inside LOVEFiLM

TVs across the land are very probably on 24-hour Olympics at the moment. And rightly so – seems any time you glance at the screen you’re likely to see someone incredible doing something amazing.

And Team GB are climbing the medals table, which just adds to the joy.

If you’re looking for some alternative entertainment to go alongside your sports viewing, we’ve got a strong line-up to watch instantly. (And if you can’t be bothered to read any further, you’ll find a score of titles in our August Top 20 – there you go, easy!)

Recently added highlights include Sam Worthington Greek godding it up in Clash of the Titans, as the half-mortal Perseus caught in a dust-up ‘twixt top god Zeus (Liam Neeson) and big bad Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). I mean… Hades. (Some sort of Olympic/Mount Olympus/Greek gag surely goes here, but I can’t make it work. Sorry.)

Sleeping Beauty is very definitely NOT of Disney origin, so approach with extreme caution. And on the subject of films-not-for-the-faint-hearted, American History X – with Ed Norton’s terrific performance as a neo-Nazi skinhead – is available now and proving very popular.

As are Infestation and Observe & Report, the first of which looks a bit rubbish to me (28 Days Later meets Starship Troopers, roughly) but clearly enjoyable rubbish at that. And O&R is the Seth Rogen and Anna Faris comedy that’s a bit like Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but not.

Still in the comedy department, Russell Brand and Jonah Hill in Get Him To The Greek and Omid Djalili in The Infidel started on 1 August, and have already established themselves in the top ten.

John Travolta actioner From Paris With Love is going great guns too (pun, embarrassingly, very much intended). And while we’ll have The Dark Knight to stream for a few weeks yet, Batman Begins will disappear into the night from Thurs 9 August, so watch while you still can.

All seven seasons of Desperate Housewives have arrived, if you fancy ploughing through a long-running telly show.

And from 6 August, we’ll have The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock (who won an Oscar for her role), with The Waterboy starring Adam Sandler (who didn’t) from 8 August.

Which brings us back around to the sports stuff, and there – for now – we shall leave it.

Happy viewing, and COME ON TEAM GB!

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

Much as I’m enjoying Awake and Smash on broadcast telly at the moment, waiting a week for each new episode is quite frustrating.

This is the legacy, of course, of having guzzled down entire boxsets of a given TV show on DVD in the past. And such gluttony is hardly helped by TV series arriving on LOVEFiLM Instant, with shows like 24, Prison Break, Brothers and Sisters, Lost and many, many more available to watch instantly at no extra cost.

Lie To Me (starring Tim Roth), the very excellent and criminally cancelled Firefly from Joss Whedon (it’s only 12 episodes, what are you waiting for?!), and the first season of Buffy (the rest coming soon) are among the most recent arrivals.

They’re taking a little while to get up to a full sprint, but are already holding their own with firm BBC favourites like Blackadder, Gavin & Stacey and Doctor Who…

And Underbelly - if you liked Animal Kingdom and/or urban crime dramas with a vicious edge, this Australian series will be right up your street.

Ghost Whisperer, starring the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt, continues to do well, and the aforementioned Prison Break and 24 (we’ve got every episode of both series) have broken into the top 5 after less than a week on the service.

Only Fools & Horses, perhaps surprisingly, is in third place right now – always nice to revisit some classic comedy and see how it’s standing the test of time.

Overwrought but hugely addictive family drama Brothers & Sisters, starring Rob Lowe, Calista Flockhart, and Sally Field (and loads more), is in second spot.

And top of the (palm?) tree, Lost continues to lead the way – powerfully popular, and showing no signs of waning just yet.

So I’m finding even easier to gorge. And utter the words ‘just one more episode’. And realise I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep for ages…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

We’re running a little poll on the LOVEFiLM homepage at the moment – just a handle of titles recently added or coming soon to the LOVEFiLM Instant streaming service, asking for your favourite.

Kill Bill’s running away with it. Kick-Ass is second. Scream 1-3 is (are?) third. And Tinker Tailor (streaming at no extra cost to your normal streaming package from 30 June), The Guard (from 16 June) and Green Zone are next.

