Shower Beer Vol XXI: 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) What Jennifer Did - (Netflix) I'll be really honest here, I watched this on an airplane and I was pretty tired. I also think that I'm starting to get desensitized to true crime docs because I'm a sick fuck, and the pacing of this doc is pretty tough to stay locked into. The interrogation clips are pretty interesting, but the story offers no real twists, and the cases lack of suspects doesn't make it very compelling. It is a pretty interesting character study and follows the investigation with no details missed. I'd say if you're a true crime head this will bore the shit out of you, but if you're a normal person you'll probably be interested.

2) Case Closed: The Time Bombed Skyscraper - (Amazon Prime Rental) If you've read a few of these blogs before you know I'm a big fan of the anime Case Closed, and this was my first foray into one of their movies. It was a great first entry. Conan is dealing with a real sick fuck in this one, and it has a bit of a Dark Knight feel mixed with Seven. I didn't see the twist coming, and what feels like a superfluous first act ends up being really relevant to the plot. The usual gang is all here, but Conan's Junior Detectives are really late on the fastball here and almost ruin things for everybody.

3) Downtown Owl - (Amazon Prime) After I saw the trailer this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. The period setting of the late 70's combined with the fish out of water in a small town plot device which I loved had me all in. The first two acts play it by the numbers and scratch that itch you'd have if you got lured in. In the third act things get a bit melodramatic and go off the rails, and the ending was playing to all the wrong emotions for me. Comedically I would say it's pretty unique, but not in line with the shit I normally find funny for the most part. Vanessa Hudgens isn't in peak form here...or maybe she is. Henry Goulding feels like he has no idea what the director is asking him to do, but we get enough of a performance form Ed Harris to make the acting slightly above average.

4) Pokemon Ep 1-10 - (Netflix) If you want a good watch for the treadmill, Pokemon checks the boxes. Nostalgic and still fun as hell. Anytime Team Rocket comes in I start laughing, but crank up the speed. I'll try to review the episodes in blocks of ten to chunk it up appropriately. Episode 8 entitled "Path to the Pokemon League" showcased a semi abusive trainer who of course Ash just has to pop off at. Even though he gets his ass whooped originally, he teaches him a lesson and probably saved a Butterfree's life. Episode 9 "School of Hard Knocks" plays out in similar fashion with Ash encountering a group of private school students at a prestigious Pokemon academy that's cliquey as hell, and their queen bee is a dime piece who Brock would give his left nut just to hold hands with. Team Rocket has one of their most hilarious entrances in this one, and it is prob my second favorite episode of the ones I watched. I'll give best episode to episode 10 "Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village" where the titular character acts as a pseudo Rufio from Hook looking over discarded Pokemon and being a hardass. Ash chews through his rough exterior by showing himself to be a kind and committed trainer, and in the end Bulbasaur says fuck it and joins his roster of Pokemon.

5) Star Wars: The Bad Batch S3 - (Disney +) One of my favorite animated shows finally came to a close with it's most recent third season. The characters, specifically Wrecker, are impossible not to love. While the Omega arc has never particularly interested me, she is such a pivotal part of the heartbeat of the show and has helped humanize the Bad Batch in a way that I don't think would've been possible if they kept this in line with the episodic nature of the Clone Wars show. I will say I was probably way overestimating the implications of this final season in terms of the Star Wars canon so the finale left me a bit wanting more, but that feels like my own fault. There definitely seems to be some more meat on the bone with these characters, but with Dave Filoni so busy with other Star Wars projects he would have to entrust this IP to someone else, which I don't think I see happening.

6) On the Line - (Netflix) Mel Gibson plays a radio talk show host who has to deal with a caller on his show claiming he has his wife and daughter hostage. That's a fucking movie idea right?? I won't spoil anything because the twists and turns deserve you to go in blind, but I absolutely hated this movie by the end and felt insulted. It was very compelling and intriguing for the majority of the runtime, but when it shows it's true colors I was pretty bummed out. Now I know how my father felt watching me play sports.

7) Guy's Grocery Games S14 - (Max) My comfort watch, and I've been plowing through this thing with the wife. Season 14 introduces Guy's "tournament of champions" where he brings in eight Food Network Stars to compete in a battle royale with the prize money going to their charity of choice. The game sees some of Guy's craziest twists, and the competition weeds out the posers pretty quickly. The judges are getting a bit predictable for me at this point so I can use an infusion of some new ones in the coming seasons. This show feels like something that we need to go on forever as it can constantly tweak the format and have me interested.

-JH