Thursday 30 June 2016

Into the light

The moving and inspirational true story of an academic's battle to accept losing his sight is brought to the cinema in Notes on Blindness.

from BBC News - Entertainment & Arts

Tuesday 28 June 2016

Secret Life of Pets beats Independence Day sequel at UK box office

Animated caper The Secret Life of Pets beat the Independence Day sequel at UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend, figures show.

from BBC News - Entertainment & Arts

Sunday 26 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - Precious Cargo


Encouraged by his gorgeous girlfriend Karen, accomplished thief Jack plans a daring billion-dollar heist. What Jack doesn't know is that all the loot he's attempting to bag has ties to Eddie, a criminal kingpin who also happens to be Karen's ex.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Rams


Despite the fact that they live next door to each other, brothers and fellow sheep farmers Gummi and Kiddi have gone 40 years without speaking to each other. When a deadly virus attacks both their herds, the brothers are forced to communicate again.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot


Based on reporter Kim Barker's memoirs about her experiences covering the Afghanistan war, this satirical look at a hopelessly confused conflict also chronicles the obstacles encountered by female journalists in a rigidly conservative region.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Aferim!


Eastern Europe, 1835. Two riders cross a barren landscape in the middle of Wallachia. They are the gendarme Costandin and his son. Together they are searching for a gypsy slave who has run away from his nobleman master and is suspected of having an affair with the noble's wife. While the unflappable Costandin comments on every situation with a cheery aphorism, his son takes a more contemplative view of the world. On their odyssey they encounter people of different nationalities and beliefs: Turks and Russians, Christians and Jews, Romanians and Hungarians. Each harbors prejudices against the others which have been passed down from generation to generation. And even when the slave Carfin is found, the adventure is far from over...

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Cemetery of Splendor


In Northeast Thailand, soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness lie bedridden in a school turned clinic, where doctors and volunteers tend to them. When a volunteer nurse forms a bond with a patient, she begins to experience odd hallucinations.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Francofonia


Spotlighting the legacy and priceless art collection of the Louvre Museum, this vivid docudrama recounts many dramatic moments in the institution's history, including the hasty caching of its treasures when German forces occupied Paris in 1940.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Race


While Hitler saw the 1936 Berlin Olympics as an opportunity to demonstrate Aryan supremacy, one African-American man -- Jess Owens -- shattered that dream with a display of athleticism that resulted in four gold medals. This film tells his story.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Eye in the Sky


Leading an operation to nab a terrorist and her collaborators in Kenya, Col. Katherine Powell ends up in a political and moral quagmire as the mission changes and a drone strike is ordered, putting a young girl at risk of becoming collateral damage.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Rabin, the Last Day


Twenty years after the killing of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, filmmaker Amos Gitai revisits the incident with this riveting docudrama that examines not only the shooting but the cultural conditions that allowed the tragedy to take place.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Triple 9


Blackmailed by Russian gangsters, a group of corrupt Atlanta cops concoct a scheme to distract police from a bank robbery by killing one of their own in another part of town -- but things don't go as planned.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Elstree 1976


Though working on the production of "Star Wars" in 1976 brought only fleeting fame for the masked bit-part actors and extras, it became a life-changing experience for them, as chronicled in this engaging documentary.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Fastball


Kevin Costner narrates as a gallery of baseball greats -- including Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan and Derek Jeter -- explain the mythos and mechanics of the fastball: what it's like to throw one and what it's like to face one at the plate.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - DCI Banks: Season 4


Three new murder mysteries ricochet through the Yorkshire territory of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Who killed a boy by arson and buried a young woman while she was still alive? A contract killing, an illicit affair and blackmail implicate a loan shark in Buried. Or has he been framed? And in Ghosts, the fatal stabbing of a university student might have been a routine case if Detective Inspector Helen Morton's ex-lover, an undercover cop, hadn't beaten up the primary suspect.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Vera: Series 6


DCI Vera Stanhope and her sergeant, DS Aiden Healey, investigate the deaths of a grandmother found on the desolate Northumberland moors, a young man who worked at a traveling fairground, a fisherman found tangled in the nets of a North Sea trawler, and the mysterious double murder of a moth enthusiast and a 22-year-old victim of a hit-and-run.

from New Releases This Week

Thursday 23 June 2016

Sunday 19 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - Embrace of the Serpent


Through parallel story threads set 40 years apart, this absorbing odyssey follows two Western scientists who travel deep into the Amazon jungle looking for a rare plant that possesses healing powers, with enigmatic shaman Karamakate as their guide.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - The Finest Hours


Recounting one of the most heroic tales in the annals of the U.S. Coast Guard, this tense maritime thriller traces the daring rescue of the crew aboard two oil tankers; both vessels were torn in two by the furious waves of a gigantic Atlantic storm.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - The Wave


