From The Rock’s buddy comedy to Sherpa, here’s what to stream this week
IT’S the last weekend of school holidays and your final chance to get cosy on the couch with the kids before they return to school. From a buddy comedy starring The Rock to a raw documentary on the Everest experience, here’s what to stream this week.
Leigh Paatsch
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IT’S the last weekend of winter school holidays and your final opportunity to get cosy on the couch with the kids before they return to school.
Here’s what to stream this week.
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BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES TO STREAM THIS WEEK
The one where The Rock doesn’t save the world … but will make you laugh
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE (M) ***½
NETFLIX
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has yet another movie out in cinemas this week (Skyscraper). Geez, does the guy ever sleep?
Anyway, if The Rock in heavy-duty he-man mode doesn’t rock your boat, why not double back to this surprisingly strong buddy comedy which has just dropped on Netflix? The party starts early, and never lets up once two former high school classmates are reunited in the days leading up to their alma mater’s 20-year reunion.
One is a former star athlete now going through life’s motions as an accountant (Kevin Hart). The other was once a tubby trainwreck, but is now a deceptively dangerous undercover agent (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson).
While not the most promising set-up you could have for a typical comedy of opposites, Johnson and Hart immediately click as a comic duo. So much so that the warped repartee of their characters becomes the most addictive and effective component of the film.
File under surprisingly, consistently funny.
The one starring Josh Brolin that isn’t a blockbuster
THE LEGACY OF A WHITETAIL DEER HUNTER (M) ***
NETFLIX
Josh Brolin has been popping up everywhere you look at the cinema over the last few months. He was the primo villain in Avengers: Infinity War, a nemesis of sorts to Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, and a buddy of sorts to Benicio Del Toro in Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
Now Brolin is fronting a curious new Netflix Originals movie, a mildly awkward indie comedy about the dos and don’ts of father-son bonding. Brolin plays Buck Ferguson, the star of a hit video series that pitches him as the ultimate frontiersman (catchphrase: “I’ve seen the best … and I’ve killed the best!”).
With his young boy Jaden (Montana Jordan) about to get a stepfather, Buck reckons its time he took part for the first time in the raising of his kid. So with his loyal cameraman Don (an excellent Danny McBride from TV’s Eastbound & Down) in tow, Buck hauls Jaden into the wild to participate in the shooting of his latest adventure.
Though billed as a comedy, this is a quiet, observational movie that takes some time to grow on you.
The one with twists, turns … and turncoats
OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (MA15+) ***
FOXTEL NOW
If the sophisticated spy-jinks of author John le Carre (The Night Manager, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) appeal, then this solid thriller will supply plenty of what you like.
Adapted from the author’s 2010 bestseller of the same name, a twisty-turny premise is knotted around the fluctuating fortunes of a British literature professor holidaying in Morocco.
It is here Perry (Ewan McGregor) makes the unlikely acquaintance of Dima (Stellan Skarsgard), a gregarious money-launderer for the Russian mafia.
Dima wants to terminate his services without being terminated himself, and turns to Perry to help him find safe refuge in England as a protected witness. Co-stars Damian Lewis, Naomie Harris.
The one committed to a life of climb
SHERPA (M) ****½
SBS ON DEMAND
Here is how life goes down so high in the sky.
This sobering, revealing and appreciably raw documentary presents a very different picture of what happens up on Mount Everest during peak climbing periods.
Filmmaker Jennifer Peedom happened to be there on the spot in April 2014 when an avalanche claimed the lives of 16 Sherpa guides.
A significant work destined to change many minds about the Everest experience.
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I RAN OUT OF OXYGEN ON MT EVEREST AND SURVIVED
The one that’s heavy-going in a very Australian way
THE DAUGHTER (M) ***
STAN
Delicately unsettling and decidedly affecting in equal measure, this well-acted Australian drama is sure to put you through the wringer if you’re feeling tough enough.
In a rural logging town, the closure of the local mill hits the community hard.
With the mill boss (Geoffrey Rush) about to remarry, the arrival of his estranged son (Paul Schneider) to serve as best man has the potential to tear apart the close-knit family of a former employee (Ewen Leslie). Co-stars Odessa Young, Miranda Otto.
The one that’s easygoing in a very Irish way
SING STREET (M) ****
FOXTEL NOW
The sole point to this funny, engaging and wholly entertaining affair is that there is only one thing better than being young and about to fall in love. And that is to be young and about to fall in love twice.
Dublin teenager Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), only has eyes for Raphina (Lucy Boynton), an aspiring fashion model. She isn’t returning his gaze as yet, but a boy can dream, right? Just as importantly, Conor only has ears for music.
It is the mid-1980s, and the chance viewing of a Duran Duran music video inspires Conor to form a band ASAP. There is no venue to play at, and little chance anyone will hear his catchy compositions, but a boy can keep on dreaming, right? Too right.
And getting it right is something Sing Street excels at throughout. Not only is this unpolished gem guaranteed to move you. Just like every favourite song you’ve ever had, it will get you moving as well. Written and directed by John Carney (Once).
The one where Daniel Radcliffe ain’t no Harry Potter
JUNGLE (M) **½
FOXTEL NOW
While this middling thriller isn’t the ideal showcase for any actor — the scripting is wispy and the pacing is inordinately slack — Daniel Radcliffe gives everything a red hot go from start to finish.
The Harry Potter star plays Yossi Ghinsberg, a naive young Israeli adventurer who finds himself helplessly stranded deep in the rainforests of Bolivia in 1981.
Deprived of any useful resources, Ghinsberg gradually finds himself making a series of survivalist choices that would have all-terrain tough guys like Bear Grylls changing underwear repeatedly.
The man-versus-nature stuff rarely raises pulses, but it is convincing due to Radcliffe’s unshakeable determination to make it so. A true(ish) story, if that floats your boat.
Originally published as From The Rock’s buddy comedy to Sherpa, here’s what to stream this week
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