Looking to get cozy at home this long weekend and into next week? Well, you’re definitely covered in terms of streaming entertainment with the likes of Extraction 2, Marvel’s Secret Invasion, The Grand Tour’s return, a King Kong cartoon, and more!
MOVIES
Spinning Gold
Amazon Prime Video – 15 June 2023
Today, after a couple of relaunches, Casablanca Records is an indie record label primarily known for putting out electronic dance music. Back in the 1970s disco era though, it was an industry juggernaut. Under the guidance of iconoclastic founder Neil Bogart, it changed the rules of the game and made superstars like Donna Summer, Kiss, Village People, Gladys Knight, the Isley Brothers, and Cher in the process. And the story of Casablanca’s meteoric rise and subsequent fall is an absolutely wild one, told in new biopic film Spinning Gold, and it looks fantastic!
Extraction 2
Netflix – 16 June 2023
You think a little thing like dying would slow down a bad-ass merc like Tyler Rake? Think again! Yes, despite the seemingly fatal events at the end of 2020’s Extraction, Chris Hemsworth’s action hero is back again. And somehow, it appears that he and stuntman-turned-director Sam Hargrave have managed to up the ante when it comes to the franchise’s insane action choreography and jaw-dropping single-take shots. Honestly, I don’t even know what the storyline is for Extraction 2 and I don’t care. I’m here to watch things get punched, shot, and blown up in the most impressive way possible, and it definitely looks like this film delivers all of that and more!
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
Netflix – 16 June 2023
It’s a big weekend for anime fans! Over on Crunchyroll, the final episode of Demon Slayer (running a whopping 70 minutes long!) debuts this coming Sunday, and on top of that, today marks the release of the heavily anticipated Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King. The first feature film release in the franchise, Sword of the Wizard King picks up after the anime series went on a two-year hiatus following the events of the fourth season finale back in March 2021. Seeing as how I’ve somehow never watched Black Clover despite its popularity, I can’t tell you what those events were. What I can say is that fans have been champing at the bit for this one for literal years and now it’s finally here! Enjoy!
The Honeymoon
Amazon Prime Video – 16 June 2023
For a complete change of pace, check out local chick-flick comedy The Honeymoon. It stars Kajal Bagwandeen as Kat, woman whose fiancé breaks up with her on the eve of their wedding. Encouraged by her two best friends, played by Tumi Morake and Minnie Dlamini, to get her mind off her heartbreak, the trio decide to turn Kat’s already paid-for honeymoon to Zanzibar into a wild party girls trip with raucous results.
Father of the Bride
Showmax – 19 June 2023
Originally released as a novel in 1949, Father of the Bride has been adapted to screen several times, most famously in a pair of 1990s romantic-comedy films starring Steve Martin. Well, last year it got another do-over on HBO Max (now just known as Max), this time starring Andy Garcia as the titular patriarch with Gloria Estefan playing his wife. The couple are surprised when their eldest daughter comes home for a visit… only to introduce a new boyfriend… who she’s engaged to and plans to marry shortly before leaving for a life in Mexico. This kicks off a whole lot of family shenanigans and drama as the family – particularly Garcia’s protective dad – comes to grips with it all.
Nope
Showmax – 22 June 2023
Easily in my top 5 of films released last year, Jordan Peele’s Nope is an incredible new spin on the whole alien abduction sci-fi horror genre. I thought Peele stumbled ever so slightly with Us after his mind-blowing directing debut with Get Out, but with Nope he’s back to absolutely knocking it all out of the park. It’s original, beautifully shot (my lord, those nighttime visuals!), historical poignant, both funny and horrific, and Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer act the hell out of it as a brother-sister duo running a horse-wrangling ranch in the California hills who encounter something extraterrestrial that could solve all their financial troubles… if it doesn’t kill them.
SERIES
The Grand Tour: Eurocrash
Amazon Prime Video – 16 June 2023
The boys are back! Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are back with the latest batch of automotive buffoonery like only they can do! Dubbed Eurocrash, this latest feature-length special of The Grand Tour’s fifth season sees the fan-favourite trio unable to get to the countries they want to visit due to it either being a trouble hotspot or them being banned! Cue a 1400-mile journey through Central Europe instead, “on a road trip nobody has ever thought of, in cars nobody would ever dream of using!”, that sees them exploring Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia with plenty of tomfoolery (and cars) along the way.
Secret Invasion S1
Disney+ – 21 June 2023
If you’ve been wondering where Nick Fury has been since we last saw him on a spaceship in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far from Home, wonder no more! The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s greatest superspy has a very good reason for why he’s been incognito during some major recent events: He’s been fighting a silent war after discovering that a renegade group of Skrulls – the shapeshifting aliens he befriended in Captain Marvel – has been enacting a decades-long conspiracy to take control of Earth by replacing key powerful human figures around the world with Skrull doppelgangers. Assembling a small unit of people he can trust (well, barely trust – it is Nick Fury, after all), Fury sets out to uncover the grand plan and put a stop to it. Adapting the 2008 comic book crossover of the same name, Secret Invasion appears to be taking a very serious tone, while drawing on several conspiracy theory thrillers of the past for inspiration, and I cannot contain my hype levels any longer!
Skull Island
Netflix – 22 June 2023
It’s going to be another year before we get to see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the final planned feature film in Legendary’s Monsterverse that sees erstwhile kaiju rivals Godzilla and King Kong reunite against some unknown threat. And we don’t even have a release date for the Apple TV+ produced spinoff live-action TV series Godzilla and the Titans. However, if you’re looking for some extra kaiju action before then, you’re in luck! Skull Island is a new animated series from Netflix set in the Monsterverse continuity, and which takes place on Kong’s titular iconic island, home to all manner of gigantic beasties. This one follows a group of young explorers who end up shipwrecked on the perilous island, who have to band together to survive the horrors that await them.