Genre: Action & Adventure, Mystery
Actor: Àlex Brendemühl, Andrea Trepat, Celia Freijeiro, Eduardo Noriega, Emma Suárez, Fernando Guallar, Hovik Keuchkerian, Nacho Fresneda, Pere Brasó, Urko Olazábal, Victoria Luengo
Genre: Action & Adventure, Mystery
Actor: Àlex Brendemühl, Andrea Trepat, Celia Freijeiro, Eduardo Noriega, Emma Suárez, Fernando Guallar, Hovik Keuchkerian, Nacho Fresneda, Pere Brasó, Urko Olazábal, Victoria Luengo
While this documentary may not provide the level of insight or as cohesive a narrative as other films from recent years about children's entertainment, Hot Potato benefits from the sheer charm and approachability of The Wiggles themselves. It's inspiring to see these men and women be perfectly ordinary people who just patiently put in the work to get to where they are today. The film doesn't necessarily find a central idea or philosophy behind The Wiggles' music, but their creativity and enthusiasm for performing manages to turn the simplest things (like fruit salad) into a celebration of life. The documentary isn't particularly good at balancing its tones, especially when it deals with the struggles that various Wiggles have faced in their personal lives, but it remains likable and wholesome all the same.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Anthony Field, Bindi Irwin, Caterina Mete, Emma Watkins, Evie Ferris, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt, John Travolta, Lachlan Gillespie, Lucia Field, Matthew Broderick, Murray Cook, Paul Field, Paul Paddick, Robert De Niro, Sam Moran, Sarah Jessica Parker, Simon Pryce, Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Tsehay Hawkins
Director: Sally Aitken
As a spin-off of The Boys, Gen V returns to the same well of explicit, hyperviolent satire about seemingly benevolent superheroes—touching on many ideas that the franchise has already explored more strikingly before. This series' first three episodes are at their least effective when they get hung up on the shock factor of it all, with its satire often appearing as "cool" as the thing that it aims to satirize. But when the show quiets down and finally focuses up on its handful of main characters, it finds fresh ground for commentary.
At its heart this is a story about how the education system can be so easily bought by wealthy stakeholders who care more about producing star graduates than actually helping young people excel and find a place in the world. These kids are also immediately much easier to root for than Billy Butcher and his antihero crew, as each of them gradually reveals the trauma they're recovering from as a result of being experimented on and exploited. Gen V's central mysteries are slow to develop so far, but just seeing how this school-slash-factory is run helps make up for the slower pace.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Asa Germann, Chance Perdomo, Derek Luh, Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, London Thor, Maddie Phillips, Shelley Conn
The selling point of the series Alphonse, apart from raunch and romance, is that it gets its talented lead Jean Dujardin to transform into a different character each time he meets with a different client. Sometimes, he’s a World War II soldier, other times, he’s part of the academic elite. Always, he’s the object of fantasy of Parisian women. His real self, however, the titular Alphonse, is a sad sack going through a midlife crisis. On paper, this sounds like a recipe for pure fun: a lost guy tries out different masks and costumes until he discovers his true self in the process. The execution, however, feels wonky and uneven, as if the series is unable to balance all the things it tries to be. To be clear, Dujardin is excellent as the chameleonic Alphonse and Charlotte Gainsbourg is arresting as his mercurial wife Margot. But there’s a murkiness and vagueness to the overall style, tone, and direction of the series that leaves you wanting more. It’s okay, but there’s a sense that it could’ve been great if it tighten its screws a bit more.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claire Romain, Jean Dujardin, Laura Morante, Marie-Christine Barrault, Nicole Garcia, Pierre Arditi
Director: Nicolas Bedos
As the first original Filipino film on Prime Video, Ten Little Mistresses can often feel stuck as an entertaining pitch for a film rather than a fully fleshed out story. Like many mystery-comedies, this is a movie that relies on its star power and its big twists over any convincing narrative or thematic ideas. But oddly enough, the sooner you accept this, the easier the film goes down. As a loud and proud example of camp comedy, even its most ridiculous and incongruous elements feel like an authentic expression of Filipino humor; it never tries to pander to a Western audience that might be expecting something more familiar to their sensibilities. And with a cast this dedicated to out-chewing the scenery from each other, it's hard not to get swept up in the insanity of it all.
Genre: Comedy, Mystery
Actor: Adrianna So, Agot Isidro, Angie Castrence, Arci Muñoz, Carmi Martin, Cherry Pie Picache, Christian Bables, Dolly Dulu, Donna Cariaga, Eugene Domingo, Iana Bernardez, John Arcilla, Kate Alejandrino, Kris Bernal, Pokwang, Sharlene San Pedro
Director: Jun Robles Lana
While the identity of the post-Daniel Craig James Bond hangs in limbo, the franchise is branching out into TV with this mid-octane game show, which riffs on tried-and-tested reality TV competitions: its multiple choice questions and climb-the-ladder approach to prize money are evidently borrowed from Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, while its globetrotting recalls The Amazing Race.
