Middle of the Road Movie Weekend

Well folks, now that no new films are hitting the theaters, it’s my time to catch up on some older ones that I’ve had on my list. Some aren’t extremely old at all, it’s just that I didn’t watch them the week they came out.

With that, the first movie I watched this weekend was Netflix’s Spenser Confidential. Apparently, this movie is an extremely loose adaptation of a book series. To me, it seemed like maybe it was a play on L.A. Confidential? Oh, well. Either way, this movie followed a former Boston police officer who just got out of prison for serving five years from assaulting his Captain. After getting released, the Captain gets murdered along with another cop who was framed to be dealing drugs. Spenser decides it’s his mission to figure out who the dirty cop is. With the help of boxing club owner, Henry, and his new roommate, Hawk, they end up getting to the bottom of it. This movie was nothing special, and for it being an action-comedy, there really wasn’t too much of either of those things in my opinion. I say, skip it. Mark Wahlberg has done better and you can, too.

Next up was a film my sister had been begging me to see for the past few weeks, so we finally rented The Night Clerk. Since this was starring Tye Sheridan, I was pretty much down to watch this without much antagonizing. The story follows Sheridan’s Bart, who is the clerk at a hotel during the night shift. He’s a young man with Asperger syndrome, so he uses footage he takes of hotel patrons to learn how to speak to people better. One night while he was watching live footage at home after his shift, he witnesses a woman being beaten by her husband. By the time he gets back to the hotel, the woman has been killed. Bart is the number one suspect, but there’s not enough evidence to tie him to it without the footage. After being transferred to another hotel, he meets the beautiful Andrea, who is very kind to Bart. Ultimately, Bart discovers that Andrea is in an affair with the murderer. This movie had some potential and the acting was decent, but just not that much happened. Totally skip this.

Finally, I watched the movie Freaks, which just recently made its way to Netflix. One of my favorite actors, Emile Hirsch, was in this, so regardless of how it turned out I know I wouldn’t be mad I watched it. But, surprise! It was really quite good! At first, it seems like seven year old, Chloe, may be either living in a house with an overly paranoid father, or she was kidnapped. Then one day, she escapes the house an goes on a trip with Mr. Snowcone, a local ice cream man. It seems like maybe he’s trying to kidnap her, too. But then you start to learn that Chloe has the power on influence, and eventually, telepathy. We also discover that her father and grandfather, Mr. Snowcone, each have their own special abilities. We learn that these people with abilities are called “freaks,” who bleed from their eyes when they use their abilities, and are being hunted by normal people. Overall, this was a very creative and unique film! Gave me Chronicle vibes. I highly recommend!

All in all, it wasn’t a stellar movie weekend, but there is still so much quarantine left and over 90 movies on my list to see, that I have high hopes. Keep tuning in!