Fun movies we missed

Summary

Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR)
Episode: Fun Movies We Missed
Date: May 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode, hosts Linda Holmes and Aisha Harris spotlight fun, offbeat movies recently released on streaming platforms that may have slipped under your radar. Linda digs up three unexpected gems—each silly or surprising in its own way—that promise a good time at home. Whether you’re searching for quirky sci-fi crime romps, wild B-movie thrillers, or over-the-top creature features, this episode is packed with entertaining recommendations and plenty of banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Movie Recommendations

1. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice (Hulu)

• Premise:
  • A darkly comic crime film with a time-travel twist.
  • Cast: James Marsden (Mike), Vince Vaughn (Nick), Aza Gonzalez (Alice), with supporting roles by Keith David, Steven Root, and Jimmy Tatro.
  • Plot Summary:
    • Mike (Marsden), a hired gun and aspiring ex-gangster, is lured back into crime by Nick (Vaughn). Complications arise when a time machine creates a second Nick, setting off a wild, chaotic night involving double Vince Vaughns and a heavy dash of sci-fi.
• Linda’s Take:
  • "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 a movie." (Linda Holmes, 04:06)
  • Enjoyed Marsden’s charm and Vaughn’s more melancholic performance.
  • Notes the violence is "pretty brutal in places, comically so—I think intentionally—but for me, maybe a little much at times." (Linda Holmes, 01:56)
  • Uncertainty about the ending's satisfaction but highlights strong supporting cast chemistry.
• Aisha’s Take:
  • Immediately hooked by a character singing the full "Why Should I Worry?" from Oliver and Company.
  • Loved Keith David and Jimmy Tatro as a father-son duo: "They had great chemistry...honestly, I probably could have spent even more time with them." (Aisha Harris, 03:42)
  • Calls it a "weird movie and a fun hang." (Aisha Harris, 04:00)
• Notable Moment:
  • Endearingly, both hosts refer to the film by various incorrect titles, underscoring its offbeat appeal.
• Recommendation:
  • For fans of oddball comedies with a genre-bending twist; streaming on Hulu.
• Timestamp: 00:28–04:24

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2. Apex (Netflix)

• Premise:
  • A survival thriller in the Australian wilderness with escalating, absurd twists.
  • Cast: Charlize Theron (Sasha), Taron Egerton (Ben).
  • Plot Summary:
    • Sasha sets off on a solo camping trip, meets friendly-seeming Ben, who then becomes a menacing tormentor in a cat-and-mouse chase that grows increasingly over-the-top.
• Linda’s Take:
  • Conflicted feelings: "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." (Linda Holmes, 08:49)
  • The film "gets very, very wackadoodle by the end." (Linda Holmes, 06:29)
  • Points out Netflix’s formula: "You have to put an action sequence right at the very beginning. Even if it’s not really necessary for the story." (Linda Holmes, 06:56)
  • Taron Egerton’s performance described as "over the top...sort of funny in ways that sometimes I am not totally sure are intentional." (Linda Holmes, 07:34)
  • Highlights ridiculous details, e.g., "Chekhov's beef jerky" and Ben imitating bird screams.
• Aisha’s Take:
  • Wonders if Egerton is channeling "kind of a Nick Cagey performance." (Aisha Harris, 08:06)
  • Thinks it would be great for a group movie night: "You want a crowd." (Aisha Harris, 09:34)
• Recommendation:
  • A slickly made, intentionally bonkers B-movie; ideal for group streaming. On Netflix.
• Timestamp: 05:51–09:49

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3. Thrash (Netflix)

• Premise:
  • An unabashedly silly creature feature, pitched as "Netflix's Sharknado."
  • Cast: Phoebe Dynevor (Lisa).
  • Plot Summary:
    • Heavily pregnant Lisa gets caught in a hurricane flooding her coastal town with sharks; chaos and campy carnage ensue.
• Linda’s Take:
  • “This is the one of these three that is the most kind of, as I had said, gleefully ridiculous…It is a very over the top, intentionally silly movie. I give it credit for that.” (Linda Holmes, 12:16)
  • Makes comparisons to Sharknado (2013) and Under Paris (2024), noting “Thrash is best understood as Netflix’s Sharknado.” (Linda Holmes, 11:03)
  • Appreciates the "movie’s gleefully ridiculous" tone and its lack of self-seriousness.
  • Observes the fluctuating trend of shark-themed entertainment: “It comes in waves a little bit… and then people just kind of go, nah, I don’t want to watch shark stuff.” (Linda Holmes, 12:48)
• Aisha’s Take:
  • Jokes that what it’s missing is a theme song like LL Cool J’s for Deep Blue Sea: “We need more of that.” (Aisha Harris, 13:49)
  • Agrees it sounds best with a group of friends.
• Recommendation:
  • Deliberately campy, perfect for a silly night with friends. Streaming on Netflix.
• Timestamp: 09:53–14:23

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I couldn't decide when I watched this movie if it should get five stars or negative five stars”—Linda Holmes on Apex (08:49)
• “They had great chemistry… I probably could have spent even more time with them.”—Aisha Harris on Keith David & Jimmy Tatro in Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice (03:42)
• “Thrash is best understood as Netflix’s Sharknado.”—Linda Holmes (11:03)
• “We need more of that”—Aisha Harris, lamenting the lack of an LL Cool J-style theme song for Thrash (13:49)

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Linda delivers three distinct picks for viewers seeking fun, unconventional streaming movie nights. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice offers genre-blending capers and memorable performances; Apex is a wacky survival thriller ideal for group snark; and Thrash brings peak shark-camp with an unapologetically silly premise. Each recommendation comes with its own quirks and caveats—perfect for curious movie lovers, especially when shared with friends.

