Shower Beer Vol XLV: 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) Kpop Demon Hunters - (Netflix) The movie that is sweeping the nation, and has a banger soundtrack, was of course one I couldn't resist. Bryan Banner on our podcast recommended it to me, and he does have my taste pretty well pegged. I'm not a huge fan of this animation style, but the action sequences in it look fucking great, and the use of lighting in some of the demon scenes is really cool. I appreciate how the movie just throws you in and only briefly sets up the lore as opposed to being an origin movie where we would have spent probably half of the runtime setting up the rules of the demon hunters and getting them introduced to the audience. I would love a sequel to this thing and I'm sure one is already in the works with how popular it was. Lastly, the song "Golden" from this film is probably my current leader for most played this year on Spotify and I'm not going to apologize to anyone for it.

2) Oh, Hi! - (Digital rental) Great premise here for a comedy movie, and Molly Gordon is a favorite of mine. The trailer plays it as a straight up laugh fest with Gordon going off the rails, but the actual film has much more of a "Misery" vibe with a hostage situation being played not for giggles, but to make the viewer feel uneasy. There is a pretty big tonal shift towards the start of the second act, and the movie in my mind never really found it's footing after that. The ancillary characters are purposely excluded for the most part and it works at the detriment of the film. There's a good movie in here somewhere, but it doesn't stick the landing at any point. There is a pretty hilarious scene where Gordon reenacts her middle school talent show performance that might e worth the watch on it's own.

3) The Babysitter (2017) - (Netflix) I'm a dumbass because I thought they were vampires until like the last ten minutes. Samara Weaving kinda sucks as an actor, but she is well cast here I think. The movie taking place in one night is something you know I'm a sucker for, and the gore and pacing kept me locked in almost the entire time. I wish there was more of an explanation for why the psycho teens do what they do, but Stephen Amell alone is able to elevate above that lack of clarity with a few funny expositional scenes. It's always great to see Leslie Bibb and Ken Marino in something, and they make the most of their limited screentime in this. There is a sequel with Jenna Ortega that I mean to check out at some point, but I have no idea how that will work conceptually based on how this one seemed to empty all the bullets in the chamber with the ending.

4) Wants To Be A Millionaire S4 - (Hulu) Jimmy Kimmel is back to host the celebrity version of the classic gameshow, and I'm not sure if they've done it like this previously, but here the celebrities compete in teams of two which is really fun. I enjoy this version, much like how I enjoy the pop culture version of Jeopardy because I tend to know more of the answers and don't feel like as much of a dumbass. I won't spoil who, but there is a million dollar winner this season, and most of the teams are pretty entertaining and surprisingly well read. There is a new lifeline added in addition to the classic three where the contestants can ask the host, and I'm shocked at how much Kimmel knows so tip of the cap to him. I saw Hulu has the other three seasons so I'll probably go back and watch those soon.

5) Copycat (1995) - (Netflix) Following the law passed in the late 80's that any movie made from 1994-1999 had to feature Dermot Mulroney, Copycat has nothing original to say about the serial killer genre, but it does awful a fucking awful performance from Harry Connick Jr. as that character. The performances in this are some actors really feeling themselves, and Holly Hunter and Mulroney are the only thing keeping it going. I am a Sigourney Weaver fan, but here she seems so uninteresting and lifeless which is disappointing because the character she's playing has a lot of meat on the bone. I do like the cat and mouse element, but here the movie focuses way more on a killer who's not involved than the one who actually is. There is one pretty big plot development in the start of the third act that surprised the hell out of me, but at that point the film had already lost me for the most part. Not a turd by any means, but just a movie that as the genre has grown and expanded is now exposed for being unoriginal.

