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Cheaper by the Dozen (Disney+): The latest reboot by Disney is too scattershot to be entertaining. It tries to be too many things at once and fails at each and every one of them. Whether it is a slapstick comedy, a family drama about marital strife, or a look at race, every attempt does not work. The most egregious of which is the way it treats race relations, creating it a feeling that the movie is an act in “performative progressivism,” basically making it the movie equivalent of a radio station at Christmas announcing that they will not be playing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” because of the undertones. It is a hollow gesture designed to get attention, not actually address the problem at hand.
Rescued by Ruby (Netflix): The coupling of a man and an unruly dog is a tried-and-true formula for a movie to create a very welcoming and fun environment. Rescued by Ruby does what one would expect from a movie that couples an inexperienced police dog and an underdog of a state police officer in Rhode Island. It is an aggressively cute movie that is carried by Grant Gustin’s charisma (when he gets the chance to act on The Flash he does show some pretty impressive chops; check out “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Part 1” or “The Runaway Dinosaur”) and simulations from Ruby’s perspective. It is a fun family movie that is worth a watch for anyone who loves dogs.
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Blown Away (Netflix): It is interesting that it took so long for the format of the television cooking competition to move outside the realm of food. Blown Away takes the format where a bunch of competitors are given a task and whoever does it with the least amount of success according to the judges is eliminated. This time it is based on glass blowing and the show should not be as interesting as it is. There is an inherent drama to the show because of how fragile everything is and how easy it is for a project to literally fall apart. Couple that with the fact that it showcases an art form that most people are unfamiliar with and it is a recipe for success.
Marvel’s Defenders-Verse (Disney+): If someone has a Disney+ account, they got an email this week telling them to update their parental control settings for the various profiles on their account. This is entirely because Netflix’s universe of Marvel television shows have relocated to Disney+, and these shows are all a hard TV-MA rating. Don’t let the rating dissuade however, the shows are mostly excellent. Daredevil is one of the best superhero origin stories put to screen as a faithful adaptation of iconic runs by Frank Miller, Jessica Jones is an intimate look at the post-traumatic stress that comes from sexual assault, Luke Cage is a powerful look at incarceration and what happens to those the system throws aside, The Punisher is a look at the frailty of human life and the extreme use of a black-and-white moral code, The Defenders is a team-up of all the characters in an Avengers-style event series, and Iron Fist is also a show.
