What to Watch This Weekend: Pig, Roadrunner, Gunpowder Milkshake, Space Jam, Spongebob, Fear Street, Wrath of Man, Best of Enemies

For The Wanderer: Roadrunner (Theaters)
Roadrunner chronicles the life of an influential chef and person, and much like Bourdain himself, shines a light on the good and the bad while creating a satisfying movie experience.    For more information, check out the review!

For The Kids: Space Jam: A New Legacy (Theaters and HBO Max)

Space Jam: A New Legacy has the King and a liberal use of some classic Warner properties, that is both an an enjoyable follow on to the classic cartoon basketball movie and a strange WB and LeBron marketing film.  It's streaming on HBO Max for a month so definitely check it out there!  For more information, check out the review!

For A Dramatic Nic Cage Experience: Pig (Theaters)

Pig takes flavors from several different genres and prepares them with some delicious acting from Cage and Wolff, and a stellar soundtrack to create a layered, unique stew.  For more information, check out the review! 

For A Neon Female John Wick: Gunpowder Milkshake (Netflix)

Gunpowder Milkshake is a stylish film that melds noir, neon, spaghetti westerns, and some badass ladies into a female-focused, more light hearted but no less brutal John Wick-type film.  For more information, check out the review!

For More Kids: Spongebob Squarepants (Redbox)

Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge on the Run updates the animation and adds some stellar cameos but keeps the characters, silliness, and craziness that makes Spongebob what it is.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Poignant Historical Drama: Best of Enemies (Netflix)

A historical film starring two amazing actors playing very different characters, The Best of Enemies tells the story of the clash between a civil rights advocate and a leader in the local Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina during school integration.  This was an underappreciated film in theaters and should not be missed now!

For A Darker Guy Ritchie Experience: Wrath of Man (Redbox)
Wrath of Man has Ritchie's trademark sharp writing, style, and a solid Statham performance, but with a darker tone and more intense action.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Horror Conclusion: Fear Street Part Three 1666 (Netflix)

I thought this was the weakest of the Fear Street films, but if you've made it this far you're going to conclude the story!  Fear Street Part Three 1666 concludes the trilogy's story with shock revelations, a good sense of dread, and a neon-laced epic final showdown.  For more information, check out the review!

Fear Street Part Three 1666 Review: The Surprising Conclusion To The Fear Street Trilogy

Release date: July 16, 2021
Running time: 109 minutes
Writers: R.L. Stine (based upon the Fear Street books by), Kyle Killen (story by), Phil Graziadei (story by)
Directed By: Leigh Janiak
Starring: Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye, Gillian Jacobs, Chiara Aurelia, Marcelle LeBlanc, Ted Sutherland

In 1994, a group of teenagers discover the terrifying events that have haunted their town for generations may all be connected — and they may be the next targets. Based on R.L. Stine’s best-selling horror series, Fear Street follows Shadyside’s sinister history through a nightmare 300 years in the making. 

Fear Street Part Three 1666 is the conclusion to the Fear Street trilogy, which is a three week summer event on Netflix.  This one takes place in 1666, in a puritan-like town that is gripped with religious fear.  The film uses many of the same actors we have met in the first two Fear Street installments to tell the origin of the Shadyside witch and the series of killers who have been unleashed on the town.  It is an interesting tactic, and one that is both fun and distracting at the same time.  It is nice to see these characters in different roles but it can be distracting when these later characters have different personalities than who we met before.  As with Fear Street part Two 1978, the story in this film takes place partly in the past and partly in the "present" of 1994.  But this film has a lot more tense horror than the previous entries.  The religious aspects make this a dark film, and the unease when people begin to suspect an evil influence is very well done.  

But although Part Three 1666 does the admirable job of tying the stories together is the weakest of the three.  One problem is that a large portion of the movie takes place in 1666, which means that all the wonderful style that were hallmarks of the first movies is lost in this one.  The palette is drab and the music is nonexistent.  I don't blame the team for this as that is kind of what you get when you have to go back in time, but I do wish we spent less time in the past in this film and pushed on to the present.  Thankfully, once the film switches to the "present", all those aspects come roaring back.  And despite the ending of the film being an interesting way to wrap the story up, it does leave some questions that are unanswered.  And there are several seemingly random events at the end that just seem strange or off; I'm not sure if it was the filmmaker trying to be clever or if it was something in the original source material that I missed but some of these strange aspects just stuck out.  And finally, there is some pretty poor CG in this one.  We had seen instances like this before but it is just more prevalent in the third film than it has been in the past two. 

But if you've made it this far you are probably going to watch Fear Street Part Three 1666.  And just because it is the weakest film in this series doesn't mean it is bad.  It just doesn't live up to the extremely high bar set from the first film, and the still high bar in the second.  

Fear Street Part Three 1666 concludes the trilogy's story with shock revelations, a good sense of dread, and a neon-laced epic final showdown.

Rent it.

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Fear Street Part Three 1666 is available on Netflix on July 16, 2021.