Dream Stream: Star Wars – A New Hope, Avengers Assemble, The Revenant
Looking for a film and telly fix from yesteryear? Couch potato king Dan Morris gives us his picks of the week from his classics locker.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Disney+
With the hotly-anticipated release of Ahsoka this week, it's the perfect time to take a trip down the memory lane with the galaxy far, far away.
The flick that began the most celebrated sci-fi franchise of all time, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope will forever hold a place on the altar of the worldwide nerd herd. A space-opera written and directed by George Lucas, this 1977 movie masterpiece starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Alec Guinness in the first chapter of a story that would come to define the genre.
Luke Skywalker (Hamill) lives with his aunt and uncle on a farm on the desert world of Tatooine. He is desperate to get off this planet – always looking to the stars – but his uncle needs him for the harvest.
Meanwhile, the evil Empire has strengthened its hold over the galaxy through the construction of the Death Star – a space station capable of destroying planets.
Princess Leia (Fisher), a leader in the Rebel Alliance has acquired blueprints of the Death Star, and is intent on finding a weakness that she and her band of freedom fighters can exploit. Yet under attack and facing capture, she must hide them and trust the fate of the galaxy to the care of another. When the Death Star plans find their way to Tatooine and the unlikely hands of Luke, he must seek the help of ageing Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guinness) to get them to safety, and give the rebels a chance. The two will not be alone, but with the assistance of cocky pilot Han Solo (Ford) and his first mate Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), they find themselves in more hot water than they bargained for.
All the while the shadow of the Empire looms, and the evil Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) awaits a showdown with an old adversary...
The sci-fi classic to end all sci-fi classics, this one is as timeless as it gets. May the force be with you.
Avengers Assemble
Disney+
It was the moment that fanboys and fangirls the world over had been waiting for...
Released in 2012, Avengers Assemble marked the first time the heroes of the so-far successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) would share the silver screen together in a single movie.
The sixth film in the MCU, Avengers Assemble features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner as the titular heroes, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L Jackson.
When a mischievous alien megalomaniac named Loki (Hiddleston) arrives on Earth intent on conquering the planet, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Jackson) is forced to take action. With no other hope of defeating a villain of such power, Fury begins to assemble a team of the Earth’s mightiest heroes. Dr Bruce Banner (Ruffalo), who turns into an enormous green rage monster known as the Hulk, Tony Stark (Downey Jr) and his venerable Iron Man armour, and super soldier Captain America (Evans) join master assassin Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) to take on the dastardly Loki.
Hope grows stronger when they are joined by Loki’s brother Thor (Hemsworth), God of Thunder, and a being equally as powerful as his sibling. But before The Avengers get a chance to defeat their foe and his alien army, will divisions in their own ranks be their undoing?
A fantastic superhero yarn – grab the popcorn and get comfy.
The Revenant
Netflix
Not one for the faint of heart, but possibly one of the greatest movies ever made, 2015’s The Revenant was a triumph of the silver screen and, of course, the flick that finally brought a certain Mr DiCaprio his much-deserved Oscar.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant is based in part on Michael Punke’s 2002 novel of the same name, which describes the experiences of frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) in 1823.
In the untamed and unforgiving wilderness of mid-winter snow-capped Missouri, the experienced nineteenth-century tracker, Hugh Glass, and his son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), lead a hunting and trapping expedition in the uncharted territory of the fierce Native American tribe, the Arikara.
As the party of trappers struggle to navigate back to the distant Fort Kiowa, a swift and devastating attack by a formidable grizzly bear leaves a brutally mauled Glass on the brink of death, who is then double-crossed and abandoned by the scheming John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy).
Now, only Glass’s rabid desire to live can help him survive the piercing cold and the grave dangers of one of the world’s most inhospitable environments, giving him the strength to drag himself forward and exact his revenge. However, will the man who has returned from the dead taste the fruit of retribution?
With typically stunning performances from both DiCaprio and Hardy, The Revenant is heavy, heartbreaking, and will shake your foundations to the core. Just superb.
