This message comes from Critics at Large. Culture moves fast. Opinions move faster. Critics at Large from The New Yorker takes a smarter look at the books, films, and ideas everyone's debating. Thoughtful, witty conversations every Thursday wherever you listen to podcasts. One basic truth of the streaming era is that streaming movies come at you fast. The good ones, the bad ones, the silly ones, it's an absolute deluge. And sometimes it's worth taking a breath and checking in on some of the ones you might have missed. I'm Linda Holmes. And I'm Aisha Harris. And today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, Linda's going to recommend some fun movies that you can stream at home. And now it's just the two of us today. Linda, you know, sometimes we both catch up with streaming movies that seem a little offbeat. And today you've got three that you've seen and that we haven't covered on the show that you think might be worth a watch. That's right. I'm calling these fun streaming movies to check out at home. And they are fun, I will say, in different ways as we will get into. All right. So the first one is one that I have actually seen. I also, off Mike, just called this Mikey and Nikki, referring to the 1976 Elaine May movie. I've also called it Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. I think we all have. What is this movie actually called? So Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice is a movie that came out on Hulu at the end of March. It stars James Marsden, Vince Vaughn and Aza Gonzalez. Mike, who is played by Marsden is kind of a hired gun. They're both sort of gangsters. And Mike is also having an affair with Nick's wife, Alice, who is played by Gonzalez. Mike is trying to quit the gangster business, I guess you'd say. But one night, Nick comes and could Joel's Mike into doing a job for him. And that job ultimately reveals the existence of a time machine. Just saying. Yes. A time machine that has created a second Nick. So now there are two Vince Vaughn's. There's present Nick, there's future Nick. It turns at that point into kind of a one wild night comedy where everything is happening and everything is just chaos going on simultaneously. But the difference is that they're all trapped in this bizarre kind of science fiction, tinged crime picture. I would probably have liked it a little bit more if it were about 10 percent less violent. It is pretty brutal in places, comically so, I think intentionally, but for me, maybe a little much at times with that said, I am a big fan of James Marsden, who's very charming in this. I think the current stage of Vince Vaughn's career, which has included this and also the show he's in, Bad Monkey, I think has brought out a little more melancholy in him, which is certainly part of this story, but mostly it is a slapsticky, bloody affair. It has a pretty great supporting cast. Keith David plays the kind of super baddie that they're up against. Stephen Root shows up. Jimmy Tetra, who you might know for playing long heads in American Vandal and theater camp and some other things, plays a long head here as well. I always enjoy him. I have some uncertainty about the ending of this, which I obviously won't spoil and whether it's entirely satisfying. But I think the movie is solid and silly and I had a good time. What did you think of it? Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Now, I have to say, I was sucked in at the very beginning when it starts with a character singing pretty much the entire song from Oliver and Company. Why Should I Worry? Which is also probably the best Billy Joel song. But like, when is the last time you heard that song? Well, I listen to it a lot. So anyway, I was very, I was very into that. But then I agree with you for me, Keith David and Jimmy Tatra, who are also playing father and son in this movie. I just love them both. They had great chemistry. They were the side characters, but honestly, I probably could have spent even more time with them. Yeah, they were my favorite parts. But this is just a fun hang. It was a weird movie and a fun hang. Yes. It's the kind of movie that feels like you could almost have most of this movie without the time machine, which is kind of a weird place to come down about the movie. But yeah, I enjoyed this one a lot. Again, it's streaming on Hulu, Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. And yes, I think we all call it by a variety of different names. Yes, yes, yes. Well, after the break, we've got a few more recommendations, so you should definitely stick around. This message comes from critics at large. Culture moves fast. Opinions move faster. Critics at large from the New Yorker takes a smarter look at the books, films and ideas everyone's debating. Thoughtful, witty conversations every Thursday, wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, welcome back. We are, of course, talking about some fun movies that you can stream at home right now and Linda, you're going to give us the next one. Tell us what is it? All right. So this is one I was very much of two minds about this movie. So Apex is a Netflix movie. It seemed when I saw the trailer like this was going to be right up my alley. I like a thriller. In the trailer, you see Charlize Theron playing this woman named Sasha, who was doing a wilderness camping thing solo in an Australian national park. She meets this seemingly friendly guy named Ben, who is played by Taryn Edgerton, who gives her directions and so forth. But then he turns out to be a violent weirdo and he's chasing her through the woods, this kind of cat and mouse thing. When you actually watch it, it is partly that. But I want to stress that this movie gets very, very whack-a-doodle by the end. It spends more time than I anticipated with him kind of holding her captive. I did not enjoy that as much because then you kind of have him kind of menacing and tormenting her, which torture not not as much fun, right? Yeah. But you also see some things that are very much feel very much to me like the current Netflix formula, which is that you have to put an action sequence right at the very beginning, even if it doesn't. It's not really necessary for the story. And the weird thing is they've packed this action sequence up front and then it takes a really long time for the movie to actually get to the central action part. You know what I mean? There's kind of a long dull part in between the action part at the beginning and the part where he kind of goes into full, I'm going to chase you through the woods now, you better run. This is basically a slickly made B movie out in the wilderness. And I think if you kind of give yourself over to how over the top it is and especially how over the top the Terran Edgerton performance is and the character is it is diverting. It's sort of funny in ways that sometimes I am not totally sure are intentional. You know, you're out in the in the woods and you hear birds screaming, essentially. Birds are going. And he has this habit of imitating bird screams. And I don't know if it's supposed to be funny or scary. So we're giving like kind of a Nick Cagey performance here. It's like, yes, I think that's fair. And I was expecting more like, you know, Meryl Streep in The River Wild. Like I was expecting a little more on the run from a scary person, you know. And there gets to be just some very there is what I will just refer to as like checkoffs beef jerky in this movie. And I couldn't decide when I watched this movie if it should get five stars or negative five stars, because I think it totally depends on how seriously you try to take it. Yeah. With all that said, Charlize Theron is fun to watch. She's a very game actor. I think she really is having a good time with all of the kind of, you know, there's some climbing and there's some running and there's some running through water and there's some fighting. And I think they both definitely commit. Is this a good movie? I can't tell. But I think to a lot of people, it will be a fun movie. