Want to see Millie Bobby Brown fight a dragon? Well, you can as Damsel leads a relatively quiet week of streaming releases alongside the Zac Efron/John Cena comedy Ricky Stanicky, and the VOD debut of romcom Anyone but You, among others.
SERIES
ZeroZeroZero S1
6 March 2024 – Showmax
In the immortal words of Rick James, “Cocaine is a hell of a drug!”. More than that, the illegal production, acquisition, and distribution of the infamous white powder is a global business worth billions. It’s also a business filled from top to bottom with the absolute worst people. And somewhere in the middle, you will find the Lynwoods. In this Italian-produced crime drama, Gabriel Byrne, Andrea Riseborough, and Dane DeHaan star as members of the aforementioned family who run a prestigious shipping company which acts as a broker between Mexican and Italian organized crime. The critically acclaimed eight-episode series follows a single large shipment of cocaine from Monterrey, Mexico to Gioia Tauro, Italy, with all the drama and chaos its transportation causes.
The Signal S1
8 March 2024 – Netflix
I’m not going to lie. Four-part sci-fi drama miniseries The Signal initially caught my eye purely because I thought it was Shia LaBeouf on the poster. As I soon found out, “The Beef” was nowhere to be found, and instead that was Florian David Fitz, who leads this German Netflix production. Fitz plays Sven, the husband of astronaut Paula (Peri Baumeister) who is scheduled to return imminently after her long tenure on the International Space Station. However, her family’s heartfelt reunion goes awry when, shortly after returning to Earth, Paula sends a cryptic message that “something happened up there” and then, along with everybody else with her on the plane flight back to German, simply vanishes. Frantic, Sven tries to discover what happened to his wife, only to uncover a much deeper mystery.
MOVIES
Ricky Stanicky
7 March 2024 – Prime Video
We’ve all done it, right? You needed a reason to hang out with the boys, so you all just collectively made up a fake friend with a silly name that needed your help. And you told this lie hundreds of times, over many, many years to your spouses. Oh, you haven’t done that. Well, then you’re better than Zac Efron and his friends in this new comedy from director Peter Farrelly (one half of the erstwhile Farrelly Brothers who gave us There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Me, Myself, and Irene, and more). However, Efron and his gang’s lie becomes a problem when their families become suspicious that this “Ricky Stanicky” they’re always talking about doesn’t actually exist. Only one thing to do: Find somebody to play Ricky. Enter John Cena as an out of work, but hugely dedicated actor/male stripper with some rather unconventional approaches to his character. Oh, and yes, the casting of Cena to play a character that nobody has ever seen before is genius!
Damsel
8 March 2024 – Netflix
Ever since Stranger Things exploded onto our screens in 2016, Millie Bobby Brown has been battling all sorts of ephemeral nasties with her mind. Now it’s time to try something a bit more tactile, like a sword. Damsel is a new dark fantasy action adventure that sees Brown portraying a young woman who thinks she’s marrying her literal Prince Charming and joining his wealthy family, only to discover the entire thing was a trap in order to sacrifice her to a fearsome dragon to appease a twisted, decades long bargain. Only problem for this family though, is that this young damsel is about to cause them – and the dragon! – some distress as she’s not going down without a fight! Early reviews have pegged this one as being a bit too grim and predictable but still quite thrilling thanks to Brown’s serious commitment to the role.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
She Said
Purchase: Google Play Movies – R152 / Apple TV – R160
Rental: Google Play Movies – R35 / Apple TV – R35
One of the most important social media contributions ever, was the #MeToo movement. The campaign for awareness of sexual abuse went viral following a tweet from actress Alyssa Milano in 2017. But while Milano’s tweet may have been the small fire that led to a global conflagration, the spark that started it all was the exposure of Harvey Weinstein. Along with his brother Bob, Weinstein had been peerless Hollywood power moguls for decades, making and breaking careers, chopping up movies to satisfy their whims, and calling the shots for everybody around them. These were the type of men who had everybody from A-list celebs to political juggernauts on speed dial. In a word, they were untouchable. Which is what made New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s task so utterly important and challenging: Putting together an airtight story that unearthed Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse and harassment of women who had been threatened into shameful silence and cooperation. Two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan and Emmy nominee Zoe Kazan bring to life Twohey and Kantor’s efforts in this unflinching look at how they persevered against impossible odds to break a story that would eventually turn an entire industry on its head and lead to a worldwide shift in culture and gender politics.
Anyone But You
Purchase: Google Play Movies – R173 / Apple TV – R130
Rental: Google Play Movies – R40
If you saw Madame Web in cinemas recently simply because of your obsession with Sydney Sweeney, and now need some kind of palate cleanser to get the bad taste out of your mouth, I’ve got a movie for you. Anyone But You sees the two-time Emmy-nominated actress star opposite Glen Powell in this American rom-com loosely based off Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Bea and Ben once had a serious spark on their first date, only for things to end badly between them. Fast forward six months and the pair are irked to discover that not only are they both going to the same destination wedding in Australia, but they will be staying in the same house. When their exes also show up, and their family keep nagging them to reconcile, they hatch a plan to pretend to get back together just to make their exes jealous and placate their family, respectively, when there’s actually no romance at all. Right? RIGHT? C’mon! Have you even watched a romcom before?!