Ty Watches "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die"

Of the seven movies I have watched this week, the one I'm writing about today may have been my favorite. "Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie" was the funniest, and "Blackberry" was a nice surprise. But "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" is the one I have thought about the most since watching it.

I have wanted to see this movie for some time now. I tried to see it in the theaters, but it came and went pretty fast. Then it was streaming, but it was something like twenty dollars to rent. But, there was a deal to rent the movie on Amazon this week for five bucks, so I decided now was the perfect time. And, as I said before, I really liked this movie quite a bit.

I'm a big Sam Rockwell fan, and he does some masterful work here in this movie. The short plot of this movie is, Rockwell shows up in a diner in modern time LA to warn everyone that always being on your phone causes an apocalyptic event and he is here to try and stop it. This is the whole first scene of the movie, which grabbed me right away, and the movie takes off from there. Rockwell absolutely owns every second that he is on screen in this movie. He is brash, mean, foul mouthed and clearly has a job that he needs to get done. Coming off his minor arc on the most recent season of "White Lotus", this role in this movie was almost too perfect for him. He crushes the whole time. I feel like they told him to just be a heightened version of himself.

As he is recruiting the rest of the team for this mission, this is where we meet the other main characters in this movie. Juno Temple plays Susan. She plays a grieving mother who may be getting information to join Rockwell's fight from a certain source. What I like about this movie is we get some breakaway scenes where we find out why these people are in the diner that night and why they eventually choose to help Rockwell. Temple's story is the saddest by far, but it also gives us a very good, very real understanding of why she is joining the fight. I also appreciate that Gore Verbinski, the director, tells a story of how numb Americans have become to school shootings. Temple's character arc focuses on this entirely. Haley Lu Richardson, who is basically the second lead, plays a character that is allergic to phones and wi-fi. Smart phones play a massive part in this movie. They may be the villain for all intents and purposes. I love that they are using those as the basis for why the apocalypse started. I feel like teenagers should be required to watch this simply for that reason alone. Haley Lu Richardson, as said before, is allergic to these devices. She grows to loathe them. She has a partner that is on her team for awhile, until he is not anymore. This was a nice reversal from her previous roles. She gets to have fun with this and she is right up there with Rockwell as far as her performance. I thought she was great. Michael Pena and Zazie Beetz play high school teachers. They have the funniest backstory. I found myself howling when they got their turn on screen. They are also kind at the starting moment of the whole world going nuts for their phones. Beetz is hilarious and I love that she keeps saying that teachers who aren't at the school anymore are on "sabbatical". It was great. Pena is terrified of the kids and he wants them off their phones. He gets a nice little hero turn and I thought he was the funniest of all. There are a few other members of the team, but the five I mentioned are the key players.

What made me so enamored with this movie was why they ended up where they did in the movie. Smartphones are becoming a real problem in the world. People are addicted to them. I see more people with their heads hunched over just staring at their phones. That is the inciting incident for this movie. People are so obsessed that they literally turn into zombies. Rockwell is hell bent on turning this all around, but he looks crazy, says he is from the future and takes people's phones and throws them in buckets of water. His costume in this movie is so rad. I kind of want to go as him for Halloween this year.

The best thing about the movie is all the twists and turns. Rockwell's character says something early on about how movies suck you in with the story, the problem and how you think it is all going to be wrapped in a nice, neat and happy bow. But that may or may not be the case with this movie. This is not a spoiler, but the way the movie ended floored me. I did not see it coming and that made me like this movie even more. I wished I had seen it in the theater, but at least I watched it on streaming.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. As I said before, I do think it should be mandatory for teenagers to watch. But I also highly suggest that people who like Sam Rockwell watch it. "Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die" is a fun time traveling apocalyptic movie. It tells a good story with some very excellent performances from solid actors. Check it out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Bad Guys"

We took our kids to the movies for the first time since the pandemic last night. They had not been to a theater in two years, our son had wanted to see the movie "The Bad Guys" since he heard it was coming out and we had some time that all four of us were together at the same time last night. So we pushed the button and bought tickets.

The theater was rad, there were only about seven other people in there and we were looking to have a good time. We bought some snacks, got the kids some drinks and took our seats. After the previews were done, both our kids made comments about how long the previews were, so we settled in our seats and watched the movie.

I have to say, "The Bad Guys" is a very fun, very funny and a very solid movie. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the movie. I was laughing. I was interested in the story. I liked the characters. I adored the animation. It all worked really well. Even the slow parts worked. They were needed to move the story along. And our kids were a delight. They followed the rules and were very well behaved throughout the runtime. Back to the movie.