For all its snazzy backdrops, though, this still feels like a half-hearted effort. The editing is partly to blame: in the first two episodes, for example, we only meet four of the nine pairs, and we’re constantly jumping back to the opening challenge in the Scottish Highlands for their introductions. There’s also zero interaction between any of the duos: they never meet or even acknowledge each other's existence, which dulls the drama and leaves you to suspect their scenes were all shot entirely in isolation. (You get the same impression from Brian Cox, who plays the mysterious mastermind behind the challenges and whose vague commentary is clearly designed so editors can slot it in wherever.) While there are plenty of Easter eggs for eagle-eyed Bond fans to spot, the show is definitively of the background-watch kind of TV: moderately interesting, but never as gripping as the movies whose coattails it’s plainly riding.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Reality
Actor: Brian Cox
Heist movies and TV shows as of late have been trying to experiment with form more than substance. In the case of the Italian series Everybody Loves Diamonds, we're shown the actual heist right from the beginning, as the show then moves back and forth through time to track the investigators right on the thieves' tails, as well as the delicate alliances that hang in the balance if the protagonists don't get away scot-free. There's a lightheartedness in the storytelling (complete with direct-to-camera address) that allows some of the more familiar elements to go down easily, and the more convoluted plot details to feel more like they're just part of the messiness of real life.
Unfortunately, the fact that the series doesn't innovate nearly as much with its actual story eventually catches up with it. At the end of the day, it still feels as if Everybody Loves Diamonds is counting on our being familiar with the heist formula to become invested, rather than giving us more substantial characters with motive. It doesn't help that the performances can't always get on the show's wavelength; many of the actors have trouble locating themselves between the serious and the comedic, which may be just as much a problem with the scripts, too.
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Actor: Anna Foglietta, Carlotta Antonelli, Gianmarco Tognazzi, Johan Heldenbergh, Kim Rossi Stuart, Leonardo Lidi, Synnøve Macody Lund
Director: Gianluca Maria Tavarelli
Though it borrows from some of the oldest genre tropes—stoic but kind-hearted hero finding a heart in a community that needs his help—Jigen Daisuke still manages to carve out a visual identity that has one foot rooted in its Lupin III manga origins, and another in noir fiction. The world of the film is beautifully lit and feels bustling with activity, as are the frenetic action scenes that turn gleefully silly with the sheer amount of gunfire being sprayed everywhere. That said, the movie can't handle the number of plates it tries to spin, as side characters fail to develop more meaningfully and its more exciting parts are diluted by long stretches of drama that aren't as engaging as the film thinks they are. This feels like a sampler for the kinds of stories the title character could be involved in in the future, but little else.
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Akihiko Sai, Eugene Nomura, Honami Sato, Kazuki Namioka, Kotoka Maki, Masatoshi Nagase, Mitsuko Kusabue, Rina Sakuragi, Takashi Sasano, Tetsuji Tamayama, Toru Baba, Yasukaze Motomiya, Yoji Tanaka, Yôko Maki, Yuuki Tsujimoto
Director: Hajime Hashimoto
The idea of a fitness instructor suddenly discovering the thrill of selling military armaments is promising in its absurdity, so it's unfortunate that Los Farad doesn't maintain this offbeat sense of humor for too long. It moves relatively quickly into tense criminal activity, but the series isn't able to really capture the magnetic pull that this world of luxury has on protagonist Oskar. Without enough table-setting, the crime family he finds himself becoming a part of can't help but seem ordinary, and the last-minute solutions he finds weaken the urgency of the situations he's in, as cinematic as they appear on screen.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Adam Jezierski, Amparo Piñero, Fernando Tejero, Igal Naor, Miguel Herran, Nora Navas, Omar Ayuso, Pedro Casablanc, Susana Abaitua
Sayen is the kind of film that ultimately feels like it was written by a focus group: ample representation for a worthy cause funneled into the sort of escapism that should theoretically hit the widest demographic possible. But even with its solid production values and a determined performance by Rallen Montenegro, the film lacks the emotional bite that a less corporate-driven project likely would've had. It's not that Sayen comes off insincere about the plight of Indigenous peoples in Chile; it's that its desire to appear sincere stops most of its good ideas halfway. The action isn't particularly thrilling, the story doesn't develop so much as it stretches itself thin, and its supposed representation begins and ends with some terribly obvious—borderline tokenistic—scenes and character types.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Actor: Alejandro Trejo, Álvaro Espinoza, Aron Piper, David Gaete, Eduardo Paxeco, Enrique Arce, Loreto Aravena, Rallén Montenegro, Ramón González, Roberto García Ruiz, Serge Santana, Teresa Ramos
Director: Alexander Witt
There are some very interesting, culturally specific touches to In Your Dreams that tease a much more interesting adventure beyond the first two episodes watched for this review. Unfortunately, these first two installments can be a real test of patience—not necessarily because of a slower pace than expected, but because of how little the main plot moves forward. The series seems to want to establish its characters before anything else, which makes it even stranger that their development is made up primarily of cheesy comedy and confusing decisions made for the sake of kickstarting the plot. And when danger finally rolls around (in disappointingly short bursts), these characters just don't have the depth to inspire any concern over their well-being.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Anthony Oseyemi, Didintle Khunou, Jesse Suntele, Kiroshan Naidoo, Thando Thabethe
Director: Fred Wolmarans, Gareth Crocker
There's a novel idea at the center of World's First Christmas, but the film's unfortunately takes it through the least interesting route available. There's a rich opportunity here to unpack what the holiday season really means to people, or to poke fun at how this occasion for togetherness and celebration has been co-opted by corporations trying to make a buck. But the film never gets there, running through a series of occasionally funny scenarios only to end up becoming an unconvincing advertisement for Christmas as a consumer holiday. The main gag here is that everyone has been left miserable by the absence of Christmas, which is an idea that falls apart immediately once you start asking even the simplest questions about it.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Actor: Fabiana Karla, Ígor Jansen, Ingrid Guimarães, Lázaro Ramos, Rafael Infante, Theo Mattos, Wilson Rabelo
Director: Gigi Soares, Susana Garcia