Some huge titles hit streaming platforms this week. Will Smith will attempt win back public favour and maybe even an Oscar with slave drama Emancipation, Guillermo Del Toro’s long-awaited stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio debuts, Disney+’s National Treasure spinoff hits screens, and the local streaming debut for House of the Dragon is finally here. All this and more!
MOVIES
Emancipation
Apple TV+ – 9 December 2022
Emancipation, Apple TV+’s emotional slave drama, is probably star Will Smith’s best chance to win an Oscar in years. The problem, of course, is his last Oscar performance. It was the slap heard around the world as Smith stormed on the stage at the Oscars earlier this year and assaulted host Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. The usually beloved actor’s public stock took a gigantic hit with that incident, to the point where Smith stepped out of the limelight for a while. Now that he is back, Smith has put out a video ahead of the release of Emancipation asking the public to please not hold the rest of the cast and crew of this movie responsible for his regrettable action. Critical response thus far has been mostly positive with proper awards buzz for Smith, but will you, the public, give it a chance?
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Netflix – 9 December 2022
We’ve already had one Pinocchio movie this year that inexplicably came and went with virtually zero fanfare despite the A-list Hollywood talent involved. Hopefully the same fate doesn’t befall Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, which has been a little bit of a passion project for the fan-favourite Mexican filmmaker. Instead of going live-action like its ill-fated namesake, this version of the beloved children’s tale is a stop-motion animated effort featuring the voice talents of Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Finn Wolfhard, Tilda Swinton, and much more, and it looks superb!
Night At the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
Disney+ – 9 December 2022
If you loved Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum movie trilogy, then this one is for you… or, probably more accurately, your kids. A direct sequel to its predecessor, this animated feature follows Nick Daley, son of Stiller’s Larry Daley, who takes over from his retiring father as the new Night Guard at the Museum of National History. While Nick knows all about the Museum’s magical habit of having its exhibits come to life at night, what he was not banking on was a return of Night at the Museum 2’s bumbling villain, Kahmunrah, with a new plan for world domination.
Something from Tiffany’s
Amazon Prime Video – 9 December 2022
Hey, it’s the second week in December. I needed to have at least one “romantic comedy set around the Christmas holidays” entry on this list. This one stars Zoey Deutch, Ray Nicholson, Shay Mitchell, and Kendrick Sampson as two couples whose lives get intertwined – with some very surprising results – when the respective beaus accidentally switch the gifts the purchased for their girlfriends, one of which is an engagement ring!
Fall
Google Play Movies – 9 December 2022
Listen, you weren’t going to use your fingernails anyway, so you might as well chew them off as you watch Fall this weekend! Hitting theatres earlier this year and debuting for digital rental on Google Play Movies today, the suspense thriller follows a pair of adrenaline junkies who scale a 2,000 ft tall, abandoned radio tower, only for disaster to strike, leaving them stranded with no way down. Well, except for a very messy, gravity-induced way down that is.
Beurtkrag
Showmax – 12 December 2022
The timing of the release of local drama Beurtkrag could not be more apt as Stage 6 loadshedding grips South Africa once again. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a light pick me up from the Eskom blues, this feature film adaptation of a stage-play-turned-short-film is not it. Seeing as Beurtkrag stars real world couple Ivan Botha and Donnalee Robert, who are most famous for a string of Afrikaans rom-coms, that probably comes as a surprise to many, but this emotionally intense drama follows a married couple whose supposed-to-be-celebratory first night together in their new house gets derailed when the power dies.
The Big 4
Netflix – 15 December 2022
Director Timo Tjahjanto’s last Netflix collaboration was the absolutely bonkers violent action spectacle The Night Comes for Us. Based on that film alone, I am definitely here for the Indonesian filmmaker’s latest effort, The Big 4, which seems equally as ludicrous and crazy. If you’re not too squeamish, this is probably the perfect Friday movie to just switch off your brain to and watch a bunch of people try to get each other in the most creative – and coolest-looking – ways possible.
SERIES
Dragon Age: Absolution S1
Netflix – 9 December 2022
With the likes of Arcane: League of Legends and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Netflix has been seeing fantastic success when it comes to animated video-game adaptations. The latest to try and match that level of success is Dragon Age: Absolution, a new fantasy adventure set in the world of Bioware’s award-winning fantasy RPG franchise. Absolution is actually the third Dragon Age animated series after 2010’s Warden’s Fall and 2011’s Redemption, but this is claiming to be the biggest and most polished one yet, being produced by acclaimed South Korean animation studio Reddog Culture House (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, The Seven Deadly Sins) with a direct collaboration with Bioware itself, and for the first time actually showing the Tevinter Imperium on-screen.
Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area – Part 2
Netflix – 9 December 2022
And the award for Clumsiest Title of the Year goes to… While it never ignited the cultural zeitgeist like the original record-breaking Spanish show, spinoff/quasi-remake Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area still pulled in some great numbers. And now that fanbase can finally get their fix with the debut of Part 2 of the nail-biting crime thriller series.
The White Lotus S2
Showmax – 12 December 2022
I have a friend who will probably murder me for this admission, but I’m yet to watch The White Lotus. I’ve heard so much fantastic things though about the Emmy Award-winning star-studded comedy drama which followed the guests and employees of the titular fictional Hawaiian holiday resort who find their lives flipped upside down in some surprisingly dark ways over the course of a week. Now tweaked into an anthology format, the second season is here, this time transplanting the action to a Sicilian branch of the White Lotus hotel chain, bringing in a new cast – featuring the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray Abraham, a returning Jennifer Coolidge, and more – to experience all new mayhem that belies their idyllic Italian holiday destination.
National Treasure: Edge of History S1
Disney+ – 14 December 2022
The Nicolas Cage-led National Treasure movies are a bit a of a goofy pleasure of mine, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting this new spinoff series that follows new lead Jess Morales, a 20-something Hispanic Latina-American who sets off on a quest to discover the mystery of her family history that could be bound to some lost treasure. At this point, the series is set in the world of the movies, but not a direct continuation of its plots, though the showrunners have indicated that they have tentative plans to introduce characters from the movies, including Cage’s famous treasure hunter Ben Gates. That’s cool and all, but all I’m asking for is that we finally discover what the hell is on page 47 of the secret President’s Book.
House of the Dragon S1
Showmax – 15 December 2022
It’s finally here! On local streaming that is! Following its broadcast debut on DSTV a few months ago, the massively anticipated first season of House of the Dragon will soon be available to binge in its entirety on Showmax. Managing to somewhat erase the foul taste of the crappy final season of Game of Thrones (I will never forgive them for King Bran the Broken though!), this prequel series has turned out to be rather damn good, as it tells the tale of the fall of House Targaryen, the once-unassailable dragon-riding overlords of Westeros, approximately 200 years before the events of GoT. While the huge time jumps throughout House of the Dragons’ first season can be a bit jarring as some cast members get swapped out for the older versions while others somehow stay their same ageless selves, the overall twisting plot of politics and familial drama is certainly a gripping one and has deservedly made international stars out of its cast already.