Shower Beer Vol XLI: 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) St. Denis Medical S1 - (Peacock) I know NBC has been chasing the mockumentary style sitcom since Parks and Rec ended, and they might have find their next gem here. While it’s nowhere near the level yet of the Office or it’s contemporaries, it has the DNA of those shows without feeling like it’s too derivative or a straight up ripoff. The characters really grow throughout the season, and David Alan Grier in particular is awesome in this. While none of the characters have dramatic arcs yet, or are really at the point where you give a shit what’s happening outside of the quirkiness of what’s going on in the hospital, there is definitely potential. It’s an easy twenty minute watch that I’m hoping gets a second season.

2) Fountain of Youth (2025) - (Apple TV +) Man I really don’t know what’s happened to Guy Ritchie these past few years. He just seems like he’s fallen into the Roland Emmerich trap of doing the same thing over and over just with a different cast. John Krasinski is surprisingly grating in this, and his attempt to be quippy non stop really starts to wear on you. I feel like Natalie Portman has her best days behind her as a performer, and Domhall Gleeson has never been good in anything which doesn’t change here. When this was announced I was excited, but this thing is a total turd.

3) Locked - (Digital rental) Interesting concept, and Bill Skaarsgard is always interesting to watch. If you don’t know, the idea here is a thief attempts to steal a high end car, and gets locked (or trapped) inside and subsequently tortured by the cars owner who is speaking to him on the phone the entire time. The owner is played by Anthony Hopkins who shows when he still needs it he has his fastball. It’s runtime doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, and it goes some interesting places.

4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - (Paramount +) I’m a huge turtlehead, and I’m embarrassed it took me this long to check this out. While I’m not a huge fan of this animation style that is similar to the Spider-Verse movies, we can tell this is made by true fans of the turtles in Seth Rogen and his crew. The ability to do a pseudo origin story that’s interesting, funny, and is able to hold Shredder and the foot clan for the sequel is impressive. We get Baxter and some of the lesser known mutants from this world, as well as an interesting take on Bebop and Rocksteady. I’m all in on this franchise and if they pump out another one I’ll be there.

5) Baby’s Day Out - (Disney +) Try to watch this and not enjoy yourself? The premise is ridiculous, and knows it. I watched this with my three month old daughter, and she was having the time of her very short so far life. The gorilla bits are only rivaled by when the baby traverses a New York city skyscraper under construction. Some interesting actors pop up in this like the guy who plays the asshole in The Wedding Singer who Drew Barrymore almost marries, the least interesting of the four chicks in Sex and the City, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Joe Pantalione is in it as one of the henchmen, and he knows the assignment fully. Crush a few beers and throw this thing on before you head out with your friends.

6) Clown in a Cornfield - (Shudder) Another Shudder original that goes hard in the paint. This year has already had some really good slashers, and add this to the list. The teenagers in it are very well acted, and the look of the clown and the gore in the kills are both what you need to really be bought in. I honestly with there were more kills in the first half of the movie, but when it does decide to ramp things up it stays at eleven for the remainder of the film. I feel like the ending is satisfying enough, and has some interesting things to say. I’m interested to see what the reception for this movie is because I feel like I’m liking almost everything horror these days.

7) Gremlins - (Tubi) I’d not seen Gremlins in like thirty years, and I have to say it has some high highs and some low lows. There are some oddly placed melodramatic parts in the second act that leave you asking yourself “am I still watching the movie where the puppets are trying to kill people?”. We all know the lore and effects are insane and are the reason you throw this thing on. The craziness of the Gremlins still plays to audiences today in it’s absurdity, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sequel to this so I’ll try to check it out soon. I know this takes place around Christmas, but for the people out there who have it in their Christmas movie rotation I have to ask wtf are you doing?

8) A Working Man - (Digital rental) David Ayer and Jason Statham reunite in a movie that wishes it was the Beekeeper. What studio gave them permission to do this shit again? Here we aren’t having nearly as much fun, and the villain(s) plot is so fucking complicated it adds at least twenty minutes to this movie and pushes it into unforgivable runtime territory. There’s no reason I should be confused while watching a film like this, and you can call me a dumbass (which isn’t inaccurate), but you have to know your audience. Also we need like four times as much Michael Pena as we get in this thing. I hope they don’t have plans to team up again (Ayer and Statham) because I will be picketing outside the theater to stop them if so.

9) The Bad Guys - (Peacock) Based on the popular book series, and securing some awesome voice talent, The Bad Guys lives up to the hype. While I’m not the intended audience, I’m a huge Sam Rockwell fan and love a good heist movie. This is like Zootopia, but less interested in world building and more on character and plot. The animation style is interesting and something I enjoyed, and most of the jokes hit for both kids and adults. If Oceans Eleven were performed by animals this is basically what it would be, and there are a few twists and turns that children won’t see coming, because one of them even caught me by surprise!

10) Friendship - (Digital rental) I’m a huge Tim Robinson fan, but I fully recognize he is incredibly polarizing. My wife will watch a sketch of his and not see where a single joke is, while I’ll be doubled over laughing. In this movie Paul Rudd is of course bought in, and Kate Mara is probably having the time of her life being a part of this lunacy. The first act is right down my alley, and then mid way through the second act things start to get a bit dark and depressing which I think is meant to make the audience uncomfortable in classic Robinson fashion. The film ends up sticking the landing…somewhat, but ultimately I had a hard time watching what the characters were going through more than I did laughing at them. I do think it’s worth a watch almost as an experimental comedy movie where Robinson sees how his humor works stretched into a feature length story as opposed to his usual few minute sketches.

-JH