Two very big, but very different sci-fi blockbuster sequels headline streaming releases this week, as Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part Two hits Netflix, while Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two makes its VOD debut. Also, the acclaimed True Detective: Night Country drops on Showmax.
SERIES
True Detective: Night Country
22 April 2024 – Showmax
The first season of the award-winning True Detective was a revelation. So too was the second season of the crime drama anthology… but mostly because it revealed that maybe the explosive success of the original season had more to do with director Cary Fukugawa than it did creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto. While Pizzolatto followed up that deservedly panned bit of a TV with a much better season 3 in 2019, it was still nowhere up to the level of the original. Fast forward a few years and True Detective is back, but without Pizzolatto. Instead, it’s new showrunner Issa Lopez taking the reins with a fresh story led by Oscar-winner Jodie Foster and pro-boxer-turned-newcomer-actress Kali Reis. And by all accounts, it’s a really positive changing of the guard, with many considering Night Country to be the best installment by a country mile since that groundbreaking first season. A 92% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes backs that up.
Dead Boy Detectives S1
25 April 2024 – Netflix
I’ve been seeing ads on Netflix for Dead Boy Detectives for a while now, but I wouldn’t say that the streamer has really been broadcasting it everywhere. And honestly, I don’t know why not. The premise of two best friends – who both happen to actually be ghosts who died centuries apart and only met in the afterlife – running a detective agency to solve paranormal mysteries already sounds like a good one. But in a case of burying the lede to a criminal degree, this is actually an adaptation of a comic series by beloved writer Neil Gaiman and is set in the world his masterpiece, The Sandman. In fact, Dead Boy Detectives is a proper spinoff as it features Kirby Howell-Baptiste reprising her role as Death from Netflix’s Sandman adaptation, tying it all together. How is Netflix not blasting out that little tidbit everywhere?!
MOVIES
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
19 April 2024 – Netflix
You know that expression “It’s like a car crash you can’t look away from”? That basically sums why I will probably be watching Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver tonight. Instead of the great original franchise starter it was advertised as, Zack Snyder’s long-gestating sci-fi opus ended up being a woefully inept mishmash of ideas stolen blatantly from vastly superior contemporaries. With slow-mo. Hell, with slower slow-mo during the slow-mo! As Noelle mentioned in her scathing 3.5/10 review, most of the first film was a whole lot of nothing with all the character development, narrative, and even just dialogue in some cases, seemingly having been kept back for this second installment. That’s the hope at least, but I’ve been burned by Snyder one too many times. I’m here just to see how high the flames of this dumpster fire can reach.
The Flash
22 April 2024 – Showmax
Speaking of Snyder… one of the final nails in the coffin of the filmmaker’s vision of the DCEU was 2023’s The Flash. Initially touted as a potential soft reboot point for the cinematic universe, before Warner Bros. just threw in the towel and announced an all-new DC Comics Cinematic Universe under James Gunn, The Flash ended being more well-known for its shockingly bad CGI and eventual huge box office bomb status. That being said, it’s not all bad. There’s still some… flashes of greatness to be found in this movie, particularly with lead Ezra Miller’s performance (despite his massively problematic off-screen behaviour), Sasha Calle’s badass Supergirl, and, of course, an incredible return to the cape and cowl for Michael Keaton as an older Batman. And if you never got to see the movie in cinema – a fair assumption given its box office numbers – you can now watch it on Showmax.
The Fabelmans
22 April 2024 – Showmax
On the complete opposite end of the movie spectrum is Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Directed and cowritten by Spielberg, the coming-of-age drama is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on the iconic director’s own adolescence and his first forays into filmmaking. Named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the American Film Institute and earning several award nominations and wins including seven nominations at the Oscars and winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director at the Golden Globes, The Fabelmans is a must-see for both movie fans and fans of the people who make movies.
City Hunter
25 April 2024 – Netflix
While Tsukasa Hojo’s City Hunter manga series and anime adaptation was a huge success in the late 1980s/early 1990s, spawning a multimedia franchise, for most modern audiences the only image they probably have of it is Jackie Chan dressed in a Chun-Li costume in the cheesy 1993 live-action feature film adaptation. Well, thanks to a new live-action feature film adaptation from Netflix, it’s time to get reacquainted with Ryo Saeba, the skirt-chasing private detective who serves as a premier “sweeper” cleaning out the gritty underbelly of modern-day Shinjuku, Tokyo. As good with guns as he is goofy, Ryo Saeba is not your conventional hero, but he always gets the job done.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Dune: Part Two
Purchase: Apple TV – R200
Rental: Apple TV – R170
It’s rather ironic that the new Rebel Moon releases today, because in her 9/10 review of Denis Villeneuve’s actual sci-fi opus Dune: Part Two, Noelle states that this jaw-dropping masterpiece of filmmaking is everything that Snyder hoped and claimed his films to be. Adapting Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel was always a daunting task, and most people would say the Villeneuve already achieved greatness in his first attempt. But somehow the auteur managed to outdo himself in every single regard with this absolutely epic on-screen imagining of the second half of Herbert’s novel, fixing some of the problems in the source while also making bold changes that setup a much-anticipated third film that will be combining elements from this story as well as Herbert’s divisive follow-up novel, Dune: Messiah. And all of this done with the most eye-wateringly beautiful visuals and spine-rattling sound that an IMAX cinema can produce. And while that premium format is how Dune: Part Two is definitely meant to be enjoyed, for those of you who avoid the social cinema experience or just want a cheaper alternative, you can now rent or even buy the film in 4K for the price of a single IMAX ticket.