I enjoy a good heist movie. I found this out about myself a few years back. I like the conniving and double crossing and misdirects. It is fun. I like trying to figure out who did it. That is exactly what "The Bad Guys" was. It was a heist movie through and through. Sure they used famous characters from old stories, but they updated them. The big bad wolf was hip and cool. He was the lead of the movie. The snake was slimy and mean, but he also liked push pops and Hawaiian shirts and funky hats. The shark was a master of disguise and lovable. The tarantula was a hacking genius. And the piranha was wild and crazy and could sing. It was cool. I enjoyed how they updated them and made them cool. I also liked the message of the movie. It was all about heists and getting away with robbery and all that cool movie stuff, but the movie was really about being nice to your friends and trusting one another. Oh, and also being good. I liked how they managed to make that the focal point in a movie like this. I mentioned the animation before. It was so cool. My son has read the books and he told us that that is how the characters look in the book too, if they were colored with crayons. I appreciate the attention to detail. And the fact that my kid recognized it speaks volumes to the animators. They did a top notch job. The voice acting was on point as well. Sam Rockwell was great as the wolf, Anthony Ramos crushed as the piranha, Marc Maron epitomized the snake, Awkwafina was hilarious and cool as the tarantula and Craig Robinson was perfectly cast as the shark. It all worked so very well. There was a point during the movie where I leaned over to my wife and told her that I was having a great time. That is what I look for in "kids" movies. I want my kids to like it, but I also want stuff that keeps me interested. "The Bad Guys" nailed it.

I highly recommend this movie for kids and parents everywhere. It was wonderful. I had a blast and I think you will too. What a fun, fun movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late than Never on "Jojo Rabbit"

In my quest to watch as many movies as I can during quarantine that I have wanted to see again, or for the first time, my wife and I sat down on Saturday night, our quarantine date night, and watched "Jojo Rabbit".

Right away, this movie is incredible. It is funny, well shot, perfectly acted, colorful, sad and triumphant. It is a beautiful movie. I loved every single second of it. I am a very big Taika Waititi fan, as you all know, so when I first heard about this movie I wanted to see it strictly because it was being directed by Waititi. I then saw the trailer for it, and that made me want to see it even more. I was supposed to see it in theaters, but when I had the time, and my father had the time, he wanted to see it too, my wife and daughter unfortunately got sick, so I stayed home to care for them. I never got another real shot to see it while in the theaters. I knew that it won an Oscar, that a ton of my friends really liked, and I figured I would see it soon enough.

So while we were picking a movie, it was my turn, I scrolled through the available movies, and as soon as I saw "Jojo Rabbit", my mind was made up. We watched it, and as I said, I loved it. My wife liked it too, but she also spent a good amount of the movie in tears. I cried while watching it too. I am not afraid to admit that. For all the accolades, good reviews and trailers I had watched I was able to avoid all spoilers. All I knew going in was the basic story, and that Waititi was not only directing, but also playing Hitler. I assumed the movie was going to be a goofy, funny and interesting look at how stupid and asinine the Nazis were. That was my idea. And while the movie has all of that in it, there is some heavy, heavy things going in. There is crushing and devastating deaths. There is a harrowing story about the main kids father. There is the Jewish girl that hides out in the attic, who Jojo's mom is helping out. There's all this, and so much more. But, I like that Waititi is doing more stuff like this. That he is willing to make movies that aren't just straight up comedy, which he is a genius at, but that he is expanding his horizons. He made a great super hero movie, so why not try a war dramedy? He did, and he crushed it.

Yes, the movie is sad, there is very tough stuff to see and it made my wife and I cry, but it was also funny. I mean, Waititi plays Hitler! Now, he is Jojo's imaginary friend, and Waititi plays him like the idiot I imagine he was, but still, to see him with that hair, those clothes and that mustache, it was wild. He played him so hilariously inept though, every time he was on screen, I was laughing. The rest of the actors were very good as well. Scarlett Johannson is tremendous in her role. She is Jojo's mom, she is anti Nazi and anti war and she is simply splendid. It's a role like this, a performance like this, that reintroduces me to how great she is. Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen are very good as well. They play Nazi lovers, but they have hearts of gold. Rockwell is one of those actors that I always enjoy when he is in a movie. Rebel Wilson was perfectly cast as the woman worker in the Nazi office. She was made for a comedic role like this, and she thrived. And even in a small role, Stephen Merchant shows why he is such a coveted character actor in comedies. He was great. But the kids in this movie were the true stars. Jojo was played by a kid named Roman Griffin Davis, and man is he wonderful. He is so good as the fanatic young kid, who thinks he is destined to fight in the German army, but he really is a good kid underneath it all. It just needs to be pried out of him by other people in his life. The scenes between him and Waititi are so god damn funny. But, the stuff between him and Johannson is so moving and beautiful and easy to relate to as a parent myself. He should have gotten an Oscar nomination. The girl that played the Jewish kid hiding out in the attic, Thomasin McKrnzie, was so so so good. She was tough and willing to fight for herself. She also was the one that really helped Jojo realize that he is a good kid. She also was a perfect big sister type character to Jojo. And the scene where they dance together was so pretty, it made me happy cry and I think about it quite often as one of the most heart warming things I have seen in a movie in some time. And then we have Archie Yates, who played Yorki, Jojo's best friend, who was the perfect comedic foil to Jojo. Seeing him in German Army gear was great. Hearing him chastise the German Army later on was hilarious. Him telling Jo Jo that he missed him mom so much because of the war, and that he needed to "go home and get some cuddles", was the best. Yorki was amazing. All these kids were amazing.

This movie was amazing. I cannot recommend it enough. I will say, know going into it that it will make you cry, but it will also make you laugh and you will be happy at the end. I love this movie. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.