Hot Right Now
From Norse Gods to classic whodunits and a few familiar voices on a podcast, Niamh O’Reilly’s got all the entertainment picks you need for the fortnight ahead.
Cinema Trip
Thor: Love and Thunder
If you like your Marvel movies with a big dose of humour and less of the serious stuff, then the latest outing from Thor is for you. From the wacky mind of Taika Waititi, it’s the follow up to 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok and is full of the same over-the-top, technicolour, panache you’d expect.
The story sees Thor do battle with Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale, who is on a mission to get rid of all the divinities in the vicinity. Chris Hemsworth is having the time of his life playing the comedic side of the Norse God, while his sidekick Korg played by Waititi himself delivers all the best eye-winking, wise-cracks.
Russell Crowe is in equally fine fettle playing the all-important deity Zeus, while Natalie Portman’s Jane Forster also turns up, as erm… well Thor! It’s all a bit daft, but really that’s part of the charm. Like the best summer iced coffees, this one is light and frothy and won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Streaming Picks
Only Murders in the Building
The second season of this sleeper hit is back with a bang and picks up right where the cliffhanger from season one left us- no spoilers of course. For those who haven’t seen the first instalment, it follows three neighbours living in a swanky Manhattan apartment building – Steve Martin (Charles), Selena Gomez (Mabel) and Martin Short (Oliver), who decide to band together and set up a true crime podcast when fellow resident – Tim Kono is murdered.
Martin and Short are a polished act of comedy perfection, while Gomez makes for a surprisingly fitting addition and the three have cracking chemistry together. The story brings plenty of laughs, but is far more layered than it first appears. Season two promises even more twists, with cameos from the likes of Shirley MacLaine and Amy Schumer.
Each episode is only 30 minutes long, so it’s the perfect half hour nugget of light entertainment.
Streaming weekly on Disney+
Paper Girls
If you’re looking for a brand-new sci-fi series to dive into to replace the gaping crevice Stranger Things left in its wake, Prime Video’s new Paper Girls could be just the thing. Based on the best-selling graphic novels written by Brian K. Vaughan, the story starts out in the early hours after Halloween 1988. Four paper girls – Erin, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ – are out on their delivery route when they become caught in the crossfire between warring time-travellers, changing the course of their lives forever.
Transported into the future, the plucky girls must figure out a way to get back home to the past, a journey that will bring them face-to-face with the grown-up versions of themselves.
With a hefty dose of late 80s nostalgia, a cast of fresh new young faces, plus the deadpan cracks of comedian Ali Wong, this looks to be the ideal show to gather the teenagers on the couch for a family watch.
Streaming on Prime Video from 29 July.
The Terminal List
Based on the books by Jack Carr, The Terminal List follows James Reece (Chris Pratt) after he finds his life thrown into disarray when his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed and killed during a bungled high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with inconsistent memories of the event and begins to question his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life, but the lives of those he loves.
The Terminal List is not especially new or unique, it’s not trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s pure popcorn-eating, thriller fare. The cast is impressive though, with Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough and Patrick Schwarzenegger to name but a few.
For all its efforts, and despite sharing a lot of the same DNA as its peers, it doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jack Ryan, but is still worthy of a summer watch.
Streaming on Prime Video now.
Podcast
My Therapist Ghosted Me
If you’re looking for something light-hearted with lots of laugh-out-loud moments and a hefty dose of honesty, then look no further than this top offering from Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally. My Therapist Ghosted Me has become a runaway hit thanks mainly to the genuine rapport between the two Irish women, who chat about literally everything and anything and prove that friendship is the best therapy.
Expect the usual mix of the highs and lows of their week, peppered with topical news items and lots of outrageous banter
And if you’re wondering where the unusual name came from, well apparently comedian Joanne’s therapist really did do a runner on her.
Available wherever you get your podcasts such as Spotify or Apple
Classic Film
Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
‘You’re terrible Muriel!’ Sorry couldn’t resist and what better movie to watch to boost our collective self-esteem then Muriel’s Wedding? If you’ve never seen it, then get it on pronto because apart from the cracking ABBA soundtrack and endlessness quotable lines, it stars the amazing Toni Colette in her breakthrough role as Muriel.
Seen as the ‘dumb, fat, lazy’ sister by her abusive family in small town Australia, she is obsessed with the idea of getting married and all the perfection that it entails. She leaves for the bright lights of Sydney determined to change herself and meets fellow outsider Rhonda played by Rachel Griffiths
Along the way she learns many lessons about self-acceptance, that love comes in many forms, how to stand up for herself and why she doesn’t have to change herself for anybody.