Shower Beer Vol XXXV: 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) Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet - (Netflix) This is still one of the craziest unsolved murders, and I’m sure we’ve all heard some of the more popular theories out there. I've never really dived into the case, but the main position presented here centers around how much the police fucked up the investigation in the beginning before it got turned over to the FBI. The Dad of JonBenet is a central piece of the series so you can take it with a grain of salt as it might have an inherent bias, but I found it really interesting. As is usually the case with true crime docs, this led me down a series of internet rabbit holes that I'm still living in and I don't regret it. If you are just generally familiar with the case like I am there's a lot of interesting stuff here, but if you're well versed on the popular internet theories you might not learn anything new from this.

2) Back in the Day - (Peacock) Any time a movie centers around someone going back home and getting shitfaced with their old friends I'm already interested. I saw Michael Rosenbaum directed this which I was curious about, but I hate to say he just doesn't have the sensibility or comedic chops to pull this off. The laughs are few and far between unfortunately, and Harland Williams is the only one holding his own. I will give the script credit for not going in the predictable direction that I thought it was going to, and it's always cool to see Morena Baccarin in stuff. Nick Swardson is utterly ridiculous, and if he reminds you of anyone you went to high school with I think you'd laugh your ass off at his character, but if not you just shake your head whenever he's on screen. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but there are worse pieces of shit out there you've probably watched.

3) Den of Thieves - (Amazon Prime rental) When I saw a sequel to this was coming out and I realized I'd never seen the first one I wanted to give it a poke. I love a good heist movie, and Gerard Butler is one of those actors who I just can't seem to quit for some reason. Pablo Schreiber...dude where the fuck has this guy been? He's great in this! O'Shea Jackson sucks as usual, but even with him being a focal point of the story this thing manages to stay afloat around him. It's intense, and depressing at times, but the slow burn aspect really plays well and the action scenes are really fucking intense. I'm kind of an idiot so a few of the logistical parts of the teams heist were kind of losing me, but not to the point where I felt detached from the movie. It's one of those films where you're like "ok these guys are all pieces of shit so who am I rooting for?" which is always a bit of fun when you find who you get attached to. I want to check out the sequel, especially with how the first one ends. Hopefully it ends up on digital soon.

4) Poltergeist - (Paramount +) One of those movies on my list of "I'm ashamed to tell people I haven't seen this movie before" and even more so with me being such a big horror fan. I have to say that I was a huge fan, and really respect the balls it took to aim for some of the effects in this movie. Craig T. Nelson plays a really interesting protagonist and the way he and his family deal with all the crazy shit happening to them feels very odd, but also authentic. They don't have a moment of total freak out, but instead gradually realize that what's happening is in no way normal, but they have to deal with it. The side characters, especially those who come to the house to try and retrieve the family's daughter are pretty disposable with the exception of one, but it doesn't even matter. It's easy to see why this movie is so iconic and really set the tone for the next decade of supernatural horror movies.

5) The Boy and the Heron - (Max) So I consider myself an anime fan. I love Dragonball Z, Case Closed, One Piece, Pokemon, Digimon, and Grave of the Fireflies is a top 200 movie for me. The last three anime films I've watched which all have great reputations I have found to be utter and complete trash. I'm going to get roasted for this opinion I know, but I have to be honest. Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and now The Boy and the Heron are utterly unwatchable. It's interesting that they do mirror a few plot points, and I just find them so inaccessible after their strong first acts. Speaking specifically to The Boy and the Heron, the world building is all done in extremely clunky ways, and the Heron pisses me off every time he's on screen. The main character and the sub plot around his family tragedy is where the movie should have focused, but instead it goes off on this odd tangent about some ancestor of his needing to find a successor to this odd world that runs parallel to ours. Visually there's some cool stuff here, but I can't get around how uninteresting and zany the plot conceit is and I was never bought in.

