Natey & Katy: At the Movies
Natey & Katy are two friends who love movies and love talking about them. Join them on their cinematic journey!
Natey & Katy: At the Movies
Surprise Saturday: Peeling Back "Skin Care" & Exploring "Alien: Romulus"
What's it like to watch a movie while dealing with theater disruptions and a heated audience debate over a casting choice? This week on "Natey & Katy: At the Movies," Natey dives into all the drama surrounding "Skin Care," a gripping tale of rivalry in the beauty industry. Inspired by true events, the film had Natey hooked with its compelling story and standout performances, especially by Lewis Pullman. Despite not being his usual type of film, he found himself thoroughly engaged and even motivated to research the real-life events that inspired it.
Next up, he tackles the heart-pounding suspense of "Alien: Romulus," directed by the genius behind "Don't Breathe." With intense scenes that keep you on edge and a strong performance from Cailee Spaeny, this film is a thrilling addition to the "Alien" franchise. Natey discusses its connections to past "Alien" movies and the influences from "Prometheus" and the video game "Alien Isolation." Plus, he shares the perks of AMC’s A-list program and gives a sneak peek into the upcoming discussion on "Some Like It Hot." Whether you're a fan of intense thrillers or maybe really into make-up, this episode has something for everyone.
What's up everybody. Welcome to another Surprise Saturday double feature episode of Nady and Katie at the Movies. I am your host, nathan aka Natey, of course, and, like I said, this is a double feature, so I'll be talking about two movies and to get us started, here's a clip from the first one. Hey, colleen, are you okay? Oh, I got this weird text last night but my piece on Brian and Kylie's airing this morning. Maureen and I are going to watch it together.
Speaker 1:Hope, what are you talking about? Well, you know, maureen's not just my assistant, she's kind of head of PR. No, hope, hope, the email, what email? The one where you talk about how lonely you are? Excuse me, among other things I might add. Wait, what, colleen? What email? That's not me. Well, should I be worried?
Speaker 1:Hold on this dear friends thing. Dear friends, for so long I felt an emptiness inside me. I can no longer keep this. Wait, were you drunk last night? No, oh, hey, um, colleen, uh, hold on a second. Hey, hi, are you okay? Hi, jeff, um, yeah, maureen, I know you need me to do that thing. What thing? What are you talking about? I want it, I know. Yeah, yeah, I know Maureen needs me to do this thing I promised her, so I'm going to come by later. Hey, don't forget to wash me at, brett and Kylie, okay, all right, okay, great, hold on hold on. Shit, where did it go, you? I feel like the inside of my body is turning to ash what? And time is running out. When I wake up in the morning, all I want is a I'm talking about skin care.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was an unseen screen movie so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But before I can talk about my likes and dislikes, I gotta go over the synopsis. Fame aesthetician Hope Goldman's skincare business faces sabotage when rival Angel Vergara opens a boutique across the street. Aided by friend Jordan, hope seeks to uncover who's trying to ruin her reputation. Skin Care stars Elizabeth Banks, lewis Pullman, luis Giraldo Mendez and Nathan Fillion and some other people that are also in this movie. So for some reason, this has nothing to do with the movie itself.
Speaker 1:For some reason, this movie theater I went to was very chatty, was very talkative, and I am just no theater. Etiquette is big. I teach theater, so when people are talking it gets really annoying. But one point that made this movie, I guess, engaging for this audience was the fact that they decided to cast a transgender woman as a female character in this movie. And you can kind of tell at first, you know, because you can obviously see that this woman has a Adam's apple, so that's kind of you know, woman has a Adam's apple, so that's kind of you know, a red flag right there. But then when someone in the audience finally noticed, they made a big to do about it and they're like, oh, that's a dude. So they were very loud and obnoxious. Then the person beside me was also very loud and obnoxious because he was fake laughing.
Speaker 1:And this movie did have humorous moments in it. It is actually loosely based on a true story. So that's, you know. That's already interesting enough for me, because I like movies that are based on true stories and it makes me want to go and look about the story itself. And so this is based on the life of a actual beauty person, a beauty product creator, and they were accused of hiring somebody to kill a rival beauty product person and they did go to jail before they went to trial and then they were found not guilty. But in this movie it kind of takes what if this person actually did this? And so it was pretty interesting. It had some, some good acting moments.
