Ty Watches "The Outlaws"

Since my daughter had her sleepover on Friday night we pushed our date night to Saturday. It was my wife's turn to pick the movie and she chose "The Outlaws".

This is a newer movie on Netflix. I had heard of it because I am a big "Workaholics" fan and I listen to "This Is Important" every week. Adam Devine, as expected, was promoting the hell out of the movie. I read some reviews that weren't too kind, but that stuff doesn't really push me either way. If I want to watch a movie, or my wife wants to watch a movie, we usually watch it together. We will decide for ourselves if it is a good movie or not, but more importantly, if we like it or not.

On the surface "The Outlaws" wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, nor was it the worst. I felt the critics' reviews that I read were a little too harsh. This wasn't a movie trying to send a message or give you hope or optimism or make a statement. The movie was clearly made to have fun and hopefully make a little money. Adam Devine is the lead and I feel like critics simply like to slam him. He seems like an easy mark for critics. But the guy is clearly having a great time making this movie and this role is in his wheelhouse. He is really good at playing these put upon dudes that just want to have fun in life. He really embraces that part and that is not different here. Nina Dobrev, while not the best actor, does a fine job in this movie. She doesn't get to do much, but she does just fine with the little bit she is given. Blake Anderson is in here for a minute and he is very funny. Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty play Devine's parents and they are both hilarious. They made me laugh more than anyone in this movie. Lil Rel Howery and Laci Mosley are Devine's co workers and they both play very well off one another and they are making jokes seemingly every second. Some land some don't, but you never know what works if you don't take the chance. Dean Winters has a bit part and is okay. Lauren Lapkus would have been better served with a bigger role, but she nails the comedy in her few scenes.

The best part of this okay movie was Ellen Barkin and Pierce Brosnan. They are Dobrev's folks. They don't come around much. But they want to be at the wedding. Or so they say. They are really big deal bank robbers and they rob the bank that Devine is the manager for. They do this to help their daughter, but they also owe a debt to the villain, very well played by Poorna Jagannathan. She was probably the best part of the movie if I sit and think about it. Brosnan and Barkin really nail the comedy, the action and the puts and falls of being lifetime criminals. Brosnan is a pro. I expect nothing less from him. I haven't seen Barkin in a while, but she was more than up to task for this role.

"The Outlaws" isn't going to win any awards. I don't think that was the goal. But this is an entertaining enough 90 minutes. I was never bored. I laughed. Sure there were some clear issues, but I was never taken out of the moment by said issues. It is a fine movie that is kind of perfect to have on in the background. It did the job. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Bad Trip"

This past Friday was my turn to pick the movie for date night with my wife. We have managed to keep this up while we are staying with my folks, and it has been great. We go down in our room, close the door and my parents hang with the kids until we put them to bed. Awesome. So since it was my turn, and I have been in a comedy mood lately, I picked the movie "Bad Trip".

Now, a few things. I am a big time Eric Andre fan, my wife is not. I liked almost every iteration of "Jackass", my wife did not. I am a big fan of prank movies, my wife only likes a hand selected few. I was in dangerous territory, at least I thought. I picked the movie because I really wanted to see it. I have been wanting to see it since I saw the trailer. This was a movie, in pre COVID times, that I would have watched in a theater. And add in the fact that Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish were in it with Andre, I was fully on board. Obviously the movie did not make it to many theaters, but it was purchased by Netflix. So, I clicked on it and fully expected to love it, and fully expected my wife to be bored by it.

Well, we both loved it. This movie is absolutely hilarious. The fact that they were able to pull this off is amazing. That they could stage these pranks on unsuspecting people, people that did not know a movie was being made, incredible. Then to add a coherent story, a tip of the hat to everyone involved. The moment I knew that my wife was in, that she was going to enjoy herself, was when Andre appeared out of a bathtub to an unsuspecting plumber and he got freaked out. She was cackling, I was howling and she said, "this movie right here, this is my kind of prank movie!". I was even more smitten than I thought I could be with her. From there on out the movie is wild. The pranks are nuts. The people being pranked are very real getting pranked. They don't suspect a thing. We have the plumber, but there is oh so much more. They do a whole song and dance number in a mall that is wild. The stuff in the juice bar is great. When Howery and Andre steal Haddish's car, the guy working behind the counter just lets it happen.

