Almost 10 years on and I have a confession, my favourite spy in Miami is still Michael Weston.
Times have changed a little since the late 2000’s. You can now choose from thousands of things to watch at the press of a button, with new releases springing up weekly to compete for your attention. This wasn’t always the case though, and back when Burn Notice was on the free-to-air lineup, I was all in. I blame my love back then on youth – something about mid-budget action scenes, car chases and cheesy one-liners just struck a chord in high school. So why do I find myself dipping into it now, a full decade later? Is it that same nostalgic hook that Hollywood has come to rely on for the past few years? Probably. But there’s something else to it, something familiar in its design, structure and vibe that makes it so easy to slip back into. For the lack of a better term, there’s something I find comfortable about the action-heavy, spy drama that is Burn Notice.
For those unfamiliar with Michael Weston (Jason Donovan), he used to be a spy. After being ‘burned’ (fired) from the CIA, he’s dumped back in his hometown of Miami to pick up the pieces. Regrouping with ex-girlfriend and gun-runner Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), ex-Navy Seal Sam (Bruce Campbell) and former spy Jesse (Coby Bell), Michael spends 7 seasons and 111 episodes getting to the bottom of who burnt him and why. This is the main plot thread, but it is rarely the focus. Each episode devotes a small amount of time to pushing the wider story forward, but the majority of the runtime is devoted to an involved, if somewhat predictable, side hustle of local hero work. Someone from the core group comes across some trouble, which leads Michael and the gang to assume identities, stage gunfights, run cars off the road and essentially blow holes across the better half of Florida.
20th Television, 2007 – 2013
Therein lies the magic formula: a problem arises and the heroes arrive with a solution. A spanner is thrown into the works, and the heroes must make a last-minute comeback to save the day. It’s this grade-school story structure that served as the backbone of classics such as Magnum P.I. and The A-Team, and it continues to work here. Granted it doesn’t always make sense, some of the dialogue isn’t great and it jumps the shark on more than one occasion, but the episodes are consistent, the characters are endearing and it knows exactly what it is. You could watch an episode from the second season followed by another from the fifth, and you’d still be getting a solid hour of action without all the strings that would regularly be attached to episodes between.
I think this is the main reason I slip into shows like Burn Notice now and then. The biggest programs at the moment are cinematic, evolving stories that are so enormous that they become episodic by necessity, rather than by design. Something like Stranger Things is engrossing, intricate, surprising and emotional all at once, and it’s inarguably fantastic. However it’s also something that you need to completely invest in to enjoy at its fullest. Missing a reference or scene in an early episode can deteriorate your understanding of events later, and you constantly need to keep on top of a range of plotlines, characters and conflicts during each season for everything to piece together.
20th Television, 2007 – 2013
When all of this is a bit much for a mid-week watch after work, you can find me deep in a rerun of Burn Notice. It could be something different for you – Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, The Blacklist, Supernatural, even Law and Order – anything that gives you that engaging hour or so without demanding more. ‘Comfort TV’ still doesn’t quite have a nice ring to it for me, but I think we all have a show or two we turn to when something simple and familiar is on the docket. For me, this zen state involves Miami spies driving nice cars and blowing things up – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Burn Notice stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, Sharon Gless and Coby Bell. Watch it now on Disney +.
What game are you most looking forward to playing next week, and why is it the 1999 triumph Ape Escape?
We’re fast approaching the local release of Sony’s largest refresh to their online Playstation Plus service since it began, and it has been quite a ride. A launch of this magnitude didn’t even appear to be on the cards a mere year ago, despite expectations being set by both Microsoft and Nintendo with their own take on the Netflix-style subscribe-to-play service. Sony will be the last of the three to join this particular market next week, and their plans are certainly ambitious. Boasting 400-500 games from most Playstation consoles available at launch and more rotating monthly, the new model could be both a huge financial success and a celebration of all that came before if it manages to hit the ground running. I personally have my eyes on a few games from the initial lineup, but I will lie to no one when I say I’ll undoubtedly play through all of Ape Escape before the anything else.
As a marketing tool, nostalgia is my absolute kryptonite. Full remakes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon? Sold. Vaguely polished ports of the old Final Fantasy games? Add to cart. Ocarina of Time rises again? Take my money. There’s something I can’t resist when it comes to a classic I know and love, and I’ve stopped trying to fight it. I can almost always look past the aged visuals, controls and themes because these games and I have history. I know them like the back of my hand, and each of them were legends of their time. Ape Escape is, admittedly, a little different. I personally have a soft spot for the time-travelling, monkey-catching adventure, however it’s understandably not to everyone’s taste. Without that nostalgic pull, it’s not as easy to recommend this one as some of the games previously mentioned. In fact, I’ll just come out and say it – playing Ape Escape today is a rough time.
Japan Studio & Sony Computer Entertainment, 1999
You play as Spike, a boy caught up in the accidental release of dozens of apes who have since fled across time and space. Thanks to helmets that boost their intelligence, each monkey has its own personality, strengths and abilities. As you travel through time to catch them, some will defend themselves by training dinosaurs, flying UFOs or turning an assault rifle on you in chilling Planet of the Apes fashion. While the plot is absolute marbles, the visuals also haven’t aged too well over the decades. Ape Escape has plenty of polygonal points and bright colours across its environments, and then there’s the trademark PS1 fog that hides everything until Spike comes within a few meters. Some of us can look past these flaws as a sign of the times, but the toughest pill to swallow is still the inexplicably difficult controls.
