It may be Friday the 13th, but we’re super lucky to get several high-profile streaming releases this week. Leading the way is Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans’ Xmas action blockbuster, Red One, while we have a trio of big VOD debuts with Transformers One, The Wild Robot, and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. Not enough? There’s also action thriller Carry-On, the streaming debut of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the very long-awaited local debut of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and more!

SERIES

Paris Has Fallen S1

6 December 2024 – Prime Video

I would like to think myself well-informed when it comes to these things, but not only had I not seen any promo push for Paris Has Fallen, but I didn’t even notice until a few days ago that it had snuck onto Prime Video last week. Why is this surprising? Well, as the title of this new action-thriller series suggests, this is actually a spinoff of the popular Gerard Butler movie series that began with Olympus Has Fallen. Butler’s Secret Service Agent Mike Banning is nowhere to be found here though, as the spotlight shifts to Tewfik Jallab’s French Ministry of Defense Protection Officer and Ritu Arya’s street-smart MI6 operative, who are forced to work together when an ex-French Foreign Legion soldier (the always great Sean Harris) launches a revenge attack against the French government. Reviews have pegged this one as a bit silly but still entertaining, just like the movies.

1992 S1

13 December 2024 – Netflix

I will admit that this title only appeared on my radar due to a weird coincidental mix-up. See, there is a movie called 1992 starring Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, and Ray Liotta, that was just released recently. I thought this was that movie hitting Netflix. I could not have been more wrong. This totally different 1992 is a Spanish-language murder mystery series which follows a woman looking for answers into the unexplained death of her husband. Teaming up with an alcoholic ex-cop, she uncovers a string of murders in which the same pattern is always repeated: all the victims have been burned and a doll of Curro, the iconic mascot of Expo ’92 in Seville, appears next to the bodies.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S1-2

16 December 2024 – Showmax

IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME! The modern era of Star Trek on TV proved very divisive when Star Trek: Discovery was launched a number of years ago. However, season 2 of that show gave us one thing that all fans loved: The introduction of a new version of the original pre-TOS Enterprise and her crew. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Science Officer Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) were instantly such hits that a spinoff series focusing on their adventures was announced for 2021. I was super excited to watch it, to the point where even my flagging enthusiasm for Discovery was buoyed and I began anticipating its next season as well. And then Paramount+ launched. The Hollywood studio’s own streaming service debuted in the US just a few weeks before Discovery was set to continue and a couple months before Strange New Worlds was set to debut, and Paramount decided that to help bring in viewers, those shows would now exclusively air there. With Discovery yanked away from Netflix (where it had aired worldwide outside the US) and no local launch of Paramount+, South African fans have had to resort to… unsavoury means to get their Trek on. However, if you’re one of the few local Trekkies who decided to just wait it out instead of sailing the high seas, your patience has finally been rewarded as both seasons of the Emmy-nominated Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is now finally debuting locally on Showmax!

Beast Games S1

19 December 2024 – Prime Video

Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast is the biggest Youtube content creator in the world, with over 330 million subscribers. So, when Amazon Prime Video joined forces with him to create a reality competition series, of course it boasted the biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming: a whopping $5 million in cash! All the 1000 contestants had to do to earn this life-changing money was compete in a series of physical and mental challenges, with losers being eliminated on a weekly basis until only a winner remains. That is a pretty straightforward setup for shows like this, but there’s a nastier side of this that may attract some extra viewers as some of the contestants filed a lawsuit against MrBeast and co earlier this year. The lawsuit alleges that “contestants experienced widespread mistreatment, sexual harassment, and unpaid expenses and wages”. There were even allegations of contestants having their personal medication taken away from them for the duration of the show, and the production misrepresenting how many contestants were to appear on the show, and therefore the actual odds of winning the prize money. Yeesh!

