I’m back! Being away on vacation, I didn’t have the time to make it to a theater or research a movie list, so what better time than to pull out another Mindless Movie Marathon. This week is very similar to a previous week where I chose two Netflix original films. So join me and read and talk about Hit Man and Unfrosted. But be warned as there will be spoilers up ahead, so if you haven’t seen one or the other, feel free to skip around or come here to check out some of my other reviews or movie marathons.
Hit Man
Ok, let’s get started with our first selection. Hit Man (not Hitman) is a fairly new release on Netflix by Writer and Director Richard Linklater…and it’s quite the ride. I had been hearing good things about this one, so I was excited to give it a watch.
It did not disappoint. Glen Powell (who seems to be popping up everywhere these days), stars as the titular “hit man”, Gary Johnson. When the police department’s normal fake hitman Jasper (Austin Amelio) has to step away for a bit, they bring in a schoolteacher and part-time tech guy for the force to take his place. He does such a good job getting people to confess, that he gets the gig full time.
Things are working out great until he meets Madison (Adria Arjona). When she tries to hire him to kill her husband, he convinces her not to. Even though the setup drags out a little bit, this is where the movie starts to pick up and get good. Madison invites Gary (whom she thinks is the hitman, Ron) to an event and they hit it off.
The two begin a torrid romance that rivals any onscreen I’ve seen for a while and it goes that way until Madison’s ex tries to hire “Ron” to kill her. Gary flips the script on him and instead tries to warn Madison. When she panics and kills her ex instead, the truth comes out about Gary/Ron and then he almost gets caught by the police.
In the end, true love wins the day as he helps her cover up the murder and they live happily ever after. This was such a fun movie to watch. Seeing Powell play both sides of himself as he is also teaching his class about the same sorts of human behaviors is truly amazing. Both he and Arjona have some great on-screen chemistry, it doesn’t matter if it’s a love scene or they are arguing. The cast of side characters rounds this out into a good overall movie-watching experience.
With that, I give this film an 8 out of 10!
Unfrosted
Ok, now to move this marathon right along, we now go over to “Unfrosted”. I had almost the exact opposite reaction to watching this. Being a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, I was excited to see this, especially since he wrote and directed it too. But honestly, it was just too busy.
This is a mostly true story but told in a completely fun and fictional way. Seinfeld himself plays the leading role of Bob Cabana, a man who works for the Kellogg Company. He is called upon by Edsell Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) to develop a new portable breakfast food after he finds out that Post is working on the same thing. He brings in his old partner Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) to assist.
To say this movie had a plethora of comedians starring in it would be an understatement. I don’t have the time to name them all, but other than the three I’ve mentioned so far, Amy Schumer leads the other side for the Post Company and Hugh Grant plays Thurl Ravenscroft as Tony the Tiger. But do yourself a favor and read the entire list of people that have a role in this film… it’s staggering.
But aside from the stars, the story itself is a little sloppy and all over the place. There is a cereal mascot riot and at some point, Chef Boy Ardee creates a ravioli that comes to life. Some really off-the-wall stuff for sure. Don’t get me wrong, this movie made me laugh and smile quite a bit, but it also fell short in a lot of ways. In the end, if you are a fan of Seinfeld, you should watch this film, you will enjoy it. But, a lot of people may not understand what is going on for parts of this.
It pains me to do this, but I think I can only give this movie a 5 out of 10.
So there you have it for another movie marathon. I hope everyone didn’t miss me too much. Do you like these, or do you prefer the longer form reviews where I only discuss one film at a time? Have you seen either of these films? What are your thoughts? That’s it for this week, join me next time for another mindless movie review of some sort!
