What games to play, what to stream and what to watch at the movies in January 2021

It's the start of a new year, and across the entertainment front that brings many new and exciting possibilities for the year ahead.

Here are just the best things to get thrilled about in January 2021.

Wandavision (Disney+, January 15)

Marvel Studios presents “WandaVision,” a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In this series, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) – two super-powered beings living idealised suburban lives – begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. The new series is directed by Matt Shakman.

Hitman III (All formats, January 21)

Agent 47 is back - and more murderous than before.

HITMAN 3 puts you in full control of Agent 47’s deadly abilities, his razor-sharp instincts and his entire arsenal of weapons and tools that you can use to master the art of assassination. 

Get to grips with the new camera that can open locks and analyse your performance with the return of post-mission Playstyles that are awarded based on how you complete missions.

The Dry (At the movies, January 1)

The mystery thriller set in an Australian small town is easily one of the most compelling movies set down for a while.

Eric Bana plays Aaron Falk who returns to his hometown of Kiewarra after the apparent murder suicide of friend Luke Hadler and his family, he finds old wounds reopened after he's asked to look into the case by family.

The Dry's drama and its central mystery are more than enough to keep you engaged over its 2 hour run time.

Promising Young Woman (At the movies, January 7)

Promising Young Woman will have you squirming in your seat - both with unease and with glee that films as bold as this can still be made.

Destined for discourse on gender politics and rape culture, the film stars An Education's Carey Mulligan as Cassie, a woman who seemingly goes out every night, gets blind drunk and waits for a "decent guy" to help her home. Only each "decent guy" turns out to be as predatory as the rest.

And to say more about this searingly good film is to spoil what writer/ director Emerald Fennell has committed to screen.

Do yourself a favour, and go see it - it's one of the year's best.

The Silence (Acorn TV, January 11)

This socially charged thriller follows 18-year-old Amelia played by deaf actress and writer Genevieve Barr (Been So Long, Liar) as she adapts to life with her new cochlear implant.

A 4 part mini-series that premiered back in 2010 on the BBC, the show promises tension, and was hailed as one of the best dramas by the Daily Express.

Star Trek: Lower Decks (Amazon Prime, January 22)

Humour based on Star Trek? Yep, it's no joke as this hilarious animated series was developed by Emmy Award-winner Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites)

Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. 

Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. 

American Gods Series 3 (Amazon Prime, January 11)

In the third season, Ricky Whittle's Shadow angrily pushes this apparent destiny away, and settles in the idyllic snowy town of Lakeside, Wisconsin — to make his own path, guided by the gods of his black ancestors, the Orishas. 

But he’ll soon discover that this town's still waters run deep, and dark, and bloody, and that you don’t get to simply reject being a god. The only choice — and a choice you have to make — is what kind of god you’re going to be.

One Night In Miami (Amazon Prime, January 16)

One Night In Miami, is a fictional account of one incredible night where four icons, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown, gather to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing and discuss their roles in the civil right movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s

Good Lord Bird (Neon, January 20)

Told from the point of view of Onion, a newly freed teenager who joins abolitionist John Brown on a holy crusade to end slavery and finds himself part of the famous 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry,  the Limited Event Series is an adventure equal parts absurd and  tragic, spotlighting the ever-changing racial, religious and gender  roles that make up the American identity. 

Starring: Ethan Hawke (Boyhood), Daveed Diggs (Snowpiercer),  and Joshua Caleb Johnson (It’s Just A Gun). 

Dinosaurs! (Disney+, January 29)

Meet the Sinclairs -- the funniest family in 60 million years! They're just your average family with one BIG difference. 

They're dinosaurs, living the good life in sixty million and three B.C. Daddy Earl, his wife Fran, their kids Robbie, Charlene, and the Baby, and feisty Grandma Ethyl bring a hilarious Jurassic twist to daily life. 

Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles: Film Review 

Director: Laura Gabbert

Revered Israeli-born chef, restaurateur, and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi stars in this genial yet unchallenging documentary from the City of Gold.

