AndersonVision curates the best streaming content [April 2021]

Moment of Truth (IMDB TV) – streaming April 2nd, 2021

Moment of Truth is about the 100th piece of Michael Jordan content that I’ve watched in the last year. What I didn’t know before the start of the year is how much quality content Amazon was sending over to IMDB TV. I had dismissed the streaming service as being nothing more than an Amazon dumping ground. I could not have been more wrong.

Coming off the high of The Last Dance, I devoured Jordan content like I was a 12 year old basketball fan again. While this is a True Crime series, it’s fascinating to see such a different aspect to the Jordan mythos. I’ve heard all of the conspiracies, I’m glad that I didn’t see through it during this stream. Still, I’d love to see this series return with a focus on other cases.

Eddie Murphy: Laugh ‘Til It Hurts (Amazon Prime, Roku, Tubi) – streaming throughout April!

Eddie Murphy: Laugh ‘Til It Hurts is another standard biography piece. Following his early success in the 80s, the piece carefully dodges some of the 1990s misfires. But, it doesn’t spend an inordinate amount of time in the present successes. The bobbing and weaving between choice films since to be more of a licensing issue for the filmmakers. Still, I dig it. You could be streaming worse in April.

Vice President Kamala Harris: Chasing the Dream (Amazon Prime, Roku, Tubi) – streaming throughout April!

Vice President Kamala Harris: Chasing the Dream goes a step beyond the typical celeb biography documentary. This one goes out of its way to introduce a nation of non-readers to their current Vice President. If you were expecting anything critical about Harris to emerge here, go stream elsewhere. I don’t want to call out something like this as fan worship. But, there’s a difference between praising Eddie Murphy for Shrek the Third and glossing over Kamala Harris’s record.

But, what can you do? If you roll too hard on Harris, people will accuse you of being Right wing. Roll too soft and people will call you out. It’s a lose-lose situation.

The Boonies hits VOD and DVD on April 13th from Indican Pictures

The Boonies is another horror movie from Indican that I chose to stream. Over the course of 90 minutes, I felt like I had already watch the movie. Then, I watched it again and I couldn’t remember anything from the prior viewing. This isn’t a criticism that should be taken as a slam. But, it’s indicative of where we are with modern horror.

When you go back to the classic horror well, you better have a fresh as hell take. Otherwise, you’re playing dress-up in bothered clues. Hell, there are modern takes on horror ideas that are getting ran into the dirt. I have a problem with the Peele style of Horror that I’ll discuss when we cover Them later in April.

Take The Boonies for what it is and have a good enough time.

The Wordmaker: Season 1 (Topic) – Streaming Exclusively on Topic on April 15th

The Wordmaker debuts with an understated but satisfying first episode. Arriving on Topic (they are quickly becoming a favorite), the series is a pleasure to stream. An Israeli TV pick-up brought to America to stream, The Wordmaker throws down a lot of ideas. You get mysticism with Kabbalah and then you have a creepy killer doing almost supernatural level stuff.

The series is short, but I never knew what was going to happen next. Topic has been surprising me with the shows they pick up and I can only hope that more people catch onto what’s going on over there. Good stuff.

Looking for A Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Abramorama) – Streaming Watch Now @ Home Cinema Release on April 9^th

Looking for A Lady with Fangs and a Moustache is the latest Abramorama movie I checked out. It’s a tale of a Nepalese entrepreneur trying to make sense of his life. When he meets a weirdo monk that believes the guy is seeing visions of his death, everyone has to learn how to live better.

If this was a Touchstone movie from 1987-1994, this is where the record scratch comes into play. What kills me is that out of everything everyone can choose to stream, I feel this film will fall by the wayside. It’s a heady adult movie that wants you to think hard about the spiritual nature of the plot. Even if you watch it and don’t feel it, come back to the film at a later date.

Clapboard Jungle starts streaming on Arrow Video on April 19th

Clapboard Jungle is a documentary that I wasn’t planning on streaming initially. I’m still on my umpteenth rewatch of The Stylist, so why was I taking on more movies in April? What’s crazy about this film is how hard it is to watch someone fail and struggle to get their movie out there. That’s because out of all the horror movies that get produced, the majority seem to be garbage.

But, again…nobody sets out to make a bad movie. I love watching documentaries like this and I kinda understand why Arrow is releasing it to stream. That being said, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Enjoy the quality documentary and be cool.

Primal Fear is streaming digitally from Paramount throughout April for its 25th Anniversary

Primal Fear is one of those movies that I wasn’t sure about giving a dedicated Anniversary piece to, but I want to keep this Paramount history piece going. I have distant memories of seeing this film in a dollar house theater and learning that I hate legal thrillers. Let’s take it a step out. I hate mid 90s legal thrillers.

From those awful trailers, bad music choices and ham-fisted acting style…it’s hard to see this much talent acting this bad. People still fondly remember the Oscar nominated Edward Norton performance. But, it has not held up whatsoever. Hell, the film hasn’t held up.

While I stream Primal Fear, I find myself reiterating the same note. Who was this for and why weren’t they watching Matlock? Given that we are into Oscar season, I should have more in the tank, but I don’t.

Disney+ original series Secrets of the Whales, from National Geographic, starts streaming on Earth Day, April 22

The three-year project will also be featured in the new National Geographic book Secrets of the Whales, on sale April 6, and the May issue of National Geographic magazine, The Ocean Issue, available online on April 15. 

Secrets of the Whales was a streaming series on Disney Plus that I wouldn’t normally stream due to the fact that The Winter Soldier doesn’t show up. My wife is a bigger fan of nature documentaries, so she had to lady splain animals to me. Whales are cool and all, so I guess we have to save the planet and stuff. But, there’s something with the National Geographic stuff being on Disney Plus.

I’ve watched a lot of the Nat Geo documentaries of the last year and enjoyed them. However, it feels like you have to be a super big animal person to really dig what’s being sold here.

After watching the four episodes made available to me, I found myself wondering something. I like dogs, cats and all of those creatures. But, why do I not give a damn about things in the Planet Earth style documentary milieu? It’s crazy where we draw the line on animals.

Excellent narration from Sigourney Weaver, though.