Neeson plays PI in crime thriller ‘Walk Among the Tombstones’
What’s new to watch this week on pay-per-view and streaming services:
Pay-per-view / video on demand
“A Walk Among the Tombstones,” based on the novel by Lawrence Block and starring Liam Neeson as private investigator Matt Scudder, proved a little too grueling for audiences, but it nicely captures the gritty, pared-down quality of a contemporary American crime novel. It’s rated R for violence. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.
André Benjamin is Jimi Hendrix in the confused drama “Jimi: All is By My Side,” which is hampered by its lack of Hendrix’s signature songs (it’s all cover songs in the film). “Love is Strange” stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as life partners who finally get the chance to marry just as circumstances separate them. And the Bruce Willis thriller “Vice” hits On Demand the same day it debuts in theaters.
Netflix
The 2011 version of John le Carre’s cold war spy novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is superb, a haunting thriller as much about isolation and loneliness as it is about spycraft. It earned Oscar nominations for star Gary Oldman and for the screenplay.
More kinetic is the urban action film “Brick Mansions,” the last film that Paul Walker completed before his death in 2013, and “Automata” with Antonio Banderas hunting maverick robots.
Netflix launches the new original animated series “The Adventures of Puss in Boots” (a spin-off of the animated feature) and debuts the second season of the British mystery series “The Fall,” starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dorman, this week.
Amazon Instant Prime
The Amazon original series “Transparent” won two awards Golden Globes this week, which makes the announcement of the new Amazon Pilot Season all the more timely.
Debut episodes of seven proposed new shows are now available to view for free, even if you don’t have an Amazon Prime account. “Point of Honor” is a Civil War drama; “The Man in the High Castle” is a science fiction show based on Philip K. Dick’s novel (it’s shot in Seattle); and “The New Yorker Presents” is a docu-series from Oscar-winner Alex Gibney. Comedies include “Cocked” with Sam Trammell and Jason Lee, “Down Dog” with Josh Casaubon and Paget Brewster, “Mad Dogs” with Steve Zahn and Billy Zahn, and “Salem Rogers” with Leslie Bibb. Viewer feedback helps decide which shows will get picked up.
“Justified: Season 5,” the FX series starring Timothy Olyphant as a maverick federal marshal, arrives a week before the sixth and final season debuts on cable.