Shower Beer Vol XXVIII: 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) The Killer (2024) - (Peacock) I’m a big fan of Nathalie Emmanuel, and every time I see Omar Sey in something I like him. I didn’t realize until the opening credits that John Woo is remaking his own film here which is a pretty interesting concept. The plot is kinda paint by numbers, and Sam Worthington is fucking horrendous in this like he is in everything else, but it’s still pretty fun and has some good action set pieces. I can buy Omar Sey as a cop who would beat the shit out of you and worry about the paperwork later. I can see this becoming a franchise with a lot of lore and backstory left untouched in this, similar to the John Wick franchise. The final set piece has some really badass motorcycle stunts and a sick stunt on the pews of a church that I don’t know how they executed. I’m always a sucker for an action movie, and this scratched that itch.

2) His Three Daughters - (Netflix) You could put Elizabeth Olsen in a trash bag commercial and I’d watch it. Natasha Leone has really been picking up momentum the last few years, and Carrie Coon while having the charisma of a wooden plank holds her own here. The premise is very interesting and I’m sure one a lot of people can relate to. The impending loss of a parent, and trying to reconcile sibling relationships knowing that soon it will just be the now adult children. The framing device of having these three sisters come in and out of each others lives and try and figure out what their relationship means while cooped up inside an apartment works really well. I feel like this movie is a bit too smart for me, and the ending scene really lost me, but I think that’s my own fault. The performances have high highs, and some weird low moments, but overall I think this is a rock solid movie with a great script.

3) Slumber Party Massacre II - (Tubi) The original Slumber Party Massacre is a tour de force in slasher greatness, and does not deserve to have it’s name sullied by this utter piece of shit. The plot, even for what it is, makes zero fucking sense. It goes nearly forty minutes without a kill, which is just inexcusable. While the characters are as one dimensional and disposable which you’d prefer, they are unfortunately not even entertaining to watch. There’s a few cheap laughs, but when the movie tries to really go over the top it’s just cringey and completely uninteresting. The ending really is feeling itself and took this thing from a two star movie to a one star movie for me pretty quickly. Will I be watching the other movies in this franchise? Of course yes because I’m a sick individual.

4) Untold: The Story of Air McNair - (Netflix) I did not realize the circumstances of Steve McNair’s death, and in my own ignorance had remembered it as a suicide for some reason. This entry in the Untold series suffers from the weakness that most of them do in that it’s just too short. Some of the most interesting stuff is brought up in the last fifteen minutes, and really had me wanting more. I could’ve really used a part two, but I wonder if the story ends up leading nowhere and that’s why it’s not fleshed out more. You get some really good interview subjects here, including McNair’s college center and business partner before he died. Jeff Fisher, his former coach is also a great get.

5) Alien 3 - (Digital Rental) I’ve been plowing through the Alien franchise these past few months to lead myself up to Alien: Romulus. I was unsure at first if Alien 3 was necessary as a prewatch in terms of the canon, but didn’t really give a shit once I saw it was directed by David Fincher. Let’s stop and think about that for a second. The Alien franchise boasts Directors of it’s first three entries of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher. This entry puts Ripley in an interesting locale being in an all male prison on an isolated planet that has no weapons and trying to deal with another alien outbreak. She is clearly so over this shit, but it’s captivating to watch. The dystopian feel of the film worked really well, and there are some ambitious, albeit undercooked VFX shots.

6) Haunt Season - (Digital Rental) A good low budget horror movie that I am always down to give a chance to. Haunt season follows a group of performers at a haunted house who have to deal with a killer running through their cast at the most pivotal time of the year…. Halloween! The premise feels like Waiting mixed with Scream, and the performances are actually really competent for a lower budget movie. Visually it’s pretty gross, but hard to fault the filmmakers there. The characters feel pretty real, and the practical effects are very impressive. I like how the killer uses a variety of different masks based on which props from the haunted house are available at a given time. With an hour twenty minute runtime it’s definitely worth a poke, but you have to be pretty forgiving for some of it’s shortcomings knowing it’s operating on a shoe string budget.

7) Last Straw - (Digital Rental) One of the crazier narrative twists I’ve seen this year in a movie, Last Straw follows a manager at a highway rest stop diner who is terrorized by unknown assailants in the middle of her night shift while working alone. Think The Strangers, but all taking place in a restaurant. While it’s not a straight up horror movie, there are some good jump scares, and the general premise is enough to get under your skin. I think the script here is pretty brilliant and have to tip my cap for what it does half way through. No spoilers here in case you’re interested, but it’s a solid recommend from me. Also it made me really want some greasy diner food.

8) Cry Wolf - (Digital Rental) You could shuffle up this movie, Urban Legend, any of the screams, The Skulls, and Thanksgiving, and draw any one out of a hat and I’d have a blast with it. Cry Wolf is your quintessential early aughts slasher movie that thinks it’s super fucking smart and has something to say, but it’s really just there to scratch the itch we have of watching horny idiotic youths get murdered. The premise here is a group of prep students decide to start a rumor surrounding a local murder to drum up interest in their school paper which the main character writes for. The rumors become reality when killings start to follow the same pattern as their made up stories. I’d describe it as Rony Seikaly on our podcast would say as a “delicious whodunnit” and the ending I actually thought was pretty clever. It’s a bit of a shock that most of the actors in this didn’t get out with much of a career. Also randomly, Jon Bon Jovi is in this and I didn’t even know he was an actor.

9) Big Brother S26 - (Paramount +) Lots to say here, and I’ll probably talk about it on pod with Bryan Banner next time we’re together. Big Brother is the one reality show I watch every season, and this year was one of my favorite in recent memory. I usually despise about a third of the cast, but this summer I found myself only disliking two people on the show, and both of them were out relatively early. I won’t spoil anything in case you are someone who likes to go back and revisit a reality show in it’s entirety after the season as this is streaming on Paramount +, but suffice it to say that some of the gameplay with the contestants here was record breaking in a few ways. They didn’t end up playing a few of the iconic comps which was kind of disappointing. Julie is as great as she’s ever been, and if my enthusiasm was waning at all with this show it’s back.

10) Alien: Romulus - (Digital Rental) I just finished this so it might be a bit of recency bias, but this is my favorite movie of the year. My second favorite Alien movie behind Alien: Covenant, and ahead of even the OG one for me. Fede Alvarez is a fucking genius, and the horror elements here are so perfectly executed. There are some insane set pieces to the point where whoever storyboarded this shit needs to have a statue built in their honor. The lighting is what really gives you the feeling of impending doom, and you can tell that every possible opportunity to use practical effects was taken full advantage of. The reasoning behind our main characters being on this ship makes perfect sense, and in the most Alien way possible they are humanized while not being made too melodramatic. I already can’t wait to watch it again, and keep an out out for this thing during our annual movie awards, the Broscars.

-JH