While we’re still in a video game and quality film slump, there are a few perks to find in the streaming world this go round, especially if you enjoy fun television. We’re starting to see a much bigger advent of the online TV show, so keep an eye on that, especially from Netflix.
New Releases
Video Games
We’re at the crossroads of summer films and their video game versions right now. Turbo: Super Stunt Squad and The Smurfs 2 are two of the biggest releases recently released; Disney’s Planes follows up on Aug. 6. I won’t say that they definitely won’t be good, but I certainly wouldn’t expect much. Otherwise, the only notable release is Pikmin 3, coming out on Aug. 4. Fortunately, August should be bringing back some interesting games again.
iTunes
There’s not a lot happening here either. Admission, the Tina Fey/Paul Rudd romcom, is out. The only other real things of note are the 2011 movie Age of Champions, about a 100 year old tennis player and two 80-plus year old swimmers training for the 2009 National Senior Games (which I’ve honestly never heard of), and The Smurfs: Season 2, Vol. 1, the cartoon that’s making its second CGI-fueled, very blue theatrical appearance soon.
Amazon Prime
Amazon actually has several really fun options this go round for TV lovers. Mythbusters Seasons 1-9, the show of fun and occasionally explosive experiments that tackle common myths, The Amazing Race Seasons 17-20 (Can you believe there have been that many?), a Survivor meets Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? game show, and The Closer Seasons 1-7, the Kyra Sedgwick-starred police procedural.
Netflix
The nominations for the Emmy’s just came out, and Netflix’s original series House of Cards is the first internet series to get itself some nominations. Another Netflix show, Orange Is The New Black, is about a woman in a women’s prison. I haven’t seen it myself, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. If you’re looking for non-Netflix properties, though, you can take a gander at New Girl Season 1, the Zooey Deschanel show about a girl moving in with three guys from a Craigslist ad; The Expendables 2, a movie about a bunch of mostly washed up action heroes getting together to blow things up a second time; and How I Met Your Mother Season 7, unfortunately a season behind as the final and 9th season.
DVD
There aren’t many DVD releases that look terribly interesting to me this go round, but here’s what catches my eye:
Bullet To The Head
It’s not even remotely my type of movie, but it’s Sylvester Stallone in an action film. At this point, I think most fans know what they’re going to get when they dive into that.
42
Honestly, this is one of my favored movies of the year. It tells the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play Major League Baseball onthe now non-existent Brooklyn Dodgers during some of the more racially tense moments in our history. Chadwick Boseman stars with Harrison Ford who plays Dodgers executive Branch Rickley, a gruff and comic that cuts straight through the crap of others. I think it’s a solid biopic about a very influential man.
Evil Dead (2013)
We have to put the 2013 in there because this is, of course, a remake of the 1981 cult horror film. One of the original cast, Bruce Campbell, helped produce the film. It got pretty decent reviews from fans of the genre and the original film. It’s a standard horror story about five young people in a cabin in the woods accidentally summoning some demons and being picked off one-by-one in terrifying and horrific ways.
Starbuck
Speaking of remakes, see this original before the Vince Vaughan-starred remake of it pops out later this year… a quick turnaround, for sure. The movie focuses on a man in his 40s that tries to take control of his goofish life and discovers that he is the biological father of 533 children due to extreme amounts of sperm donations in his youth. The remake is scheduled for Oct. 4 under the name The Delivery Man if you want to look for it.
Trance
Director of Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle has teamed up with writer John Hodge from his Trainspotting days to create a dramatic thriller about theft, art, and broken memories. Starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, and Rosario Dawson, an art thief teams up with a rough group of criminals to steal a painting, tries to double cross them, but is knocked senseless. Literally. With all of his memories wiped clean, the thief is forced to use a hypnotherapist to remember where he hid the painting.
At the Theaters
We’re still eating our popcorn-munching summer fare, with Turbo and The Wolverine, but look for somewhat different choices with The To-Do List and Woody Allen’s newest film, Blue Jasmine. As for the ones that are coming out soon, we have a mixed bag. The Smurfs 2 opens on July 31, and We Are The Millers, a comedy with Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Anniston pretending to be a normal family to smuggle pot across the Mexican border, coming out on Aug. 7. Action film 2 Guns with Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington releases Aug. 2, but for those looking to leave the typical summer fare, look for The Spectacular Now, a movie about teen love and moving into adulthood, coming out the same day.
Source:
http://www.truckersresource.com/2013/07/26/downtime-diversions-weekly-roundup/