Four to watch this week
Damsel (12, 108 mins, streaming from March 8 exclusively on Netflix)
Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown trades the unspeakable horrors that lurk in the Upside Down for a firebreathing dragon in a fantastical action adventure written by Dan Mazeau and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone) believes he has secured a beneficial romantic match for his beloved daughter, Elodie (Brown). The groom-to-be, dashing Prince Henry (Nick Robinson), harks from royal lineage but Elodie’s stepmother Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett) voices her concerns. Elodie proceeds with the union under the regal gaze of Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) and King Roderick (Milo Twomey), blissfully unaware that she is to repay an ancient debt by becoming a human sacrifice for an ancient beast.
The Reluctant Traveler – Season 2 (8 episodes, starts streaming from March 8 exclusively on Apple TV+)
Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor and comedian Eugene Levy builds on the success of his first travelogue in which he explored eight beautiful global destinations including Costa Rica, Finland, Italy, Japan, Portugal and South Africa.
For the second series, focus shifts to a grand tour of Europe beginning in the very north of the continent and slowly heading south.
Ricky Stanicky (15, 108 mins, streaming from March 7 exclusively on Prime Video)
An imaginary friend is a massive liability in a raunchy adultoriented comedy of errors directed by Peter Farrelly.
In 1999, childhood friends Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino) and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) orchestrate an illjudged Halloween prank and invent a fictitious fall guy, Ricky Stanicky, to take the blame. Miraculously, the trio escape the repercussions of their foolhardy actions and for the next 20 years, the pals allow Ricky to accept full responsibility for their immaturity. They keep a bible of his fictional back story so the fibs are consistent. When JT becomes a father, pressure intensifies to introduce Ricky to his wife Susan (Anja Savcic), Dean’s journalist girlfriend Erin (Lex Scott Davis) and assorted loved ones.
Rather than admit the truth, the pals hire washed-up actor Rod Rimestead (John Cena) to fully embody the chaotic role of a lifetime. When Ricky materialises, he is every bit as outlandish as the friends insisted. However, Rod takes method acting to the extreme and Dean, JT and Wes quickly wish they had never invented a perfect patsy.