When Ottolenghi is challenged to cater for the 2018 New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art summer gala, he decides to assemble a crack squad of caterers and mavericks to help - in a sort of The A Team spinoff but for pastry chefs.

Matching his theory that every decent recipe has a story with it with the idea of the opulence of Versailles, it seems like a natural fit for Ottolenghi - and by extension for Gabbert who made such wonderful fist of her Jonathan Gold food critic film.

She has an eye for the food porn, and scatters shots of tasty delights among the proceedings, as well as using the sumptuous artistry of the Met itself and Versailles to complement the whole affair.

But, even with all that, there's about as much to Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles as a choux pastry - it looks mouthwatering from the outside, but probe the inside and you soon discover there's a hollowness to what's within.

A lack of conflict, and a lack of any kind of danger hovers over proceedings - there's no last minute failure to rise disaster, no tumbling of pastry on the floor and no Great British Bake Off style of competition to be beholden here. It's a fairly simple, fairly unchallenging film where Ottolenghi proves to be both curator of the event, and tour guide into the history of the Versailles era and some of the crack squad he assembles.

It's not that Gabbard doesn't pull it all together in a truly pleasant way, merely that this is a sugar rush which wears off fairly quickly and leaves the viewer feeling a bit deflated.

There is no real sense of build up to the actual event, just a workmanlike behind the scenes approach to capturing what goes on for the event, and allowing the chefs airtime to espouse their various views.

Perhaps that;s some of the problem - there are too many things to cover, and bizarrely too little time with one person to fully indulge; Gabbard's scope is a little too wide to retain a focus.

At the end of the day, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles will satiate high end art lovers, and culture seekers but may leave the casual viewer deeply unsatisfied.

Promising Young Woman: Film Review

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Alison Brie

Director: Emerald Fennell

Denied a release in 2020 thanks to Covid-19 and scheduled for New Zealand cinemas on January 7, 2021, Promising Young Woman will have you squirming in your seat - both with unease and with glee that films as bold as this can still be made.

Destined for discourse on gender politics and rape culture, the film stars An Education's Mulligan as Cassie, a woman who seemingly goes out every night, gets blind drunk and waits for a "decent guy" to help her home. Only each "decent guy" turns out to be as predatory as the rest.

But Cassie's no damsel in distress - in fact as the opening moments of the film reveal, she's fully in control and on a mission to punish men for taking advantage. As to the finer details of why, it's honestly best to discover as the film plays out - needless to say, the med school drop out Cassie finds her life plans changed when she meets former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) and she begins to succumb to his charms...

With a searing lead and a provocative tone, writer director Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman is the kind of indignant cinema we frankly needed more of in 2020, but which life cruelly denied us.

With a punk ethos and an utterly edge-of-the-seat mentality throughout, the film's desire to leave you unsure is nothing but an outright success.

It helps that Mulligan owns every single scene she’s in and while some may take issue with a script where all young men are less than respectful it’s perhaps more a societal indictment and commentary than sweeping generalisation. In fact, it’s distinctly plausible there’s a reason only the older are more guilt-ridden or worthy of admiration.

But in amongst this tumultuous hurricane of unease is Mulligan's unswerving and fearless performance - it's one that appears brave and gutsy but demonstrates an actor who isn’t afraid to show their vulnerability when the script demands it. It's easily one of the standout performances of the upcoming year.

It's a brave film that offers such surprises as the last 30 minutes do - and while Promising Young Woman's ending is polarising to say the least, it's guaranteed to have you bolt upright in your seat, fearful of where Fennell is taking the seemingly toxic story. The volcanic mix is addictive, and fair play to Fennell and Mulligan, it's never enough to push you away from what's playing out, and will leave you wanting to debate long after it's done.

