Welcome to The Streaming Report for May 22, 2014. After the long week you deserve a relaxing staycation with a bowl of popcorn, a bucket of ice cream, and only your Netflix queue to judge you. This past week, Netflix Watch Instant has been kind enough to supply us with Star Trek Into Darkness, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and more, which you’ll find out if you should watch ’em after the break.
Star Trek Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams) After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, and Alice Eve
When you first watch it, you’ll be like, “oh this is kinda cool, Benedict Cumberbatch is a badass.” But then cognitive dissonance will set in and you’ll realize Star Trek Into Darkness is a very poorly executed movie with how much build up it has. There are little stakes and the rationale behind any of the villain’s intentions is poorly explained or developed (read my review). It’s a good action movie to shut your brain off for. (Watch it now)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn) Flint Lockwood now works at The Live Corp Company for his idol Chester V. But he’s forced to leave his post when he learns that his most infamous machine is still operational and is churning out menacing food-animal hybrids. Starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, James Caan, Benjamin Bratt, and Kristen Schaal
The sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is very high concept and the foodimals are awesome, but the movie just doesn’t have the same flare that Chris Miller and Phil Lord were able to originally create. The conflict is very weak once the intentions of the villains are established and the characters are poorly written this time around. It’s like when the folks from Happy Endings came in as showrunners for Community after Dan Harmon was forced out. It felt hollow (read my review). But then again, Netflix is the perfect chance to catch up with Flint Lockwood if you were waiting to see it. (Watch it now)
Sanctum (Alister Grierson) An underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world. Starring Rhys Wakefield, Allison Cratchley, and Christopher Baker
I’ve never seen this, but I have always meant to. It’s produced by James Cameron and although it’s from 2011, it looks and feels like a cheesy 90s action flick. (Watch it now)
What will you be watching this weekend?
Look forward to more new titles from The Streaming Report every Thursday on TTRC. We hope you enjoy!
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All plot synopses courtesy of IMDb.com