Weekly Streaming Recap: Week of May 13th, 2022

Firestarter (2022) (Peacock): Despite the strength of the source material, the latest Steven King theatrical/streaming adaptation leaves a lot to be desired. King’s writing style would lend itself more to a miniseries than a movie that clocks in under two-hours, so a lot is crammed into a short span of time. Nothing about the movie works or is particularly interesting so this is definitely not worth watching, even if one considers themselves to be a fan of the book. Hopefully this year’s Salem’s Lot
adaptation is better.

Senior Year (Netflix): Netflix’s latest movie is not the best, however unlike other new releases this week is actually watchable. Rebel Wilson is entertaining at least, even if the movie takes narrative leaps that don’t always make the most sense.

Old (HBOMax): M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie is not his worst or his best, it just is. It takes an interesting premise (a vacation at a beach takes a bizarre turn when it turns out that the beach is causing the vacationers to age rapidly) and fails to capitalize on it, resulting in a disappointing mishmash of poorly realized ideas. The resolution is divisive and the movie itself is polarizing, resulting in a lengthy exercise in

You May Have Missed:

Freaky (HBOMax): Rather than watching Firestarter, if one wants to see a well put-together Blumhouse production, Freaky is one of the most accessible options available. It is a pretty simple concept; a high school girl and a serial killer have their bodies swapped and both Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton (soon to be Cassie Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but formerly Lucy in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu) play these roles excellently. It has some great slasher moments that play well and is one of their best movies available to watch.