Coupla good ones today. First up was “Josie & Jack”, which was surprisingly good, despite the 4.whatever rating.
After their mum died, brother’n’sister might-as-well-be-orphans get dumped off on their controlling/tyrannical father, a physics professor who home-schools them viciously, and bro’n’sis need to rely on each other and get close. Very close. It’s not ever shown, but implied. Sis is jealous of any gril who gets close to bro, and bro is well beyond protective/possessive of her, too, and has quite a temper, too. They’re a passive-aggressive couple, she being passive, and he being aggressive.
Well, they get booted from their house, take up with whichever chick wants to snuggle up to bro, and at some point, things go Very Wrong. The first part of the movie is when they’re at home, and the second part is when they’re on the run. I was getting afraid that it’d just turn out to be one of those “slice of life” movies that don’t really have a plot or an ending, but it wasn’t, thankfully.
It takes retrospect to see how the stage is being set, how one thing leads to another, almost foreshadows the next, and how one phrase, one sentence the brother said, almost made the final part inevitable.
And I think that’s the secret and what made the movie really good. If you watch it and don’t think about it afterward, it’ll likely be just so-so. But with the movie just adding later after layer as it went along, and catching what it did, huh… that was pretty damned good. 
It’s kind of a slow burn, but fires right up towards the end. Highly recommended.
Next up was “Class Action Park”, a documentary about the rise and fall of Action Park in Vernon Valley area of Joisey. It’ll have much more meaning/significance if you were nearby and remember the commercials from waaaaay back.
Basically, Action Park was the idea and creation of “Uncle” Gene Mulvihill. As was described, theme parks had thrill rides that may’ve been incredibly scary, but you were in no real danger. In contrast, Action Park’s rides were so over-the-top that you could easily get maimed or even killed. And Mulvihill’s playing fast’n’loose with the law, insurance, and even sanity, made Action Park an iconic place where you could have a blast, even if you came home with serious road-rash, or minus a finger or two. Its nicknames were “Class Action Park” and “Traction Park” among other things.
The first part of the doc was a hoot! People who just went there when they were kids, and those who worked there, recounted some of their experiences and described the rides. People associated with the park, including some who helped design some of the rides, were also interviewed. Just seeing archive footage when the rides were being described often had me in hysterics. Eg, the first tests of the Cannonball Loop water-slide, where crash-test dummies came out decapitated or missing limbs, was kind of a signal what kind of ride that’d be. Yet people flocked to the place!
Later, it took a bit of a dark turn when interviewing the family of one of the kids who got killed there. Getting gorked when sailing off a luge-like ride headfirst into a pile of rocks, drownding in the wave-pool, etc., were some of the deaths.
It was incredibly interesting watching the rise of Action Park back in its heyday, and then its fall when the legal/political atmosphere didn’t tolerate that kind of thing anymore, and the tides turned. I’ve never been there, but do remember the commercials. I always wondered what happened to places like that. Brigantine Castle burned down, apparently Action Park was shut down after things fell apart financially and otherwise, but there were other places that were famous, if not infamous, and then you never heard of them again.
Like I said, the first half or more was a hoot, and will have you laffing hysterically, so that’s worth catching this flick.