It’s an audacious film of conscience and unconscionable events - triggering maybe but demanding of thought, Promising Young Woman is unlike nothing committed to the screen this year - and is all the better for it.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Disney+ Film Review

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Disney+ Film Review

Cast: Asa Butterfield, Terence Stamp, Eva Green, Samuel L Jackson, Chris O'Dowd, Ella Purnell
Director: Tim Burton

It should in theory work, as it has all the kooky elements of a Tim Burton caper – unusual kids, an unusual setting and some spooky bad guys.

But Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is mired in a lengthy set-up that takes forever to tie all its ends together and even get started, crippling it for the first hour.

For those unfamiliar with American author Ransom Riggs’ number 1 best selling novel and its Harry Potter-esque trappings, it’s the story of Jake (Enders’ Game Asa Butterfield who brings a degree of intensity even if his character is saddled with exposition) who heads to Wales after the grotesque death of his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp).

Jake was close with his Grandpa, who used to regale him with night-time stories of the oddball children who’d live at a school under the watch of Eva Green’s Miss Peregrine. Believing the stories to be true, Jake stumbles into their world in Wales and marvels at the peculiarity of it all.

But what initially appears to be dream-like soon turns into a nightmare with something stalking the children and their charge to carry out a terrifying scheme…

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children mixes the macabre and the Burton vibe with a degree of visual aplomb as the allegory for Jewish persecution and child alienation is brought to the fore.

There’s eccentricity all over the place but thanks to a disjointed flow and some middling acting from some of the younger charges under Burton’s watch, the piece never quite achieves the levels of quirkiness it’s aspiring to.

Samuel L Jackson gives good scenery-chewing as the ultimate bad guy menacing the kids, Eva Green is barely there as the slightly plummy, stuffily British toothy pipe-smoking schoolmarm (Scary Poppins, anyone?) and Butterfield manages the awkward emotions of Jack quite well and is fine, but nothing more; it never fully gels in the way it should on the human front, thanks to a convoluted plot and a muddled attempt to get there.

Even Burton’s touches on this feel muted, almost as if a darker approach proved a little too out there for the audience it was aiming for.

It’s a shame the Beetlejuice vibe is played down as the Gothic gallows humour that appears in places is a welcome touch, and the more comic touches add to an air of oddity that's crying out to be set free, but which withers under such underwritten side characters.

Nowhere is this more evident than a brilliant showdown on Blackpool’s pier (of all places) with animated skeletons taking on stretched Slender-men style shadow creatures. It’s inventive, meshed with touches of both Burton and Harryhausen as the bony bodies bounce manically around. (A similar stop-motion scene with two doll puppets, a la Toy Story spider-babies, fighting to do the death is equally as welcome.)

It’s certainly dark, and the more nightmarish touches may explain why Burton had to reign it in for a more Addams Family vibe (but without the jokes) and an ongoing gag about why Florida is so horrific to so many.

The darker touches work well too – the inherent sadness of the war, the displacement of children, mental health problems and parents summarily dismissal of their child's illness, the impressive visuals as the Nazi bombs drop towards the house, the persecution of Jews by human monsters, they all lurk below the surface, but never fully bubble upto the top, almost as if there are fears the audience wouldn’t engage.

Ostensibly lashed with timey-wimey sensibilities and more confusing moments, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a fascinating could have been movie from Burton; the offbeat touches meshing with the more gruesome edges to form a queasy cinematic experience that frustrates rather than thrills. It could have done with more of its danse macabre ethos, and a little more ooky rather than just kooky to ensure this children's home is one you'd want to check into again.

Bill & Red: Face The Music: Blu Ray Review

More uneven than a fully formed coherent journey, Bill & Ted: Face The Music sees Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprise their William S Preston and Theodore Logan roles, nearly 30 years since we last saw them.

It's 2020, and Bill and Ted are still living in the shadow and fear of their legacy. But the airheads are just about still married to their wives and have two daughters (Weaving and Lundy-Paine, a great source of vacant-headed energy throughout and the breakout stars of this, potentially setting up a new franchise) as the world starts to fall apart.

