Mickey 17 sees the return of Bong Joon Ho. The science fiction black comedy film is written, produced, and directed by the Parasite legend! Not to forget Snowpeircer (the film, not the series).
The film is (of course) based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.
Starring Robert Pattinson as various (spoiler alert) Mickey's. The film also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun (HOT!), Australia's favourite daughter, Toni Collette, & Mark Ruffalo as a Trump figure. That may or may not be true.
OK so it's raining for maybe the third day in a row in Shinjuku, hence me seeing three films across all Japanese cities and not hanging out with the Cherry Blossoms. Well I did one day, then the rain came.
Honestly was lucky to get so much in before the weather turned. Like Snowpeircer Shinjuku station has to be seen to be believed. Hectic AF!
Mickey 17 is set in the year 2054, the plot follows a man who joins a space colony as an expendable, a disposable worker who gets cloned every time he dies for research purposes.
The film deals with many social issues (like Parasite and previous Bong Joon Ho films) which is great in this current world we live in.
Like Mark Ruffalo's Trump like dictator, this film explores Elon's plan to just give up on Earth and relocate to another planet to fuck it up. Well basically.
Mickey 17 has received generally positive reviews from critics but was a box office bomb, grossing $121 million worldwide, losing Warner Bros. an estimated $75–80 million during its theatrical run. Now following Snow White, the box office is not having such a good time.
It feels a little like after COVID when cinemas were desperate to get us back but the content wasn't right and people generally over that two year period moved to Netflix (and chill) and Uber Eats. It's had socially engineering people to go back to the cinemas, now every streaming service seemingly offers you box office films a lot quicker than we got them back in the video store or DVD days.
Times have changed, the cinema game has to as well.
I have received countless emails for cheap cinema tickets/vouchers while I have been away, which usually means the upcoming movies are average, at best.
However back to Mickey 17, I liked it. It wasn't great, it was way too long, but it was decent. Robert Pattinson has come along way since Twilight.
Summer still lingered on well through March. The humidity, the heat, the tropical rain showers. Fuck me with a chainsaw. What an unpleasant few months. Then that mid-March heatwave! FUCK! Are you sure climate change isn't real Rowan Dean?
With US network series back on the streamers, a number of shows are getting ready to wrap up their latest (or last, depending on the networks mood) seasons.
Again there were loads of Aussie series returning or new titles across the last three months. ABC was going off with the final season of The Newsreader, while Netflix gave us the brilliant Apple Cider Vinegar. Black Snow also delivered for QLD and Bump wrapped, with a movie to come this year.
HBO has also finally returned with the brilliant Thai based season of The White Lotus. Look out for that next quarter, along with The Last of Us returning and the final season of the hit and miss The Righteous Gemstones.
Paramount+ has also been busy with a Dexter prequel, the brilliant Landman wrapping it's first season and new spy series The Agency scoring an early renewal.
Back to HBO real quick though, this is the last quarter HBO series will stream on Binge. Yes MAX is coming to Australia. Not another fucking streaming service I hear you say! Yes another fucking streaming service. While Binge will lose a shit tonne of PREMIUM content. This should be worrying for Binge bosses!
Anyway, here are my top 33 shows of Summer Part II below.
For a full double summer list, keep an eye out. If you need more series to catch up on, below are my previous RATED's:
So live from Japan, Australia has delivered some top notch content this past quarter. I will from April till June catch up on Ten Pound Poms, NCSI: Sydney, The Last Anniversary and maybe even Darby and Joan LOL. Sorry Star Wars, but Skeleton Crew was the WORST!
1. Apple Cider Vinegar - Miniseries (AU)
2. Landman - Season One
3. Big Boys - Seasons One - Two
4. The Newsreader - Seasons Three/Series Finale (AU)
5. Black Snow - Season Two (AU)
6. Paradise - Season One
7. Dexter: Original Sin - Season One
8. Bump - Season Five/Series Finale (AU)
9. Optics - Season One (AU)
10. On Call - Season One
11. Squid Game (Korean: 오징어 게임) - Season Two
12. Clean Slate - Season One
13. Invisible Boys - Season One (AU)
14. The Chi - Season Six
15. Human Error - Miniseries (AU)
16. The Sex Lives of College Girls - Season Three/Series Finale
17. Disclaimer (stylised as DISCLAIMER*) - Miniseries
18. How to Die Alone - Season One/Series Finale
19. Reacher - Season Three
20. Bookie - Seasons One - Two/Series Finale
21. Tokyo Vice - Season Two/Series Finale
22. Hysteria! - Season One/Series Finale
23. Extraordinary - Seasons One - Two/Series Finale
In the recent third season of Reacher, this is based the novel from the series, Persuader. Where Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise when trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant whose time is running out.
