It’s a rare occasion when I sit down to watch movies on Netflix (after all, there’s still more Umbrella Academy episodes to watch!) but I thought I’d take a break from new TV and check out a couple of interesting movies that the streamer has released to my living room.

Spiderhead

It’s surprising to me that this Netflix movie would have such an unappealing title. It sounds like a horror movie about creatures with human bodies and spiders’ heads, or maybe something about spiders being in someone’s head. Both are pretty repulsive, but at least the latter is thematically/symbolically closer to what this movie is about. Starring and produced by Chris Hemsworth, this movie is more like an episode of Black Mirror than one of his MCU galaxy-saving action adventures. Actually, in many ways, the plot about a wealthy (perhaps genius) scientist doing some revolutionary (yet possibly over-the-line) research at a minimalist and ultra-modern remote facility reminds me rather more of Ex Machina. Instead of robotics, we’ve got psychotropic drugs; and instead of Moon Knight (aka Oscar Isaac), we’ve got Thor. Unfortunately, even though this movie was also directed by Joseph Kosinski, it was much less impressive than his last big directorial effort: the awesome Top Gun: Maverick.

Another Maverick alum working on this movie is Miles Teller, who plays Jeff, one of the prisoners at the Spiderhead (Yup, that’s where it comes from!) facility: an island prison where inmates buy a comfortable and relaxed incarceration by participating in experiments with Dr. Abnesti (Hemsworth). Test subjects all wear computerized devices which administer drugs into their systems (controlled by Abnesti’s iPhone, apparently) that manipulate their thoughts and feelings. Things go pretty well with the experiments, and even seem to be leading towards some scientific breakthrough until (you’ll probably guess this) two archetypal problems occur: first, Jeff falls in love with a fellow inmate, Lizzy (played by Jurnee Smollett) and second, Abnesti’s arrogance leads him to push things too far. Even though this movie is based on a New Yorker short story, it almost feels like Ex Machina should be raising some eyebrows re plagiarism.

There is a slight science-fiction flavour to this movie, but it’s meant to be more of a psychological and emotional thriller. The characters all come to Spiderhead with heavy traumatic baggage and backstory, and when the experiments manipulate their emotions, that leads to a lot of intense (and generally pretty good) acting. Teller doesn’t have the most expressive face, but he is not bad with emotions like panic and frustration. Hemsworth is best with the cocky charm, making people buy into his rationale for doing some pretty terrible things. When things go wrong and his character starts to lose his cool, it’s not as much in his acting wheelhouse. He looks more like he’s had a bad time with some broken gym equipment than that his best laid plans are falling apart. Nevertheless, I’m mostly along for the ride.

A major disappointment about the plot/script of this movie was that there were some predictable yet sloppy situations leading to the climax of the movie. There were gaps and missing precautions that made things seem too convenient, or unbelievably fortunate/unfortunate for the characters. The movie also failed to compensate for a mediocre plot by not stating anything shocking or revelatory about technology or humanity in general. The lesson that it’s dangerous to manipulate people’s emotions is a cliche that has been taught so many better ways prior to this. While the movie looks slick and has curb appeal, in the end it seems like a watered-down version of its influences.

The Man From Toronto

In stark contrast, the appeal of this other new Netflix movie was almost entirely in the title. Being literally a man from Toronto myself, I was interested to know more about the title character (and his connections to my home town) more than I was interested in a Kevin Hart-Woody Harrelson buddy action-comedy. Social media has been buzzing (and the stars of the movie have actually apologized) around how the name of our city has been mispronounced (or at least not pronounced the way a true Torontonian would — i.e. we say it more like “Toronno”) by the leads, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter because Toronto was really more of a gimmick and had no relevance to the movie. No scenes took place in Toronto (though, ironically, there were scenes that were filmed here, with Toronto standing in for other cities such as Washington D.C.) and it made no difference that the man in question was supposedly from Toronto. The basic premise of the movie is that Kevin Hart plays a well-meaning loser who can’t quite follow through on his many business ideas and it’s also a problem for his marriage. One day when he bungles a booking for a nice B&B weekend for the couple to reconnect, he ends up at the wrong place and is mistaken for the “Man from Toronto”, a famous and mysterious assassin known for using intense fear tactics. When the actual Man from Toronto arrives (played by a mean-looking Woody Harrelson), Hart needs to keep playing the role in order to survive the other bad guys, and Harrelson wants to finish the job and get his payout. Eventually the two team up and hilarity is meant to ensue.

Again, the actors are good enough and fit well enough to make this a light, fun film, but it definitely follows the action-comedy formula pretty plainly. Hart is a bit unbelievable when his character expresses a confidence that is way beyond what makes sense, getting in the faces of serious criminals and killers, and it feels contrived. Also, he talks so much and so non-stop that it gets pretty grating and annoying. There were moments when I wished that someone would just shoot him to put us all out of our misery. Harrelson is not bad, quite capable of looking mean and gruff, but also there’s a comedic undertone that I think he pulls off better than Jason Statham would have (Statham was the original actor who the role was written for). With Harrelson, I genuinely buy that there’s a bit of a soft heart beneath the all-black-clothed, John Wick-esque demeanour, who really just wants to get his money and open up a restaurant.

The action sequences were also not too bad. While they don’t rival the big budget set pieces that might be included in a Mission Impossible or James Bond flick, they seemed to have pretty good choreography and stunts. In one scene, Hart’s character is trying to prevent himself from falling from a massive suspended shopping mall decoration (while trying to secure a dismembered thumb in a chip bag — don’t roll your eyes). It’s actually a pretty cool scene, but that’s mostly thanks to the Man from Miami (played by Pierson Fode) and his slick assassin skills, rather than Hart’s panicky whining. There’s another scene near the end of the movie where Hart and Harrelson are paired up against various “Man from … ” assassins who have been sent to take them out. They fight in a gym and make creative use of their environment, including various pieces of exercise equipment. It’s done pretty well, but unfortunately still a bit formulaic for this kind of action-comedy.

In the end, both of these new Netflix films have made good use of their budgets, but I’m still not finding any of the Netflix movies to be memorably awesome or creative. Like these two, Netflix is playing it a bit safe and not straying too far from viewers’ expectations. I wish I could go higher, but in the end I think I have to give both these movies 3.5 out of 5. But at least that’s 6 movies down; “only” 34 to go… [sigh].