Chloe is back in the co-pilot seat this week as I don’t have to go it alone and we’ve got a myriad of fun things to talk about this week including a R-rated video game secret, a shepherd’s flock becoming the English countryside’s greatest detectives and an on stage experience of one of the biggest concert experiences from one of the most gifted young songwriters in the modern age. Yeah, we’re hitting it big this week.
We kick everything off with a visit to the Mailbag, which has one of my proudest moments in a message we received from an actual filmmaker that Chloe talked about on a recent episode. I also shed some light on the struggles of a small theatre that has been nestled in Oliver, British Columbia, for over seventy-five years.
The first little bit of freshness for those eyesies is Mortal Kombat II, the middle installment of a projected three-film reboot of the famed one-on-one tournament video game series, and, yes, this is the actual tournament now! After debuting the first film during the pandemic era of releasing, Karl Urban joins the crew as the iconic Johnny Cage, taken straight from a comic con to the other-dimensional realm of Outworld. Does it up the ante from the first movie and make audiences salivate for more? Or, does it FINISH us?
Next is the wholesome murder mystery of The Sheep Detectives, and, yes, you read that correctly, I put wholesome and murder in the same sentence. Illumination go-to director Kyle Balda makes his live-action debut with a big group of animated sheep to create this sweet-hearted family film that is brimming with laughs, great dialogue and some serious intrigue. The film has been described as Knives Out crossed with Babe, and it is an aesthetic that you didn’t know you needed in your life!
Finishing out the batch is the visual 3D experience that is Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft tour, and you know she means business because she got the “King Of The World” James Cameron to help her deliver this incredible concert film to her adoring fans. As a fan of Billie, both as an artist and a person, this movie was a necessity to see, but does that have the same effect on a casual fan, a hater or someone completely unfamiliar with her work? I break it down, plus we get into a discussion on some of her controversial statements recently.
On Blu-Ray this week, Chloe and I are finally able to discuss the lo-fi sci-fi fantasy OBEX, which we took in at the Vancouver International Film Festival back in October last year. Oddly sentimental and a driven dog lover story, we both absolutely adored this Zelda meets Eraserhead odyssey through classic fantasy gaming and yearn to recommend it to people, but, as Chloe points out, who exactly is that? Yes, this one is for the niche community, but it doesn’t make it any less great.
Also, just recently ending its first season run on HBO, Task is now available to pick up on Blu-ray, and those who loved the Kate Winslet series Mare Of Easttown better perk up their ears because this is what you’re getting instead of a season two. Led by a seasoned and weathered Mark “Scruffalo”, this cops versus robbers drama forges forward with characters that feel textured and tangible, all the way down to the antagonist’s incredibly likable leader, played by Tom Pelphrey. If you like a good, gritty crime drama, this might be the one that slipped under the radar.
Chloe makes her presence felt, giving her thoughts on the new Handmaid’s Tale spin-off, The Testaments. Starring One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti, the series picks up where the original Elisabeth Moss show left off and, while the internet does its thing to try to hobble this show in its debut season, Chloe is adamant that all the pieces are in place to make a fantastic series. With a ten episode run already in the books for the show, this might be another hit for Hulu/Disney.
Finally, I got to add a little drama to my collection this week that definitely plays better for the older audience, Midwinter Break, but it was also one that didn’t jive with critics that much. That said, the film features two stalwart veteran actors in Lesley Manville and Ciaran Hinds, to presences that made this one a must-see for me but an eventual one because I didn’t want to drive across the Okanagan to see it in theatres. Not with these gas prices!
Coming up next week:
Obsession
Hamlet
Is God Is
In The Grey
Marty, Life Is Short
The Punisher: One Last Kill
…and more.
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