Everyone in the Norwegian village of Geiranger knows that one day the mountain overlooking their homes will collapse into the fjord and set off a tsunami. When the alarm finally sounds, residents and tourists have 10 minutes to get to high ground.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Hidden Fear


American policeman Mike Brent (John Payne, 99 River Street, The Crooked Way) arrives in Denmark to help clear his sister (Natalie Norwick, 23 Paces to Baker Street) from a murder she hasn't committed, even though all the evidence leads to her being the murderer. Mike starts working with the Danish Police and begin to suspect a group of Copenhagen counterfeiters of the same crime. Co-written and directed by the great Andre De Toth (Pitfall) and wonderful performances by Alexander Knox (The Vikings) and Conrad Nagel (The Divorcee).

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - How to Be Single


Young and footloose, New Yorkers Alice, Robin, Lucy, Meg, Tom and David are living the dream. With the city as their playground, their adventures of love and lust play out over a 10-year period, providing a fresh perspective on being single.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - The Brothers Grimsby


A suave secret agent accepts a mission that requires him to go on the run with his brainless soccer hooligan of a brother in this uproarious and spectacularly vulgar comedy starring shock comedian Sasha Baron Cohen.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Anesthesia


After opening with the savage mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor, this nonlinear drama flashes back to events leading up to the incident, following the lives of numerous people connected to the assault.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Going Away


When young Mathias's father fails to pick him up from school, substitute teacher Baptiste takes the boy on a weekend motorcycle journey. While teacher and pupil quickly form a bond, things grow more complicated when they happen upon Mathias's mother.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Knight of Cups


Drifting through life amid the hollowness of hedonistic Hollywood, an uninspired and unmoored screenwriter moves from one fleeting relationship to another as he seeks existential meaning.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Decay


Jonathan is a middle-aged groundskeeper at a local theme park and suffers from a debilitating case of OCD. One day, his daily routine is disrupted by a surprise visitor in his basement: a beautiful young woman who, through a jarring turn of events, ends up dead. Jonathan panics and chooses not to report the dead girl. Instead, he invites her to dinner. Jonathan is happy to have a friend, until the police start closing in, and his mind, and the body of the girl, begins to decay.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Demon Tongue


Four paranormal research students are sent to an abandoned complex to conduct an investigation into strange occurrences that the locals feel are the results of demonic possessions. These amateur ghost hunters get much more than they bargained for when the power goes out, they hear unearthly noises and discover demons lurking in a hidden basement deep beneath the cold, stone structure that now becomes their prison.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Ticket Out


Ticket Out is set in the world of the controversial underground railways that aid women and children escaping from abusive, sometimes murderous spouses. Ray Liotta plays, Jim, a taut and mysterious character that seemingly aids Jocelyn (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her children in their flight from her vengeful ex-husband (Billy Burke). In crossing state lines, Jocelyn finds herself and her children pursued not only by the FBI, but also a ruthless private investigator.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - King Georges


This engaging documentary focuses on Georges Perrier, owner of Philadelphia's Le Bec-Fin, one of the nation's best French restaurants. As he ponders retiring from the frenetic world of the kitchen, Perrier frets over the eatery's future.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - How to Get Away with Murder: Season 2


Annalise Keating and her group of exceptionally gifted law students continue working on some of the toughest felony cases facing the police. In her personal life, however, Annalise has to some painful emotional decisions to confront alone.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Wallander: Series 4


Kenneth Branagh returns as Detective Kurt Wallander for three final thrilling stories, filmed in South Africa, Sweden and Denmark. In The White Lioness Wallander is drawn into the case of a missing Swedish national while attending a police conference in South Africa. It is the start of an emotional journey that leads him from the aching beauty of rural Africa to the intense poverty of its urban townships. The second film sees Wallander back in Sweden where a woman's body is discovered half buried in the forest swamps.

from New Releases This Week

Wednesday 15 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - Dark Matter: Season 1


With all memory of their identities erased, the six crew members of a deep-space vessel -- which is loaded with weapons -- try to make sense of their situation. Ultimately, they discover they're bound for a remote mining outpost torn by strife.

from New Releases This Week

Sunday 12 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - Gridlocked


Former SWAT leader David Hendrix (Dominic Purcell) and hard-partying movie star Brody Walker (Cody Hackman) must cut their ride-along short when a police training facility is attacked by a team of mercenaries.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - American Girl: Lea to the Rescue


Lea Clark is born for adventure, and her most exciting story awaits deep in the Brazilian rainforest. When Lea's brother, Zac, goes missing while studying the ecology in South America - and she suspects he's fallen prey to a band of ruthless animal poachers - Lea convinces her mom to spring into action.  From the minute their plane touches down, Lea's mom wants her to stay safe in the city, but Lea is determined to save both her brother and the endangered exotic animals she loves! Will Lea come to the rescue of her brother before it's too late?

