Stream on Demand: Netflix has Lemony Snicket’s “Unfortunate Events,” Amazon presents “Sneaky Pete”
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
Nate Parker directs, writes and stars in “The Birth of a Nation,” an incendiary drama about Nat Turner’s slave uprising in the antebellum South. Parker’s passion outweighs the dramatic shortcomings and it won top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.
Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell fight to survive the “Deepwater Horizon” oil rig disaster (PG-13) and Ben Affleck is “The Accountant,” a math savant with the skills of a professional assassin (R).
Also new: the concert film “Kevin Hart: What Now?“ (R).
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the World War II thriller “Alone in Berlin” starring Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson (R), drama “The Book of Love” with Jason Sudeikis and Maisie Williams (PG-13), and cyber-thriller “The Crash” with Minnie Driver (R).
Netflix
Neil Patrick Harris is master of disguise Count Olaf, the scheming uncle of three orphaned children, in the darkly comic Netflix original series “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” based on the Lemony Snicket books by Daniel Handler. The first eight episodes now streaming.
The family-friendly fantasy “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (2016) brings Alice (Mia Wasikowska) and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) back for a time-traveling adventure (PG), and “It Follows” (2014) is an unnerving American independent horror film (R).
True stories: “Miss Sharon Jones!” (2015) profiles the late, great soul singer (not rated)
Kid stuff: the animated “We’re Lalaloopsy: Season 1” for the wee ones and the animated feature “Ratchet and Clank” (2016) for adolescents (PG).
Amazon Prime Video
Giovanni Ribisi is “Sneaky Pete,” a con man who takes the identity of his dead cell mate and hides out from a gangster (Bryan Cranston) with the man’s estranged criminal family, in the new Amazon original series. 10 episodes.
“The Infiltrator” (2016) stars Bryan Cranston as real-life federal agent Robert Mazur, who went undercover into Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking business in the 1980s (R).
Vintage TV: Craig Stevens is “Peter Gunn” in the first season cool 1950s private eye drama.
HBO Now
“Bright Lights,” a portrait of the rocky but loving relationship between show business legend Debbie Reynolds and actress/author daughter Carrie Fisher, is a touching tribute to both artists.
New episodes of “Sesame Street: Season 47” debut every Saturday morning.
Also new: the drama “Demolition” (2015) with Jake Gyllenhaal as a grieving widower (R) and M. Night Shyamalan’s horror film “The Visit” (2015) (PG-13).
New on disc
“Deepwater Horizon,” “The Accountant,” “The Birth of a Nation,” “Kevin Hart: What Now?,” “Mr. Robot: Season 2.0”
Redbox
“Deepwater Horizon,” “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” “Morgan”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.