Weird mediocre week with shark movie 47 Meters Down, raunch-com Rough Night, and Cars 3. Drink every time someone mentions The Bends and you will die. Not enough sharks (or scares) in this shark movie. Stupid ending. Rough Night is about women, but in the end the insecure fiance is the hero? Should’ve been more funny given how great the cast is. Cars 3 is terrible for the first hour, then gets kinda good. We spoil the hell out of it, so beware. You can read the written form of Andy’s comments here. The short Lou before the movie is the best part. That we don’t spoil because it’s beautiful.
One holiday movie, one Oscarbait ths week. Office Christmas Party throws a bunch of jokes and funny people together and hopes it works. It mostly does, and its saving grace is Kate McKinnon, but the plot sometimes gets in the way of the funny. Manchester by the Sea is going to make you depressed and wow you with amazing acting skills of Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. Get that Oscar!
It’s a weird assortment of movies this week, with Pete’s Dragon, Florence Foster Jenkins, and Sausage Party. We go in order from most kid-friendly to adult and tell you where you can find us at Salt Lake Comic Con Sept 1-3.
Andy and Adam have major disagreements on Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, and we review The Nice Guys and Angry Birds. Then we talk about the controversy around Ghostbusters. . . and “ethics in film journalism.”
Worst to first means we start with Angry Birds. We don’t need this much backstory. Bright, colorful, and definitely Angry Birds, but that doesn’t make it a great movie. Andy gives it 3/10 and has a more full review here.
We drastically disagree on Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Andy thinks it’s a bit been-there, done-that for the main storyline, but it adds a layer of social commentary and a nice heart that is excellent. Adam says this movie is everything that is wrong with America. It’s basically Donald Trump in movie form. We have dueling reviews here (Andy’s positive one- 7/10) and here (Adam’s negative one- 1/10).
What we both agree you should go see is The Nice Guys. It’s very Shane Black-y. Gosling and Crowe are both having a blast here. It’s the little details in the script that really make this work. Both of us give this a 9/10 and Andy has a more full review here.
Ghostbusters. Choosing which movies we see and review. Is the Angry Video Game Nerd a film critic? No. But he has 2,000,000 Youtube subscribers! “Well, actually…”
(Andy would like to apologize to Kim Kardashian for a factual misstatement on the podcast for underestimating her age. With a birthdate of October 21, 1980, she will turn 35 a whopping 18 days before Election Day, November 8, making her 2 1/2 weeks being Constitutionally eligible to be our president. You go, girl? I guess.)
We’re back! Andy is out of the hospital and ready to review movies again, so this week we’ve got Melissa McCarthy’s The Boss andsci-fi instant classic Midnight Special.
The Boss – from director/writer Ben Falcone (also real-life husband of Melissa McCarthy) a rags to riches to rags story who ends up turning to her former assistant, Kristen Bell. Wackiness ensues, but the movie doesn’t really know what it wants to be. Why can’t they find better material for Melissa McCarthy? Strong female characters and the Bechdel test. Tyler Labine is great. How does this turn into a samurai movie for the last 20 minutes? Adam gives it a 5/10 and there’s a more full review here.
Midnight Special – go into this movie knowing as little as possible. Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton are trying to escape somewhere with a young boy with undetermined superpowers that seemingly pose a danger both to himself and those around him. Like 80’s kid-centric sci-fi and also 60’s and 70’s social commentary sci-fi. This movie makes you work for it a little bit. Amazing performances by main cast. Great visual filmmaking. And thinks it’s possibly the best movie of the year so far. He gave it a 9.5when he saw it at SXSW and he’s still there. Adam is close at a 9.
We review M. Night Shayamalan’s The Visit and indie offensive rom-com Sleeping With Other People, including an interview with director/writer Leslye Headland at the end of the episode. Also, our favorite “politically incorrect” movies.
The Visit had potential, and even has some good parts in it, but it’s clunky and has a trite ending. What happened to M. Knight Shayamalan? Adam gives it 4/10 – you can read his full review here.
Sleeping With Other People is When Harry Met Sally for a-holes. Moustrap. Best use of David Bowie ever. We generally hate Jason Sudeikis, but he is awesome here. Andy loves Allison Brie. Adam gives it a 8.5, and Andy gives it a 9.
Political correctness. What’s the deal? Why you can’t have sacred cows. Context matters more than content. Here’s two incredibly offensive movies that we love:
Adam’s pick: Team America: World Police skewers all sides of the political spectrum. With puppets! That soundtrack.
Andy’s pick: Undercover Brother turns race relations on its head. There is an actual The Man and he’s keeping black people down, so here comes Undercover Brother and The Brotherhood, now with white intern Lance because of affirmative action! So many offensive jokes.
