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.

HAIL, CAESAR! (2016)

Around a hour or so into HAIL, CAESAR! I thought to myself "What the hell is this movie?"  IMDb lists it as a "Comedy, Mystery", but there's nothing worth more than a smile throughout the entire thing and I have no idea what the mystery portion could have be.  Yeah, there's a kidnapping but we know who the kidnappers are right from the beginning!

Whatever.  Set in the early 1950's, HAIL, CAESAR! is the story of a Hollywood studio big wig (Josh Brolin) who spends all of his time taking care of production needs and keeping the various studio stars in line.  One day something big comes up when the main actor (George Clooney) in the studio's most expensive film disappears off the set.  Is he on a bender?  Shacked up with a dame?  Or maybe even kidnapped by Communists?  69'ing in the woods with a mountain lion?  Brolin has to get his star back while at the same time taking care of various other problems (pregnant single actress, miscast actor, a tempting job offer, etc), it's all very...blah.

I love classic Hollywood and I was excited to see a modern day film set back in 1950's Hollywood, but HAIL, CAESAR! is a dud.  It looks nice, but the story was all over the place with no true center or even likeable characters.  I kept waiting and waiting for something to develop, then I realized that the movie is already 3/4's done and it's still just flailing around like a boat lost in a storm.

With so much talent (both in front and behind the camera) I was expecting a delightful throwback mystery-comedy, kinda like the wonderful THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION, but that didn't happen.  Instead HAIL, CAESAR! simply putters along and leaves more questions than it answers.  On the bright side I really enjoyed the performances of Alden Ehrenreich and Veronica Osorio.  They were both great. Also, the lighting was nice.

Is that a white SUV off to the right?