From IMDB:
A wannabe professional thief, his gay best friend, a sexy hostage, some thugs and a mystery package everyone wants.
From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 38 minute complete film.
If vulgarity, goofy characters, tongue-in-cheek violence, satiric sex scenes, and absurd conversations are your thing, this barely acceptable trash will hopefully provide you with some laughs.
Motto: I LOVE TRASH!
From Netflix:
When a plane mysteriously lands years after takeoff, the people onboard return to a world that has moved on without them and face strange, new realities.
From Netflix you can stream two seasons of this fairly awful series. Season 1 has 16 episodes and season 2 has 13 episodes. Every single episode lasts exactly 42 minutes, which may have been the only technical achievement of the series.
Holy Maudlin! There were enough tears shed during this slop opera to irrigate California.
Holy Unbelievable! Find yourself in a tight spot? Just invent some miraculous paranormal intervention.
Holy Gullible! How on earth could I watch all 29 episodes expecting to be satisfied with the ending. Perhaps it is because I LOVE TRASH.
MISS!
From Amazon Prime:
Five years ago, a serial killer murdered three young men but was never found. Now, criminal profiler Louise Bergstein is asked by the terminally ill mother of a victim to help solve the case. Teaming up with the police, Louise discovers a distinct pattern to the killings-and the hunt only intensifies as the murderer strikes again in this Danish thriller. CONTAINS VIOLENCE AND GRAPHIC SCENES.
From Amazon Prime you can stream the 8 episodes of this well-done Danish serial-killer series. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes. English subtitles.
From the very beginning you know who the killer is: Peter is a father with son Johannes . Peter’s marriage has failed and his wife has moved to Singapore. Louise and Karina are two of the detectives working to solve the case. Louise is a profiler who, in an original plot twist , completely fails to recognize as killer the handsome man whom she meets quite by accident, after which the plot thickens a bit.
Poor Johannes is baffled by the strange behavior of his father. Johannes sorely misses his mother but is prevented by his father Peter from seeing her.
Because Peter kidnaps and tortures his victims, the crime photographs can be quite gory. But because the series is done so well, if you can get past the ugliness, DO NOT MISS!
From IMDB:
A man’s invention of a brain implant that allows people to share thoughts and emotions gets into the wrong hands.
From Amazon Prime:
In the near future, people’s minds are connected to The Feed, giving them instant connectivity. When something or someone invades it, everyone is at risk
From Amazon Prime you can stream 10 episodes, each lasting about 55 minutes, of this one season sci-fi series.
What a mess! This complicated story and set of characters seems to go on forever. As a concept, the idea that we could all be part of some mental “Facebook” is scary and also a good theme for a sci-fi story. But “Takers” keep stealing people’s bodies and often you might not be sure just what person you are seeing.
Besides the sci-fi mumbo jumbo, a background issue is the narcissist scientist who created this mess and how he treats his adult children as well as the rest of poor inferior mankind. Maybe that counts as drama.
Not a complete waste of time.
From IMDB:
A sci-fi anthology series with stand-alone episodes based on the works of Philip K. Dick.
From Amazon Prime:
Based on the short stories from one of science fiction’s most prolific authors, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams explores humanity in 10 standalone episodes. From 5 to 5000 years in the future, each story in the anthology will question what it means to be human in uniquely ambitious, grounded, yet fantastical worlds.
From Amazon Prime you can stream 10 episodes, each lasting about 50 minutes.
Highly original, sci-fi fantastical, expensive production details, but for the most part DEPRESSING.
Do most futurists promote dim prospects for the future? If there is one recurring theme in these episodes it is that of mankind surrendering its self-determined responsibility. Do we allow some domineering authority to think for us? Has earth become uninhabitable? Do we prefer dream life to reality? Shall we program robots to take over? Will aliens inhabit our bodies?
At least episode 8 has an impossible but happy ending.
Great sci-fi but somewhat dire prospects for humans.
From IMDB:
Mathieu has never known his father. His mother has always told him he was the fruit of a one-night-stand. One morning, in his Parisian flat, he receives a call from Quebec telling him his father just died. Mathieu decides to go to the funeral and meet the two Canadian brothers he just found out he had. In Montreal, nobody is aware of his existence, and Mathieu realizes he is in a hostile territory.
From Kanopy you can stream this quiet, understated, moving French film which lasts 1 hour and 38 minutes.
Let me again remind you that Kanopy is offered free by your local public library. Just google for “Kanopy”. If you like older films, you will find them in Kanopy.
Hopefully you have streamed “Wonderland” from MHz Choice. In that marvelous series Jérémy was played by the French actor Pierre Deladonchamps. Confusingly enough, if you want to find Wonderland in IMDB, you have to look for a film named “Romance” because looking for “Wonderland” will get you nowhere.