Speaker 1:Um, it's not really a movie that I myself would go out and seek, which again is why I like these screen unseen movies, or unseen screen, whatever they want to call them. That's why I like this, because it gives you a chance to go see a movie that you may not necessarily seek out and sometimes, like with movies like Sing Sing and other movies that I've seen during these types of events, sometimes they are movies that I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm so glad I went to this because this actually ended up being a really good movie, and I'm not saying this movie was bad, it's just not my type of movie. Now I will say the guy who played Jordan, lewis Pullman, did a really good job at playing his character, and I don't want to get in too much spoilers because there are aspects of this movie that I did enjoy.
Speaker 1:The language was a little much at times, which I can't really say anything, because me and my friend christine praised deadpool versus wolverine and you know that had a buttload of language in it as well, so I can't really say much about language, but the story was compelling enough. The thing is, I didn't mind the transgender person playing this character, because they didn't point it out. I probably still would have wondered, but I probably wouldn't have known if that person in the audience didn't make a big to-do about it. But other than that, the movie was compelling. Like I said, it did make me want to go and seek out this true story and that's how I found out that this person ended up being found not guilty of ordering a hit on their rival. But it's kind of like what Elizabeth thanks did with cocaine bear, because I believe she either produced it or directed that. And that was also another loose, very loosely based, if you know the true story about that very loosely based movie on a true story. And so this is another one that's loosely based.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, I really am enjoying these unseen screen events, going to see these movies that I probably would not have wanted to go see and to give them a chance, you know, to just give them a chance. So that is my first review. I would give skincare maybe a 3.5 out of6. It's not a bad movie. Again, it's just not my. It's not my choice when it comes to films that I would choose to go out and see.
Speaker 1:So that is the first film of this double feature surprise sat episode, and here is a clip from the second one. Wait, do you see it there? It's hunting us, right. Nuclear, can you manage yourself the gun? Yes, I can, but this is an f44, a pulse rifle. It's rotating, breach electronic pulse actions, what the colonial Marines used, a Staff raining assist. So right, you put that under your arm. All right, this time do aim it towards andy. Put the trigger halfway. All right, the safety zone. That's right. I'm taking on the in betweenbetweenquel, prequel, sequel. It's not a remake, it's not a reboot. It's a continuation of the story.
Speaker 1:Alien Romulus, the newest entry to the Alien franchise. And I'm going to be upfront and honest with you and this is probably going to take away my review credit a little bit I have never seen a single alien movie. So I went into this not having really any preconceived notion of what was going on. Obviously, I know the franchise, I know Sigourney Weaver was in it. I did not know that someone who shows up in this movie was in it and I honestly didn't realize that they had passed away. So that's your hint, right there. So alien romulus before I get into it, I have to go over the synopsis while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Speaker 1:Alien Romulus stars Kaylee Spaney, david Johnson, archie Renu, isabella Merced, spike Fern, eileen Wu and special appearance by the late Ian Holm. That's right, the late Ian Holm. He passed away in 2020, which is four years ago. So he's been, he's been dead for four years and they decided to bring him back for Alien Romulus because apparently he was in the very first Alien movie as the character Ash. And if you've never seen the original alien movie, I'm going to go into some mild spoilers actually not mild, I'm basically going to give away what his character is. So in the original alien, ian Holm played the character Ash, which I I'm assuming because, again, I've never seen it I'm assuming the whole premise is that the whole movie, you think he is a human who is working with these other human characters, and then it's found out that he is actually an android which was sent by the secret organization wayland industries, apparently to bring back this alien to Earth and basically harvest its I don't know, harvest it and to create this ultimate species, and so I guess that's like the big reveal of that movie.
