‘Maze Runner’ like ‘Flies’ for a new generation
What’s new to watch this week on pay-per-view and streaming services:
Pay-per-view and video on demand
“The Maze Runner” is yet another young adult franchise, this one about a world where teenage boys wake up in a giant deadly maze, a kind of “Lord of the Flies” by way of an action thriller and escape drama. It’s based on the first in a trilogy of novels, and a second film is currently in development.
On a smaller scale are a couple of British films: “Pride,” inspired by the true story of gay activists who supported the miners in their long strike of 1984, which stars Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, and “Calvary,” a spiky drama with dark comic undertones with Brendan Gleeson as a Catholic priest given a week to live by an angry parishioner.
Also new: “The Good Lie” with Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll and the remake of “Left Behind” with Nicolas Cage, which received some of the worst reviews of the year.
Netflix
“The Honourable Woman,” a mini-series co-produced by BBC and the Sundance Channel, stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as an idealist who strives to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians and ends up tangled in the machinations and conspiracies of diplomats, terrorists, and politicians with their own agendas. The eight-episode series is now available.
Netflix launches a new original animated series for kids: “All Hail King Julien,” featuring the character from the “Madagascar” movies.
Running out of ideas? Here are some of the notable documentaries currently available: “Not Yet Begun to Fight” looks at the wounded warriors of the American military and the efforts to heal their trauma. “Running From Crazy,” from Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple, digs into the legacy of depression and suicide in the Hemingway family. “Korengal,” a follow-up to the Academy Award-nominated “Restrepo,” revisits American soldiers in Afghanistan.
And if all else fails, there’s always the tongue-in-cheek, made-for-cable disaster movie “Sharknado 2: The Second One.”
Amazon Instant Prime
Amazon’s newest original series “Mozart in the Jungle,” created by Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, is set behind the scenes of the classical music world of New York City. It’s not all high culture in this peek behind the curtain; it is, after all, based on a book that is subtitled “Sex, Drugs and Classical Music.” Malcolm McDowell, Saffron Burrows, Bernadette Peters and Gael Garcia Bernal star.
Don’t forget the other new Amazon original series, “Transparent,” which is dominating Top Ten lists from TV critics this year.