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7 Pajiba Favorites Currently Available On Netflix Streaming: Much Ado About Buttmonsters

By Jodi Smith | Film | May 19, 2014 |

By Jodi Smith | Film | May 19, 2014 |


Mud

Mud definitely feels like a more personal film. What kind of personal film is trickier to nail down. It’s about life living in Nichol’s home state of Arkansas, particularly river-life. It’s a coming of age story, two boys on a boyhood adventure. It’s about the relationship between fathers and sons. But primarily, it’s about love. The ideal of love, the heartbreak of love, the loss and failure and hope of love.” - Seth Freilich

Pain & Gain

“That’s not to say that Pain & Gain is a great movie, but it is a remarkable entry point into these lurid, fantastical, outrageous events, and at times, it can be outright entertaining. In fact, I’ve seen several people suggest that Pain & Gain is Michael Bay’s best film since Bad Boys II, and while that’s not particularly high praise, like the events depicted in the film, it is also true.” - Dustin Rowles

Star Trek Into Darkness

“Star Trek Into Darkness is both a fantastic space action film, and an excellent Star Trek film. The two are not necessarily coterminous, and they could easily be mutually exclusive. There are battles, a mystery to be unravelled, Benedict Cumberbatch utterly nailing the role of both villain and sympathetic foil to Kirk, a scattering of comic relief, and repeated call backs to the previous films of the franchise. And those call backs work most deeply because they are not simply references but partial reconstructions of scenes such that the new and old resonate like tines of a tuning fork.” - Steven Lloyd Wilson

Don Jon

“There’s a lot going on in Don Jon, and while not all of it works, that’s also part of its appeal. Gordon-Levitt is clearly on fire to try something here, and he’s written and directed an ambitious and awkward and occasionally clunky and often powerful movie about the way we lie to ourselves and what it takes to be honest with someone we love. It’s not a new topic, but that’s precisely why it’s so strong. He’s found a fresher way to get at something that pesters all of us, and in wrestling with ideas of authenticity and human connection, he’s continuing on the path he’s laying for himself one hard-carved brick at a time. Gordon-Levitt is determined to find new ways to forge relationships with the audience, and Don Jon is both a reflection of that desire and a solid execution of same. He has things he wants to say, and I want to listen.” - Daniel Carlson

Bad Milo

“All this works because the film is smartly put together. A film like Bad Milo could be a low-budget mess, but the practical effects don’t reveal any hint of a straining budget. Milo is wisely not made of CGI bits and bytes. Director Jacob Vaughn keeps things sharp but simple, smartly keeping things moving while staying out of the way so that his cast can do what they do so well. The writing (the film was co-written by newcomers Vaughn and Benjamin Hayes) is both funny yet natural. Well, as natural as it can be (demon, colon, etc.), all of which combines to give us a movie that is simply entertaining as all get-out. ” - SF

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

“So let’s being the answer to that question by stating one thing up front: Retaliation is by no means a good movie. It’s ridiculous, its plot is threadbare, it’s acting is uniformly dumbfoundingly overdone (yet at times, strangely enjoyable), and much of it is laughably illogical. And yet, it succeeds wildly in two things that its predecessor utterly failed at: its fidelity to the spirit of its inspirations, and its level of fun. (Close enough - JC)” - TK

Much Ado About Nothing

I don’t have a review for this, because the reviewer wasn’t crazy about it. However, I know (most) of you ‘Jibans love you some Joss Whedon and his regulars, so I think this is a worthy finish for a list of Pajiba Faves. - JC