6) Sonic the Hedgehog - (Paramount +) Bryan Banner and I just did a movie commentary track on this movie in preparation for the third one coming out on digital this past week. I won't say much here, but if you'd like to watch the movie along with us on Paramount + check it out. Suffice it to say the Sonic franchise is one I'm a big fan of, and the Jim Carrey performances we get as Robotnik are reminiscent of him in his hayday. James Marsden is our generations donut lord and should be protected at all costs. I think this film does a great job of balancing the far out there world of the video games, with the real world and the fish out of water storyline that you can really only utilize in an origin story.

7) Back in Action - (Netflix) I feel like I say it once a week, but I'm a pig in slop with some of these Netflix algorithm action movies. You take an AI generated plot, throw four action set pieces together, top it off with a big star (Gal Gadot, Kevin Hart, etc.) and I'm there for an hour and forty mins of turning my brain off. Here we have a rare role for Cameron Diaz, and of course a crowd pleaser in Jamie Foxx. The "twist" they go with here is nothing you can't see coming a mile away, but that wasn't enough to ruin this for me. It's not incredible, and doesn't offer much that you haven't seen in an action movie before, but the element of the two action stars having their kids with them while they're kicking ass is a fun idea I haven't seen before. Glenn Close isn't in much of the movie, but is a big stand out as well. They tease the idea of a sequel at the end and I'm unashamed to say that I'll be there opening week on Netflix if we get one.

8) No Escape (1994) - (Tubi) Mad Max meets Waterworld...except on land. Throw in the villain from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as a foil to a young Ray Liotta in an odd role where he doesn't play a gangster. The plot here is really high concept for the mid 90's, and while it fails to really work on any level, it's still hard to look away. The main villain played by Stuart Wilson is chewing the scenery at every turn, and his henchmen are some of the dumbest fucking people I've ever seen. The guy who plays the Android in Alien is also in it as a Godfather type figure in a lord of the flies situation, and I'll admit that he could have spit out any bullshit and the way he was delivering it I would've believed it. We are treated with a decent amount of Ernie Hudson who always pluses up everything he's in. I was a bit surprised as the first ten minutes of this movie feel like it's going to take place in this interesting futuristic prison, but then quickly pivots to a Robinson Crusoe type situation and never really goes back. I rarely regret watching any genre movies from the 90's, and this is no exception, but it's nothing to really write home about.

9) Incoming - (Netflix) Gave me big time vibes of that movie Good Boys that came out a few years ago that Seth Rogen was involved in. Not quite as vulgar, but revolves around a group of Freshman in high school attending their first party and doing what we all did and putting a fuck ton of importance on the event. The main kid from The Black Phone is in the lead, and while he's got zero comedic chops, the dude can act. The movie has a hilarious, yet kind of uncomfortable to watch performance by Bobby Cannavale which could make or break it for you. It's a classic high school party film that follows the recipe that has made the sub genre so successful. A disclaimer I have to give is this movie might ruin Taco Bell for you so beware because you can't go back. If you get a chance please check out the movie poster for this as it looks exactly like the one for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and it's confusing the hell out of me.

10) Transformers One - (Paramount +) I am unsure if this is canon to the Michael Bay movies, and I'd wager that everyone involved with the movie doesn't know either. The trailers for this looked fucking awful and did the movie no favors by really highlighting the comedy. The film itself is a really interesting look at the shit that went down on Cybertron before we meet the Transformers on Earth. Optimus Prime is a goofball, which is a new take, and Megatron is a whiny little bitch who has such a dramatic character turn in this I had to put Icy Hot on my neck from getting whiplash. The low point of the movie is Keegan Michael Key's character who is playing to every failed trope of an animated character injected for comedic relief. He makes the joke attempts in bunches, and the "this guy won't shut up" schtick wares thin almost immediately. Having said all that, there are two really cool set pieces in this that play really well with the animation, and the plot twist at the end of the second act was super interesting to me. If they did a whole franchise that was non canonical to the live action movies in animation I'd be there every step of the way.

-JH