A new episode is here to plug into your eyeballs, and it’s all being produced within a wildfire-stricken Okanagan, but I assure you, I’m in a safe place where I am. To get the ball rolling with some levity, I have some great comedy options to talk about along with a new horror favorite from Zach Kregger that is finally getting a physical release on a 4K steelbook. Long live Blu-ray! More importantly, long live the gorgeous steelbook!
Starting off, we head back to the highway beat with the iconic Vermont State Troopers crew in Super Troopers 3. Obviously being the second sequel, this one was a delightful surprise, with Disney greenlighting it after their 2019 Kickstarter-funded follow-up to the first iconic film. If you loved the first two films, then this movie is definitely up your alley, but if you don’t know these movies or, movie god forbid, hate these movies, then you should pass right on by. That said, Broken Lizard is totally my jam.
Next up is a brand new stoner comedy starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat called The Wrong Girls, a film written and directed by Stewart’s wife, Dylan Meyer. KStew fully emerges from her cocoon to deliver a wildly hilarious performance as her and her roommate get caught up in an experimental drug plot due to a case of mistaken identity. With new powers thanks to the drug that gives them telepathic powers, including an insight into the minds of their housecats, this serves to make a wild and messy drug-fueled odyssey.
Then we finally get to talk about the horror thriller and quasi-comedy Barbarian, a film from a couple of years ago that I’ve never gotten the pleasure to bring to this iteration of the show. Now on glorious 4K, Chloe and I give Zach Cregger and his crazy Airbnb film its flowers and discuss where we jumped in on the hype train that surrounded its theatrical release. Zach made his name in horror on the back of this film, and it’s worthy of the praise still.
Then, on streaming, Netflix has a new isolation thriller, and they’re trying to drag you in with A-list stars and a solid action director in The Transporter and The Incredible Hulk filmmaker Louis Leterrier. A film that focuses on a phenomenon of a mysterious torrential downpour that locks people physically in their house, using the power and charisma of Past Lives’ Greta Lee and Civil War’s Wagner Moura. Is one a must-see hit or a soggy mess?
With the air too smoky to have an outside summer at the moment, television has been my focus to pass the time, and Ryan Murphy’s new series is helping with that void. The Shards is the exaggerated story of the final year of high school for co-creator Bret Easton Ellis in a 1981 Los Angeles fueled by neon, cocaine, new wave music, fake smiles and devious intentions. Oh, there’s also a “Night Stalker” style serial killer picking off kids too, so that’s fun.
I also dipped into my love for the entire It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia cast by finally starting on Kaitlin Olson’s fish out of water crime series High Potential. Based on a beloved French series, it has her playing a single mom and police precinct night custodian who has a knack for solving unsolvable puzzles, you know, like murders and crimes. Not usually a fan of procedurals anymore, Olson is the complete draw to this series and brings all of that “Sweet D” energy we know and love.
And finally, I pull from the video game adaptation side of things, although Like A Dragon: Yakuza is more a six-episode addition to the large story that it has told over nine different games. A more elegant crime story than you’ll see in blockbuster games like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row, I love the lore and history that come with the territory of telling a Yakuza story so this show roped me in pretty quickly. Between this and the HBO series Tokyo Vice, we have a couple of really stand-out Japanese and American co-productions.
Coming up next week:
The End Of Oak Street
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma
Tony
The Rivals Of Amziah King
The Floaters
Seven Snipers
Don’t Say Good Luck
New episodes of What The Hell Should I Watch? drop every Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Steve Stebbing 