6) Nobody 2 - (Digital rental) Colin Hanks as a villain? No sir that does not work. Sharon Stone as a villain? Okay that works a bit more. Odenkirk excels in this role, even though it's not really believable that he beats the shit out of these people in the way and volume that he does. This one features Hutch's family a lot more, and Connie Nielson has a lot more to do than the first time around. I love how instead of building up the lore of who this guy was prior to the last movie like John Wick did until it collapsed on itself, this movie simply takes the characters we met in the first movie and puts them in a different locale to start fucking shit up. If you liked the first one I think this is a step down, but will still be enjoyable. There are some interesting kills in the final set pieces, and I'd say this movie has a bit more action than the first just because our protagonist is already back to his ass kicking ways and doesn't need to have his relapse.

7) The Naked Gun (2025) - (Digital rental) I loved the originals, and with Akiva Shaffer from the Lonely Island Directing I was pretty excited for this. Even though I'm not totally sold in Neeson as a comedic actor, this movie has definitely upped my respect for his comedic chops. It is utterly hilarious, and I was laughing my ass off multiple times. Yes it is very slapstick and goes for the low hanging fruit at every opportunity, but most of those attempts ended up being right on point and the seriousness with which this movie candy coats it's absurdity is chefs kiss. Neeson has a hilarious scene where the Police Chief is speaking with Neeson at night in her home and she just consistently warns him to not be too loud to wake up her husband who has a big presentation tomorrow. Something I think we can all agree you don't fuck with. This movie will definitely not work for everyone, but you'll be able to tell like five minutes in if you're down for the ride and I hope you are.

8) The Life of Chuck - (Digital rental) The 278th Stephen King book to be adapted into a movie, The Life of Chuck features exclusively MCU actors in a film that I think had one of the top three trailers of the year. I rarely use this word, but this film is borderline beautiful, even though it is a bit overly precious. The premise is to tell the story of a mans life in reverse of the three acts while situating all of it in the backdrop of the end of the world through some natural disaster. I will admit I was pretty confused by the end why any of the world ending stuff was needed, but the character stuff which is what it's really going for hits hard and had me on the verge of tears. Tom Hiddleston is incredible and his usual charming self, but the way the story focuses on his character a lot as a tween and his coming of age he isn't given nearly enough screen time. The first 30 minutes or so will need to be explained to me because I'm not sure why they were necessary even though I enjoyed them. If I get to do a bit more research on this movie and check out some YouTube reviews I think it could bump up a star or star and a half with me.

9) Marvel Zombies - (Disney +) Great voice cast. Incredible animation. Intriguing premise. I was pumped for this when it was announced a few years ago, and the What If episode that serves as a prologue to this four part series teased some really fun ideas that get fleshed out more here. I'm a zombie head in general and will always give that genre a chance, so splice it in with the MCU and I'm ready to fucking go. I almost wish they just put the four parts together as an hour and forty minute or so movie to make the narrative flow better, but we are in so many different locales and the plot really has three different parts so I guess it works fine as a mini series. I always try to picture what these What If Animated specials would look like in live action, and when they bring back so many of the actual actors to voice their characters it isn't hard to do. I think my favorite episode was second episode focusing on the raft, but all of them have some pretty high points. Blade Knight is my favorite character by far and he's just so fucking badass with his sword and the abilities given to him by Konshu. I wish Mahershala Ali voiced the character though, and I'm still praying we actually get that Blade movie they've been delaying every few months or so.

10) Big Brother S27 - (Paramount +) My guilty pleasure reality show returns, and this time they're really pushing the boundaries with how late it started this year. It used to be a summer show, and now we run into the very end of September. This seasons cast was actually holistically one of the more likable ones we've ever had in the ten or so years I've been watching regularly. There is a new element I really liked called the Blockbuster Competition that lasted until the final five, and forced the HOH to nominate three people each week, but guaranteed all three of those people a chance to take themselves off the block by competing in a Blockbuster comp right before live eviction. This prevented the classic backdoor where the HOH doesn't nominate their target to exclude them from playing in the veto comp, and then if the veto is used they use that person as the replacement effectively giving them no chance to defend their life in the game. We get a returning BB player who is the one person in the house who I consistently found really fucking annoying. I won't spoil anything that happens, but suffice it to say I liked the overall cast better than the outcome of this season. I'm a sick fuck so you know I'll be back next year and the year after that in perpetuity.

-JH