Cell 211 is rooted at the foot of the table. Which isn’t surprising – we asked for your favourites, and loads of people simply haven’t seen this Spanish language prison thriller. Yet.

If that’s you, do yourself a BIG favour, and stream it now. Or sometime very soon.

If you are one of the few who HAVE seen it, please please please comment on this blog – that way, people don’t just have to take my word for it when I say that it’s superb.

Which it is. A nerve-shreddingly tense thriller that makes Prison Break look like a Disneyland ride.

It’s about a keeno new guard in a maximum security jail, who goes in the day BEFORE his first shift to have a look round. He gets caught in an unused wing when the inmates riot and take the prison. All the guards leg it. He’s caught in there, in civilian clothes, and now his only hope of survival is pretending to be a new convict. And never letting on who he really is.

And without actors we know (ie stars who are probably going to make it to the end of the film), the safety net is gone too.

Cell 211 is already tapped for a US remake – I’m saying Gyllenhaal for Juan Oliver, but Gosling and Ed Norton are being touted on IMDb too.

So why not watch the original now, at no extra cost, and join the small but growing army of flag-wavers for this terrific crime thriller. And, if you feel like it, comment here to let everyone know what you think…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

On May Bank Holidays past, I’ll have been polishing my best It’s Still Good To Watch Films Even When The Weather’s Hot & Sunny speech. Would that such a thing were required for this weekend.

Alas, grey skies and temperatures under 10 degrees is the lot for most of us. Still, it’s a 3 day break, so if you’re looking for the latest additions to our streaming service, here’s the May issue of the New to LOVEFiLM Instant feature.

Some great titles therein, including Guy Ritchie’s first geezeriffic take on Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr in truly excellent form, Morgan Freeman superb as Nelson Mandela in Invictus (and able supported by Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar), and Spike Jonze’s version of the popular kids fantasy story, Where The Wild Things Are.

Some tasty superhero titles make their entrance too, courtesy of our friends at WarnerFilms, tying in nicely with the Avengers action kicking off all over the big screen at the moment.

And on the subject of Warner Bros, if you’ve heard word of their recently opened Harry Potter studio tour and wondered if it’s worth it, wonder no longer: it’s fabulous.

A few LOVEFiLMers took the tour and even the most cynical and buttoned-up of our number were well and truly wowed. There’s a bit of history, a small amount of helpful guidance through the early parts (including the Great dining Hall), and then you’re left to explore some amazing sets and marvel at the incredible level of detail, care and passion that has been poured into this ground-breaking film series.

You can even fly a broomstick if you want. Probably best to do this before you sample the Butter Beer.

But whatever your plans, from all of us here at LOVEFiLM, have a great Bank Holiday weekend…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

Our lovely new show, LOVEFiLM Instant Presents… (or LIPs), is live. Live, I tell you. It lives!

Each episode is brimming with streaming titles that we’re excited about and don’t want you to miss – a blend of hidden gems, old favourites, all-time classics and titles new to LOVEFiLM Instant.

We showcase films, TV series, some Staff Picks, a few tasty titles Coming Soon, and a Top 10 (which we hand-pluck from the entire catalogue).

And every instalment is presented by one of our cheery mugs – me, currently. Sorry about that.

Episode 2 is out now for your enjoyment and general delectation.

It includes a Top 10 TV shows countdown, our Head of Product Stephen Field with clips from his all-time faves – Dr Strangelove, Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver – and Bruce Willis talking about RED.

We’d love your feedback, either here or in review form on the LIPs page itself, so let us know what you think. And feel free to suggest any streaming favourites of your own that deserve to be featured in a future show.

