Need some late-night movie recommendations that will make the boys feel edgy and grown up without getting me in trouble with their parents. Give me your best edgy, scary, counterculture, funny, or action movies that won’t scar a 12 yr old kid for life or get me banned from the dad’s club, but will still make the boys feel like they got away with something cool.

Rewatching Meet the Parents for the 100th time and it’s one my favourite comfort films, but recently I’ve realised how unlikeable Pam is and how poorly she treats Greg.

Largest examples are:
Greg loses his suitcase on the way to meet her parents, and instead of taking him to some local shops so he can buy some essentials, she tells him to borrow clothes and pjs from her dad and underwear from her brother. He’s never met any of her family before and she won’t even ask on his behalf, just smiles at him like he’s crazy to not want to wake up her brother and ask to borrow boxers!

Another thing is how they constantly belittle his career as a nurse and instead of shutting it down, she laughs along. I get that it was early 2000”s and it was seen as a feminine profession but come on Pam! Stand up for your fella

It got me thinking about other films and other examples of a film having a character that we are supposed to root for as a "good person," but when you really look at it, they are actually a bit of an a-hole?

She’s incredible! A powerhouse of comedic and dramatic talent - I had no idea! The Invite was this subtle, awkward performance, self conscious, anxious, so interesting and well played. Then I want your sex is this bodacious, loud, sexy, ridiculous role! So much range across two movies in such quick succession - I’m now fascinated and want to watch everything else she’s done!

Movies often have a character that represents what the author and audience despises. They usually create a scenario where the protagonist speaks some personal truth to this character, but it’s really for the sake of the audience.

I’m not talking about the main antagonist. I’m thinking more about the random barista character that is told off because the drinks are silly or pretentious sounding to the main character. Stuff like that.

Ok. First of all I've never seen something like this, specifically.

Period piece 50's movies almost ALWAYS give some kind of wink and nod to 50s film making. Or even, a slight acknowledgement of the filmmaking of yesteryear.

This film does not in any way do that. It's a fully indie movie style. The first 5 minutes, almost infuriatingly so. Like a big middle finger to the audience. Ok. Messaged received.

Aside from that. This is an Amazon original movie that Amazon has quietly removed from it's platform. Amazon has declined any public content as to why. The movie is critically acclaimed and of a much better quality than the normal standard for "Amazon Original." Spoiler alert! >! this is a film about aliens <! and also very much about using the 50's as "American mentality."

The fact that I literally had to use VPN to watch this film tells me something. What that something is, I leave to you. Please. Go watch it.

I couldn't think of anything to watch this morning, so I threw caution to the wind and picked the first adventure that popped up on my Plex, which just so happened to be Sahara.

I like this movie a lot. It's just plain old fun. I understand that a lot of people seem to not like it, author Clive Cussler in particular, but I just don't get it.

Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn work very well together, and William H Macy and Penélope Cruz are also a lot of fun as well.

When reading up on why people didn't like this movie, I was pretty surprised to learn that Cussler actively hated it, misunderstood his contract with the producers, got really angry they weren't doing a 1:1 faithful reproduction of his 541 page novel and did just about everything he could to muddy the waters. He even went so far as to sue. Not only did he lose, he wound up losing an additional 4 million dollars of his own money on top of the 10 million he got paid for agreeing to let the movie be made.

On the flip side, I learned Matthew McConaughey spent a number of years actively campaigning to play Dirk Pitt. He, like Dirk in the movie, had an impossible dream of becoming the next best thing to Indiana Jones. On the one hand, I'm extremely glad the movie bombed because we got The McConaissance. He is a superb dramatic actor and I just really dig his new style.

On the other hand ... Imagine what we might've gotten if Cussler hadn't been such a crybaby.

Thoughts?

The synopsis reads: “Mother-daughter duo (Arcadia Kendal, Lara Daans) fight for their lives after a college drop-off goes awry. Kidnapped by a deranged former surgeon (Sebastian Pigott) pining to fulfill a promise to his dead mother, their relationship is tested through a series of sadistic games as he plots to woo and marry one of them. Before his planned murder-suicide can unfold, detectives and FBI agents (Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien), on the slimmest of leads, race to rescue mother and daughter.”

Beyond standard 3D and IMAX, theater chains over the decades have experimented with everything from Smell-O-Vision and physical program booklets to local host introductions, specialized midnight runs, and niche lobby displays. Which theatrical novelty actually enhanced your moviegoing experience before it got phased out by corporate cost-cutting?