Streaming Reviews

Sylvester Stallone as a retired Superhero. This is a premise that I could definitely get behind, and the premise of 2022’s SAMARITAN.   SAMARITAN shows us a post superhero world. In the beginning there were a pair of twins born with strength, durability and regenerative capabilities far beyond normal humans. When their parents died in an arson attack, one of them vowed vengeance against humanity, taking up the villainous moniker of Nemesis.  The other brother became the superhero Samaritan to defend humanity against Nemesis and inspire people with hope. Eventually both superhuman brothers died in a massive power plant explosion.  In present day 25 years later, their home of Granite City is a decaying urban wasteland with a widening rich/poor divide and people who have given up all hope. Our story follows a boy named Sam who is obsessed with Samaritan and buys into the conspiracy theory that the superhero never died.  After being saved from gangsters by an elde...

This small unassuming movie starring Jason Statham of Transporter and The Mechanic fame became a surprising favourite of mine when it premiered in 2024.   Think John Wick but instead of a dog, it is the death of a kindly old neighbour that sets off Jason Statham’s Beekeeper character to unleashes his particular set of skills against an internet credit scam operation whose ties run all the way up to the US government.  What ensues is thrilling action and suspense with a hint of dark humour courtesy of David Ayer (End of Watch, Bright) and Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium, Salt).   I came away from this movie feeling a weird sense of catharsis. Like Superman taking down greedy corporate scumbags or Captain America fighting Nazi supervillains, Beekeeper is catharsis showing an unstoppable hero figure tearing down a seemingly untouchable “villain”.   In this case, it is the dark industry of organised credit scams. They are everywhere, preying on the old and vulner...

My first encounter with Kraven the Hunter was in an episode of Spiderman And His Amazing Friends which I had on an old video tape from my great grandfather, along side many other old cartoons. In that episode he was a boisterous boastful bruiser of a man wearing a lion vest who commanded dinosaurs and wanted Firestar to help hatch his dinosaur eggs (it makes sense in context trust me). Kraven The Hunter in this movie is quite unlike that.  Aaron Taylor Johnson plays Kraven as a hunter of bad people. He is a vigilante/assassin taking out the most powerful crime bosses around the world with enhanced strength and reflexes that were somehow granted to him through a magic potion and lion’s blood when he was fatally wounded during a hunting accident when he was young. Why does he do this? It is never clear. He says he does because the people he hunts “bring bad things into the world”   As stories go, this one is really shallow which is a pity because it feels like it has a lo...

At first glance, Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance seems dressed to impress. A gundam co-production done outside of Japan, and meant to appeal first and foremost to the international audience. Its trailer boasts lots of mecha combat action, its synopsis promises a familiar tale the likes of band of Brothers or saving Private Ryan, just set in the Gundam franchise’s universal century timeline. It’s character designs replaces the typical anime aesthetic with a more realistic, looking one. In some measure it delivers, and in others, I feel it falls short.  The animation on the giant war machines are very well done, conveying that sense of mass and inertia befitting their size. Little details like dents, pockmarks, right down to visible rivets all lend a very gritty feel to the show. On the flip side, the character animation suffers.  Characters lack the visual polish of CGI animation contemporaries like Sola Digital Arts (Appleseed Alpha, Starship Troopers Traitor of Mar...