Speaker 1:So, off the bat, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this. I'd spoken to my sisters. My sisters are big fans of the classic movies, the kid and this Tuesday coming up, some like it hot, you know those classic films, they really like those, and so they're not a big fan of sequels and remakes and reboots and all that sort of stuff, which I can understand and sometimes, yes, hollywood needs to come up with brand new ideas, original stuff. But sometimes they come up with original stuff and it's poop. And sometimes they come up with remakes and sequels and reboots and they're actually pretty good. And in this case, from what I've heard from other people as well, this movie elevates the franchise because they've made other reboots and prequels and stuff that haven't done that well, and so this movie is taking it back to its horror roots and making it very intense, making you care somewhat about the characters, and I think it does a really good job. Is it a perfect film? No, it is not, but it is a fun film. But it is one of my biggest dislikes is it does the same thing that other movies have done. It's it's.
Speaker 1:This movie is actually directed by the guy who did don't breathe, and I've talked about that movie before. I talked about it, I believe, last week, when I reviewed cuckoo. But in this instance I'm going to talk about how the plot of this movie is very similar to the plot of don't breathe. So if you've never seen that, I'm going to dive into spoilers for that movie. So that movie takes some young people who break into this guy's house. He's blind and so he can't. Obviously he can't see, but he can hear, and so they have to be very quiet when they move around. Well, alien romulus there's. There's literally a scene where they have to sneak past all these aliens and they have. They say you can't breathe, you can't do anything because they'll they'll sense it and they'll hear it and they'll attack you. So there's literally a scene where it's basically the exact same thing as don't breathe.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not saying I didn't like it, I'm not saying it wasn't intense, I'm not saying anything like that, but what I'm saying is it's nothing new. And you have a group of people doing stupid things and then they have the consequences, and then there's a character who is trying to help them by doing the smart thing, even though it may mean losing some other people and of course, they don't like that. So there were moments in this movie that I was frustrated because it did go down those familiar tropes of other movies. But at the same time, when it got intense, it was intense. I felt myself sitting on the edge of was intense. I felt myself sitting on the edge of my seat, like literally sitting on the edge of my seat getting into this movie, because it did a really good job at bringing you in and it did a really good job at not just focusing on the humans. Yes, a majority of the beginning of the movie was very human heavy, but when the alien showed up, they showed up and it was awesome. And I will say and I didn't notice this when I first saw the movie but Isabella Merced is actually the actress who played Dora the fricking Explorer in the Dora the Explorer movie, played dora the freaking explorer in the door of the explorer movie. So that's like complete contrast of go from door of the explorer to alien romulus and she did a really great job. This. This movie had really good acting in it, um, especially the lead actress, kaylee. I think she did a really good job. But again, there were those annoying characters that ignore what they're supposed to do and then they die and you're not really sad about it because they did stupid things.
Speaker 1:Enjoyed this movie. I thought it was very good. It does make me want to actually watch the alien movies and again, I know people are probably like why are you even talking about it? You haven't even seen it. But I saw it and I really enjoyed it. So hopefully sometime soon I can watch the original movies and just understand it a lot more, because I also heard that they actually incorporated a lot of the prometheus stuff which you know. Granted that that's most of the stuff that, from what I've heard, a lot of people didn't like those prequels and so a lot of people didn't care that they had that in there. But at the same time it was a nice connection from the originals and the prequels and the other stuff that they came out with. And the director even said he was influenced by the video game Alien Isolation. So it was a nice mashup of all this different stuff having to do with this one common franchise.
Speaker 1:So I would recommend Alien Romulus. I think you might at least have to have watched the first original one, because I think it's Alien, and then this movie and then Aliens. I think that's what they're trying to do. So this one goes in between Alien and then aliens. I think that's what they're trying to do. So this one goes in between alien and aliens. So alien Romulus I'm going to give it a five out of six.
Speaker 1:I thought it was a really good, intense movie and again I like I like intense movies. So those are my thoughts on skincare and alien Romulus. I'm really enjoying doing these surprise Saturday episodes and again, I really do enjoy the scene on screen stuff. So if you don't have AMC A-list, I actually recommend it. Amc is not promoting or advertising the show, but I would recommend you get A-list because if you see movies as much as I do, it pays for itself. It really does. So those are my thoughts on those two movies. Like I said before, you can hear me and Katie's thoughts on some. Like it hot coming up this Tuesday on Nadie and Katie at the movies.