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Get a Job


Armed with fresh college degrees, a group of friends wades into the job market but are dismayed by the opportunities offered, ranging from lowly service jobs to bizarre tasks that only a desperate person would consider.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Hello, My Name Is Doris


Inspired by insights gained through a self-help seminar, 60-year-old Doris Miller brazenly steps forward to pursue the affections of a much younger co-worker -- and inadvertently becomes a hit with his hipster cohorts.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Lolo


Ultra-chic Parisian Violette is on holiday with her best friend when she falls for geeky Jean-René, who's unlike any man she's met before. When the pair return to Paris together, however, Violette's 20-year-old son plots to undermine their romance.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - 45 Years


Geoff and Kate Mercer's plans for a 45th anniversary party are upset by some unexpected news: A body found in the Swiss Alps has been identified as Geoff's long-ago love Katya, who perished in an accident 50 years earlier.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Valley of Love


While still reeling from the suicide of their son, Michael, an estranged couple receives letters from him written prior to his death. The missives instruct his parents to meet in California's Death Valley -- where Michael plans to appear before them.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Those People


For years, young painter Charlie has carried a torch for his handsome best friend, who's become enveloped in a financial scandal. But when a new man -- a concert pianist -- arrives on the scene, Charlie finds himself facing a momentous decision.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - 10 Cloverfield Lane


After being knocked out in an auto accident, a young woman awakens in a cellar with a stranger, who tells her that he's saved her from a chemical attack that has devastated the outside world. Unsure what to believe, she decides that she must escape.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Ballers: Season 1


Retired football superstar Spencer Strasmore finds a new calling in his post-game career: as a consultant for current players, helping to keep their heads in the game, keep their money in check -- and keep their reputations from blowing up.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Grantchester: Season 2


James Norton (War and Peace) and Robson Green (Reckless) return as the improbable crime-fighting team of Reverend Sidney Chambers and inspector Geordie Keating, bringing justice and spiritual nourishment to the small English village of Grantchester. It's 1954 and Sidney is in a good place, but things are never easy, and Sidney and Geordie soon find themselves faced with a new round of mysteries.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Power: Season 2


While Ghost's success as a nightclub owner has made him a wealthy and widely noticed man, his lesser-known role as drug-dealer-to-the-elite is now bringing even more attention his way -- a problem, since he now wants to go straight.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - The League: Season 7


As another season of trash talk and one-upmanship kicks off, Pete runs into his ex, Kevin clashes with the Seahawks' general manager, and Marshawn Lynch returns to attend Taco Corp.'s annual board meeting.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - The X-Files


Drawn back into action when the threat of alien invasion again darkens the planet, veteran FBI agents Scully and Mulder combine their instincts and intellect to turn back the looming peril in this six-episode miniseries.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Underground: Season 1


In this engrossing historical drama, a group of slaves flees a Georgia plantation and the pre-Civil War South to embark on a 600-mile journey to freedom, helped along the way by the Underground Railroad.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - La Chienne


Jean Renoir's ruthless love triangle tale, his second sound film, is a true precursor to his brilliantly bitter The Rules of the Game, displaying all of the filmmaker's visual genius and fully imbued with his profound sense of humanity. A hangdog Michel Simon (Boudu Saved from Drowning) cuts a tragic figure as an unhappily married cashier and amateur painter who becomes so smitten with a prostitute that he refuses to see the obvious: that she and her pimp boyfriend are taking advantage of him. Renoir's elegant compositions and camera movements carry this twisting and turning narrative—a stinging commentary on class and sexual divides—to an unforgettably ironic conclusion.

from New Releases This Week

Saturday 11 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - The Abandoned


With no other options, single mom Julia Streak takes a job as a nighttime security guard assigned to patrol a vacant luxury-living complex. As the night wears on, eerie things begin to transpire -- and they may not be figments of her imagination.

from New Releases This Week

Sunday 5 June 2016

New Releases on Netflix - 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi


In this gripping account of the chaotic and tragic events of Sept. 11, 2012, six members of an elite security team battle to save the lives of trapped U.S. consulate personnel under attack by armed terrorists in Benghazi, Libya.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Asian Connection


While Americans Jack and Sam are happy to pull off a series of bank heists in Southeast Asia, the last thing they want is to inspire a drug lord's wrath. Unfortunately, they do just that. Now a target, Sam teams with his ex-lover to take on the gang.

from New Releases This Week

New Releases on Netflix - Deadpool


Prone to ruthless violence, ex-mercenary Wade Wilson acquires superhuman healing powers in the wake of a failed research experiment that also leaves him disfigured. Taking on the alter ego Deadpool, he's determined to hunt down the man responsible.

from New Releases This Week