Showtime launches a streaming service and ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘It Follows’ debut on VOD
Showtime has created a streaming service with a greater range of options and a lower price tag than HBO’s service. Subscribe through Apple TV, Roku, or PlayStation Vue for $10.99 a month, or add it to your Hulu subscription for $8.99 a month. It comes with the complete library of Showtime’s original shows and there’s a 30-day free trial. Just long enough to get hooked on “Masters of Sex” or “Penny Dreadful.”
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
“Ex Machina” is science fiction as chamber drama, a clever game of wiles between a socially naïve programmer (Domhnall Gleeson), a sophisticated artificial intelligence (Alicia Vikander), and a manipulative software genius (Oscar Isaac). The simple but effective American horror film “It Follows” is less cerebral but just as smart and much creepier. Both rated R for violence and nudity. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Juliette Binoche shines in “Clouds of Sils Maria” as a 40-something actress struggling with a new role and Kristen Stewart matches her scene-for-scene as her savvy assistant. R for language and brief nudity. Also on DVD.
Also new: the Kevin James comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” (PG) and the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Salt of the Earth” (PG-13). Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the revenge thriller “Lila & Eve” with Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez (R).
Netflix
Looking for distractions for the kids? Add the animated spin-off movie “Penguins of Madagascar” (2014) to your list. Just say these are the minions of Madagascar.
Strictly for adults is “ BoJack Horseman: Season 2,” the animated Netflix original that skewers showbiz and celebrity culture.
Also new: Spike Lee’s Kickstarter-funded horror film “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” (2014) and Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” (2008) with Angelina Jolie.
Amazon Prime Instant Video
More seasons of HBO shows roll out: “Boardwalk Empire: Season 3” takes us to the halfway point of the prohibition-era gangster drama and “ True Blood: Season 5” steers the hot-blooded vampire melodrama into its most ridiculous season yet. Both for mature audiences.
Hulu Plus
“ East Los High: Season 3” continues the Hulu original series about life in East Los Angeles from the American Latino perspective, and this season singer Christina Milian and Oscar-nominated actress Catalina Sandino Moreno join the cast.
Other streams
“ Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser,” the sequel that nobody asked for, debuts exclusively on the free streaming service Crackle.