What to Watch This Weekend: Psycho Goreman, You Will Die At Twenty, Synchronic, Alone, Like a Boss, I Used to Go Here, Cut Throat City, How to Train Your Dragon

For A Throwback Bloody Good Time: Psycho Goreman (Digital)
Psycho Goreman is an entertaining throwback to 80s and 90s shows, with an exaggerated style, intentionally noticeable costumes, and fights that definitely earn the "gore" in Goreman!  For more information, check out the review!

For A Powerful Oscar Contender: You Will Die At Twenty (Virtual Cinema)
You Will Die At Twenty is a powerful piece of cinema with some expert cinematography and a story that highlights religion, fate, and life.  For more information, check out the review!

For Genre and Time Bending Sci Fi Film: Synchronic (Digital, Redbox)

Synchronic takes you on a mind-bending time travel trip with a dark, gritty style, fantastic performances by Mackie and Dornan, and a powerful score.  For more information, check out the review!

For The Horror Fans: Alone (Digital)

Alone is a tense survival horror film with great performances by Willcox and Menchaca, a slow burning story, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing what will happen next.  For more information, check out the review!

For Those Missing Their Bestie: Like A Boss (Amazon)

Like a Boss has charismatic leading ladies, who form a strong foundation for both the funny and dramatic parts of this friendship comedy.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Blast From The Past Drama: I Used to Go Here (HBO)

I Used To Go Here is a wonderfully personal story, with an emotional performance by Gillian Jacobs, a quirky, funny cast, and a heartfelt message about life and success.  For more information, check out our review!

For the Fan of Thrillers and Tension: Cut Throat City (Netflix)

Cut Throat City has a lot more going on than meets the eye, from its complex characters, to its involved story, and wonderful dialogue, this film steals the spotlight.  For more information, check out our review!

For The Kids: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Hulu)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a beautifully animated movie that continues and concludes the story from the first two films.  It is fun to watch, despite its less than stellar story, and provides a fitting end to this high flying trilogy.  For more information, check out our review!

What to Watch This Weekend: May 1, 2020

Redbox: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is an entertaining re-imagining of the classic video game.  It's wonderful performances, great special effects, and abundance of humor and callbacks to the game will quickly entertain you!  For more information, check out our review!

Redbox: Like a Boss
Like a Boss has charismatic leading ladies, who form a strong foundation for both the funny and dramatic parts of this makeup friendship comedy.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: The Incoherents
The Incoherents will get you to follow your dreams with its strong cast, fantastic music, and plenty of heart.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: Dennis and Lois
Dennis and Lois highlights two mainstays of the rock scene doing what they love.  It has fantastic clips from a variety of bands, interesting stories from the legendary pair, and a wonderful soundtrack.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: James Vs. His Future Self

James Vs. His Future Self has a wonderful conflict between future and present James, with plenty of funny and introspective moments in this timely, time-obsessed comedy.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Netflix): All Day and a Night

All Day and a Night uses its emotional characters, story, and authentic setting to deliver a powerful film with important underlying messages of self discovery and empathy.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Hulu, Amazon): Creed II

The follow-up to the surprisingly good Creed, this movie manages to make the tried-and-true Rocky formula feel fresh thanks to some fantastic performances and the introduction of characters from Rocky's past.

Streaming (Showtime): Hustlers

Hustlers provides an unreal story about some slick leading ladies.  It is a female wolf of wall street, with a decent amount of craziness, high risk scams, and strong personalities.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Netflix): The Foreigner

The Foreigner adheres strictly to the action thriller formula, but benefits from strong performances by veteran stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.  The film has plenty of twists and turns while allowing Chan to showcase his dramatic chops and Brosnan to flex his bad guy persona.

Streaming (Amazon): A Simple Favor

Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick make quite the pair in this mystery thriller with plot layered on plot.  Although there is a weird twist that just doesn't seem to add much to the film, the story will keep you guessing right up until the end.

Review: Like a Boss

Release date: January 10, 2020
Running time: 86 minutes
Starring: Rose Byrne, Tiffany Haddish, Salma Hayek

Like a Boss is a new friendship comedy where best friends Mel (Bryne) and Mia (Haddish) put their business and friendship to the test.  Mia and Mel have been best friends since junior high and eventually started their own cosmetics company.  Mia is the creative one and Mel is the more serious, business oriented one.  Unfortunately, despite their strong friendship and creative ideas, the business is having a little financial troubles.  However, when a successful female CEO (Hayek) enters the picture, her offer might just break up this once strong foundation.

This movie will live and die by its main stars, and thankfully Haddish and Bryne have very good on screen chemistry.  The two play off each other well and are a surprisingly funny pair.  Haddish is the stronger of the two, with better acting and comedy.  Hayek is a nice addition to the pair, and although she has limited screen time she plays her over the top character well, despite some odd quirks that they shoe horn onto her.  And some additional characters are very funny, notably Mia and Mel's employee / friend Barrett and Hayek's assistant.  The film has plenty of laughs for a night out, but a lot of the jokes are hit or miss.  As with many comedies of this type, there were some laugh out loud moments followed by either cringeworthy jokes or just awkward attempts at humor.  

And the story of the film is inconsistent.  It sets a good foundation in the beginning where the movie spends a lot of time establishing the characters and their backstory.  And because this is done for about half the movie, it makes the eventual conflict and resolution feel rushed.  I wish there was more ridiculousness and more hilarity, but it feels like those parts were either cut or rushed to keep the movie time at a manageable 83 minutes.  And this is a shame because the movie does have some pretty funny comedic moments and some surprisingly good dramatic parts.  Further, despite its all female lead cast, the movie doesn't have a ton to say.  It has some good points about friendship and beauty, but these feel like afterthoughts.

Like a Boss has charismatic leading ladies, who form a strong foundation for both the funny and dramatic parts of this friendship comedy.  

Rent It