From Players to Bob Marley: One Love, Should You Add These To Your Watchlist?
From an international heist to a musical icon’s legacy, Pop Culture Planet’s Jordan Bohan shares what to watch and what to skip.
Bob Marley: One Love
Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life and musical legacy of a reggae icon who inspired generations with his message of unity, peace, and love. For the first time in theaters, viewers can experience Marley’s powerful and touching journey of overcoming adversity and the story behind his iconic music.
While you can expect to be immersed in Marley’s music, One Love failed to tell a cohesive story. The pacing and choppiness of the story leaves you with no more knowledge than when you stepped into the theater. The ending was also abrupt. In the middle of what you think will be the climactic scene, it cuts right to real life footage with text explaining the rest of the story. Biopics are aimed at telling a narrative of a certain person’s life, but Bob Marley: One Love seemed to dig into surface level facts you could easily read online.
Bob Marley: One Love is playing in theaters.
Constellation
After returning to Earth after a disaster in space, astronaut Jo (Noomi Rapace) comes to find that pieces of her life are missing. Jo struggles to readjust to life on earth and resume her place in society while battling mental health problems.
Constellation starts off gripping but, as the series goes on, it fails to hold interest. Following Jo’s struggles, you want to sympathize with her, but you are never brought close enough inside her mind to feel that connection. Maybe I’m just burned out with the space genre, but this series is too slow to sustain interest.
Constellation is streaming on Apple TV+.
Lift
A professional art thief (Kevin Hart) is convinced by his ex-girlfriend (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and her team at the FBI to pull of an impossible heist. His crew must find a way to divert half a billions dollars worth of gold traveling on a passenger flight from London to Zurich.
While Lift has the perfect elements for a heist movie, it fall flat. It was visually stunning but almost to the level of feeling overproduced. The story felt uninspired and the characters lacked motivation and backstory. The movie’s main draw, Kevin Hart, was also lackluster. As a professional comedian, fans expect some of that side of him to show through. Lift felt like an attempt to position Hart as a more serious actor, which would have worked if he wasn’t outshined by more entertaining and comedic performances.
Lift is streaming on Netflix.
Players
New York-based sportswriter Mack (Gina Rodriguez) has wasted her time creating hook-up “plays” with her best friend Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.). Their attempts have led to countless flings and hook-ups, with their ultimate rule being that you can’t build a relationship from a play. When Mack falls for her latest target Nick (Tom Ellis), she starts to rethink the game. Players also stars Joel Courtney, Augustus Prew, Liza Koshy, Ego Nwodim, and Marin Hinkle.
In the world of rom coms, Players definitely delivers on the romance and the comedy, but it lacks chemistry. The movie is filled with puns and witty banter that get lost with the speed of talking and excess sports references. Gina Rodriguez is charming as always and the rest of the cast is fun, but the ending was rushed and expected.
Players is streaming on Netflix.
