🎬 Zombieland 1 & 2, Good Morning Vietnam, Mike Birbiglia and more

As I did last month, I’ve been looking at the lists of what’s expiring from Netflix and Amazon Prime at the end of October and wondering what I should try to squeeze in while it’s still “free” to stream. I’ve never seen any of these movies before, but they’re all on my watchlist. If you feel strongly about any of these and want me to review them, reply away!

Also, I have seen these movies, and would recommend them! So check them out if you haven’t seen them:

I always have a good time with 2009’s ZOMBIELAND, which I revisited this week in anticipation of the new 10-years-later sequel. Led by a perfect cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin, it’s cartoonish but also sometimes more believable than most of the “we demand to be taken seriously” zombie media you can find out there. I love the idea of an apocalyptic scenario being an inducement to be more human, not less, and the film’s repeated reminders to “enjoy the little things” and have fun. I’m not sure how widely known Zombieland’s biggest celebrity cameo is, but I will just say to the people who have already seen it: Can you think of a better cameo in a movie? Because I’ve been sitting here thinking about it and I’m drawing a blank.

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP is like a return to the buffet line after you’ve already had your fill and you’ve been in the restaurant so long that they’ve changed out some of the dishes and turned off the warmers under others … OK, this metaphor isn’t great. The point is, this return to the Zombieland universe is both unnecessary and indulgent, and the offerings aren’t as fresh as they once were, but if you pick around the bad stuff and don’t mind the dirty looks the wait staff are giving you — sorry, slipped into that metaphor again — there’s a lot of high-calorie low-nutrient enjoyment to be found here. Woody Harrelson, in particular, seems to be having a ball playing Tallahassee again, but everyone else in the cast showed up to play, including likable new characters played by Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, and others. And even though not every joke landed, I laughed a lot throughout Zombieland: Double Tap. I’m looking forward to watching the next entry in the series, in 2029.

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM reaches for two very wise themes — the need to have empathy for one’s enemy, and the power of comedy and entertainment for people in difficult circumstances — and, at times, it reaches them. But the majority of the movie feels underwritten, padding its runtime with B-roll of soldiers and civilians to the soundtrack of Robin Williams improvising around a string of 60s hits. Even though Williams is frequently funny here, his manic style doesn’t add as much as it would a couple years later in films like Aladdin, and the different pieces of the story never quite fit together in a satisfying way.

THANK GOD FOR JOKES is one of my favorite kind of stand-up comedy specials, the kind that deconstructs comedy from the inside out, while also being funny as hell. I’m a longtime fan of Mike Birbiglia and went in ready to laugh, but the way he set up and paid off a series of callbacks had me guffawing every time. His bit about doing stand up with the Muppets and having to follow Fozzie Bear is the real stand-out story, but once you get a few minutes in and see what Birbiglia is setting up with this show, I think you’ll want to stick around til the end.

I had no idea what to expect from M, a 1931 German thriller that I was only vaguely aware of before this week. To a viewer in 2019, parts of it may feel overly stage-y, as filmmakers were still figuring out how to fully take advantage of the new medium. But M’s dark heart beats with timeless fears — child predators, police with too much power, and mob justice — that still send a chill down the spine today. Many of the police procedural scenes here have been copied and improved upon ad nauseam, so I would love to see a modern remake of M that focuses on the criminals who play such an important role in the film’s second half and the regular people living in fear that their kid would be next. 

I had never seen A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS but decided to watch it and its sequel before I revisit the next film alphabetically in my collection, The Good the Bad and the Ugly — which is the third of Sergio Leone’s “man with no name” westerns, starting Clint Eastwood. As that name suggests, this is not an especially well-defined protagonist, so I didn’t expect to come away with a deeper appreciation of the character. Fistful of Dollars is a story of violence, vengeance, and not much else. But like a sip of beer or a bite of fast food, there’s something comforting about the empty calories of a well-made B movie. Now if only I could have a few dollars more … maybe next week.

(new additions in bold)