Been feeling under the weather so I’m going to make this a quick one. Up first is Fanny: The Right to Rock. It’s a documentary on the all-girl rock group Fanny that I wasn’t familiar with. They released a few albums and toured, but ultimately never broke through. They played all their own instruments. Wrote their own music. The band consisted of 2 Filipino sisters and various other women throughout their career. Some were gay, some were straight. The band was very well known to musicians and David Bowie loved them. They had one song break the top 30 so the general public won’t know anything about them. I found it very interesting and it was cool trying to see them make a comeback a few years ago. It’s a solid rock-doc for a band I knew nothing about.
Next is Cocoon. “Coming-of-Age Story” is my least favorite genre of film. Even when I was a kid unless it had some adventure (Stand By Me) or comedy (The Sandlot) I just didn’t care about most of the people in these types of movies. This is a German film about a 14 year old girl hanging with her older sister and trying to fit in with them smoking weed, partying etc. She gets her first period, realizes she’s into girls and falls for an outsider girl. The lead actress is very good and easy to follow, but ultimately the story didn’t do much for me. A lot of it feels cliched at this point, the drunk mother who doesn’t pay attention to her daughters, the partying and hooking up, I’m not sure if it brings anything new to the table. It’s shot well and well made, but it’s not something I’d watch again.
Last we have Weekend Warriors from Mill Creek Entertainment, This is a case of good concept/bad execution. Jason London and Corbin Bernsen are the two biggest names in the cast so that’s telling you something right there. A brother and sister join their uncle on a trip and he takes them paintballing with his friends to play against another team. It’s serious paintballing though, but it also goes sideways. The two kids witness something they shouldn’t and start getting hunted down by the weekend warriors. The story works fine, but the acting isn’t good. The characters are walking stereotypes of rednecks, gun-lovers and yahoos. You’re supposed to root on the kids to survive, but ultimately I just didn’t care.
The Nerds Templar 