The story of “Bad Trip” is a simple one too, but I should mention it. Andre and Howery are life long friends that are stuck in their middling jobs in podunk Florida. Andre's high school crush comes into the juice bar one day and invites him to her gallery opening in New York and he decides he needs to go and bring Howery with him. Haddish is Howery's older sister who has been in and out of jail and they take her car to New York. She tries to track them down. All the while these pranks are being played. There is a scene where Howery gets stuck in a porta potty that was outrageous. Andre and Howery get their members stuck in a finger trap. Haddish steals a cop car by ripping the door off the hinges. She fights people who will not give her any info she needs. At one point they superimposed a gentleman into a picture with Howery and Andre, and her interaction with this man is gold. Andre and Howery go to a country bar in the deep south and they are the only two African Americans there. Some hilarity ensues while they are at said bar, and a lot of it has to do with alcohol. The zoo stuff, that was just wrong and hilarious at the same time. This movie was everything I hoped it would be. I mean the very first scene involves Andre getting his clothes ripped off by a car vacuum cleaner, and he convinces the patron to give him his sweatshirt and to try and get a phone number for him. That is quintessential Eric Andre stuff.

I have nothing but good things to say about this movie. Yes it is cheesy and weird and goofy, but it is supposed to be. It is better than any "Jackass" movie in my opinion as well. This movie works. It is short and fast. It is hilarious. And it is coherent. Check this movie out. I think it will give Eric Andre the much needed respect he deserves for the humor her does, and Howery and Haddish totally commit to their roles. I loved it and I think you will too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty Watches "Judah and the Black Messiah"

This morning while my daughter was in preschool and my son was in elementary school, I decided to finally sit down and watch "Judas and the Black Messiah".

From the moment I heard of this movie, and saw the trailer, it was on my must watch list. I am really into African American history, I have read a ton on The Black Panthers, and this seemed to be the most real story to date on Fred Hampton, and his importance in American history. The cast is also absolutely top notch. I am a humongous LaKeith Stanfield fan. Love him in "Atlanta", "Sorry to Bother You" is one of my all time favorite movies, he was excellent on this most recent season of "The Eric Andre Show", the dude can act. I enjoy Daniel Kaluuya as well. He first appeared on my radar in the "Black Mirror" episode "One Million Credits". Then I saw "Get Out", which was followed by his role in "Black Panther" and I most recently saw him in "Queen and Slim". He's great. I am a Jesse Plemons fan too. He is becoming one of the nicest creeps in Hollywood. He is a force. All three of these guys are the main dudes in this story, and they all absolutely nailed their roles. Sure, Martin Sheen is eerie as J. Edgar Hoover, Dominique Fishback is wonderful as Deborah Johnson, Ashton Sanders, from "Moonlight", has a nice and important part, and Lil Rel Howery is only in five minutes of the movie, but man is he memorable. Really though, this is Kaluuya and Stanfield's movie, with some nice spot duty from Plemons.

In the movie Stanfield plays former car thief turned FBI informant Bill O'Neal. He is so good as the rat. He is squirrely and squirmy and it appears at times he is going to be had, but he always finds a way out somehow. Stanfield nailed the nerves, then belief, then betrayal and looking out only for himself to perfection. I openly rooted for him at times, but in the end, I loathed him. I know Stanfield and Charlamagne the God have some kind of beef over this role. What Charlemagne needs to understand, Stanfield is acting. He is not this person he is portraying. Charlemange needs to get off his jock because Stanfield was incredible. He is a creep, and he deserves all the bad he gets in the end. Plemons is the FBI agent who convinces Stanfield to be his rat. Plemons plays this role very monotonous, but it is clearly on purpose. He is an officer trying to catch someone who he believes is a "bad guy". He is as creepily quiet, and almost endearing in this role as he was on "Breaking Bad", or the season of "Fargo" he was on. He is really good at playing someone who is sympathetic on the surface, but in the end, is a real bad dude. The scene where he sees O'Neal at the Black Panther rally speech is frightening.