The game was initially designed to help familiarise Playstation owners with the new Dualshock controllers, given thumbsticks weren’t rolled out for PS1 consoles until the late 90’s. While we’d later perfect how these thumbsticks should be used, Ape Escape made a right mess of it. Picture this: a weapon wheel tied to the face buttons on the right of the controller. To use one, you need to push the right stick in the direction you want to strike. Where’s the camera then? The d-pad of course. Don’t forget the jump button as well, hidden back there on one of the triggers. Nothing is where your brain would like it to be, and it adds a whole extra layer of difficulty to even the most basic tasks. Add occasional first-person shooting and steering cars into the mix, and you have a recipe for sheer chaos.
Japan Studio & Sony Computer Entertainment, 1999
I fear at this point that I’ve not presented much to like about Ape Escape, but rest assured the real magic comes from the gameplay itself, and the pure moment-to-moment bedlam of it all. Once you’ve wrapped your head around the controls and graphics, the game opens up into a charming roller-coaster of platforming and puzzle solving that rewards you for sticking with it. There’s a monkey based on Rambo, another a simian Schwarzenegger. Some are tame, while others have backstories that would most certainly not make it into a game of this rating today. The entire package is a zany, colourful and bizarre adventure that tricks you into looking past its shortcomings in favour of finding out just where it could possibly take you next.
Or maybe that’s just me. In a sea of hundreds of other games launching with the service, there are plenty of options that are far easier to look at and to physically grapple with. My rose-tinted glasses are my own, and I’m sure many will have their own nostalgic weaknesses that come calling at one point or another. But as you scroll past Ape Escape in the new catalogue next week, at least spare a thought for me out here in the trenches. Despite everything else on offer, I’ll be staring at a pixelated “Game Over” screen, unsure of which emotion to feel after being done in once again by a well-armed chimp in cheap sunglasses.
Playstation Plus Essential, Extra and Deluxe tiers are available in Australia from June 22nd on PS4 and PS5.
It’s been an absolutely stacked April for fans of all things on-screen; whether that be psychadelic trips through a ghost-ridden Tokyo, a return to the lens-flare, explosion filled world of Michael Bay or a celebration of one of the greatest (and craziest) actors of his generation. This month truly had something for everyone and we’ve done our best to recap some of the bigger hits that we didn’t get a chance to review individually. So strap in and prepare to add a whole bunch to that watch-list.
Severance – Season 1
Red Hour Films, 2022
The next great “must-watch” show is here with Apple TV+’s Severance, a constantly engrossing, ever evolving mystery that follows Mark (Adam Scott), an employee of the shadowy Lumon organisation who undergoes the Severance procedure; splitting his work memories from those of the rest of his mind in a bid to escape a past trauma for a few hours a day. Dan Erickson’s show is a slow-burn, but a masterfully paced one that steadily introduces increasingly strange elements, answering some questions whilst creating entirely new ones, on the way to one of the most edge-of-your-seat arresting season finales since Breaking Bad and the heyday of Game of Thrones.
Adam Scott is the perfect everyman for this deconstruction of the workplace and skewering of the increasingly popular “work-life balance” terminology, set against the backdrop of a large, multi-tiered organisation with so many secrets and obvious parallels to real companies. It’s not all corporate espionage though, as newcomer Helly’s (Britt Lower) arrival creates a ripple affect throughout Mark’s team; with John Turturro’s Irving facing a crisis of conscience as his zealot-like loyalty to Lumon is seriously tested and Zach Cherry’s Dylan’s discovery of the life he leads outside of the organisation prompting a revolt. When all these pieces come together, Severance becomes a truly unique, wholly engrossing piece of television, with an office-load of potential going forward. Catch up now.
Ghostwire Tokyo
Bethesda, 2022
The latest from Tango Gameworks – the folks behind the seriously underrated Evil Within franchise – is a drastic change for the studio, shedding its third person survival-horror antics in favour of a first person adventure across the streets of a Shibuya ravaged by a mysterious entity. On a story level, Ghostwire is far more reserved than its predecessors, as the player assumes the role of Akito, a civilian strangely unaffected by a deadly fog that rolls through the Shibuya prefecture, turning regular people into dangerous Yokai hell-bent on extracting his soul. After fusing with the soul of former policer officer KK, Akito gains the power to wield the elements as the pair strive to uncover the mystery at the centre of the fog, learning to share the same body as they go.
Combat is fun and frenetic, if never particularly challenging, as you switch between a basic wind shot, a wide-arc water blast and grenade-like fire explosions. Enemy variety is fine in the moment-to-moment gameplay but it is the eerie world of an empty Shibuya that really keeps you going as you uncover its secrets, with a myriad of monsters and other collectables to find along the way. Akito and KK’s relationship kicks things off in a rather clichéd way, but as the story progresses, the constant banter between the pair slowly but surely wins you over. It isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch, and for completionists it can truly become a nightmare, but for anyone with even the faintest interest in Japan, Ghostwire Tokyo is an easy recommendation.
Ambulance
Universal Pictures, 2022
Michael Bay is back, with what may be his best film since his Bad Boys heydays in Ambulance, an explosively tense chase movie across Los Angeles anchored by terrific performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González. When former veteran Will (Abdul-Mateen II) is denied healthcare for a life-saving operation for his wife, he turns to his criminal brother Danny (Gyllenhaal) who agrees to include him in a run-of-the-mill bank heist to secure the money for his wife. When the job inevitably goes awry and Will accidentally shoots a police officer, the pair of brothers are forced to hijack an ambulance and EMT Cam (González) to escape police and ensure their police hostage survives as leverage. With the stakes becoming increasingly dire and the damage to LA bordering on the ridiculous, hard choices must be made if the trio hope to survive the violent ordeal.
While it won’t convert any Bay-haters – with all the trademark lens flares and over-the-top explosions present and accounted for, alongside a new obsession with drone shots – there’s enough emotional heft here to give the audience a genuine reason to care about the characters through all the Bayhem. Gyllenhaal is running wild here as a man unhinged, fearing for his life as he constantly tries to stay ten steps ahead of the increasing police presence pursuing the group, and his manic energy carries the film. Abdul-Mateen II and González bring the weight when they have to, as Cam attempts to outwit her kidnappers by appealing to Will’s better nature, but this is first and foremost a Michael Bay picture, and that means action on a huge scale. Ambulance more than delivers on that.
Metal Lords
Netflix, 2022
Metal Lords hails from writer D.B. Weiss, one half of the creative duo behind Game of Thrones, and it tells the story of Kevin (Jaeden Martell), a socially awkward teenager who is manipulated into joining a metal band by fellow outcast Hunter (Adrian Greensmith). It’s School of Rock with none of the charm and a whole lot of unnecessary edge. As a character, Kevin brings absolutely nothing to the table; a lifeless, harmless enough guy who is too weak to stand up to Hunter and is pushed around when he attempts to expand his circle to include the similarly awkward Emily (Isis Hainsworth). His arc plays out exactly as you would expect, with the film hitting all the expected beats along the way to School of Rock’s exact conclusion: a Battle of the Bands showdown.
While that is all harmless enough, it’s the character of Hunter that makes Metal Lords a truly painful experience. There are simply no redeeming qualities to this manipulative, insufferable kid who constantly berates and intimidates his so-called “best friend”. There’s an attempt to disguise all the bullying as the product of a poor home life or some anxiety-related issues but the film never does enough to justify either machination; leaving things in a weird flux state where you wonder why Kevin even hangs out with Hunter other than a misguided sense of pity. After 90 minutes of watching Hunter be an asshole and one unearned Hallmark ending; Metal Lords simply fades out instead of ending with a rousing solo. Skip this track.
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off
Duplass Brothers Productions, 2022
Chances are if you’ve lived on this earth long enough you’ve heard the name Tony Hawk, whether that be through his skating, movie cameos or your video-game obsessed cousin. Sam Jones’ documentary doesn’t offer much in the way of new information for the Hawk fanatic, but he does give a fascinating insight into one of the great trailblazers of skate culture, and the obsessive mentality that sent him soaring to greatness. Everything from the struggles of his upbringing and the role his father played to hitting the infamous 900 at the X-games is told in meticulous detail, leading to what might be the definitive history of the pro-skater.
Inclusions of other skating legends, from Lance Mountain to a guru-like Rodney Mullen help inform the dissection of Hawk’s mindset and the power that skating has over these people, often to the detriment of their body. This is about as dark as it gets for those looking for a more unfiltered look into Hawk’s life however, with a lot of those more unsavoury moments glossed over in favour of celebrating the icon of the sport that Tony Hawk is. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or just a casual player of the games, Until the Wheels Fall Off is a fascinating insight into a man that revolutionised a sport and culture.
The Lost City
Paramount Pictures, 2022
Do you miss the old days of the romantic adventure? Films like Romancing the Stone or hell, even the 1999 masterpiece that is The Mummy? Well Sandra Bullock and Channing are here to fill that void in the charmingly inoffensive The Lost City. When adventure novelist and newly widowed Loretta Sage (Bullock) is kidnapped by the wealthy Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) and forced to continue her husband’s research into the “Crown of Fire” – a treasure long believed to be lost – her book’s cover model Alan (Tatum) takes it upon himself to rescue her. There’s just one catch: Alan has no idea what he is doing.
It’s a perfectly enjoyable film while you’re in it, and instantly forgettable once you’re out, but The Lost City occupies that rare mid-tier studio film we rarely see today, and for that it should be commended. The story is nothing to write home about, but Bullock and Tatum fully commit to their respective quirks, and you buy into their slowly budding attraction as they learn more about each other. The jokes are surprisingly effective for the most part, with both Bullock and Tatum veterans of the comedy world at this point, but it is Patti Harrison’s clueless assistant that steals the show, with some delightfully off-kilter zingers. Speaking of stealing the show, did we mention Brad Pitt is in this? The mega-star pops in for what amounts to a glorified cameo but makes the most of every second of it, making for one of the most enjoyably ridiculous characters he has ever played.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Lionsgate, 2022
What was billed as the most Nic Cagey Nic Cage film of all time isn’t exactly that, but the perfectly named The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a great time when it turns its focus onto celebrating its central character. After being denied a career comeback in a coveted role, Nicolas Cage is forced to accept a million dollar offer to attend a rich celebrity’s – Pedro Pascal’s extravagant playboy and superfan Javi – birthday celebrations at his private compound in Majorca in order to pay the bills. When he is approached by the CIA (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) to investigate Javi’s secret arms dealing enterprise, Cage is forced to call upon all his thespian training to get the job done and re-launch his waning celebrity.
What begins as a fascinating, hilarious deconstruction of Cage’s inimitable Hollywood persona soon devolves into a fairly rote buddy comedy-action movie hybrid. That isn’t to say that it isn’t a hell of a lot of fun – Pascal and Cage’s chemistry is endearingly zany – but for a film positioned as Nic Cage’s return to glory it doesn’t further the resurgence launched by films like Mandy and Pig, relying on tried and tested tropes of the genres rather than Cage’s raw talent. Still, as a celebration of all things Cage, it does work, with some laugh-out-loud references to all the classic performances – Face/Off, Con-Air, The Rock, you name it. It’s just a shame that its all weighed down by Cage’s unnecessary fake family and a script that doesn’t know what to do with all that massive talent.
In what feels like a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, we’ve already run through the first month of 2022. Despite how quickly we seem to have left January behind, the start of the year did feature a huge amount of releases worth taking a look at (and some less so). For those that didn’t see a full review on arrival last month, here’s the wrap on everything else that kept us glued to our screens in January.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Columbia Pictures, 2021
It would be easy to compare Ghostbusters: Afterlife to recent franchise revivals like Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Halloween and expect a nostalgia filled cash-grab of a trip down memory lane and to a certain extent it is. But more than that this is a revival from the person perhaps best qualified to revisit the Ghostbusters: Jason Reitman – son of original director Ivan Reitman – who tackles his father’s franchise with immense care and a penchant for the same whimsical tone that made the original film so much fun. When Callie (Carrie Coon), daughter of Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler, moves into her recently deceased father’s dilapidated farmhouse with children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), they discover their grandfather’s ghost-busting history and are forced to pick up where he left off to protect the small town from a ghostly outbreak of gigantic proportions.
Carrie Coon is typically excellent in her supporting role and Paul Rudd shines as the quirky, slightly unhinged substitute teacher with an obsession with the Ghostbusters but the true strength in Reitman’s sequel lies with its younger characters. Mckenna Grace is the perfect lead, a socially awkward but brilliant young girl who forces herself into an uncomfortable but banter-rich friendship with fellow student Podcast (Logan Kim) as they stumble through the basics of ghost-busting. Not since IT have younger actors in a blockbuster been so compelling and not annoying; sure they make mistakes along the way and it’s endlessly fun to watch them do so but they aren’t the stereotypically stupid kids you usually see on-screen – capable of maintaining investing and adult conversations that allow Reitman to tell a story for all-ages that doesn’t feel like it panders to children. The set-up runs a bit long and the climactic showdown could have benefitted from some refreshingly smaller stakes and fewer cameos but if Afterlife proves one thing, it’s that the franchise is far from dead.
The Tender Bar
Amazon Studios, 2022
Clooney’s latest directorial effort is a good-hearted, if rather schmaltzy affair centred around the story of JR Maguire (Daniel Ranieri and Ron Livingston at times but mostly Tye Sheridan), a young boy forced to return home to his grandparents house with mother Dorothy (Lily Rabe) where he develops a close bond with his bar-owner uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Clooney directs without much flair or invention, opting for the overdone trope of cutting between timelines to show his audience the colourful characters JR is surrounded by without ever investing us in JR himself, who remains an un-engaging, blank slate of a protagonist throughout and never seems to develop any interesting personality traits of his own despite the unconventional occurrences happening around him.
All the other usual culprits of the coming-of-age film are here too – overused voice-over from a future JR, awkward sexual encounters and youthful drunk experiences – but it never makes the audience feel anything because we don’t care about JR in the first place. Where Clooney does succeed, however, is in his hiring of Affleck and Rabe, both of whom give excellently endearing and engaging performances of troubled, layered individuals who aren’t where they expected they would be in life and who desperately want to prevent the same from happening to JR in their own conflicting ways.
Spencer
Shoebox Films, 2021
Pablo Larraín has a thing for historically important women. He showed his hand once with the harrowing depiction of grief and responsibility in Jackie and now he does it again with Spencer, a psychologically draining look into one hellish Christmas weekend for Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) as she battles for her individuality against the rigid rules of the Royal Family. Don’t let the stunning cinematography fool you though, Larraín’s film plays as more of a horror than a standard biopic; the luxury and strict practices of the Royal family slowly suffocating Diana as she desperately struggles to maintain her independence and prevent her children from being absorbed by it all.
Dinners carry a sinister, uncomfortable air; the resplendent decorations and sumptuous food overshadowed by contemptuous glares and stolen glances from the people that keep Diana at an arms length, her refusal to confirm creating an outcast rather than a chance for the family to embrace a different future. Stewart is rock solid in what many believe to be an awards-worthy performance, but the upper-class British accent can’t help but ring false after so much exposure to her usual gravelly tone. Nevertheless her performance perfectly captures the stress of a woman slowly falling apart at the seams and the overwhelming odds facing her in her attempt to change centuries-old traditions.
Archive 81 – Season 1
Netflix, 2022
Based on the popular podcast of the same name this slow burn of a horror follows Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), a video archivist drawn into a web of demons and ancient cults when he is offered the chance to restore the video tapes of Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), a college student believed to have perished in a mysterious blaze in the 1990’s. An impeccable opening episode carefully sets up the framing device of Dan watching these tapes, as we come to understand his troubled past and the sinister conspiracy he has unknowingly become a part of. From here we follow Melody’s slightly less investing storyline as she interacts with the various tenants of her new apartment building; slowly coming to understand the strange link between the two, separated by a generation.
As things become more heated Archive 81 begins to stall, losing momentum by the sixth episode and crawling to a finale that while justified, is unsatisfying in how it presents a premise for the inevitable second season that is eerily similar to another huge Netflix property. That that other show managed to introduce the same concept in two hours compared to this shows eight is all the more disappointing, and while there is certainly room for the show to expand in new and interesting ways, for now it appears to be coalescing into the usual Netflix formula for the horror/sci-fi show. Special mention however, has to go to the indie directing team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who continue to improve as they make yet another leap towards more mainstream content, crafting two of not only the best episodes of the season but of television in general in some time.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Game Freak, 2022
As one of the most ambitious projects rolling out this summer, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has quickly become one of the fastest selling games in the franchise’s history. Where previous entries stuck close to the successful formula that Pokémon was built on back in the 90’s, Arceus boldly and frequently steps outside the lines to mostly fantastic results. Instead of the standard linear adventure from one battle and random encounter to the next, you’re now set loose into sprawling landscapes full of unique monsters, characters and mysteries to solve around every corner.
A solid – if brief – storyline underpins the adventures you’re encouraged to create on your own, and it tends to take a more mature and nuanced approach than the usual ‘beat the bad guys’ plot from most of the previous entries. Is it the best looking thing you’ll see on a console this year? Most certainly not. It also doesn’t have the runtime of a usual Pokémon RPG, able to be knocked over in less than 20 hours if you’re really pushing forward. However most will forgive these slight flaws in return for the completely overhauled mechanics and sense of total freedom that Legends: Arceus offers, as well as what its runaway success means for Pokémon’s future.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2021
Jessica Chastain transforms for the role of Tammy Faye Bakker; the always heavily made-up and perpetually cheery televangelist who, along with husband Jim (Andrew Garfield), became embroiled in a scandal that almost destroyed the pair’s devoted congregation. The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a fairly straightforward biopic in structure; a religious Wolf of Wall Street highlighting the opulence amassed by the Bakkers and their inevitable downfall. But it’s hard not to get swept up in the film’s infectious energy and become desperate to learn exactly what is going on behind the scenes of this all too perfect relationship; the film spinning us an image of these shysters in the same way the Bakkers did to their congregation, albeit with more of an insight into the darker side.
Nothing truly shocking is ultimately revealed but it’s enough to keep you entertained in tandem with Chastain and Garfield’s performances. They are simply riveting as the Bakker’s, with an innocent enough meet-cute evolving into a marriage plagued by power dynamics and emotional and spiritual manipulation. The tone never drops it’s overtly cheery facade but there is always a palpable sense of tension as you wait for the other shoe to drop. Chastain should easily find her way into the Best Actress race come awards season with a performance this layered underneath all the flamboyance.
Another year done and dusted but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t plenty to keep us entertained as the year wound down, with everything from awards contender films to a return to South Park heating up our screens. We’ve selected a few of the biggest films and television shows that we weren’t able to review in full to make sure you’re in the know with all the latest releases in the entertainment space.
The Power of the Dog
Netflix, 2021
The first film from renowned director Jane Campion since 2009, The Power of the Dog is a mostly arresting if incredibly unsettling watch featuring several of the best performances of the year. Benedict Cumberpatch gives the big, showy awards performance as Phil – a rancher incensed when his brother George (Jesse Plemons) forgoes his responsibilities to marry Rose (Kirsten Dunst), inviting her and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to join them on the ranch – but the supporting players are just as essential to this slow-burn of deception and betrayal. Dunst is harrowing to watch as the slowly wilting Rose, driven mad by Phil’s endless torture and Plemons is perfect as the dimwitted George, who refuses to acknowledge the difficult situation he has created for everyone.
But it is Smit-McPhee who outshines them both as the quiet, calculating Peter; a disturbing performance that should also land him in the running for supporting awards galore. The pacing drags in spots as Campion takes her time setting the pieces on the board, foregoing extravagant confrontation in favour of a number of small instances that slowly fracture the tenuous bonds between all members of this created family, but the payoff to it all is deliciously twisted, if slightly understated.
The French Dispatch
Searchlight Pictures, 2021
Even if you don’t like his style you can’t deny that Wes Anderson films are a ton of fun. The French Dispatch is no exception, an anthology of stories built around the workings of a fictional magazine and the cast of quirky characters that inhabit its offices. There’s the story of murderer turned prison artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicia del Toro) and the eclectic career he enjoyed thanks to his relationship with a prison guard (Léa Seydoux). A tale of a student uprising soon turns to national revolution as the young Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet) works on his manifesto, aided by a meddling reporter (Frances McDormand). And food journalist Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) gets more than he bargained for when a dinner with local police commissioner (Matthieu Amalric) turns into a hostage situation, culminating in a grand chase across the streets of Ennui, the fictional village in France that is host to the French Dispatch.
All the usual suspects are gathered for Anderson’s latest – Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Tilda Swinton to name a few – and while Zeffirelli’s segment drags the pacing out, arguably the weakest entry of the bunch, the result is an endlessly entertaining trip through Anderson’s unique mind. Not an essential addition to his filmography, but The French Dispatch serves as an excellent introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with Anderson’s very specific style of filmmaking.
Saturday Morning All Star Hits!
Netflix, 2021
SNL funnyman Kyle Mooney brings his unique brand of 80’s-centric comedy to Netflix with Saturday Morning All Star Hits!, a curious collection of cartoon capers with a decidedly adult spin wrapped up in an evolving storyline of twin hosts Skip and Treybor dealing with the pitfalls and penalties of achieving fame. Mooney’s specific brand of humour here is incredibly niche; an ode to classic Saturday morning cartoons and what they mean for the people who grew up with them. The Create-A-Crittles serves as a Care Bears spoof, swapping out the kind and the cuddly for a crippling addiction to “glitter”; Randy a journey of self-discovery for a dinosaur who leaves alcoholism and his gang of children behind for a chance at a fresh start at college; and Strongimals apes the action of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a decidedly not kid-friendly pro-violence message.
The jokes might not be as laugh-out-loud funny as you would like or expect from Mooney but this is clearly a passion project and a subject that holds a lot of meaning to him (his co-written feature Brigsby Bear also dealt with a man’s strange addiction to a children’s morning cartoon). A host of famous voices – Beck Bennett, Paul Rudd, Emma Stone, Fred Armisen – help to give flavour to the unconventional twist on kids cartoons and some heavier moments between Skip and Treybor reveal glimpses of real emotional pain underlying it all but this is largely a light and breezy affair, unfortunately similar to the cartoons it pays tribute to, in that you are likely to forget about Saturday Morning All Star Hits! as soon as it is over.
South Park: Post-Covid: The Return of Covid
Comedy Central, 2021
South Park’s second Paramount+ special works is at its best when it flashes back to the gang as children, with a refreshingly juvenile, low-stakes storyline revolving around Cartman blackmailing a girl into sitting court-side at a basketball game serving as a double-edged sword of a reminder of the show’s best days and the Tegridy farm-filled future that it now inhabits. With that being said, reintroducing Butters into the fold as an underhanded NFT conman – while the gang travel through time to uncover the origins of Covid – works a treat, with the hilariously effective commentary on NFT’s and their place within society a welcome change from the familiar Covid and Tegridy weed jokes.
Those Tegridy jokes are still as unfunny as they have been for a few seasons now, but are thankfully pushed aside for the most part as the story pushes away from Covid. The fact that South Park might finally be moving away from the admittedly very topical but now tired Covid commentary is perhaps the biggest takeaway here. With another seven seasons and twelve of these specials to come, the future looks bright for the town of South Park, which can hopefully shift its focus to be less of a disheartening look at the current state of things and more of the ridiculous tales of earlier seasons to distract us as the world continues its long slog through the pandemic.
Encanto
Walt Disney Animation Studios, 2021
Disney once again calls on the current golden child of musicals Lin-Manuel Miranda for its latest animated effort Encanto, the story of a magical house in Colombia and the Madrigal family that inhabit it, all of whom possess extraordinary gifts except for young Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who must uncover her own special talent in order to save her family and home from ruin. It’s a tried and tested formula that becomes so much more thanks to the vibrant energy and colour palette on display, the luscious animation and the endless ear-worms Manuel helps create for the film. It’s no exaggeration to say that you’ll be humming future classics like “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” for weeks after watching; the catchy tunes belying the film’s clever, mature discussion on anxiety, doubts and living up to expectations in a way that younger viewers can process and understand.
The Lost Daughter
Netflix, 2021
Olivia Colman returns to give another acting masterclass in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter, a slowly gestating rumination on motherhood and the frustrations that arise in navigating it. Colman is absolutely fantastic as Leda, a discomforting woman who is unusually terse with fellow vacationers and seems to harbour more than a few dark secrets. It’s a performance that is always arresting, even if you are constantly second-guessing your assessment of Leda. Is she the mild-mannered woman she seems and simply struggles to communicate, or is there a more sinister edge lying underneath the surface. Recurring flashbacks to Leda’s youth (played here by an equally excellent Jessie Buckley) offer glimpses into the psyche of the woman but often raise more questions than they answer.
If it all seems too slow and methodical in approach, Gyllenhaal is unlikely to win you over with any late game revelations or reveals. This is a film about the journey; learning to accept and live with guilt rather than letting it fester and destroy you. Dakota Johnson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen enhance that journey with a pair of unsettling performances (for different reasons), ramping up the tension and air of dread on an otherwise idyllic seaside vacation that becomes anything but. A strong if meandering at times debut from Maggie Gyllenhaal and a sure sign of even greater things to come.
We’re quickly rolling into the end of another year, which means the start of another big summer release schedule. That means more people in cinemas and even more spending each night endlessly scrolling through Netflix for something to watch. Looking to get a head start on the competition, a number of big releases hit our screens in November and – while we managed to cover most of them in detail already – there were a few that almost got away without so much as an honourable mention. Here’s a quick wrap on some of November’s most notable entries we haven’t covered yet.
Red Notice
Netflix, 2021
In many ways Red Notice might be the ultimate Netflix film: an obscenely expensive and majorly mediocre blockbuster attempting to hide its numerous flaws behind the sheer star power on display. We follow Ryan Reynolds’ thief Nolan Booth and Dwayne Johnson’s Interpol agent John Hartley as they are forced to become an unlikely (but so likely) team to escape prison and prevent Gal Gadot’s rival thief from cashing in on an epic payday through the theft of fancy Faberge eggs. Reynolds and Johnson have good chemistry together and the action, while repetitive, is enough to hold your attention but rarely does the film do anything that hasn’t been done before in a thousand better films, and when it does try and break the mould, the choices made don’t make a lick of sense. Johnson is left to do majority of the heavy lifting here (easy for him, have you seen the man?), with Gadot seemingly unsure of every decision she makes and Reynolds relying on the same schtick from Deadpool for the 9th film in a row. Please can we put it to bed? You’re better than this Ryan.
Titane
Kazak Productions, 2021
You know the classic tale: girl meets car, girl falls for car, girl… does the deed with car. No? Not ringing any bells? That’s probably because Titane is one of the most bizarre and out-there films in recent memory. Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to 2016’s Raw is a far more brutal affair; following Agathe Rousselle’s Alexia on a spree of post-car-coitus murder, eventually leading her to impersonate a fireman’s (Vincent Lindon) missing son in order to evade police and wait out the rest of her unnatural pregnancy. A strange, often disturbing film to witness, Ducournau doesn’t shy away from some truly horrifying imagery – lactating motor oil and feeding on metal amongst them – as she approaches the inevitable birth. But it isn’t all garage gore, weaving in a touching, if extremely unconventional emotional backbone with the bond formed between Lindon’s traumatised fireman and the equally, if not more traumatised Alexia. A follow-up that doesn’t quite manage to hit the high bar set by Raw – and which certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes – Titane is successful in managing to make you care about some truly horrific people and their terrible plights.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
ILCA, 2021
It’s tradition. For every new Pokémon adventure GameFreak creates they go back and remake one of their classic outings; this time around that honour belongs to 2006’s Diamond and Pearl versions. Development duties have been shirked by GameFreak for the first time ever, leaving Japanese developer ILCA at the helm. The results are fairly solid; the base gameplay mechanics remain as tight as ever, with quality of life improvements of later games like the Exp share mitigating the brutal difficulty the original games were known for. The new chibi style for characters in the over-world is godawful to look at but is quickly forgotten once the muscle memory kicks in and you lose yourself in the intoxicating rhythm of catching and battling those little pocket monsters. Less of a groundbreaking stride into the future of Pokémon and more a fresh coat of paint for a fan-favourite.
‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas
Apple TV+, 2021
Is it possible to love Christmas too much? That’s the central conceit behind Apple TV+’s latest documentary ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas, quickly spiralling into an examination of far-right conservatism in America and one man’s obsession with freedom of expression, no matter the cost. The film centres around Jeremy Morris, a Christmas-obsessed lawyer who turns a small Idaho cul-de-sac upside down when he insists on hosting a massive Christmas spectacle, complete with house-covering lights, a camel and thousands of attendees. Naturally his neighbours aren’t too pleased about the idea, prompting one hell of a neighbourly battle for supremacy as things move to court. Despite its fairly trivial, “rich people problems” premise, director Becky Read succeeds at pulling you in under the guise of this innocuous man who has been strangely banned from Christmas decorating before slowly unravelling his story, boiling your blood in the process. A fun if frivolous documentary perfect for those Grinches out there.
Tiger King 2
Netflix, 2021
The Netflix sensation that swept the world in 2020 returns for a second season of tiger taming, assassination-plotting mayhem, only largely without those things. Feeling more like an extended epilogue to the first season than a fully realised vision, Tiger King 2 suffers from existing only to appease viewers hungry for more from the world of Joe Exotic and his wild antics. Except that story has already been told. It’s slim pickings in terms of genuinely new and interesting content, with directors Eric Good and Rebecca Chaiklin scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill the reduced 7 episode order. There’s an episode catching up with Joe, the obligatory rehash of Carole Baskin and the reopening of the case into her ex-husband’s disappearance, and check-ins with all the big players from the first season, most of whom are in exactly the same spot as last time. At least once an episode there is a moment that will make you laugh or cry out in astonishment but more often than not you’ll be bored revisiting facts you already know or watching interviews with people you don’t care about. Tiger King was the perfect distraction for the world in 2020, and that’s where it should stay.
South Park: Post Covid
Park County, 2021
The first of 14 made-for-streaming South Park films under the gargantuan deal creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed earlier this year (in addition to 6 more seasons of the veteran show), Post Covid picks up decades after this year’s Vaccination Special, with the boys now adults at the end of the Covid pandemic. When Stan (Trey Parker), now an online whiskey consultant, receives a call that Kenny has been killed (a first for the series), he returns to South Park for the funeral, running into an estranged Kyle (Matt Stone) and Cartman (Parker) – now a Rabbi. The strength of this joke alone is enough to carry majority of the special, with Kyle endlessly skeptical of Cartman and his new family of carbon copy kids. It isn’t a total one trick pony though, skewering all the pop-culture moments that the show hadn’t managed to touch on in previous Covid-set specials from the rise of Disney+ and HBO Max to remote learning. It isn’t quite as laugh-out-loud as the Vaccination Special was and you do miss these characters as their kid selves, but by and large the first Paramount+ outing changes enough of the formula to keep things feeling funny and fresh.
The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has rolled around again for 2019, bringing with it a ton of new info, teasers and reveals of all that’s coming soon in gaming. The Los Angeles gathering gives developers and publishers a chance to show off their work and drum up excitement for releases both right around the corner and a bit further down the track. With most of the industry’s biggest names holding lengthy press conferences across the week, we’ve put together a bit of a highlight reel of all the standouts we’ll be lining up for on release.
Electronic Arts (EA)
EA had the first conference slot, opting to deliver their show through a livestream rather than their traditional stage appearances. Known mainly for their many hugely successful sports games, EA spent a decent amount of time showing off their next FIFA and Madden NFL titles – each flashing their highly realistic visuals and various new features. Yet what the people really came for were some much awaited details on Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming single-player Star Wars game. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order certainly didn’t disappoint, giving us a lengthy glimpse of some real dynamic combat, characters and environments that look like they were cut straight from a movie. The game’s original story and lightsaber action is set to place you in the shoes of a Jedi come November 15th this year. EA’s conference also covered some upcoming expansions to their existing catalogue, including Battlefield V, Apex Legends, Sims 4 and Anthem.
Respawn Entertainment / EA, 2019
Microsoft
With Sony choosing to give E3 a pass completely this year, all eyes were on Microsoft for some of the biggest reveals and updates during their presentation. Recognising this, the company covered around 60 titles on stage – plus they made time to show off their insanely technical new Elite Series 2 controller and their plans for Project Scarlett, the new supercharged console they’re looking at releasing next year. Microsoft also went over their growing ‘xCloud’ game streaming service, while also expanding the Xbox Game Pass service to cover PC players as well. One of the biggest gaming items on the list was definitely Cyberpunk2077 – the upcoming action RPG title from the creators of TheWitcher series. With a trailer starring none other than Keanu Reeves, the game received a release date of 16th April 2020 from the man himself as he appeared on stage to surprised fans. Microsoft’s conference ended with a nice teaser for HaloInfinite – with Master Chief’s next big outing set to roll out alongside Project Scarlett next year. Microsoft also touched on a number of their upcoming indie titles, an interesting Blair Witch game and a Lego crossover coming to ForzaHorizon4.
343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios, 2019
Bethesda
The team at Bethesda spent much of the first chunk of their conference fleshing out their many incoming mobile games, including ElderScrolls: Blades (now coming to Switch) and the cartoon free-to-play CommanderKeen. The main events followed soon after, launching with another trailer for the upcoming Wolfenstein:Youngblood – a slick co-op shooter dropping in July for all major platforms. The new Doom:Eternal also got to show off its frantic, bloody gameplay and an expanded multiplayer mode – looking infinitely bigger and badder than its 2016 predecessor. Players can drop back into all the gory action once again when it releases on November 22 this year. Bethesda’s presentation also featured some interesting new titles, such as the time-bending Deathloop and the horror/sci-fi combination of Ghostwire:Tokyo – as well as some massive Fallout76 expansions for good measure.
id Software / Bethesda, 2019
Square-Enix
In the Japanese publisher’s second year in a row as a solo act, Square managed to completely raise the bar over the competition. Featuring several back to back announcements, the show finally gave the crowd a decent look at the FinalFantasyVIIRemake – and it’s looking good. With a bunch of scenes featuring Tifa and other crowd-favourite characters, we also got a bunch of time looking over the game’s new, action-focused combat system – with it all releasing in early March next year. Rounding out the showcase was the long awaited trailer for the new Crystal Dynamics’ Avengers game. We were given a quick look of the opening scenes and gameplay with each of the 5 main characters (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow), as well as some quick videos from the designers and the well-known voice cast. This one is sure to get people going wild when it drops mid-next year, but it certainly looks like it could use a few more coats of paint before it hits shelves. Square-Enix also made room for multiple ports of their classic games (including FinalFantasyVIII), another chapter in the LifeisStrange series, the incoming expansion to their online FinalFantasyXIV and the sequel to 2016’s DragonQuestBuilders.
As usual, Ubisoft put their biggest players forward this year during their time in the spotlight. While also touching on some left field items – such as a TV show on Amazon and their own game streaming service – this presentation was all about WatchDogs and their various TomClancy franchises. Set in a not-too-distant future London, WatchDogsLegion has some slick visuals and some real out-there gameplay designs happening based on what we were shown. Expect to see permadeaths, near limitless playable characters and a fully realised cyber London when the game drops on 6th March 2020. The other headlining act here was the new GhostReconBreakpoint, slated for release in early October this year. The game admittedly looks decent with an interesting set up, and if Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, The Punisher) can’t sell it to you live on stage, nobody can. Ubisoft also gave some time to their new developments: Gods& Monsters and Roller Champions, while also bringing yet another Just Dance entry and some expansions to the multiplayer Rainbow Six – Siege.
Ubisoft Paris, 2019
Nintendo
Last but certainly not least, Nintendo delivered their livestream Direct video to the world as they have the past few years. Despite not having the great Reggie Fils-Aimé running the show for them this time, the company still managed to bring some solid reveals and details on upcoming Switch titles. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is shaping up to be a great time, introducing a bunch of new mechanics and multiplayer elements for its release later this year. The next Animal Crossing – despite being delayed until next year – is looking like it will do right by series fans and newcomers alike. We also saw some new gameplay for the upcoming Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which is shaping up to be a solid mix of old and new for its launch this September. Some nice surprises came in the form of new additions to the Smash Bros Ultimate roster – with The Heroes from Dragon Quest and returning N64 tag team Banjo-Kazooie coming later this year and early 2020. To cap off the end of the stream in style, Nintendo gave us a fleeting teaser of what is set to be a direct sequel to the magnificent Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Buried in the Nintendo stream were also the incoming ports of Resident Evil 5 & 6, some further details on the definitive edition of Dragon Quest XI and the seemingly impossible feat of moving The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and all its DLC onto the Switch later this year.
Nintendo, 2019
All in all, the 2019 E3 presentations had a great mix of reveals and details to cover just about every audience. Make sure to check out some of the shows in full if they’ve caught your interest here – we’ve barely scratched the surface and haven’t even mentioned the interesting stuff coming out of the Devolver Digital and PC shows. The only thing left to do now is work out where we’ll find time for everything that’s coming – the next twelve months are stacked.
