What to watch on Netflix, Foxtel Now, Stan this week

PRIME couch time awaits this weekend. And Leigh Paatsch has the lowdown on the best flicks to stream this week on Netflix, Stan and Foxtel Now.

One for the kids: Captain Underpants

PRIME couch time awaits this weekend.

So here’s the pick of the flicks you can stream this week on Netflix, Stan and Foxtel Now.

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CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (M) ****

Foxtel Now

Viggo Mortensen is magnificent in Captain Fantastic.

An uncannily focused drama-comedy introduces you to a family who puts the cult in counter-culture. The window through which you will see this unusual clan is a magnificent, nuanced performance from Viggo Mortensen.

He plays Ben Cash, the father of six very individual children he is raising, schooling and simply running wild with, deep in the forests of America’s Pacific Northwest.

The Cashes don’t just live off the grid. They may as well be living on another planet. The one missing link in this captivating tale is the whereabouts of Ben’s wife. Without giving too much away, it is her absence that triggers an unplanned return by Ben and his brood to conventional society.

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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (G) ***

Foxtel Now

Captain Underpants is pretty true to the books.

One good captain deserves another this week, don’t you think?

Particularly when there are no decent kids’ films around in cinemas currently.

This sweet, silly and fun animated comedy is adapted from the lovably lowbrow children’s books of author-illustrator Dav Pilkey. Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch voice the roles of George and Harold, two best friends who have turned their narky school principal (Ed Helms) into a Y-fronted crime-fighter.

This is not good news for Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll) and his monster toilet robot.

The Captain’s many fans will be relieved to know what is delivered here is remarkably true to the playful, pranky and ever-so-slightly naughty spirit of the books.

THE ONE WHERE STILLER’S WATERS RUN DEEP

BRAD’S STATUS (M) ***

Foxtel Now, Stan

Ben Stiller’s quiet, clever Brad’s Status.

Ben Stiller hustles something fresh and relatively affecting from very familiar material. He plays Brad, a 47-year-old man who is fretting that his life may have already peaked. Having highly successful friends from his college days has not done wonders for Brad’s fragile self-confidence. The rising stocks of his only child Troy (Austin Abrams) also puts Brad in the doldrums. Largely because Troy is a gifted young student who will be accepted into all the top-flight colleges that turned down Brad. Calling this quiet, insightful film a comedy is pushing it. Nevertheless, it does charm its way into a viewer’s good graces with a clever way of X-raying Brad’s broken spirit. Co-stars Jenna Fischer, Michael Sheen.

THE ONE WHICH REMINDS YOU HOW LUCKY YOU ARE

ZION (PG) *****

Netflix

This award-winning short film narrowly missed out on the prestigious Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Let the record show it will be probably be the best ten minutes you spend on Netflix all year. This is the story of a young African-American man named Zion Clark, who was born without legs and abandoned by his mother shortly after. For fifteen years, this tough, self-motivated and independent individual was bundled up and down the foster care system, seen as a problem first and a person second. A surprise adoption in his late teens galvanised Zion’s will to make something of himself (as if surviving alone all that time was not an achievement in itself). Despite the indisputable fact half of his body is missing, Zion has since gone on to become an impressive college-standard wrestler. The footage of how he fights to the utmost against those with a seeming physical advantage is beyond inspirational, as are the gently defiant words of Zion himself. Highly recommended for sporting and non-sporting types alike.

THE ONE WHERE TOM HANKS SAVES THE DAY

SULLY (M) ***1/2

Netflix, Stan

Tom Hanks in Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Obey those seat belt lights overhead, and buckle up for one of the great moments in aviation history. If not for the quick thinking of veteran American pilot Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, it would definitely have been one of the worst moments. On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 completed a regulation takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Just six minutes later, the Airbus A320 carrying 155 passengers and crew had come to a standstill in the middle of the Hudson River. Incredibly, all aboard survived. While director Clint Eastwood has a great story to work with in terms of pure quality, quantity could have been a problem (Sullenberger only had three minutes to put the bird in the drink). Luckily, the filmmaker was smart enough to cast Tom Hanks, cinema’s greatest living everyman, as the modest and unassuming Sully. A no-frills, low-thrills tale of heroism that quietly draws just the right levels of admiration and inspiration from the viewer.

THE ONE WHERE JASON STATHAM DOESN’T HAVE TO FIGHT A SHARK

MECHANIC: RESURRECTION (MA15+) ***

Stan

Jason Statham: He’s big in China.

His current success in the so-bad-it’s-good shark flick The Meg notwithstanding, have you ever stopped to wonder how British hardman Jason Statham is still a major movie star in the global scheme of things? Well, the stubbly trouble-magnet is a big, big name in China.

So much so that this 2016 action sequel grossed almost 100 million bucks in that boom market. Nothing too remarkable is happening here as Statham efficiently reprises his role as Arthur Bishop, a star hitman specialising in making deliberate deaths look totally accidental. The stunt work and fight choreography are the chief selling points, and both are exemplary. Co-stars Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Alba.

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GUILT TRIP (M) **

Netflix

A medium-to-low laughs road trip waits. Image: 2012 Paramount Pictures

Seth Rogen is a schlubby mamma’s boy who still hasn’t found the right girl, career, etc. Barbra Streisand is the mamma, a well-meaning hen-pecker who can’t help but being no help to her son’s plight. The pair go on a road trip.

She nags. He winces. She acts up. He shuts down. She talks a lot. He shouts every once in a while. The whole thing gets duller by the minute. The comedy potential remains medium-to-low throughout.

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Originally published as What to watch on Netflix, Foxtel Now, Stan this week