With all of the great actors in this movie, Daniel Kaluuya is the absolute star of this movie. Every award and accolade he is getting is totally understandable. He nailed it. He gives a powerhouse of a performance. When he spoke as Fred Hampton in this movie, when he had an audience, I felt it. I would go to battle with this man. He was so impassioned and powerful and commanding and thoughtful and political and downright charming. For every Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr, we also had a Fred Hampton. Someone who isn't as well known, or studied, but needs to be. And Kaluuya brought this person back to life. I was moved by his performance. I watched him jaw agape because of his tremendous performance. His speech scenes were the best, but the prison stuff was very good, and his death, the day before, was brutal and heartbreaking. Kaluuya should be one of the frontrunners for Best Actor. I'd say it is Delroy Lindo for "Da 5 Bloods", or Kaluuya for this role. They are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack this year. I loved him in this movie and in this role.

I highly recommend this movie for everyone to see. It is important American history brought back to life by some really great actors, writers and a director. Check it out. It is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches, and Loves, "Uncle Drew"

I finally saw the movie "Uncle Drew", and I absolutely loved it.

Now, before I get blasted for liking this movie so much I want to say that, I know it was not your traditional good movie. It was cheesy and hokey and crony and silly and a whole lot of fun. I read some reviews after I watched it, and for the writers saying it "lacked realism", or "was filled with non actors" or "clearly a kids movie", I have to say, shut the hell up. We all know that it wasn't real. I mean, the movie was based off a Pepsi commercial that first appeared like 5 years ago. It was all made as a joke. This was a vehicle for Kyrie Irving to dress up in old man makeup and school young basketball players on famous street ball courts.

As far as the kids movie thing, so what. A lot of great movies are "kid" movies. I had "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies" as one of my top movies of 2018. That is a kids movie. So are some classics like "Toys", "Wall-E", "The Mighty Ducks", "The Lion King", "Bambi", I could go on and on and on. But the difference, the critics all loved the childish nature of the other movies I just mentioned, yet they trash "Uncle Drew". It makes me so upset that this new age of movie critics, most of them are younger than me, have no imagination. Now I know that I have been called out for a lack of imagination because I don't like the TV show "PJ Masks", but that critique I wrote was in jest. I was just tired of watching that god damn show. I know my kids love it, and I know it is goofy, but it is also a cartoon. "Uncle Drew" is not a cartoon, so the younger critics feel like they need to knock it down a few pegs. What they really need to do is chill the hell out.

The thing that irked me the most was the whole, "there's no real actors in the movie". First off, Lil Rel Howery is a great comedic actor. I enjoyed every second of him in this movie. Tiffany Haddsih is also great, and she has become somewhat of a critical darling. Nick Kroll is funny as hell. But I think what the major critics were trying to do was call out Kyrie Irving, Chris Webber, Nate Robinson, Lisa Leslie, Reggie Miller, and to a lesser extent, Shaquille O'Neal. But my major blowback to the people that said "no real actors", no shit. These guys are former pros, or current pro basketball players, and now some of them do commentary. Like I said at the top, this whole movie was based around a commercial where Irving clowns other basketball players while dressed as an old man. "Uncle Drew" wasn't going to be awards bait. It wasn't made to teach a real lesson. It wasn't going to be a coming out party for anyone in it. It was made because it was fun. It was also made for people who truly love the game of basketball.

Take away the smaller stuff I really enjoyed about the movie, the preacher and church scene with Webber and Leslie is great, the stuff with Shaq was hilarious, as I said before, Lil Rel was excellent. But, the pure basketball, and the love for the game of basketball was front and center. I think that is why I love this movie so much. I feel like it was made specifically for someone like me. Someone that likes old school basketball mixed with new school. Someone that likes to hear actors say lines like, "that is why I still play, because I love the game", or, "you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take", or when Shaq calls Irving "KOBE" at one point because he won't pass the ball, or when Lisa Leslie destroys people with her inside game. It was so much fun to see the best of the best show their stuff. The basketball in this movie was pure. It was akin to the football in a movie like "Friday Night Lights", or the baseball in "Major League". It looked and felt real. I assume they really were playing, and I love that.

"Uncle Drew" is a fun movie that is pure joy for big time basketball fans. I applaud Irving and Webber and Reggie Miller and Nate Robinson and Shaq and Lisa Leslie for going 110 percent and totally buying into their roles. I love this movie so much. My hat is off to "Uncle Drew".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. When it comes to movies about basketball, Ty will also defend “Eddie”, and “Like Mike”. He will not defend “Juwanna Man”. Ty does have some limits to the basketball movies he likes.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.