That Was Something All Right... "Handsome: A Netflix Murder Mystery"

Handsome: A Netflix Murder Mystery (2017)

TV-14

Starring Jeff Garlin, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Webber, Christine Woods, Hailee Lautenbach,

Written and Directed by Jeff Garlin

The Story:

LA Homicide Detective Gene Handsome (Garlin) and his partner Fleur Scozzari (Lyonne) are hot on the trail of a murderer who chopped up a babysitter and placed her on the lawn of movie star Talbert Bacorn (Webber). Between this case and Handsome's personal life, he's got his hands full.

This is a strange little Netflix Original film.

It starts with Webber addressing the audience as himself, and that sort of sets the tone for this one. Sadly, he says "and I play the murderer..."

So that kind of sucks any and all mystery from the film at that point.

All that said, it's Garlin's baby from start to finish.

There are some genuinely funny bits, some head-scratchers, and some strange, awkward moments that take place.

But the film is never dull, I'll give it that.

His banter with Lyonne is some of the highlight of the movie.

It's an odd duck, but has a lot of charm thanks in no small part to Garlin himself.

Yes, I'd come back for a sequel, but hopefully a little more "Mystery" can be put into that one.

Final Grade: C+ 

Who You're Not Gonna Call..."Ghost Team"

Ghost Team (2016)

PG-13

Starring Jon Heder, David Krumholtz, Justin Long, Melonie Diaz, Amy Sidaris,

Directed by Oliver Irving

The Story:

Louis (Heder) is tired of his life and wants to do something exciting and new. He decides to try and make a video to be the next Ghost Hunter on tv. He assembles his team, and they head to a spooky farm on the outskirts of town.

One by one, members of the team go missing.  Louis has definitely stumbled onto something. Can he rescue them from the supernatural mystery, or will his foray into adventure be the last thing he ever does?

Oh, I try and spin it, but this just isn't that great of a movie.

Of course, I'd say that about any movie with Jon Heder as the star. Really? That's the best you could do?

But this is a movie with a 12 dollar budget, and you get what you pay for.

Most of the characters are tipped to the annoying side of the scale.

It's one I almost pulled out at the 20 minute mark, but I had mercy as there was potential there for something interesting to happen.

It got mildly better as more of the cast was introduced, but in the end, it's just not that great.

It does make the live action remake of Scooby Doo seem even better now.

: )

Not streaming yet, but it's coming soon to Netflix.

Final Grade: C- ... D+.  Yeah, let's go with D+