It’s the weekend and time to mention the new movies and TV shows added to the big three streamers. So let’s get right to it!
HULU
Okay, Hulu hasn’t added a lot of new stuff, but one good movie they’ve added is Lucky Them, starring Toni Collette. Collette stars as a rock journalist, down on her luck, given a new chance to find a missing rock star and Thomas Haden Church also stars as a filmmaker on the same trail. This movie has a great cast, with Oliver Platt, Ahna O’Reilly and Ryan Eggold appearing as well. It gets a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.1/10 on IMDb. Also, on Hulu is This Country, a British mockumentary about a pair of unusual cousins in a small town. It’s a comedy, of course, and stars Daisy May Cooper, Charlie Cooper and Paul Chahidi . It gets an 8.3 on IMDb. Another new movie on Hulu is Touching the Void, the 2003 docudrama about a near-fatal climb of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. It is directed by Kevin MacDonald, and features the harrowing story of two experienced climbers who attempt a north face climb of Siula Grande never before climbed. This movie was called one of the 100 best documentaries of all time by PBS and won Best British Film at the 2004 BAFTA Awards. It gets 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1/10 on IMDb. Also, newly added to Hulu is An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. Covering our progress and our increasingly dangerous situation with climate change, Al Gore wrote the movie and features in it, along with George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.It’s an important movie to see, was nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Documentary and gets an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. And, finally, Hulu has added Sleepers, a 1996 movie written and directed by Barry Levinson. This movie has a wonderful cast, including Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver and Vittorio Gassman. It’s story is about four boys from Hell’s Kitchen and a stay in a juvenile correction home and their abuse there, that changes their lives forever. Sleepers gets a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.6 on IMDb.
NETFLIX
Netflix has added some interesting shows this week, including the season 2 of Bonus Family, a Swedish series about a blended family. It stars Vera Vitali, Erik Johansson, Frederick Hallgren and Petra Mede and is a dramedy about home life with in-laws and exes. And it gets a 7.5 on IMDb. Netflix has also added Locke, the 2013 movie with Tom Hardy. This drama is directed by Steven Knight, and solely features Hardy in his car, on a drive to London. It also stars Olivia Coleman and Ruth Wilson(voices only) and was widely acclaimed by critics. Tom Hardy won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor for this role. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 91% and IMDb a 7.1/10.A new Canadian movie newly added is Enemy , starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal stars a an average college professor, whose life suddenly changes when he sees a man who appears to be his double. A thriller with a great cast that also stars Melanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon and Isabella Rossellini , it was named Best Canadian Film of the Year by the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards in 2014. It gets a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.9/10 on IMDb. Netflix has also added Under the Skin, the 2013 Sci-fy movie starring Scarlett Johansson. Johansson plays an alien who lures men for a fatal mating dance, and the movie is directed by Jonathan Glazer. It also stars Krystof Hadek and Jeremy McWilliams and was a great critical success. It was on the list of the BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21 Century and won the London Film Critics Circle Award for British Film of the Year. It got an A+ from Richard Roeper and gets an 84& on Rotten Tomatoes. Definitely worth viewing. And finally, Netflix has added The Spectacular Now, with Shailene Woodley. Also starring Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now is a coming of age tale, based on the novel of the same name by Tim Tharp. It also stars Brie Larsen, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and gets a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
AMAZON
No, Amazon hasn’t added a lot of new stuff this week, but one new movie it’s added is an Amazon Original, Zoe, starring Ewan MacGregor and Lea Seydoux. Zoe is a Sci-Fy movie about an engineer who falls in love with a robot. It also stars Christina Aguilera, Theo James, Rashida Jones and Miranda Otto and doesn’t get great reviews, but it gets a 6.3/10 on IMDb. If you love sci-fy, like me, you might want to check it out. Amazon has also added The Forgiven, starring Forest Whitaker. Based on the play The Archbishop and the Antichrist, The Forgiven is about Archbishop Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission he headed in South Africa in the wake of apartheid. Eric Bana stars as Piet Blomfeld, an unrepentant South Africa Defence Force officer , with an appeal for amnesty. The film also stars Osbert Solomons, Debbie Sherman,Thandi Makhubele and Nandiphile Mbeshu and is directed by Roland Jaffe(The Killing Fields). It gets a 5.7/10 on IMDb. I couldn’t find any other new movies on Amazon Prime this week, but they do have some new classics, in July. One of them is The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. A satire, directed by Mike Nichols, The Graduate is about a young man, ust out of college, troubled by the corporate future expected of him and seduced by Anne Bancroft, a family friend. Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry and Alice Ghostly round out the amazing cast of an incredible movie. It won Mike Nichols The Academy Award for Best Director, is on the AFI’s 100 years….100 movies list, and gets an 8/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Amazon offers Raging Bull, the classic Martin Scorsese film from 1980. Robert DeNiro stars in it as Jake LaMotta, the brutal boxer of the 1940‘s. It also stars Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Theresa Saldana, Nicholas Colasanto and Frank Vincent. DeNiro won Best Actor at the Academy Awards for this movie, it got 4/4 stars from Roger Ebert, and gets a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s beautiful in black and white, but definitely violent, so maybe watch without the kids.
So, sit back and enjoy the weekend with new and old classics streaming online!
Grownups Guide to Streaming 