Movie and TV Reviews - April 2024

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in April. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. The next few months will probably be sparser than usual because ... baseball.

Movies

• Steve MARTIN!: A Biography in Two Parts. I've been enjoying Steve Martin's comedy ever since the days of Saturday Night Live and Roxanne, and now Only Murders in the Building. This revealed a lot about his early life and career that I wasn't familiar with. He's a very complex man, and yes, still funny. (Apple TV+)
• Snatch: We missed this when it came out in 2000 and since we like Guy Ritchie's movies (mostly his older ones) and Jason Stratham (ditto), we decided to rent it. I'm glad we did. Ritchie is at his flashy, kinetic, best and Stratham hasn't turned into a dull action-film hunk. The cast is solid and Brad Pitt brilliant as a completely unintelligible gypsy bare-knuckle fighter. (Prime)
• The Beekeeper: Since we had just watched an early Jason Stratham movie, we decided to watch his latest outing. It's a competent enough movie, but I am getting tired of the over-the-top superman action hero trope. (Prime)

TV Shows

• Whitechapel (season 4): This moved away from the police procedural into full suspect with a strong horror element. Definitely not for the squeamish. (Prime)
• Constellation: This starts out as a more or less straight space disaster movie and turns into something much deeper and complex. I enjoyed it but it could have been shorter. (Apple TV+)
• Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (season 1): This doesn't work as well as the original series. If you're British and know the celebrities, it would probably be more enjoyable. (PBS)
• Hope Street (season 3B): The second half of the season ratchets up the relationship tensions in the show more than the police procedural element. (BritBox)
• Beyond Paradise (season 2): This is a spin-off from Death in Paradise but lacking the Caribbean setting. Too light for my taste. (BritBox)
• Fallout: This was a big spend for Amazon and given the popularity of the game, it'll probably be a big hit. But neither Nancy or I have played the game and the show didn't click with us. We gave up after two episodes. (Amazon Prime)
  
• The Reluctant Traveler (seasons 1 and 2): Follow Eugene Levy to exotic locations around the world. If you want to see what a $7,000 a night hotel room looks like then this is your show. (Apple TV+)
• The Tower (seasons 1 and 2): A good British police procedural. The first season reminded me of Line of Duty with cops investigating cops. (BritBox)
• Antiques Road Trip (season 1). Now working our way through the early episodes of this show. (PBS)
• Shogun: I had to turn on subtitles to watch this because of the Japanese dialog, which is not my favourite way to watch a show, but worth it in this case. I can't vouch for the historical accuracy, but it is compelling drama and very well made. (Disney+)