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. And I like a movie where you have to question, was that good or was that bad? Or was it? Could it be both? Like I said, it's a slick looking B movie. And in some ways, that's a little confusing to me. But I think it has its charms. You know, it's done. It's been in the top rung of Netflix for, you know, the time since it came out. And I think people like it. It got some good reviews. So I don't know. I am of two minds about this movie. But I definitely think if this sounds like something you would like, you might very much like it. OK, yeah, this actually does sound like something I'd like. Something I'd probably like to watch preferably with a group of people, because it feels like the type of movie where it's like you want a crowd. I think that's a good thought. But unfortunately, it's streaming on Netflix. So I guess just call your friends over and check it out. That's right. Call your friends over, have a night in, have some pizza, watch Apex. So as we said, Apex on Netflix now. Linda, we've got one more that you're going to recommend here. And you say it's gleefully stupid, according to my notes here. So I'm excited to hear about this. I did say that. So Thrash is another Netflix movie. Yes, I said Thrash. It is substantially less slick than Apex. I would say the aesthetic is cheaper, right? It stars Phoebe Dinover, who played Daphne on the first season of Bridgerton. She plays a very pregnant woman named Lisa, who ends up trapped in a storm. What kind of storm? A hurricane that ends up flooding her coastal town with sharks. Now, before we really get to what Thrash is, and in order to accurately place this movie in various canons, I have to clarify an important piece of history. If you will indulge me. OK. The most attention grabbing part of Sharknado, the movie that aired on sci-fi in 2013, was the title, which suggested a tornado made of sharks. Right? For the most part, though, Sharknado is about exactly what Thrash is about. A storm that creates floods, the floods bring sharks. The sharks end up in everybody's streets and houses and businesses and so on. So really, Thrash is best understood as Netflix's Sharknado. Sharknado. OK. Although it is it's not as self-unsurious as Sharknado was. OK. It's not as kind of winking at its ridiculousness as Sharknado. Tonally, it's quite a bit like, perhaps unsurprisingly, a bit like the last shark movie that I watched on Netflix, which was under Paris, which came out in 2024, that one involved a shark in the sun, interrupting a swimming race in the sun. Hmm, maybe not. But but Thrash is still, you know, a lot of people yelling while they're having their arms bitten off and a lot of other people screaming while they watch them have their arms bitten off. And of course, of course, as I mentioned, Lisa shows a very, very pregnant, which means she's going to have to have her baby in the middle of the shark storm. That's just that's just going to be how it is. Like a quiet place. I don't think you can even consider that a spoiler. This is the one of these three that is the most kind of, as I had said, gleefully ridiculous, right, which honestly, in some ways, I do appreciate. It is a very over the top intentionally silly movie. I give it credit for that, you know, maybe not as silly as sharks in the sun, conceptually, but tonally a similar thing. I guess we're going there with shark and renaissance. I mean, I guess if Sharknado came out in 2013, this has been going on for a minute. Shark movies, Shark TV and stuff like that kind of feels to me like it comes and goes. Like it comes no pun intended. It comes in waves a little bit. You'll get several and then they'll be like, we should make more shark stuff. And then they'll make more shark stuff for a while. And then people just kind of go, I don't want to watch shark stuff. That's true. And it goes away for a while because like Sharknado led to its own little mini, you know, boom in shark stuff. And so, as I said, this is Netflix's at least second movie in the last couple of years about sharks invading a city and eating people. So, you know, maybe in a couple of years, we'll be able to do just a whole episode about Netflix shark movies. So yeah. So thrash is kind of, I think if you talk about a movie that is probably best with a group, also probably thrash. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I think thrash probably doesn't have though that it should a theme song from LL Cool J as one had for Deep Blue Sea. I think that's right. We need more of that. I think it could definitely use a theme song. I think if you tipped it, you know, probably another two degrees sillier, it would play almost exactly like a sci-fi movie. Yeah. You can almost feel Netflix like feeling out where they want to make movies. Some of them, they make super serious movies that are like intended to get Oscars. Some of them, they're trying to do like blockbuster movies. Some of them, they're trying to do in between movies, like I think apexes. And then sometimes they're just trying to do like straight up. What basic cable movies used to be like like thrash? Yes. Yes. Thrasse, thrash, thrash. Well, that is thrash. It is streaming on Netflix. And that brings us to the end of our show. These are great recommendations. I actually might check out both of these other two that I have not seen yet. So thank you for that. I am so glad I am here to bring you whatever might be diverting in diversion needing times. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I need that. And yeah, we need to remind you that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a really, really great way to support our show and public radio because you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor free. You can find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. And this episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katziff and edited by our showrunner Jessica Reedy. Hello, Kamin provides our theme music. And thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris. We'll see you all next time. This message comes from Critics at Large. Culture moves fast. Opinions move faster. 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