Action vets bring another round of ‘Expendables’
What’s new to watch this week on pay-per-view and streaming services:
The cable and satellite and video-on-demand streaming rental services (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu and others) are ready with a whole new batch of new releases for your family viewing this holiday weekend.
For action fans there is “The Expendables 3,” which adds Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, and Mel Gibson to the cast of Sylvester Stallone’s over-the-hill gang (it’s toned down to PG-13), and the R-rated “The November Man” with Pierce Brosnan as a spy brought out of retirement. “Let’s Be Cops” is an R-rated buddy comedy with Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.
“How to Train Your Dragon 2” is an animated adventure for the whole family with special interest for the young ones. “The Giver,” based on the award-winning young adult novel by Lois Lowry and starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, is aimed at teens and tweens. And for couples and 20-somethings there is the romantic comedy “What If,” with Daniel Radcliffe.
And if you need your Christmas fix early, there’s “ Tyler Perry’s A Medea Christmas.”
Netflix
Plenty of options for family movie viewing on Netflix, including the Thanksgiving holiday comedy “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” with Steve Martin and John Candy, and the Oscar-winning “Silver Linings Playbook” with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, which is all about family and dysfunction and happy endings (it’s rated R).
If you’d rather use the weekend catching up on the best of 2014 films, try “The Immigrant,” starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix. If you don’t mind subtitles, “Ida” is Poland’s official entry for the upcoming Academy Awards and “We Are the Best” from Sweden is a feel-good film about three adolescent girls who form a punk rock band.
New TV on Netflix: “Peaky Blinders: Season 2” continues the British series about organized crime in the years after World War I. Also new: “Nikita: Season 4,” the final season of the flashy spy series, the British comedy “Doc Martin: Season 6,” the BBC werewolf drama “Wolfblood: Season 2,” and the Netflix original comedy “Lilyhammer: Season 3,” about an American mobster in witness protection … in Norway.
Don’t bother looking for that Bill Cosby special that Netflix announced earlier this month. They have pulled the program.
Amazon Instant Prime
Amazon has new seasons of two popular cable shows: the barbarian invasion show “Vikings: Season 2” and (on Saturday) the alien invasion adventure “Falling Skies: Season 4.”