Deladonchamps plays Mathieu in “Le Fils de Jean”. He and his supporting actors produce a sad and effective portrait of family confusion. With very little violence (some minor scuffles) the story slowly moves toward probably the only conclusion it could reach.
Perhaps Deladonchamps is an actor to watch. Good film!
From IMDB:
A political drama about a prime minister’s rise to power, and how power changes a prime minister.
From Netflix you can stream 3 seasons of this Danish political drama series. Each season consists of 10 one-hour episodes. Recent news hints that there might someday be a fourth season. Danish with English subtitles.
In Danish, Borgen, lit. ’The Castle’, is the informal name of Christiansborg Palace where all three branches of Danish government reside: the Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court, and is often used as a figure of speech for the Danish government.
In the very first episode we see Birgitte Nyborg become Prime Minister of Denmark. This first episode is OK but does not begin to compare with the gut-punching episodes that follow. Can a woman “have it all” is one of the issues. Birgitte comes off as a morally upright and sincere woman steering her way through the compromising pressures of political life. She will pay a personal price for her success.
Surrounding Birgitte are a multitude of characters meaningful to the plot, some praiseworthy and quite a few sneaky , malicious, ambitious “villains.” Quite a few of those characters are members of the news media. All these many characters are involved throughout the series and often have their own personal stories to tell.
Each episode usually centers around a theme: health care, peace negotiations, and many others. Don’t expect each episode to have a happy ending. After most episodes Kathy and I exclaim “WOW, how do the writers maintain such consistent excellence?”
DO NOT MISS!
From Kanopy
An enigmatic detective (Kyle Chandler) embarks on a cross-country search for a once-prominent author (Logan Lerman) who’s mysteriously disappeared after a string of dangerous arsons have targeted his celebrated but controversial first novel.
From your local library you can get help joining kanopy.com. Kanopy offers free films for streaming. Each town has its usage rules. For example, belmontpl.kanopy.com allows you 10 films per month. None of the films are current and many are quite old. Quality varies greatly. Among the selections are documentaries, science, as well as entertainment.
From Kanopy you can stream this two hour complete drama. Acting, plot, and production values are well done. Why has the successful author Sidney Hall become a book-burning recluse? Watching the answer unfold is worth the effort.
From MHz Choice:
Humorous, fast-paced detective stories about the exploits of Johann Friedrich von Allmen, gentleman art thief turned amateur sleuth. Based on the novels by Martin Suter.
From MHz Choice you can stream 3 episodes of this German series. Each episode lasts about 1 hour and 27 minutes. English subtitles.
Allmen is a gentlemen with champagne tastes but unfortunately often in great debt to such an extreme that he is about to be evicted from his palatial family estate. At every turn he is accompanied by his faithful but usually worried valet Carlos. In fact Carlos has every right to fear of the safety of his boss who constantly puts the both of them in mortal danger. Allmen could be described both as an expert in the finer things of life and also as a clever deadbeat. Watch him bluff his way into getting a suite in a luxurious hotel without paying a dime. Along the way and throughout the series he is involved with the beautiful millionairess Joelle ‘Jojo’ Hirt. Carlos also finds the love of his life, Maria Moreno.
Think of the series as a mannered theatrical tour through beautiful places accompanied by detailed discussions of luxury possessions and consistently droll conversations.
From Amazon Prime:
Time travelers arrive from 2051 to deliver an urgent message: 30 years in the future mankind is losing a war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians to be transported to the future and join the fight. Determined to save the world for his daughter, Dan Forester teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father to rewrite the planet’s fate.
From Amazon Prime you can stream this 2 hour 18 minute full feature film starring Chris Pratt as Dan Forester.
OK kids! Your inner high schooler will love the expected combination of sci-fi, creative monsters, time travel, violent action scenes, solutions that are just plain implausible and too easy, and tons of weepy conversations.
Chris Pratt (who was 42 at filming time) plays Dan Forester who as devoted hero, frustrated high school science teacher, and former military is the obvious hero in the cast.
J.K. Simmons (who was 66 at filming time) plays Dan’s estranged father James. His huge resumé includes playing Dr. Emil Skoda in the Law and Order TV series.
Newspaper reviewers have noted how Sam Richardson (who plays the scientist Charlie) has added acting to his career as a comedian.
As a recommendation I have stolen an IMDB subscriber’s review:
Giving an extra point being miles better than anything else in this genre for some time. The aliens were great, good story, spectacular graphics, excellent actors, top-notch production quality. As with all time travel related stories, it’s imperfect but definitely better than most. This one definitely shouldn’t be missed by scifi fans.
Besides: I LOVE TRASH!