Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The ending did catch me by surprise which is always fun. The title here could use a little work as it references a song that is part of the plot, but really throws people off the scent and almost had me stay away from this film. Don’t make that mistake as I think this is a good time, and would give it the Horns stamp of approval.

5) Big Mistakes S1 - (Netflix) Put Dan Levy in anything and you have my interest. This is an eight episode Netflix series that he developed that I would describe as a comedy with some buddy cop type elements. He shines in it, and the premise is he and his sister end up involved with organized crime in a small town after they steal what they think is a worthless necklace from a convenient store to get back at a clerk working there who’s being an asshole. The surrounding cast is very well put together, and Levy plays his usual stressed yet hilarious character who cannot believe he can’t just have a normal day and is thrown into all this craziness. There are a few twists and turns along the way, and the runtime for each of the episodes is right around 30 mins which always helps. The Russian mafia involved I found particularly hilarious, and Levy’s character is a small town preacher who has to wrestle with being closeted and dealing with all the insane bullshit that his sister gets them into.

6) The Killer Meteors - (Fubo TV) When I set this to record on my Fubo TV app I thought it was going to be a completely different movie based on the title, but I’m not mad I watched it. I’m in a mini kung fu movie craze right now, and I think this stated it. Jackie Chan is in it, and is so young he’s barely even recognizeable. The plot is pretty dense from what you’d expect for a kung fu movie, but there are some hilarious and wild twists and turns that coincide with some great action set pieces. The meteors referenced are actually a group of people who have these magical powers that they use to fight. The plot resembles that of a tela novella with all the double crossing and lying and you will never have a firm grip on who you can trust with this one. Also the protagonist and the dubbing of him is fucking hilarious on the version I watched so if you can only find the original Chinese with subtitles there is a whole other level of entertainment waiting for you with the other version.

7) Romancing the Stone - (Digital rental) An iconic adventure film from my childhood that on a rewatch definitely holds up. Michael Douglas is fucking awesome as Jack Colton, and Danny Devito gives one of his vintage 90’s performances and cracks my shit up. I remember as a kid watching this and there being so much imagery that stuck with me like the mud and snakes in Colombia, and revisiting it that stuff is still as fun as it was before and really sets the stage so well for an adventure in a locale we don’t typically see. The car chase scene is really well done, and now that I’m older I can wrap my head around the plight of Jack more than I could as a kid, and the “will he won’t he” double cross Joan plays a lot better. I forgot there was a sequel to this until right after this rewatch so I’ll definitely be checking that out as I remember next to nothing of it. At the risk of sounding 1000 years old, they just don’t make movies like this anymore and I wish they did.

8) Se7en - (Tubi) It had probably been 20 years since I last watched this, and when I saw it was on Tubi I said let’s give it a go. I still think Brad Pitt is awful in it, but Morgan Freeman is so good he could be acting alongside me and the movie would still work. Watching Spacey after what we’ve come to learn about him is frustrating and makes his performance for me feel so much more self indulgent and annoying. The premise and cat and mouse of the story has been duplicated many times since, but you have to give this a lot of credit for starting a lot of trends in these types of thriller movies. The ending to me is still so fucking intriguing, and I’m reading about potential theories people have on Reddit now that it’s more fresh in my mind. I keep wondering what the exchange would’ve been like at the apartment between Tracy and John, and what if Mills didn’t do what he did in the final moments of the movie. What happens to Mills afterwards? What does Freeman’s character do in the aftermath? I don’t know if there’s anything beyond fan fiction or speculation that answers these questions, but they still linger all these years later and I think that’s a real testament to the film. Also I forgot how graphic and visceral the first kill in this is and I was eating lunch during it and almost threw up instantly. Big mistake on my part, and a rookie move.

9) Before Midnight - (Prime Video) The last in this trilogy which has been a really fun watch for me. The style Linklater uses in these is not focused on any story or narrative at all, but is more fly on the wall and usually takes place in real time with maybe a few intercuts between scenes and limited characters outside of the main couple. In Before Midnight we catch up with the couple about ten years after we last saw them, and they’re now parents to a set of twins with their mid life crises seemingly on the horizon and them trying to reason with growing older and feeling like all the surprises of life are in the rearview for them. I found this one to be the least enjoyable for me because it gets really cynical and borderline depressing at the start of the third act.I understand that life is sometimes that way, but seeing these characters basically give up in a lot of ways and say hurtful things to each other runs so counter to what we’ve seen in the previous two films that it was a bit jarring for me. It still has most of the charm and great performances we’ve seen before, but with a less upbeat place that we leave the characters in.

10) Mortal Kombat (2021) - (HBO Max) I’m hoping to see the sequel here soon if it’s still in theaters this week so wanted to revisit this one from a few years back. I’m a big fan of the video games, and actually really enjoy the first one from the 90’s. There are a few anime’s that have come out in the last few years that are fucking awesome that have put new juice into this franchise, and this movie just takes the baton and runs with it. The action is top notch, and this thing looks incredible. I loved the idea of focusing on Scorpions origin as a jumping off point, and we finally get the right amount of Sub Zero and have him done right. The first time I saw this I was utterly baffled at how you make a Mortal Kombat movie, and don’t have the Mortal Kombat tournament in it. On a rewatch I now think it’s kind of brilliant, even if you don’t consider the idea of setting up sequels. It gets the fighters in a high stakes situation and allows for a lot of interesting matchups that we wouldn’t have gotten to see had it just been the tournament. I know the sequel shifts from Cole to Johnny Cage as the main character which will be interesting.

-JH