This week’s streaming lineup is simply stuffed with movie big titles, including the long-awaited Beverly Hills Cop 4, the VOD debuts of Furiosa and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, plus the streaming debuts of Blue Beetle, Mean Girls, and more!
SERIES
The Man with 1000 Kids
3 July 2024 – Netflix
It’s estimated that 0.5 percent of the male population worldwide, roughly 16 million men, possess genetic links to Genghis Khan. While he’s still orders of magnitude off that ridiculous number, one man out there is definitely trying to play catch-up. The Man with 1000 Kids is a new Netflix documentary series that tells the absurd story that unfolded when a group of unrelated families discovered that the same man had been the sperm donor for all their children and a whole lot more. And I mean a LOT more. Who is this man? Why is he obsessed with donating sperm and fathering kids worldwide? And why has nobody stopped him?
MOVIES
Fancy Dance
28 June 204 – Apple TV+
Lily Gladstone has been busy! Following on from her Oscar-nominated breakout in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon late last year, the history-making actress also starred in drama series Under the Bridge just a few months ago, but now’s back on Apple TV+ again with another awards contender. Fancy Dance sees Gladstone as Jax, a woman who has taken care of her niece Roki by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, ever since her sister’s disappearance. As an important powwow (a gathering of Native American peoples to celebrate their heritage and culture with dance) for Roki looms closer, Jax and her niece hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. Fancy Dance made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival last year and drew rave reviews with director/co-writer Erica Tremblay being marked as a talent to watch.
A Family Affair
28 June 204 – Netflix
If you’re looking for something far less dramatic, then how about this coming-of-age rom-com that inverts the usual Hollywood aging bias towards women. Joey King stars as Zara (Joey King), personal assistant to egocentric Hollywood heartthrob Chris Cole (Zac Efron). When she quits her job though, she unwittingly sets the stage for a chance encounter between Chris and her famous writer mom, Brooke (Nicole Kidman). Much to Zara’s disbelief, the two immediately hit it off and it’s not long before Chris is trying to woo the incredulous, much older Brooke. Cue the multigenerational hilarity and embarrassment.
Mean Girls
1 July 204 – Showmax
2004’s Mean Girls is a contemporary classic, so when talks of a remake made the rounds, fans were naturally apprehensive. But not only is 2024’s Mean Girls not quite a remake, it also boasts original scribe and all-around awesome person Tina Fey doing the screenplay as well. Actually an adaptation of the stage musical that was inspired by the 2004 movie (which in turn is actually an adaption of 2002 book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’ – please keep up), this new Mean Girls stars Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, a naive sixteen-year-old who transfers to public high school in America after being homeschooled in Kenya her whole life. She’s immediately befriended by two social outcasts, but soon draws the attention of Regina George, queen bee of an envied clique known as “The Plastics”. As mentioned above, the film is actually a musical, which is something its marketing did a horrible job of showing. On the positive side though, it got great reviews and was a box office success and now you can check it out on Showmax if you missed it.
Blue Beetle
1 July 204 – Showmax
Speaking of movies to check out because you probably didn’t watch it at the cinema… It’s a crying shame that Blue Beetle was saddled with the baggage of both the flailing DCEU and the 2023 Hollywood strikes, resulting in the lowest box office gross in the entire DC Comics film franchise. That’s because it’s somehow a far more enjoyable than it has any right to be. Actually, that’s a bit unfair. The Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle, introduced after DC’s New 52 reboot, was always a fantastic comic book character with a unique family-centric focus, and star Xolo Maridueña has always been great in his breakout role in Cobra Kai. Putting the two together immediately has potential for success. But with director Ángel Manuel Soto also leaning hard into Jaime’s aforementioned family support cast and his Latino heritage, giving us a fantastic character design ripped straight from the comic page, and then also choreographing some shockingly good action beats, the movie ended far better than I ever expected. It’s not going to win any major awards, but it was the charming and entertaining breath of fresh air the DCEU needed far sooner. Rumour has it that Blue Beetle will still be included in James Gunn’s new DCU and I really hope that is the case.