MOVIES

Red One

13 December 2024 – Prime Video

Let’s not beat about the bush. The days of Dwayne Johnson’s name just appearing on a project and instantly making it a success are long gone. “The Rock” has had a string of box office duds in recent years, and Red One is unfortunately his latest. Not even the appeal of Johnson teaming up with Captain America himself, Chris Evans, could get enough people to watch this movie in cinemas when it debuted just one month ago, only earning $166.5 million worldwide on a reported $250 million budget. Yikes. The first problem is the stupid size of that budget. The second, is that maybe people didn’t go see Red One in cinema because they knew that with it being an Amazon MGM Production, it would be hitting streaming soon thereafter? Well, it’s now that thereafter as Red One debuts on Prime Video today. Now we can all see how the North Pole’s head of security (Johnson) has to team up with an unruly bounty hunter (Evans) when Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped. As Tracy noted in her review, Red One “may not be your next all-time favourite Christmas film”, but it’s “inventive, funny, and quite sincere”, and “honestly better than it has any right to be.”

Carry-On

13 December 2024 – Netflix

For a certain older generation – even older than me – the words “Carry On” in a movie title evokes only one thing: Silly British humour. And if you’re thinking that Netflix has now revived the classic British film franchise, you could not be more wrong. Carry-On (notice the hyphen) is a new action thriller from director Jaume Collet-Serra who has made a name for himself on delivering solidly entertaining nailbiters like The Shallows, Non-Stop, and Unknown. He did have a serious misstep with Black Adam (See: above mention of Dwayne Johnson box office woes), but this time he’s back in his more grounded wheelhouse. And he has a very capable leading man in Taron Egerton who plays a young TSA officer who sees his seemingly average workday in a busy airport turned on its head when a mysterious traveler (played by a villainous Jason Bateman) tries to blackmail him into letting a dangerous package slip through security onto a Christmas day flight.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

16 December 2024 – Netflix

Although not as long a wait as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it’s been over 6 months since Bad Boys: Ride or Die debuted in cinemas and for anybody hoping to catch the film at home, the only option has been to buy it digitally. Until now, that is, as the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-led fourquel finally gets a streaming debut on Netflix next week. Although not as good as 2020’s unexpectedly great, record-setting Bad Boys for Life, the latest film still gives fans all the bombastic action and fast-talking comedy that the Bad Boys franchise has become known for. This time around, the story follows Miami detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence), as they attempt to clear the name of their late Captain (Joe Pantoliano), after he is falsely accused of being in collusion with drug cartels. Hilariously complicating things, much to Mike’s annoyance, Marcus suffers a heart attack health scare that leaves him delusional about being invincible.

VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES

The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:

Transformers One

Purchase: Apple TV – R170

Rental: Apple TV – R45

If you’re one of the people that saw the trailers for Transformers One, dismissed it as just some cheap cash-in kiddies movie, and then subsequently didn’t bother to watch it in cinemas, shame on you! I mean, I also didn’t see it in cinema, but for different reasons! And we all missed out big time (not as much as the studio as the film failed dismally to make any money back at the box office) as Sam explained in his 8.5/10 review, as Transformers One is one of the best entries in the entire franchise. This prequel origin story showing how lowly Cybertron inhabitants Orion Pax and his best-friend D-16 would become Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively, is super fun, has amazing action, is stuffed with heart, and boasts a hell of a voice cast led Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry and rounded out by Scarlett Johannson, Keegan-Michael Kay, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.

The Wild Robot

Purchase: Apple TV – R170

Rental: Apple TV – R45

Hey, look! Another animated movie about robots that some people just dismissed as a kiddies movie and then it turned out to be way more than that! Luckily for the producers of The Wild Robot though, it was a mild box office success following super strong word of mouth and a record-breaking four Golden Globe nominations (the most for any animated movie ever). Written and directed by acclaimed animation veteran Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), this sci-fi adventure film boasts a star-studded voice cast that features the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames. The film follows Roz (Nyong’o), a service robot shipwrecked on an uninhabited island who must adapt to her surroundings, build relationships with the local wildlife, and become the adoptive mother of an orphaned goose, Brightbill. Keep the tissues handy, as this one is as much a treat for the heart as it is for the eyes with its equally beautiful storytelling and visuals.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Purchase: Apple TV – R170

Rental: Apple TV – R45

And speaking of having a good ol’ cry, just watching this trailer for Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story already had me tearing up, so I’m afraid to see how much I’m going to blubber when I watch the whole thing. Co-directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, this feature film documentary tells the life story of Christopher Reeve, the beloved actor who shot to fame playing Superman on-screen and then proved himself every bit the hero in real life as well following a terrible horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. The film has received universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike, already winning several awards, including cleaning up in more than half a dozen categories at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, so this is a must-see for fans.