Streaming Weekly January 2017 2.0

January 13, 2017Joshua Crabb Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Streaming Weekly, Thriller0

Already seen the latest and greatest movies out in the theaters? Can’t figure out what to watch this weekend? Well, my friend, you are fortunate to have our fabulous contributors to get you through this weekend! Enjoy a pairing of newer releases to Netflix and have a happy movie watching weekend!

via Gene Gosewehr

Spectral (Netflix) – If you’ve been feeling a bit of overload lately with Netflix original content, there’s a good reason for that; there’s a ton of Netflix original content. I’ve been unable to keep up with everything, but one thing I was able to catch with their 2016 release Spectral. Netflix has been entertaining some really cool ideas in the sci-fi genre. They haven’t all hit the mark (ARQ, for example), but this one did. In fact, I’m wishing this would’ve gotten a film studio treatment for the big-screen. The first 45 minutes are spectacular sci-fi. It’s thrilling, mysterious, and certainly intriguing enough to garner a lot of deeper questions later on about humanity, and specifically what makes us human. There are a handful of potential tangent discussions this film can inspire as well. Topics like abortion, mindless obedience, blind experimentation, and so forth. This is a Netflix original worth spending the time to watch.

via The Film Avenger

Alice Through the Looking Glass (Netflix) – Who would have thought that someone other than Tim Burton could make a Tim Burton movie, and a decent one at that! Director James Bobbin (of the new batch of Muppets films) steps in for Burton for this sequel to his 2011 take on Alice in Wonderland. The titular young woman returns to Underland in disarray, and it’s up to Alice to save the Mad Hatter in a race against time – literally. Both audiences and critics didn’t really give this movie a chance, but I actually think it was a much better movie than the Burton original. The story was more engaging and entertaining – still very much in Burton’s world, but without a melancholic tone hanging over it. There are fun and whimsy here, but there are also excellent themes about the nature of time, holding on to hurts, and living with regret. It’s definitely worth checking out.