Well, I don’t want to give away too much because the random unexpected weirdness that happens is really the fun of it.
But there is a big chunk of teen dramedy, including, the awkward girl who gets drunk at a party, the cool guy caught in a love triangle, the jock bully who has a couple of secrets, the popular girl with some weird mother and daughter dynamics, that one kid who nobody ever notices because he’s been in detention every day for the last 19 years, and their school mascot, a bear which isn’t what it seems, and the principal, as well as supporting cast of goth girl, nerdy guy, etc. And of course, the prom is coming up.
The serial killer is kind of just what brings them all together, and the plot driver, which helps you go into it expecting a typical horror movie.
If you know someone who really likes bad low-budget movies, the following is currently free on Tubi:
To quote one of the reviews:
The film follows a college graduate’s life as he deals with new roommates, new career, nympho girlfriend, laundry stealing monsters, kung-fu children, serial killers, and bad musicians.
IMDB says it had a budget of $500, but you’d have a tough time determining what about this movie might possibly have cost anywhere near that much.
It does get pretty funny though, mostly in the stupid-funny kinda way.
Godzilla Minus One was so good! We just watched it. I like how Godzilla powered up. Mostly, I liked how the movie felt like it was shot on film, and the characters seemed so true to the OG, and how the story revolved around the post-war trauma of Japan.
It really was great… Part of what makes the original film so great is how seriously it takes the story and what it’s trying to say about war, nuclear war, and the environment. I love all the campier films, of course, but this one really felt like it was drawing attention back the original missive.
BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F follows the same basic plot as the first two films, in that the audience and the protagonist know who the bad guy is, and the detective work lies in accumulating the right evidence, and then surviving to deliver it³. It also improves on the scene-to-scene flow⁴ of that formula, giving us snappy dialog and dramatic moments that run straight up against action.
Yeah, that. Also, that theme is such an earworm.
Although, I spent more time than I’d like on trying to figure out what else I’ve seen Judge Reinhold in. I swear, I must have seen him in more trailers than I have actual movies, and it’s a crime considering how recognizable he is.
I watched the original Beverly Hills Cop not too long ago, and that theme does A LOT of heavy lifting. There’s so many not that great action scenes in it - cue the theme song!. Even with the song, it felt clunky and poorly paced for an action film.
I’m not sure I’d classify the series as action films… sure, they have some action, but I think of them more as comedy/mystery. Though as the quote mentions, the mystery is less “who did it” and more “what off-the-wall antics will let them survive to prove it”.
It’s a nostalgic late-1950s era high school movie that tried unsuccessfully to capitalize on the popularity of Happy Days, Grease, West Side Story, etc. And it does indeed play up that nostalgia.
The description says:
A coming-of-age tale set in Brooklyn during the late '50s which centers around the high school life of a group of teens that have to deal with racial tensions at their interracial vocational high school.
Except there’s basically no racial tension involved at all. I don’t know who wrote that description. But they probably did watch the movie and just couldn’t think of anything else to say so they made up that description.
There are some tensions though. Nothing racial, but towards the middle of the movie, several interesting conflicts do occur. And just when you’re thinking “oh, now it’s really getting interesting!” it isn’t. They’re all forgotten immediately after they happen, and none of them are ever resolved. At all.
In the end there’s a brief talent show scene and then a cut to credits with a voiceover saying “School was funny, the bell rings on that last day, and everything that brought you together, it evaporates. I don’t know what happened to most of those guys.” Just like we don’t know what happened with any of the plot threads that came up during the movie, I guess.
You do find out the answer to the title question. But only because at one point one of the characters just says “Oh, this is what happened __”.
The nostalgia and music was good, and it was a very early Sandra Bullock movie and she was good. If you’re sick in bed and it’s raining out then it’s a better way to pass some time than typical daytime television. But don’t expect too much. It’s basically a slice-of-life vignette.
The more I look at these, the worse they are looking. Everything looks fake. The software they are using tries to turn everything into a flat plane of color.
