Soul is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. It’s the last weekend of 2020 and for many, this is going to be a long weekend that ends after welcoming the new year. To have a gala time to kick in the last weekend of the year, the OTT platforms have presented us with various options that can surely keep us entertained through the chilly winter.
Some of the recent releases include – Disney+ Hotstar’s Criminal Justice Behind Closed Doors and Soul, Netflix’s Bridgerton, AK vs AK, Sony LIV’s Sandwiched Forever and Prime Video’s Coolie No 1.
Prime Video also released Coolie No 1 on Christmas Day. Starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan in lead roles, this is David Dhawan’s 45th film and is a remake of his own 1995 film. Talking about the film, Varun Dhawan told indianexpress.com, “It is very relevant and relatable because it is a love story, and love stories are timeless. A story about pure love can never go out of fashion. It is also a classic comedy, and in today’s world, everybody needs to laugh more than ever. Our film has it all. It is a comedy of errors, and a family film. For a very long time, we have not had an out-and-out comedy that is meant for family viewing. Especially so for OTT platforms, as most of what they stream are dark and gritty. So, our aim is to end the year by making viewers laugh and spread some Christmas cheer. The whole family, including young and old, can watch the film together.”
Other releases of this weekend include Netflix’s AK vs AK, a meta film starring Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. The film started streaming on December 24 and follows an actor whose daughter has been kidnapped.
The Indian Express film critic Shubhra Gupta gave the film 2.5 stars. She said in her review, “Motwane’s movie is not just meta. It’s meta-meta, especially when some parts hit too close to the mark, and some are just tantalisingly off the mark. Overnight no can become a star, unless your surname is Kapoor, smirks Anurag, causing Anil to wince. This line, about the astounding longevity of the Kapoors and Khans, is well-known. But we also know that Anil had to work hard for his success. And would AK Jr ever say this to AK Sr on his face?”
Disney+ Hotstar is streaming the new season of Criminal Justice starring Pankaj Tripathi, Anupria Goenka, Kirti Kulhari among others.
This Joseph Gordon-Levitt starrer does a great job of making the viewer feel what Tobias is going through. The restrictive cinematography works wonders for the story, heightening the already sky-high tension.
The Social Dilemma is a Netflix documentary that delves deep into the detrimental side of popular social media sites.
The Vast of Night, an indie sci-fi thriller distributed by Amazon, harks back to those classic stories and accounts of UFOs and alleged alien sightings, and the steady diet of shows and movies made on them which many of us grew up on. The movie, helmed by Andrew Patterson and penned by James Montague and Craig W Sanger, makes no secret that it is meant to be a nostalgia-tinged experience — for viewers who are old enough anyway.
The prime joy of watching this German sci-fi series is the intellectual stimulation obtained from unravelling its intricate story and making sense of its characters and mythology.
What We Do in the Shadows chronicles the ‘life’ of three centuries old, powerful vampires — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). There is one other vampire, Colin Robinson, who feeds on the energy of humans by boring them. Ouch.
It falls on Harvey Guillén’s adorable and sweet Guillermo De la Cruz, Nandor’s familiar, to do practically everything for them, starting from opening the coffin in which they sleep to bringing them gullible humans.
Devs marks Annihilation director Alex Garland’s small screen debut, and it is a confident foray indeed. Equal parts thrilling and uncanny, the TV series builds tension and delivers information in bits – constantly keeping the viewers on their toes.
Aaron Sorkin's star-studded courtroom drama The Trial of Chicago 7 is based on the trial of the titular group of people who protested against the Vietnam War. It stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Alex Sharp, Thomas Middleditch, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton, and Mark Rylance.
The raison d’être for the Deadwood: The Movie is that many felt the ending of the TV series felt incomplete. And sure enough, the movie gives the perfect closure to the entire story and at no point feels extraneous.
Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary starring Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lithgow, is now available on Amazon Prime Video. The film tells the story of a family that moves to a countryside house with his wife and two kids. They discover that their new house is built near a pet cemetery (spelled as Sematary). The said pet cemetery was itself built on an ancient burial ground. Among the two kids, one becomes a little too interested in the cemetery. When their pet dies and comes back, the child is happy. But as we know from horror fiction, when the dead come back, they are never the same. One of the children is also then run over by a speeding vehicle.
Netflix’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Victorian-era Gothic horror novel was a surprisingly clever, well-performed piece of entertainment. While it was a considerable departure from the source material, it remains an interpretation that Stoker himself probably would have been proud of.
Compelling characters, story, stunning cinematography, engrossing battle sequences, and fantastic score are just a few reasons why Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings is easily the best film trilogy ever made. Even if you have seen the whole thing, it is pretty rewarding to watch the movies again.
This surprisingly sweet film has everything that makes a road trip movie great. Despite using the same old tropes (different personalities travelling together reluctantly) The cast (Paul Rudd - 'nuff said) does a great job of making a strong script and clever dialogues come alive.
Steven Spielberg's adaptation of HG Wells' novel of the same name, War of the Worlds sees an invasion by the Martians. Tom Cruise stars as a longshoreman who witnesses the invasion directly. Scores of people are disintegrated by the Martian war machines called Tripods that emerge from beneath the earth. War of the Worlds is a non-stop thriller that never lets up.
A mysterious quarantined zone is affected by an alien phenomenon that is mutating creatures and landscapes inside it. The zone is surrounded by a shimmering electromagnetic field and it is thus called the Shimmer. The zone is getting larger and larger and the US government believes that it would one day surround the whole world if not stopped. This film has elements of science fiction, horror, and mystery. Its denouement is a gorgeous interplay between mind-bending visuals and incongruous electronic notes.
After Life has been written and directed by popular British comedian and actor Ricky Gervais. Gervais is known for his snarky, brutally honest style of comedy. And that is what he brings to the table here. Except this time he is not hosting any awards show and offending the rich and famous people of showbiz. In After Life, we see another facet of Gervais — the performer. In the series, he has lost the love of his life, his wife, and he finds it hard to keep up the pretence of normality. That results in some heartfelt, but truly hilarious moments.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is based on the book series of the same name by Daniel Handler who uses his pen name Lemony Snicket to write the books. The story follows three Baudelaire children – a baby girl, a boy and his elder sister. The children have a fortune to their name, but a certain Count Olaf (played with a patent delight by Neil Patrick Harris) would like the fortune to himself. He will kill the children if that is what it took. The devilish Count is assisted by even nastier minions.
Larry David plays his own fictionalised version in this HBO series. The show is uproariously funny, and it really brings out the talent of the writer behind Seinfeld.
Coolie No 1 is the remake of the film of the same name. It stars Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal and Jaaved Jaaferi among others. The film is the 45th directorial of David Dhawan who also helmed the original. It featured Govinda, Karisma Kapoor and Kader Khan in the lead roles.
The Queen’s Gambit may have its weak spots, but it is for the most part enthralling entertainment. An empowering feminist tale about a female chess prodigy that, thankfully for amateurs, does not get bogged down in fine details and is still satisfying to those who do know the game.
Elijah Wood plays an everyman whose life is turned into a veritable whirlwind by a flamboyantly British "holistic" detective; holistic because he believes everything in the universe to be interconnected. And indeed, he has a seemingly preternatural ability. The feel of the show is like from one of the more strange comic-books from the 80s came to life. The story is loosely based on the writings of the great Douglas Adams.