We recommend: The best new movies and TV
Meg 2: The Trench: Here’s a full on adrenaline rush for you! Jason Stathom is back with partly Jaws and partly Jurassic Park style sequel battling the Megalodon—the extinct predator of the deep oceans. This movie will take Jason and his team to the Mariana Trench where they’ll find out more about the biggest Meg and undiscovered ecosystem it thrives in—all CGI of course.
The reviews are not kind to the movie. BBC calls the movie “plain awful”, while Variety says you will have fun with some of the over-the-top sequences but “still sounds like it was written entirely by AI”. Our take: Jason Stathom has created his own action-comedy masala franchise over the years and we find them quite entertaining. The film is in theatres.
Hunt for Veerappan: Many of us remember the days when Veerappan, the mention of this bandit’s name, would evoke fear. In this four part docu-series, we see how Veerappan became one of the most feared criminals of India and single-handedly caused a lot of problems for two states for many years. It promises to present firsthand accounts of people who tirelessly sought to capture him and testimonies from those close to him.
Reviews are good. Scroll says the docu-series “enrichens our understanding” of how and why “Veerappan remains as elusive as the brigand was for much of his life.” Indian Express notes that the show “might not be as slickly packaged as the sort of true crime programming…. but it also provokes some admittedly important discussions about law enforcement, abuse of power, and arrogance.” Our take: Veerappan still holds a place in our collective memories, and we are excited to learn more about this bandit and the struggles to capture him. The series was released yesterday on Netflix.
A flood-resilient Mumbai?: We’re offering a unique recommendation in today’s watch list with this one. Mumbai continues to face many climate risks due to global warming, and this short documentary (23 minutes) looks at how one of Mumbai’s rivers, the northern Dahisar River affects the communities living near its banks during the monsoons due to floods. You can watch the entire docu on Youtube.
Here’s a new chapter…
Heartstopper Season 2: Based on a webcomic and graphic novel of the same name, ‘Heartstopper’ is a sweet coming of age story of Charlie Spring and his friends where they explore their interests and sexualities while surviving an all-boys high school. The first season focussed on Charlie coming out and this one will focus on his relationship with his boyfriend Nick. The new episodes came out on August 3 on Netflix.
Fresh off the big screen…
Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 3: The final movie in the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ trilogy has found its way to our home screens. The Guardians have set up shop in Knowhere—the skull of a Celestial god—with Peter Quill (Christ Pratt) still trying to get over the loss of Gamora. They’re disrupted by Adam Warlock, who abducts Rocket (Bradley Cooper) , setting the Guardians on a hunt across the universe to track their friend down, and learn more about his past and save the universe from evil in the process. The movie started streaming on Disney+ Hotstar on August 2.