Space Cadet
4 July 2024 – Prime Video
If you’re not up for comic book movies and want to keep things grounded – well, kinda – then maybe check out the Emma Roberts-led space Cadet. The erstwhile scream queen keep things comedic here as Tiffany, a young woman who grew up with dreams of becoming an astronaut only to end up a Florida party girl working in a bar. When a friend liberally doctors her application though, Tiffany actually ends up getting accepted into NASA’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. Now, way in over her head, Tiffany has the chance to achieve her stellar dreams or see them blow up spectacularly.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
3 July 204 – Netflix
If just hearing the name “Beverly Hills Cop” immediately gets you humming that brilliant synth theme song, then you’re my kind of people. Old people, that is. Well, us older folk get a nice shot of nostalgia next week as the long gestating fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie finally hits screens. Eddie Murphy returns to his most iconic role after thirty years (yes, it’s really been three decades since Beverly Hills Cop III) as fast-talking, street-smart Detroit cop Axel Foley, this time called back to the swanky and posh Beverly Hills after his estranged criminal defense attorney daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) has her life threatened. Dad and daughter team up with Jane’s ex-boyfriend Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an actual Beverly Hills Cop, to uncover a conspiracy. The film also sees the return of Foley’s original Beverly Hills compadres Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to get the whole band back together. This seemingly won’t be the last hurrah though as Murphy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed just last week that a fifth film is already in early development.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Purchase: Google TV – R170
Rental: Google TV – R212
It may not be as good as Mad Max: Fury Road (honestly, what is?) but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is another action opus from franchise mastermind George Miller. This prequel sees Anya Taylor-Joy strap on the robo-arm of Furiosa, first portrayed on-screen to iconic effect by Charlize Theron back in 2015, and she does a damn good job of it. As Noelle notes in her 8/10 review, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga answers several unexplored questions raised by that film, delving into how Furiosa found herself in such a unique situation in the first place. With all the backstory character work, it means the pace is not as relentless, but when the action does happen it is incredible, with one beat in particular being some of the best vehicular action ever put to screen. And if somehow all of that didn’t entice you, there’s the movie’s secret weapon: the usually heroic Chris Hemsworth in a prosthetic schnozz simply chewing up the scenery and having an absolute blast as Dementus, Furiosa’s archnemesis. His performance alone is worth the cost of a rental.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Purchase: Google TV – R40
Rental: Apple TV – R170 / Google TV – R173
If you were to look at just Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire’s critical reviews when it released earlier this year, you would dismiss it as a disappointing dud of a follow-up to 2021’s surprisingly fun Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Don’t listen to those stuffy fools though. There’s a reason the audience score is sitting on 83%, as both Darryn and I found out, much to our relieved surprised. Frozen Empire is a very worthy sequel in this franchise revival, boasting a ton of heart, great character beats, a – pardon the pun – really cool villain design, and a full-on return of the classic Ghostbusters cast integrated into the story instead of just relegated to random cameos. Unfortunately, it also features one of the most annoying and unnecessary side characters I’ve encountered in a while, but I wasn’t expecting a perfect movie here. Either way, if you missed it in cinema, Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire is well worth a rental now.
Tarot
Purchase: Apple TV – R160 / Google TV – R160
Rental: Apple TV – R130 / Google TV – R130
We’ve had a run of pretty good horrors lately with the likes of The First Omen, Abigail, Immaculate, and more. Tarot doesn’t appear to be continuing that run. That’s at least according to the rather negative critic reviews the film earned when it released in cinemas earlier this year. Maybe some of you will have more mileage with it on home VOD rental. For the record, Tarot follows a group of college students who, after using a strange Tarot deck, begin to gruesomely die one by one and must uncover the deck’s mystery before time runs out.
Mothers’ Instinct
Purchase: Apple TV – R160 / Google TV – R161
Rental: Apple TV – R45/ Google TV – R50
Mother’s Instinct is headlined by a pair of popular Oscar-winning actresses in Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway and seems to have really potent premise, and yet somehow this movie just sailed under the radar. The film got a limited release earlier this year, hitting select screens local in April, but is now available for VOD rental and purchase. A remake of the award-winning 2018 French-language film Duelles, Mothers’ Instinct is the feature film directing debut of acclaimed French cinematographer Benoît Delhomme. Set in 1960s American suburbia, this psychological thriller stars Chastain and Hathaway as next-door neighbours and best friends Alice and Céline, both mothers to boys of a similar age. When a terrible accident – one which Alice desperately tried to prevent – claims the life of Céline’s son Max though, it starts a downward spiral of guilt and paranoia between the two women that starts to turn dangerous.