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Quick Recap:

• Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice – Quirky sci-fi crime caper (Hulu) — 00:28–04:24
• Apex – Over-the-top survival B-movie (Netflix) — 05:51–09:49
• Thrash – Campy, “shark storm” creature feature (Netflix) — 09:53–14:23

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This episode is a cheerful reminder that great streaming finds don’t always make headlines—and sometimes, the weirdest ones are the most entertaining.

Transcript

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This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel, that's your drive for more. Capella University's flexpath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn [e-mail].

[Aisha Harris]

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.

[Linda Holmes]

And sometimes it's worth taking a breath and checking in on some of the ones you might have missed. I'm Linda Holmes.

[Aisha Harris]

And I'm Aisha Harris. And today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, Linda's gonna 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.

[Linda Holmes]

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.

[Aisha Harris]

All right, so the first one is one that I have actually seen. I also, off mic, 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 know. Tell us, what is this movie actually called?

[Linda Holmes]

So Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice is a movie that came out on Hulu at the end of March and 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 cajoles Mike into doing a job for him. And that job ultimately reveals the existence of a time machine. Just saying, a time machine that has created a second Nick. So now there are two Vince Vaughns. 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 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% 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 slight bloody affair. It has a pretty great supporting cast. Keith David plays the kind of super baddie that they're up against. Steven Root shows up. Jimmy Tatro, who you might know for playing lunkheads in American Vandal and Theater Camp and some other things, plays a lunkhead 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 it's silly and I had a good time. What did you think of?

[Aisha Harris]

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 Jewel song.

[Linda Holmes]

But like, when is the last time you heard that song?

[Aisha Harris]

Well, I listened to it a lot. So anyway, I was very into that. But then I agree with you. For me, Keith David and Jimmy Tetro, 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.

[Linda Holmes]

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 a 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.

[Aisha Harris]

Yes, yes, yes. Well, after the break we've got a few more recommendations, so you should definitely stick around.

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[Aisha Harris]

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?

[Linda Holmes]

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 is doing a wilderness camping thing solo in an Australian national park. She meets this seemingly friendly guy named Ben, who is played by Taran 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 wackadoodle by the end. It spends more time than I anticipated with him kind of holding her captive. I did not enjoy that as much. Cause then you kind of have him kind of menacing and tormenting her, which torture not as much fun, right?

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah.

[Linda Holmes]

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 gonna 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 Taron Egerton 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 woods and you hear birds screaming. Essentially. Birds are going ha ha, ha, ha. And he has this habit of imitating bird screams. And I don't know if it's supposed to be funny or scary.

[Aisha Harris]

So we're giving like kind of a Nick Cagey performance here.

[Linda Holmes]

It's like, yes, I think that' 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 Chekhov's 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 there and 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.

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah, that's what it sounds like. And I. I like a movie where you have to question, was that good or was that bad or was it? Could it be both?

[Linda Holmes]

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.

[Aisha Harris]

Okay. 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?

[Linda Holmes]

I think that's a good thought.

[Aisha Harris]

But unfortunately it's streaming on Netflix, so I guess just call your friends over and check it out.

[Linda Holmes]

That's Right. Call your friends over, have a night in, have some pizza, watch Apex.

[Aisha Harris]

Yeah, 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.

[Linda Holmes]

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 Dynevor, 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.

[Aisha Harris]

Okay.

[Linda Holmes]

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.

[Aisha Harris]

Right.

[Linda Holmes]

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.

[Aisha Harris]

Sharknado, okay.

[Linda Holmes]

Although it is. It's not as self unserious as Sharknado was. 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 shark in the Seine interrupting a swimming race in the seine. 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, Lysa shows up very, very pregnant, which means she's gonna have to have her baby in the middle of the shark storm. That's just. That's just gonna be how it is.

[Aisha Harris]

It's like a quiet place.

[Linda Holmes]

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 seine, conceptually, but tonally, a similar thing.

[Aisha Harris]

I guess we're going through a shark renaissance. I mean, I guess if Sharknado came out in 2013, this has been going on for a minute.

[Linda Holmes]

Shark movies, shark TV and stuff like that kind of 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, nah, I don't want to watch shark stuff.

[Aisha Harris]

That's true.

[Linda Holmes]

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 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.

[Aisha Harris]

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.

[Linda Holmes]

I think that's right.

[Aisha Harris]

We need more of that.

[Linda Holmes]

I think it could definitely use a theme song. I think if you tipped it, you know, probably another 2 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. 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 Apex is. And then sometimes they're just trying to do like straight up what basic cable movies used to be like. Like Thrash.

[Aisha Harris]

Yes, yes. Thrash. 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, Linda.

[Linda Holmes]

I am so glad I am here to bring you whatever might be diverting in diversion needing times.

[Aisha Harris]

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely 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 happyar or visit the link in our show Notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katsev and edited by our showrunner, runner Jessica Reedy. Hello. Come in. 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.

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