Sure-Fire Streaming: Mile 22, Moonfall, Begin Again, and more
By Jordan Parker
https://parkerandpictures.wordpress.com/
The best in TV and film from your living room.
The Wedding Year – Available On Netflix
The Wedding Year is a funny little romantic-comedy – and though it has more than a few flaws, it’ll make you chuckle a time or two.
It follows Mara, a 27-year-old terrified of love and commitment, and the changes she goes through when she meets and falls for Jake. The two form a bond almost immediately.
When they realize they have to attend seven weddings in a year, their relationship will be put to the ultimate test.
Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland and Everybody Hates Chris star Tyler James Williams are great together, and Jenna Dewan, the adorable Matt Shively, Anna Camp, Wanda Sykes, Patrick Warburton and Keith David make a great ensemble.
Directed by Robert Luketic – the man behind Legally Blonde, Killers and The Ugly Truth – this one is an adorable showcase for its leads.
Mile 22 – Available On Netflix
This movie got torn apart by critics and audiences when it first came out, but it had ahold of me from the first frame.
It follows a team of American Intelligence officers tasked with smuggling a police officer with a wealth of secrets out of Indonesia. But there are plenty of people on their tail who want the man dead.
Director Peter Berg – Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day – and Mark Wahlberg team up again, and though Wahlberg’s grizzled cop is a bit of a cliché, the actor does it right.
Lauren Cohan, the incredible Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, and Ronda Rousey make up an all-star cast.
In the end, it doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a rousing thriller that you won’t be able to look away from.
Moonfall – Available On Prime Video
I need to lead off by telling you this sci-fi save-the-world drama is stupendously, ridiculously dumb.
If you’re looking for heartfelt, smart cinema, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for The Day After Tomorrow? Good news, Roland Emmerich directed both of them.
While I didn’t absolutely love Moonfall, movies like this just aren’t made these days. Studios are so risk-averse to any action movie that isn’t a franchise or Marvel property that they don’t take chances.
Moonfall may have been a box-office bomb, but it was a glorious-looking one. It follows three astronauts who try to stop the moon – knocked from its orbit by a mysterious force – from hitting the earth.
It’s so, so silly, but stars Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry breeze through the affair, despite some bad dialogue. Chief among the reasons to see it, though, is the performance from Game Of Thrones alum John Bradley.
This isn’t incredible cinema, but it’s a big-budget blockbuster that is a fun diversion for a Sunday afternoon.
House Of 1,000 Corpses – Available On Netflix (Sunday)
One of the crudest, most difficult horror films to come out in the 2000s is this little thrill-ride that will make your eyes pop out of your head.
An exercise in macabre and gore, shock rocker Rob Zombie made his feature directorial debut with this terrifying display.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but gorehounds were delighted by the little indie genre picture. It follows two couples who become prisoners of a family of murderers in backwoods Texas.
The cast – including the incredible Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri-Moon Zombie and Karen Black – are all memorable and delightfully twisted.
It’s a weird, whacky film, but Zombie’s take inspired enough faith in him to spawn a trilogy.
Begin Again - Available On Prime Video
This is one of my absolute favourite movies of the 2000s, and it always manages to put me in a fantastic mood.
It’s a movie that plays with the idea that it’s never too late to change your trajectory, and is a tale of second chances.
It follows heavy-drinking, failing music executive Dan, and his discovery of young songstress Gretta. She can be his path to a renewed career, but he can also find himself and the man he used to be through their friendship.
Starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Maroon 5 crooner Adam Levine, Katherine Keener, and Hailee Steinfield, it’s an incredible ensemble showcase.
Filled with fantastic music – including an Oscar-nominated song – writer-director John Carney creates a lovable vision everyone should see.