Watch movies like it is 2018. Only on streaming.
Watch movies like it is 2018. Only on streaming.
Pretend it is, lets say 2018. That’s only six years ago, mind you.
Playing at the cinemas this weekend is a new action-comedy starring John Cena (he’s that funny big guy you’ve seen in a lot of comedies lately like Sisters, Trainwreck, and Daddy’s Home 2. He might be a wrestler) about a big guy with muscles hired to look after a California lottery winner in an alternate reality where if anyone kills a lottery winner within 24 hours, they get their money. It’s The Purge meets It Could Happen To You.
There’s also another action-comedy starring Mark Wahlberg & Halle Berry. Wahlberg plays Mark, a construction worker who is thrown into the world of spies when he reunites with a high school sweetheart.
Two big action-comedies on the one weekend! Which will rule the box office?
Now also, lets say you want something a bit more arthouse - there’s a funny and relatable comedy from Argentina playing on just a few screens around town about a couple who face a major rift in their relationship. The guy is given an ultimatum: Either he gets rid of the mobile phone, or he goes.
All three sound pretty good. Which one are you off to see at the cinema?
(You’re pretty clever… you know what I’m getting at here…)
PLOT TWIST! It’s really 2024 and all three of these movies are not only being released on streaming services, but there’s a strong likelihood you have heard of none of these films until this very moment.
These sorts of films used to shape our culture just a few years ago and now they’re just random films you discover exist while looking for a break in-between episodes of Emily in Paris (also returning this weekend on Netflix).
And sure, it has been a long while since Mark Wahlberg seriously opened a movie. And sure, the cinemas are pretty busy this weekend with Alien Romulus opening, while Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us continue their runs. But, the system is clearly broken.
There are a few notable TV shows this weekend on streaming too.
Back in 2018 Vince Vaughn was a movie star. This year he stars in Apple TV+ comedy Bad Monkey, from the creator of Scrubs.
The show is a decent watch - lots of viewers will see it as being a bit Elmore Leonard-like, with dark and quirky story of a down-on-his-luck former police detective getting caught up in the mystery of a murdered property developer. It’s actually a bit more in line with the tone of Gregory Macdonald’s Fletch books (the Chevy Chase Fletch film is a bit more goofy than what was on the page, but the recent Jon Hamm Confess Fletch pretty well nails the tone perfectly).
Of course, back in 2018, this would have been a perfectly good movie and not a 10-episode streaming show.
I don’t know when we’re getting this one in Australia, but in the US on Max there is the debut of Hop, a new animated show for pre-schoolers from Arthur creator Marc Brown. Ordinarily, a cartoon for 3-5 year-olds wouldn’t get a mention in the newsletter, but a new show from Marc Brown is a pretty big deal. And I have one of those little people in my house, so my interest is high.
Speaking of animated shows, there is one more that probably should get a mention. It seems so long ago, but it was universally seen as one of the most toxic TV shows on the air.