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+ 

The Title is the Best Part of the Movie..."Dealin' With Idiots"

Quite possibly my least favorite baseball movie of all time...

The Story:

Max (Jeff Garlin) is a comedian and a father who watches in horror as his son's youth baseball team flounders on the field, and the parents drive him batty in the stands.  Then he realizes that he could do a documentary on youth baseball for his next movie, and it's sure to be a comic hit!

If only...

This is a comedy with a shotgun approach.

For every joke that hits, 7 sail by and are either mildly amusing or miss completely.

Which is sad, because there's a pretty talented cast hiding amongst the players including Jami Gertz, Gina Gershon, Nia Vardalos, Timothy Olyphant and Fred Willard.

Garlin pulls triple duty as star, writer and director.

I give him credit for putting together a movie that isn't a complete waste of time, and I wanted to like it.

However, it just sort of stutters and jerks along from quirky scene to quirky scene as Max attempts to find the source for his next big hit by interviewing each of these parents.

The finale to the baseball game itself is both amusing and heartbreaking at the same time.  Pee Wee baseball has some strange rules, and I wouldn't doubt that the one that is invoked is indeed a real rule.  However after the realization,  then the movie didn't seem to know how to end.  It just sort of rambles on and on,  so anything touching that that could be gathered from that moment is lost

Ultimately, disappointed in the movie.

Now available to stream instantly on Netflix if you'd like to try it.

Final Grade: C-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: No thanks. ;)
in the foolishness of what happens next.

The Night Everything Changes..."Sleepover"

 

The most important rule is don't leave the house...

The Story:

Getting ready to start high school is tough.  Doing it when your best friend (Mika Boorem) is about to move away forever...world-changing.  So Julie (Alexa Vega) has a sleepover at her house.  Her mom (Jane Lynch) is still treating her like a little girl while her dad (Jeff Garlin) remains clueless about everything.  However, when the popular rival (Sara Paxton) challenges Julie's crew to a scavenger hunt... the winner gets to sit at the "popular kids" spot in high school for lunch while the others have to sit near the dumpsters...  Some rules are meant to be broken.

If you have daughters, this is a good film for them to watch.

On second thought, since they disobey the parents, maybe not! : )

Okay, ignoring the bad parenting advice, it's a fun, mostly harmless movie.  The trouble they get into is nothing that bad, and it's a movie with the hi-jinks that won't hopefully bother the parents I you're watching along with your children.

Sam Huntington provides some amusement as the put-upon brother who tries to cover his sister's shenanigans by pretending to be an all-female slumber party by himself.

Thrown also into the mix is Steve Carrell as a rent-a-cop for a few silly moments as well.

This one came out in 2004, right after his breakout performances in Bruce Almighty and Anchorman.  Nothing quite that funny for him in this role, but here you can catch him before he shot to fame the next year as a star.

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it or stop everything that I'm doing if it came on, but it's a harmless bit of fun that if it was on, I would likely stop flipping channels.