‘The Holdovers’ Gets Streaming Date on Peacock

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “The Beekeeper” is the best kind of bad movie — which is to say, it’s the sort that puts entertainment ahead of pretentiousness, embracing the laughter sure to accompany such an unapologetically stupid, ultra-violent premise. Starring Jason Statham in what feels like a parody of Jason Statham movies, this conspiracy-fueled action showcase tortures its central metaphor until it can only be seen as a joke, featuring the “Transporter” star as ruthless, retired government assassin-turned-benevolent beekeeper Adam Clay, who’s pushed back into berserker mode after a phishing attack targets the kindly old woman from whom he rents a barn.

Amid the flood of awards-season nominations comes AARP, whose Movies for Grownups Awards noms arrived today. Oppenheimer leads the way with six mentions, followed by Killers of the Flower Moon with five. Both will vie for Best Picture alongside Barbie, The Color Purple and Maestro.

The Traitors star Aaron Evans will star in First Dates as he searches for romance.The news comes after the 25-year-old, who found fame after winning the first UK series of BBC's The Traitors, revealed a career change. Aaron previously won the reality TV show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, alongside Meryl Williams and Hannah Byczkowski.The three winners took home their share of the £101,050 prize, walking away with £33,000 each.

Stuart Miller Da’Vine Joy Randolph had grown weary of scripts that offered her shallow or one-dimensional characters. “I’ve felt like I had to fight for fully realized characters with complexities or even start writing or producing myself,” she says. Then she was sent David Hemingson’s script for “The Holdovers,” for the role of Mary Lamb, who works in the cafeteria of a prep school for the wealthy, soldiering on even as she mourns the death of her sonin Vietnam. “I was so overjoyed to read this character, someone who was really struggling, but also trying to persevere in spite of her situation,” says Randolph, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for her performance in “Ghost: The Musical.” She has since appeared in everything from “Dolemite Is My Name,” “High Fidelity” and “Only Murders in the Building” to “The United States vs.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic A hundred years ago, before email and social media found ways to slap us in the face with unsolicited obscenity on a daily basis, the quiet English town of Littlehampton was scandalized by an outburst of poison pen letters — a nasty case of epistolary terrorism that today might be lumped under the heading of “trolling.” Someone with lovely penmanship and a very salty vocabulary dashed off dozens (if not hundreds) of blisteringly offensive notes to members of the seaside community, igniting a police investigation and a series of trials breathlessly covered by the local press, then largely forgotten for almost a century. A bawdy black comedy that isn’t nearly as “outrageous” as it would have you believe, “Wicked Little Letters” offers a tongue-in-cheek retelling of those events for the Merchant Ivory set.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director While January is often a slower month in movie theaters, it’s usually when major Oscar contenders start hitting streaming platforms. That’s definitely the case this year as 2024 kicks off with the long-awaited arrival of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” on Apple TV+.

CBS‘ Super Bowl Soulful Celebration 25th Anniversary (fka Super Bowl Gospel Celebration) is set to air Saturday, February 10 at 8 PM on CBS and stream on Paramount+ (live for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on demand on Pluto TV and cbs.com the day after the special airs).

Every episode of BBC's Call the Midwife pulls viewers in with endearing storylines, kind characters and it's feel-good factor, and now fans won't have to wait too long for it to be back on screens. Following a teary Christmas special, the period drama has confirmed it's next series, which will mark the programme's 13th run, is just days away from airing. BBC bosses have now revealed that viewers will be able to pick up where the East London-based show left off this Sunday (January 7).

Apple Original Films today set the Martin Scorsese-directed Critics Choice and Golden Globe Award-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon to begin streaming globally on Apple TV+ beginning Friday, January 12. 

The Mandalorian has been named as the most streamed original television series in 2023.The third season of the Star Wars spinoff series wound up on Disney+ in April, with a finale that left some fans divided over its surprisingly optimistic conclusion.In a new list compiled by the data analysts Whip Media (via Yahoo News), which established the dominance of shows based on the share of viewers in the US from January to November, there are three more Disney+ shows in the top ten.Marvel series Loki comes in at Number Two, while Secret Invasion and Ahsoka land the seventh and ninth spots respectively.Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso takes the third spot, while the highest Netflix placing is You in fourth place, followed by Black Mirror at Number Six.Netflix do, however, take the largest share of the Top 30 in total, with a total of 11 contributions.In December, Netflix announced that they would be publishing a report twice a year to show what subscribers were watching over a six month period.The first report, which covered the months from January to June 2023, revealed that according to their data, The Night Agent was the most viewed product, racking up over 812 million hours globally.Created by Shawn Ryan, The Night Agent follows FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) who is thrown into a desperate hunt for a traitor at the highest levels of the US government.

The Pogues‘ Spider Stacy and The Mary Wallopers rang in the New Year by paying tribute to Shane MacGowan with a rendition of ‘Streams Of Whiskey’ on Jools Holland‘s Hootenanny.The Irish folk band performed the 1984 track alongside Stacy, who featured on the tin whistle, on the annual show. You can view it below.Posting on Twitter, The Pogues re-shared the performance and wrote: “For Shane, Streams of Whiskey with ⁦@marywallopers & ⁦@spiderstacy on Jools’ Hootenanny last night.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Oppenheimer” may not be streaming on Peacock until the new year, but “Barbie” is ready to watch from home right this second courtesy of Max. And it’s far from the only great movie in 2023 to find itself available on streaming as the year comes to a close. From Netflix’s Oscar contenders to Hollywood tentpoles such as “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” there’s no shortage of great 2023 titles streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Max and more platforms.

Every year, former President Barack Obama drops his list of the best movies of the year, always showing a man of interesting taste and, at the very least, a prominent, globally renowned figure who puts a big spotlight on underseen movies.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In a world…where moviegoing isn’t what it once was…a great trailer gets audiences motivated to check out a film on opening weekend. But the very best previews are so much more than that: They hold up as short-form works of art in their own right. Keep in mind, marketing pros get just two and a half minutes to grab your attention and make their pitch.

Miley Cyrus gets into the Christmas spirit in Nashville. A post shared by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus)Jennifer Lopez shared a photo posing in front of her stunning tree ahead of her holiday party with Ben Affleck.

Alexander Payne’s 3x Golden Globe nominated, 8x Critics Choice nominated dramedy The Holdovers will stream on Peacock on Friday, Dec. 29.

After last year’s Great Netflix Correction, the streaming sector in 2023 entered a decidedly more pragmatic phase.

Back in 2004, during a press tour for Sideways — Alexander Payne’s wine-soaked buddy movie starring Paul Giamatti as a depressive divorcé — the filmmaker and the actor were in Omaha in front of an audience.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In a medium where stop-motion chickens organize elaborate escape plans, computer-generated ducks have to do a lot more than relocate to amuse us. Illumination’s “Migration” — about a fussy duck dad who reluctantly reconsiders his fear of flying — is a cartoon in search of a concept, where the most daring idea is hiring the Oscar-nominated co-director of 2012’s “Ernest & Celestine” and asking him to abandon that movie’s unique watercolor style in favor of a relatively standard digital approach.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jake Johnson‘s survival comedy “Self Reliance” will play on the big screen for one day before it lands on Hulu. Neon is releasing the film in 225 North American theaters on Jan. 3 in partnership with the cinema chain AMC Theatres.