There, he finds a world of secrecy and violence and confronts some unfinished business from his own past.
Reacher has streamed weekly on Amazon Prime Video for the past few weeks. Based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child, it stars Alan Ritchson as Reacher.
Who is a self-proclaimed hobo and former U.S. Army military police officer with formidable strength, intellect, and abilities. During his travels, Reacher crosses paths with dangerous criminals and battles them.
Ahead of the third season premiere, the series was renewed for a fourth season. While, a spinoff series, Neagley, is currently in production. Aimed to stream in 2026. No news when Reacher's fourth season will stream.
However from all accounts this is a popular title streaming on Prime. One of few services you can continue to stream without issues when travelling. Disney+ sometimes gives you titles Australia cannot access yet, while Apple TV+ and Prime are mostly similar. That is what I have noticed anyhoo.
Now to that BIG finale. Titled, Unfinished Business, read below for spoilers and that's a wrap on my Summer Streamin' 25 blog series. SPOILER ALERT! Below the trailer.
Quinn's henchmen ambush the ATF team and eliminate them all, but Reacher, Duffy and Villanueva eliminate the henchmen and save Zachary, while sparing one of Quinn's drivers to sneak back into Zachary's home.
Reacher fights Paulie until he gets Paulie to kill himself after rigging the LMG at the front gate.
Duffy saves Teresa from the buyers, while Villanueva finds Richard. Reacher eliminates Quinn's henchmen in the house one by one, leading Quinn to kill the buyers, take their money and take Richard hostage.
Quinn is confronted by Zachary holding him at gunpoint with the toy gun, which falls apart, leading Quinn to fatally shoot Zachary before escaping without the money or Richard.
Quinn is confronted outside the house by Russian mafia debt collectors. Reacher and Neagley offer them the buyers' money in exchange for Quinn and they accept.
Reacher reminds Quinn about Kohl before executing him. In the aftermath, Reacher says farewell to Neagley and Duffy, Richard takes his father's leftover cash before disappearing, Duffy returns Teresa to her grandmother before resigning from the DEA, she and Villanueva pay their respects to Eliot's parents, Villanueva reunites with his wife, and Reacher rides off on a motorcycle from Zachary's garage.
The main event in the finale was that Racher/Paulie biff. It was a HUGE ongoing fight scene, that went for a large chunk of the episode. It has been hugely popular online with it becoming its own WWE moment.
For me this was pure escapism. Prime seems to love its macho male action series like this, Jack Ryan and The Boys. With The Boys and Upload wrapping soon and Citadel in production hell, Amazon will most likely stick to Reacher (and potential spin-offs) for sometime.
I do look forward to seeing Neagley's first season land next year.
For now that is Summer Streamin' 25 all wrapped up. I also caught up with Fallout but will save that for my next TV blog series. Man that was a wild ride!
Flow could very well be my favourite animated adventure film of all time!
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, written and produced by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža. The Latvian, French, and Belgian co-production, features no dialogue and follows a cat trying to survive along with other animals in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world as the water level dramatically rises.
As the world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as his home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.
Know I assumed the cat was a lady, however according to Madman's YouTube post for the trailer, the cat is a he!
Production of Flow started in 2019, and lasted five-and-a-half years with the animation done using the free and open-source software Blender.
Jacques Tati and Future Boy Conan served as inspirations for the film. No storyboards were used for the production and there are no deleted scenes.
Flow premiered last May, at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, and was released in Latvian theaters last August.
The sweetest, most wholesome film has received critical acclaim and broke several Latvian box-office records, becoming the most-viewed film in Latvian theaters in history.
At the 97th Academy Awards, Flow won Best Animated Feature and also nominated for Best International Feature Film as Latvia's submission, becoming the first film from Latvia to win and receive a nomination at the Academy Awards, and also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film; both statuettes were later put on display at the Latvian National Museum of Art.
This was an exceptional 84 minutes in the cinema. I honestly highly recommend this if you can find it these school holidays.
Avoid the drama of the woke decline of Disney's live action red hot messes and see a real, beautiful and unique film.
Flow is outstanding, so beautiful, so sweet, so refreshing. AMAZING
