Noticias

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

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Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

Friday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries pummeled us with two major breakups, and I’m honestly not sure which split was more depressing.

RelatedVampire Diaries‘ Ian Somerhalder Backtracks on End Date Comment

The first breakup — the more obviously heartbreaking one, shall we say — was between Valerie and Stefan, freshly reunited with his own body after spending nearly two full episodes waltzing about as that Joseph Morgan look-alike. Returning Stefan’s soul nearly cost Valerie her life, and during a post-spell chat set to Ruelle’s devastating “I Get to Love You,” she acknowledged that her brooding boyfriend was more...

NCIS Enters a “Devil’s Triangle” – Review

In “Devil’s Triangle”, Diane Sterling (Melinda McGraw) calls her ex-husbands, Gibbs and Fornell, when her current husband, Victor Sterling of Homeland Security, goes missing. Checking out the Beltway Burger where Victor last called Diane, NCIS finds two employees shot dead with Victor’s gun. One of the employees is a Naval reservist, allowing Gibbs and the team to investigate officially.

I’m an NCIS fan who’s less interested in meeting Gibbs’s ex-wives, but since they are a signature part of his backstory, it’s worth putting Diane in context. Before Diane, we had met Gibbs’s third ex, Stephanie Flynn (Kathleen York) in the Season 5 episode “The Ex-File”. While that relationship was cordial, Diane has traditionally been referenced as the most caustic of Gibbs’s exes. She mentioned trying to be a human antidepressant to help him get over the death of his first wife,...

Yes, I did just use a Fall Out Boy song title as my headline for this recap. Stop judging me.

The break's over and "The Vampire Diaries" is back. After spending some time on set recently, I've been incredibly anxious for the return -- the cast has been very cryptic about the amazing (and horrible) things that are in store for our Mystic Falls favorites.

Tonight's episode employed a host of our favorite "Vampire Diaries" gimmicks: the Elena/Katherine bait and switch, the reincarnation by ring, and Bonnie moving leaves around with her brain. Just as we were getting comfortable in some familiar territory, however, everything was upended with a shocking twist. It took me a good 20 minutes to remove my jaw from the floor after that final scene.

Ready to re-watch it with me? Let's go, team!

8:01 - Is it just me, or does Isobel speak like a zombie,...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Buried"

Directed by Rodrigo Cortes

Released by Lionsgate

"Paper Man"

Directed by Kieran and Michele Mulroney

Released by Mpi Home Video

While one can't feel too badly for the future "Green Lantern" star and People's sexiest man alive, Ryan Reynolds' two stabs at glory outside the beaten path went largely unseen, which is particularly a shame in the case of Rodrigo Cortes' "Buried," the thriller where Reynolds has no acting partner but a cell phone as a military contractor who finds himself trapped in a coffin with no knowledge of how or why he got there. A success at Sundance, Lionsgate scrapped expansion plans for the film when it didn't do well in limited release, so home video will be the first chance for many to catch it. Still, that was a considerably bigger success than "Paper Man," which snuck in...