Every week, we take a look at what’s hitting cinemas and streaming and separate the wheat from the chaff.
It’s a superhero-heavy theatrical offering this week – two massive cape flicks are eating up 99% of the exhibition real estate on the planet right now, and most distributors are canny enough to hold their releases for a few weeks rather that die a box office death on a handful of screens. But there’s always some kind of counter-programming floating around. So, without further adieu…
In Cinemas
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Marvel‘s First Family gets their proper introduction in the MCU (we can forget about the kid from The Office now) in this bright, optimistic story of familial bonds and intergalactic genocide. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn are great, Ralph Ineson’s Galactus looks incredible, everyone else is underused, and the whole thing is less than the sum of its parts. It’s still a good time, though, and the only new blockbuster on offer right now.
Superman
Now in its second week or release and likely to stick around for a while – The Fantastic Four may take the top slot at the box office this weekend, but I’d expect Supes to have more staying power. James Gunn‘s tale on Superman is grand, goofy, and deeply heartfelt, which makes up for the fact that it’s a bit of a mess, with too many balls in the air and not enough time to juggle them properly. Brosnahan and Corenswet not guilty, though.
Bambi: The Reckoning
And now, a film whose budget is not the size of a small country’s GDP. Existing solely because Felix Salten’s 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods is now in the public domain, Bambi: The Reckoning sees the titular deer on a murderous rampage to avenge the death of his mother. Yep, it’s that kind of movie. Part of the Twisted Childhood Universe that also includes Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and Peter Pan Neverland Nightmare, if that does anything for you. But all I’m sawing that paying to see this rather than Disney‘s Fantastic Four reboot would be a baller move.
Streaming
Happy Gilmore 2
Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher MacDonald and pretty much every original cast member who isn’t pushing up daisies is back for this sequel, which hits Netflix on July 25 almost 30 years after the original Happy Gilmore. The plot sees Sandler’s anger-prone hockey zero/gold hero come out of retirement in order to pay for his daughter’s ballet school, which is a serviceable enough premise. Now, a screener link for this didn’t materialise in my inbox, and Sandler’s output is wiiiildly variable these days, but the original was a banger, so I’ll be checking it out. Caveat emptor, though.
Untamed
Eric Bana and Sam Neill trot out their best American accents for this six-part murder mystery from Netflix. We’re on Yosemite National Park, where an anonymous female corpse has turned up. Eric Bana’s National Park Service Investigative Services Branch agent is on the case, because it seems that in the US, park rangers have their own cops. But his investigations turn up evidence of widespread corruption, and a fair chance of the body count getting a significant bump if he digs deeper. Untamed doesn’t rewrite to rulebook, but it’s a solid procedural wrapped in some stunning location cinematography – you’ll dig it.
Bookish
Mark Gatiss is also in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, so he’s having a pretty good week. Here he’s Gabriel Book, who runs a rare book store in post-World War II London. That’s called determinative nomenclature. He also solves crime, because every second British screen character is an amateur sleuth. And he’s also also a closeted gay man, in a marriage of convenience with his understanding wife, Tottie (Polly Walker). So yes, it’s a cozy crime series, which I’d normally avoid like the plague, but it’s considerably more complex and acidly funny than the usual example of the form. On HBO Max right now.
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