Unable to write the prophesied song that will unite the world, and with reality collapsing in on themselves, Bill and Ted are visited by Kelly, Rufus' daughter and told they have a deadline to sort the music or it's all over.

So, the boys decide to go into the future to steal the song from themselves...

It may start off a little ropy, thanks to the feeling that Reeves is struggling a bit to recapture some of the lunk-headed nature of his younger self, but once Bill & Ted: Face The Music settles in, there's a great deal of charisma to be had from seeing this duo back together and interacting with various future versions of themselves.

There's a lack of comedy throughout, and it misses the knockabout charm of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (a reunion with William Sadler's never-not-funny Death happens too late in the piece); a sub-plot sees Bill and Ted's daughters Billie and Thea essentially doing a musical journey a la Excellent Adventure's history quest, and there is a general feeling that it could have used a more knockabout approach to a fan service script.

Whereas Reeves seems to be struggling to get the tone and intonation of the wholesomely goofy and enthusiastic Ted (he even says at one point to Bill that he's "tired, dude"), Winter effortlessly slips back into Bill and even offers a few subtle spins on the character as the story pans out. It's here Bill & Ted Face The Music finds its emotional core, and even dances lightly around the nostalgia of its franchise - there's a sweetness (and sadness) to these two friends never quite growing up and reaching their potential, and the script rightly recognises that fact.

Generally, Bill & Ted: Face The Music is more adequate than excellent, but when it comes together in the last 20 minutes, it really does leave an undeniably goofy grin on your face. But it also does demonstrate that given a tighter script polish, and a bit more of a humorous edge, Bill & Ted: Face The Music could have been another time-travel cult classic.

As it is, it's perhaps the film 2020 needs right now - but thanks to the unevenness not quite the one we were expecting from the dudes.

Blithe Spirit: Film Review

Cast: Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann, Judi Dench

Director: Edward Hall

Not exactly highbrow, but packing a bit of a screwball edge, director Edward Hall's slightly over-the-top Blithe Spirit follows a familiar edge to the Noel Coward story.

Stevens plays Charles Condomine, a writer frustrated by writer's block as he tries to adapt his own book for the screenplay. Wife Ruth (Fisher) is equally frustrated by Charles' lack of progress - both on the book and on their marriage.

When Charles invites apparently fraudulent medium Madame Arcati (Dench, having a roaring time in the period drama and overplaying her role with some acerbity) to their home for a seance, she accidentally conjures up the spirit of Charles' dead wife Elvira (a playful and irritating Mann) - meaning suddenly there's three in the marriage...

Packed full of period art-deco touches and some truly eyepopping costuming, the 2020 version of Blithe Spirit zips along with some chutzpah and pizazz, without ever really being anything more than a shallow farce dressed up nicely for the big screen.

Stevens has a riot going over-the-top as the froth sets in, and a malevolent Mann displays a devilish impishness to her ghostly Elvira. Fisher brings the right amount of heart as Ruth, the woman in the middle of it all, but in among the wizz-bang chocks away approach of the time, the film's energy is 

enough to propel it through its stage derivation.

Leaning more into the wacky edges and all the better for it, Blithe Spirit has a frothy feel that's never quite contagious enough but it is more than enough to get it through its mischievous edges and will leave audiences not looking to be challenged, merely leaving them more than satisfied.

Merry Christmas everyone!

So this is Christmas, and if anything, 2020 has guaranteed this year's festive season will (hopefully) be unlike any other one ever.

Thanks to all those who've provided access to media screenings this year, to those who've provided review codes for games, to those who've provided review and giveaway copies of films on DVD and Blu-Ray and to those of you who've taken time to read and submit news to this site this year.

For now, it remains only to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a better 2021.

PS Don't forget Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks airs in the UK on New Year's Day (and in New Zealand on January 2), and prepare to farewell Ryan and the Chase's Bradley Walsh aka Graham!

See you in 2021.

Your future is in safe hands.
01.01.2021 pic.twitter.com/pt4kisinOU

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) December 21, 2020