Irrelevant But Awesome

Get it? Wrap party? Is this thing on? Anyway, With Summer of Netflix finishing up yesterday, frequent reviewers Alexa, Joel and Chris took this chance to reflect on some of the hits and misses of the series. Here's what they had to say as well as some superlative awards: Alexa:  I really enjoyed participating in Summer of Netflix because it was a great way to finally see some movies that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while, and an excuse to revisit some old favorites. A few highlights as we wrap up: Favorite movie: Almost Famous. I had seen this one before, and fell in love with it all over again. Almost Famous is Cameron Crowe at his best, presenting an infectious portrait of ‘70s-era rock ‘n’ roll that overflows with love for the genre and time period without feeling overly sentimental, all grounded by an extraordinary cast. Runner up: Short Term 12 Second runner up: In Bruges Least favorite/biggest disappointment: They Came Together. My reaction after watching...

Jason:  When I try to recall the scariest movie scenes I ever remember watching as a kid, this movie always comes to mind. The scene at the end when Christopher Lloyd is melting in the acid, his eyes fall out, his skin drops away, and the twisted, murderous Toon is revealed made my skin crawl. In fact, it still does. That is a truly disturbing scene! And then he gets flattened! My nightmares of these images were vivid. But that wasn’t the only take away from this film. Roger Rabbit was groundbreaking in its treatment of actors interacting with non-physical characters. Sure it had been done before by Gene Kelly, Julie Andrews, several others really, but never on such an enormous scale! And it set the stage for everything that has come out in the last 10-15 years. In today’s movies where there is a character that isn’t physically on set, there is usually a guy in a costume that will be edited out later. Or there is a head on a stick, or something equally physical. I’ve read t...

The Walking Dead continued its reign as a television juggernaut that refuses to quit Sunday with the highly anticipated debut of companion series Fear the Walking Dead. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, the new show is already a hit. Fear the Walking Dead broke the record for the highest-rated cable series premiere with 10.1 million viewers, including 6.3 million adults in the 18-49 demo. The 90-minute premiere surpassed another AMC debut, Better Call Saul, which previously held the record in the demo after it bowed to 6.9 million total viewers and 4.4 million in the 18-49 bracket in February. The show serves as a prequel/spin-off of The Walking Dead, set in Los Angeles and chronicling the early days of the zombie apocalypse, during which time Rick was in a coma in the original series.  The first season consists of six episodes, leading into the Oct. 11 return of The Walking Dead. AMC gave Fear the Walking Dead a two-season pickup from the start, so expect more adv...

Jason:  The year was Mid-90’s something. I was a young lad, not quite 10, sitting at my friend’s house playing video games. What were we playing? Mortal Freakin’ Kombat. I sucked so bad at that game. Total button masher. Never could get the fatalities to work when I wanted them to. And I didn’t even know there was a story mode. But I enjoyed the heck out of that game!And then came the movie. I remember seeing it when I was a pre-teen but I didn’t remember a lot about it. Just that it was Mortal Kombat on the screen with real people. I recently watched it again and could not help but laugh through the whole thing. From the iconic 90’s-synth soundtrack to the cheesey animated special effects. It really took me back in time. There were some things that caught me off guard. Like the fact that both Scorpion and SubZero go down like total punks and Goro was just unnerving! Also, I found the casting a bit silly. It’s hilarious watching Connor MacLeod trying to imitate an ancient As...

Joel:  What makes this movie work is the confidence that the movie has in itself and its ability to scare the audience. It’s very easy for a horror movies to use a loud, sudden piano bang when a monster jumps at the screen to give a quick jolt to the audience, but that’s not really impressive. What’s much more impressive, and much harder to accomplish, is a spooky, uncomfortable vibe that goes through the movie, keeping the audience tense so that feeling of genuine fear is present. Oculus has very few if any of those jump scares. Instead, it opts to take advantage of a disjointed narrative that weaves two separate stories from two separate time periods together to keep the audience enraptured with the movie. Going back and forth between the two times as freely as the movie does give you a distorted perception of reality, much like the one that the main characters are experiencing throughout the movie. It’s scary, and unnerving to watch. It’s not always easy for a movie to ac...

Joel:  There’s nothing really wrong with this movie. Everybody does a fine job, it doesn’t feel like the movie takes too long, it’s an interesting enough plot. So I don’t really have anything to complain about. At the same time, nobody really stands out as a shining example in this movie, and it becomes clear very quickly how the movie’s going to end pretty early on, so for the most part, were just going through the motions to get to that obvious ending (in final moments of the movie are given away in the tagline of the movie. This isn’t a case of the trailer giving away too much, literally the movie poster gives away too much) and while it’s the ending that fits the rest of the movie and makes the most sense, I do wish the twists and turns of the movie had felt more like twists and turns. As far as inoffensive movies go, this one shines as a pretty clear example. If you’re a particular fan of Mos Def or Tim Robbins, it’s worth checking out since they both get pretty enjoyab...

Chris:  This was one of those “pleasant finds” on Netflix. I came across it months and months ago, noticing that I was a fan of just about everybody listed in the cast, wondered why I had never heard of it and put it on my list and ultimately forgetting about it. Shame on me for ever forgetting about it because it’s one of the more enjoyable indie comedies that I’ve seen in a long time. Craig Robinson is absolutely hysterical while managing to remain the despicable anti-Christ. It’s a comedy that’s heavy with religious content that finds a way to avoid being completely irreverent to the religion that’s framing the story. Of course, someone who takes their religion way too seriously might disagree and come at me with a “the rapture isn’t something to joke about” argument but that’s their own opinion, I was cool with it. Essentially, it’s a catastrophe movie that’s an honest depiction of human nature. Seriously, how quickly do we as a people return to “business as usual” after...

Jason:  This is a classic tale of a movie that is deemed by the proverbial man to be  “too out there for audiences” and “won’t have enough sell in the market” and thus gets run around in production hell. All the while, leaked images and info are whipping the cult crowds into a frenzy, who hope the film will come out soon! It was delayed for nearly two years while it was cut and re-cut to be more acceptable. And even after all this, it still didn’t see a full big screen release. And that’s because it’s a niche movie. And boy is it my niche! I don’t know how much you all know about actual LARPing but I gotta say, this is pretty darn close. You have you absolute die-hards who are all in 100% of the time, the badass tanks who are the size of football linebackers and are there for the physical exercise, and the everyday common nerds who are just out to have some fun. And then there are the Summer Glaus. This movie is clearly picking on LARPers in the loving and admirable w...

Chris:  There’s so much nonsense in this movie that it’s almost surprising but it’s not because they flat out tell you at the beginning there’s no real point to it all as it’s an homage to “no reason.” Rubber is a mixture between experimental and whatever Charlie Kaufman must think about whenever he’s taking a long bath. Basically, it’s a feature length movie where they try their best to treat a tire like a person even with camera angles. Although the one revelation I had while watching this movie is that it made me feel encouraged about my own future film career. Seriously, if the idiots involved in Rubber could get their film made then why can’t my dumb ideas be made into fairly successful movies? It’s quite a lovely thought to come to and that’s the one thing I am thankful for with Rubber. Everything about this movie makes it the dumbest thing I’ve ever sat and watched in it’s entirety (get it? en-tire-ty? I’ll let myself out). Joel: I don’t think I can do a movie...

Chris:  This is the 2nd Shakespeare adaptation we’ve seen in Summer of Netflix and, like Much Ado, Coriolanus is given a modern setting. Coriolanus isn’t exactly one of Shakespeare’s famous plays as it’s one rarely even performed or discussed so it’s easy to go into this movie without knowing anything about the play. I enjoyed this particular portrayal because it felt like a longer/better written episode of Kings, the short-lived NBC drama that depicted the early days of King David in a modern setting and I’m sure I’m the only die-hard fan of this show. Both have that militant/geo-politics modernness setting but with language that often feels epic but not quite out-of-place, at least that’s how it felt to me. Also, I’ve really gotten into FX’s drama, Tyrant and has some of those same elements. This was Ralph Fiennes directorial debut as well as playing the titular character with Gerard Butler playing Aufidius, however, it’s Vanessa Redgrave that steals the show with her cha...

  This fall, a cast album for the Broadway musical Cry-Baby will be released. This in itself is not really big news. Pretty much all successful musicals get cast albums these days. And Cry-Baby is a Tony nominated musical. But the thing is, it's not a new show. No Cry-Baby premiered on Broadway in 2008 and closed after just 68 performances. By pretty much all financial accounts, Cry-Baby was a musical flop. It closed so quickly that an original cast album for the show never really came together. Cry-Baby is based on the John Waters movie of the same name that starred a very young Johnny Depp. A few years earlier another John Waters movie titled Hairspray had gone on to be a huge success on Broadway winning several Tony's in 2003 and being adapted into a movie musical in 2007. Clearly there was hope of Cry-Baby repeating the success of that show but in the end it didn't work out. There is no exact release date on the album yet but it's been reported that for t...

It didn't take Jon Stewart very long to find a new gig, did it? The former Daily Show host was announced  today  that he will be hosting this year's Summerslam, one of WWE's biggest events of the year. The pro wrestling  sports entertainment show will be held in the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY and will be the first Summerslam in quite a few years not to take place in Los Angeles. Stewart and his son are well-know wrestling fans, goes out of his way to make various pro wrestling references on Daily Show and even appeared on an episode of Raw after WWE World Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins insulted Stewart on an earlier episode and that clip went viral. Stewart and Rollins buried the hatchet in the Stewart's final week as host of The Daily Show but, who knows if that hatchet will stayed buried on August 23rd. As a big wrestling fan, I'm always a bit weary anytime WWE brings somebody from outside of the "business" to host of their events (we've ...

Joel:   Honestly, what we have here is a really amazing cast doing what they can with a pretty subpar script. Christoph Waltz is amazing. He did deserve the Oscar he won for this movie. But the acting in this movie elevates the script higher than it has any right to be. The script is long and awkwardly paced. Things that should happen quickly are long and get sidetracked because Tarantino had to insert a conversation about milk. It’s a great example of a script where telling, not showing, runs rampant throughout, where the movie has to grind to a halt so that information can be given. But the acting is just so good. It’s almost worth it to watch just to see what the actors are able to do with the material given to them. The only downside of that is you’ll have to also sit through the material they’ve been given. Chris: I’m going to be completely honest, here. I went through a Tarantino phase after being introduced to Kill Bill Vol. 1 when I was in high school. I wen...

Alexa:  Short Term 12 is one of those rare gems of a movie that does a lot with seemingly very little. It’s an understated, character-driven, slice of life movie about a short-term foster care facility for at-risk youth, the teens who have been left broken by the parents who were meant to love and nurture them, and the young employees who strike a careful balance between protector and friend. It has resounding emotional impact without being maudlin or overwrought, anchored by raw performances, natural dialogue and subtle direction. I was particularly impressed with Brie Larson, who plays protagonist Grace and who should really be a bigger star than she is, and Keith Stanfield, whose Marcus is struggling with his impending 18th birthday, when he’ll have to leave the place that for better or worse has been his home for three years. Short Term 12 is the kind of film that stays with me for days, that reinforces the powerful potential of cinema, but while critically beloved, som...

Today at Disney's D23 Expo, the poster for the upcoming Star Wars film was released. You can see said poster below: Obviously the major thing here is the fact that Finn (John Boyega) is wielding Luke Skywalker's blue lightsaber that was given to him by Obi-Wan and originally belonged to Anakin. We knew Luke's lightsaber would come into play as we saw it changed hands in the latest teaser trailer and it's interesting that Finn's last name still hasn't been revealed. Does this mean the lightsaber is being kept in the family? Or is Finn simply borrowing it? Or did Finn just happen to come into possession and have no idea of it's significance. Either way, I'm stoked.

Today, at Disney's D23 Expo, several announcements were made regardless the Star Wars franchise. First was a  confirmation  to a rumor that's been going around about a Star Wars-themed park at Disneyland and at Disney World's Hollywood Studios. This will be Disney's largest expansion park, covering 14 acres. Also, an  earlier rumor  was confirmed that Jurassic World director, Colin Trevorrow will, in fact, be directing Star Wars Episode IX. That means that, much like the original trilogy, the new trilogy will have 3 different directors for each movie. Trevorrow had this to say about his latest job: “This is not a job or an assignment. It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We’ve been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had—a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channeling something George Lucas instilled ...

Joel:  I know it’s not on the Summer of Netflix lineup, but if you get a chance, this movie would make a great double feature with the documentary I Know That Voice , also available on Netflix. Voiceover is a strange thing. It’s almost everywhere. We know about it in movie trailers, but it’s in almost every commercial you see. It’s on the news, or “how to” videos. When you pull a string on a toy and it says something, somebody has to record those lines. The movie is a great way to kind of explore that world, and see how the whole thing in some ways is an industry all to itself. There are several small roles from actors who give very strong performances and craft a nice little story about struggling to get ahead in an established, male dominated industry. The movie was apparently directed by and written by Lake Bell in addition to her starring in it. It’s a really strong feature debut for her. It’s the kind of movie that I would want to see someday, but it’s always so easy to...