THRASHIN' (1986)

Amateur skateboarder Josh Brolin works his way to becoming a pro by competing in different skateboarding competitions around Los Angeles. At the same time, he starts seeing a girl only to find out that she’s the sister of his biggest rival. It really is a small world after all.

Watching THRASHIN' back in the 1980’s, it was just another teen-oriented film that was mildly entertaining thanks to the quick pace and interesting Los Angeles scenery. Personally, I was also intrigued by the various fashions (including band t-shirts for everybody from JFA to Siouxsie and the Banshees), the giant movie poster for THE HITCHER and Pamela Gidley’s awesome hair. Re-watching it now for this review, I still enjoyed that stuff, but I also noticed that this movie has something in common with the film LADY TERMINATOR! Just like LT, THRASHIN’ also features a still photograph earlier in the film of an event that happens later on in the film itself! How bizarre. This time around it’s one of Brolin’s buddies. There is a photo tacked to the wall…of him at the big race that takes place at the end of the movie. Same clothes and everything.

I doubt that THRASHIN’ is gonna change your life or anything, but it’s an enjoyable enough film. Very simple with almost no story, yet it still has a certain nostalgic charm to it.

Pointless trivia: THRASHIN' director David Winters also directed the 1979 SHAMPOO clone RACQUET.

Even further pointless trivia: Out of the current 29 RACQUET photos that IMDb has placed ads on on their site, 25 of them come from my ad-less review. Nice. Glad that my work can help make you money.

MYSTERY 101: WORDS CAN KILL (2019)

It seems like they really hit their stride with this third installment of the MYSTERY 101 series. The mystery was good with lots of twists and turns, the movie itself looked good and somehow the non-relationship relationship between our two main characters actually didn’t move forward at all, which is what we all want. Just let it stay in that cute awkward flirty stage forever!

Elmstead College is holding a Mystery writers convention. Of course, our hero professor’s mystery novelist dad is going to be there, but so is another writer that he used to have bad blood with and even an old agent who he also has bad blood with. Things happen and bodies start piling up. So now it’s up to our favorite professor and the handsome homicide detective stud to solve the case! It’s awesome and a lot of fun. I especially loved the scene where they were in a well lit parking lot at night and he insists on walking her to her car, they then walk over like 8 steps and they’re at her car. I don’t know why, but that scene cracked me up.

Of the three MYSTERY 101 films that I’ve seen, WORDS CAN KILL is the best so far. It was cute and silly and did a solid job of building on the groundwork laid by the previous two films. Some grumpy fucks might poo-poo all over it, but, as far as low-stress comfort films go, I really liked it. Check it out!

Part 1 - Mystery 101 (2019)
Part 2 - Mystery 101: Playing Dead (2019)
Part 4 - Mystery 101: Dead Talk (2019)
Part 5 - Mystery 101: An Education in Murder (2020)
Part 6 - Mystery 101: Killer Timing (2021)
Part 7 - Mystery 101: Deadly History (2021)