Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare

“Thank God It’s Friday”

By Brett_G on March 13, 2021

6.8

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

Also of note: the only reason this wasn’t the hit is that it decided to go head to head against “Saturday Night Fever,” and John Travolta was a bigger draw than Jeff Goldblum. Insane. “Last Dance” by Donna Summer got robbed!

Filmed at Studio 54 West, with almost every cross-promotion available to Casablanca records at the time. Disco, KISS, Donna Summer… The decade of decadence. Eerily similar to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” or “American Graffiti.” Or “Detroit Rock City, ” although I feel this is of higher quality than that record company cross-promotion film.

Rom-Com

“Bad Cupid”

By Brett_G on March 13, 2021March 8, 2021

6.9

Better than “Bad Santa.” Infinitely more endearing. The story is clunky as hell, and it really doesn’t get moving or come together in any meaningful way until the final 20 minutes, but it had a bit of a message in there somewhere—deep, deep within the narrative onion.

Horror/Thriller

“Jack Frost”

By Brett_G on March 12, 2021March 1, 2021

6.4

No, not the cute one with Michael Keaton. The one about a cold blooded killer snowman resulting from genetic engineering and poor timing. Funny? Almost at times. Ridiculous? Oh yeah. Good? Debatable. I had to fully understand the back story for my Microsoft Teams background of a scary snowman.

Blockbuster Suspense/Thriller

“The Deep”

By Brett_G on March 11, 2021March 11, 2021

6.5

So… what to say about this one. *strokes beard*

If you’ve read the book “Jaws,” you know it’s far more horny than the film adaptation. For this reason, the film’s story was able to become much more rich with multi-dimensional characters and deeper relationships between them. Instead of Hooper just perving on Chief Brody’s wife.

This film, based on another Benchley novel, missed that memo. And clearly just tried to coast off the fumes of JAWS. Honestly, if you’re looking for that, watch JAWS 2. It’s much better. This one is just a bunch of unexciting underwater scenes with bubbling sound effects for 15-minute intervals—diving off a boat that looks like the Orca’s cousin. Instead of a shark, there are eels.

This time, Quint joins in on the scuba diving, and almost dies as a result. Instead, the wife ends up as a damsel in distress just as often as they go scuba diving. Overall, this thing’s a hot mess. Nothing you can’t see watching an aquarium screen saver. Robert Shaw’s acting and Jaqueline Bisset preferring to scuba in a tight whit t shirt can’t even save this one.

Horror/Thriller

“Thankskilling”

By Brett_G on March 11, 2021March 1, 2021

4.8

Don’t say I didn’t warn you… it’s not all hidden gems when you wander past the known titles in a streaming service. This one was pretty, pretty… pretty bad. Funny in some parts, but not enough to overcome the crap factor. And not the right crappy to make it endearing, as some of these are. When you fall asleep watching it, it’s not because of the tryptophan in the Thanksgiving turkey.