Oh, and if you missed it, here’s Episode 1…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

Though many things can drag wearily through the post-festive hinterland of January, our streaming service isn’t one of them – it’s positively bursting into 2012 with new films, new TV shows, and all the shouty vigour of a kid who’s had too many E numbers.*

Telly series from ABC (Lost, Cougar Town, etc) and Auntie Beeb* (Doctor Who, Mighty Boosh, etc), plus movies galore – just right for holing up indoors, saving pennies, and giving yourself square eyeballs.*

So here’s my current Top Ten from the LOVEFiLM Instant selection:

1. Moon
2. Source Code
3. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
4. Westworld
5. Blackadder the Third – Duel & Duality
6. High Fidelity
7. Body of Lies
8. Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 4 – The Girl in the Fireplace
9. Superman Returns
10. 3:10 To Yuma

Didn’t include any Lost episodes, but I loved it first time through – likelihood of my returning to the island and doing it all again? Very high.

And here are five I’m very much looking forward to watching:

1. Dead Snow
2. Rare Exports – A Christmas Tale
3. The Mighty Boosh – Series 1-2
4. In The Loop
5. Raising the Bar – Series 1-2

Feel free to post your own streaming top lists… Favourites…? Looking Forward To’s…? Shall we say, top 5s…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

(* these phrases clearly dating the author of this post)

Horror films are a curious business – perhaps there’s something primal or elemental (or just plain mental) about our love of stories that scare us half to death, then leave us with sleepless nights and peering petrified into the shadowy corners of our own homes.

Whatever the reason, if you’re looking for an instant fright night on October 31st (or any other night), here are a few screaming streaming suggestions.

Sam Raimi’s rather excellent B-movie horror-comedies The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 are both available. And from even earlier, George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead brings the zombies to town.

Ring is just one of many Asian terror-mongers; Audition and Ju-On are really creepy too, as is the original Dark Water. And on the subject of originals, the atmosphere created in Ole Bornedal’s Nightwatch - about a security guard in a mortuary – is intense.

More recently, Dead Snow is proving very popular (skiers run into Nazi zombies!); likewise The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden.

Trick ‘R Treat has obvious Halloween credentials going for it, but if you’re looking for the all-time classics how about The Exorcist (it’s a version you’ve never seen before, apparently), or Vincent Price in The House on Haunted Hill, James Whale’s Frankenstein, or even FW Murnau’s silent Dracula horror, Nosferatu, from 1922.

Or, you know, there’s always the attack of the giant ants in Them…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

Tempus fugit, said the Roman poet, and October seems to be pretty well fugiting too (although the Romans would probably have been talking about August, of course, but that’s not especially relevant). What IS important is that we’ve already reached the ides of October, so with half the month left, here are a few must-see pointers:

First and foremost, you can stream RED at no extra cost, like about a gazillion members have done already since we launched it last week. Maybe loads of people missed it at the cinema, maybe it’s just massive fun – but get a load of Bruce Willis and his OAP A-Team (Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich) while you can.

A slightly younger crew of special ops agents also get grumpy and vengeful in The Losers. And R-Patz, K-Stew and T-Laut continue their L-Tri in the third instalment of the Twilight saga, E-Clipse. You can stream both of these as part of your subscription too. I know, like OMG, right?!

Far more serious vamp action comes in the pared-down, road-movie form of Stake Land – which is premium pay-per-view (so £3.50 to stream), but pretty damn good. And also combining damn and good, Devil’s Advocate is on streaming – yeah, it’s 14 years old already, but who doesn’t enjoy Al Pacino over-acting his head off and Keanu Reeves getting into seriously hot water?

Texas Killing Fields looks dark and thrilling at the cinema – that’s Sam Worthington (Avatar, The Debt) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) hunting a serial killer in the Texan swamplands. Not 100% sure about The Three Musketeers, but it might be rompy fun (and director Paul WS Anderson’s Event Horizon is one of my all-time favourites). And Contagion is the 21st century version of Outbreak, which we’ve got on streaming, if you fancy a global viral epidemic nostalgia trip.

Plenty more to enjoy, of course, in every department. I’ve just added Life In A Day to my DVD rental list – director Kevin Macdonald’s collage movie of YouTube films from across the world, all sent on one day: 24 July, 2010 – and I’ve added The Beaver too. Stop sniggering.

But if I’m looking forward to one thing more than any other this month, it’s George Clooney returning to triple-hatted duties as star/writer/director of a US political thriller (based on the play Farragut North, which itself is based on a real-life Presidential primary campaign). It’s released on 28 Oct, and it’s called The Ides of March.

See…? All that nonsense in the first paragraph makes some vague degree of sense now, right…?

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

The weasel flies west at midnight… OK, so this line isn’t actually in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but I can’t help but think it might have been better for it. Not much, just a little. Or maybe it would have been more at home in spy spoof Top Secret! (you can stream this, you know).

Either way, last week’s Tinker Tailor premiere was huge fun, and – to begin this post of pointers towards our best streaming content – you can find the Tinker Tailor cast members in various other movies, all ready to watch instantly, in our Tinker Tailor cast collection.

Double DiCaprio this month sees Leo in the explosive actioner Blood Diamond, set during the 1999 Sierra Leone civil war, and as a CIA agent in Body of Lies, opposite Russell Crowe and – in fantastic form – TTSS cast member Mark Strong.

A pair of Pirates movies are available too. Watch the joyous, off-kilter voyage that launched the whole escapade, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, at no extra cost. And get the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, on pay-per-view, as Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush go back to basics, and add Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane (Lovejoy, as far as I’m concerned) into the mix.

There’s more from the chameleonic Depp, in animated form in animal-comedy-western Rango, plus ghostly scare-fare Insidious, and Marion Cotillard in drama Little White Lies – all also on a pay-per-view basis.

And in the no-extra-cost camp, some films that have always proved really popular when we’ve streamed them before: De Niro, Liotta, Pesci and co in Scorsese’s all-time gangster classic Goodfellas. Al Pacino and Colin Farrell up to CIA shenanigans in The Recruit. Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in genre-bending buddy movie Shanghai Noon. And The Matrix – why wouldn’t you?!

Caped cartoon capers abound in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (it’s really good, and it’s not the only one we’ve got, actually), plus animated ants in The Ant Bully. And it might be worth checking out Daniel Craig playing a washed-up Hollywood star in Flashbacks of a Fool.

Oh, and from October 1, you can stream Twilight: Eclipse. As part of your normal subscription. At no extra cost. As if anyone’s going to be interested in that…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

So, September means Autumn in my book – though, admittedly, that ‘book’ is now a bit dog-eared, yellowing, and amateurishly covered in wallpaper, because “they last longer that way”.

And Autumn means park football, pouring rain, chilly mornings, shrinking daylight hours (not too dissimilar to August, then), and no longer feeling guilty about being indoors watching films when you should be outside “getting some fresh air (and/or a girlfriend)”.

If our Top 20 September Movies feature is anything to go by (we do one of these every month), there’s a score of very good reasons to continue “going square-eyed”.

Top of the pops for me is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – the cinematic remake of John le Carre’s legendary novel. Gary Oldman takes over the role of George Smiley (that Alec Guinness played so memorably in the 1979 BBC mini-series), hired to root out a mole right at the top of the British Secret Service during the height of the Cold War.

Quite like the look of the Fright Night remake too, with Colin Farrell and former Tardis-keeper David Tennant in vampire horror antics, and Drive, a chase actioner that’s one of two Ryan Gosling movies on the list. And I’ve already seen Warrior, a stunning, superbly shot fight film starring Tom Hardy. It opens on 23 Sept. All I can say is: Book. Tickets. Now.

We’ve got two Pirates voyages on streaming – POTC 1: Black Pearl to watch at no extra cost, and POTC 4: On Stranger Tides on pay-per-view. And there’s a double helping of Leonardo DiCaprio too – Blood Diamond and Body of Lies both available to watch instantly as part of your normal subscription.

Loads more good stuff besides, of course, so have a look for yourself to see what you fancy.

Final shout must go to a DVD movie that somehow slipped below my radar until now: Tucker & Dale vs Evil. It stars Firefly/Serenity’s Alan Tudyk as Tucker, one half of a redneck duo who are mistaken for backwoods killers by a bunch of spring-breakers. It’s a teen slasher parody, it might be terrible, it might be great; but either way, I cannot wait…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager