From fast-paced action films to new kid shows, there are a lot of great announcements in entertainment this week. Be sure to catch all of the free screening and movie reviews below too.
Movie Screenings
- Ambulance – April 5th
Movies and Series Reviews:
Trailers, Updates, and More
Prep’ for HBO Max’s New Series “Julia” with Classic “The French Chef” Episodes on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel NOW
What better way to “prep” for HBO Max’s upcoming original series, “Julia” than by binge-watching all 10 seasons of the classic series “The French Chef,” currently streaming on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel! Almost 60 years after the first episode premiered, when viewers welcomed Julia Child into their kitchen with her irreverent ways of cooking French cuisine, “The French Chef” is still one of the most beloved and respected cooking shows in the world and considered the program that paved the way for an entirely new television show genre.
In addition, channel subscribers can watch the insightful series “Dishing with Julia Child” which features world-renowned chefs watching select episodes of “The French Chef” while reminiscing about their favorite Julia stories. The nine chefs featured in the series include Martha Stewart, Jacques Pépin, Éric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson, José Andrés, Rick Bayless, Carla Hall, Vivian Howard, and Sara Moulton. “Julia Child – Cooking with Master Chefs” is also currently available to stream on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.
The subscription rate for the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel is $3.99/month with an Amazon Prime or Prime Video subscription. Every purchase supports public television for all.
Catch other great PBS baking and cooking shows on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel including “A Chefs Life,” multiple seasons of “Mind of A Chef,” “No Passport Required,” and more.
DreamWorks Animation Debuts Trailer for Madagascar: A Little Wild Season 7 – April 4th
Are you ready to walk on the wild side? A new season of DreamWorks Animation Madagascar: A Little Wild will be releasing on April 4 on Hulu and Peacock! Guest stars this season include Fortune Feimster (The Mighty Ones; The Mindy Project) as “Manager Cow” and Patrick Warburton (Emperor’s New Groove) as “Ranger Hay.” Check out the season 7 trailer below!
New York’s favorite Habitat crew, Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria continue to have each other’s backs as they follow their dreams, no matter the size! Marty finally has a chance to become a Junior Ranger Zebra. Melman is chosen to perform an original song for his favorite animal country star, if only he can overcome some serious stage fright. Gloria finally gets a taste of the attention she’s always craved as the Habitat’s first-ever radio show host. Alex tries his paw at cooking, hoping to become a big time celebrity chef. And the whole gang helps Ant’ney convince his mom that he’s mature enough to build a nest of his own!
Loveable foursome Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo steal the show in Madagascar: A Little Wild, executive produced by Johanna Stein (Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny). Capturing the iconic personalities of each of the four dynamos, Madagascar: A Little Wild showcases the team as kids residing in their rescue habitat at the Central Park Zoo. They might be small, but like everybody who lands in New York City, these little guys have big dreams and Madagascar: A Little Wild will follow all of their adventures.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 | NEW FEATURETTE, CLIP, AND IMAGES AVAILABLE NOW! – In Theaters April 8th
The world’s favorite blue hedgehog is back for a next-level adventure in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2. After settling in Green Hills, Sonic is eager to prove he has what it takes to be a true hero. His test comes when Dr. Robotnik returns, this time with a new partner, Knuckles, in search for an emerald that has the power to destroy civilizations. Sonic teams up with his own sidekick, Tails, and together they embark on a globe-trotting journey to find the emerald before it falls into the wrong hands. From the filmmakers behind The Fast and the Furious and Deadpool, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 stars James Marsden, Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub and Jim Carrey returning, alongside new additions Shemar Moore, with Idris Elba as the voice of Knuckles and Colleen O’Shaughnessey as the voice of Tails.xx
DISNEY+ ORIGINAL SHORTS “ICE AGE: SCRAT TALES” TRAILER – Streaming April 13th
Disney+ has released the trailer for “Ice Age: Scrat Tales.” “Ice Age: Scrat Tales” is a series of six all-new animated shorts starring Scrat, the hapless saber-toothed squirrel of the “Ice Age” adventures, who experiences the ups and downs of fatherhood, as he and the adorable, mischievous Baby Scrat, alternately bond with each other and battle for ownership of the highly treasured Acorn. Featuring the vocal talents of Chris Wedge (Scrat) and Kari Wahlgren (Baby Scrat), the series is produced by Anthony Nisi, with Robert L. Baird and Andrew Millstein serving as executive producers. “Ice Age: Scrat Tales” will debut on Disney+ on April 13.
“It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown” to premiere globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, April 15
Ahead of the premiere of the all-new Earth Day Peanuts special, “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown,” on Friday, April 15, Apple TV+ today revealed the trailer for the new original special, which is based on the classic Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz and features an original song by American singer-songwriter Ben Folds.
In celebration of Earth Day, “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown” follows Sally’s bond with a special little flower on the baseball field that may spell disaster for the big game. For Charlie Brown and the team, it’s just the inspiration they need to make a positive impact on their environment. Produced for Apple TV+ by Peanuts and WildBrain, the special is directed by Raymond S. Persi and executive produced by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, Cornelius Uliano, Paige Braddock, Josh Scherba, Stephanie Betts, Amir Nasrabadi and Anne Loi, and produced by James Brown and Tim Smith.
In addition, the classic Peanuts special from Mendelson/Melendez Productions, “It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown,’’ is also coming soon to Apple TV+ in celebration of the environment, and will make its Apple TV+ debut on April 29. To celebrate Arbor Day, Charlie Brown’s baseball team turns the field into a lush garden, throwing Peppermint Patty off her game.
The expanding and award-winning lineup of original films and series for kids and families on Apple TV+ also includes the recently premiered critically-acclaimed “El Deafo;” “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” and “Harriet the Spy” from The Jim Henson Company; “Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show” from Jack McBrayer and Angela C. Santomero; “Wolfboy and the Everything Factory” from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, HITRECORD and Bento Box Entertainment; “Get Rolling with Otis” and “Puppy Place”; Daytime Emmy Award-winning “Ghostwriter” and “Helpsters” from Sesame Workshop; Academy Award-nominated animated film “Wolfwalkers”; Peabody Award-winning series “Stillwater”; new series and specials from Peanuts and WildBrain including “Snoopy in Space” season two and “For Auld Lang Syne”; “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth,” the Daytime Emmy Award-winning television event based on the New York Times best-selling book and TIME Best Book of the Year by Oliver Jeffers.
Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL, and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.* For more information, visit apple.com/tvpr and see the full list of supported devices.
GIRLS CAN’T SURF – Coming to VOD on April 19th – New Trailer
It’s the 1980s and the world of professional surfing is a circus of fluoro colours, peroxide hair and radical male egos. GIRLS CAN’T SURF follows the journey of a band of renegade surfers who took on the male-dominated professional surfing world to achieve equality and change the sport forever.
The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball debuts April 22 on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ announced that its new five-part documentary series “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball,” chronicling the inspiring, coming-of-age story of basketball phenom Makur Maker, will make its global debut on Friday, April 22 on Apple TV+.Seth Gordon (“Undefeated”) directs and executive produces “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball,” which follows Maker, the NBA hopeful who grabbed global headlines with his groundbreaking decision to forgo the NBA and play for Howard University, making him the highest-ranked high school player in the modern recruiting era to commit to an HBCU. The docuseries is an intimate look at Makur’s life as a student athlete with a dream of making it to the NBA, while unexpected physical challenges and a global pandemic threatens his college career. Off the courts, “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball” explores how his journey from fleeing war-torn South Sudan as a child and his tight-knit support system led him to go to a historically black university, and in turn, allowed him to make an impactful statement in the wake of America’s cultural response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
In addition to Gordon, executive producers are Nikki Calabrese, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma, Jordan Wynn, Luis Lopez and Julia Gunn. “The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball” is produced for Apple by Exhibit A, Boardwalk Pictures and Sony Pictures Television.“The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball” joins a growing lineup of acclaimed and award-winning docuseries and documentaries on Apple TV+, including the soon-to-premiere and highly anticipated four-part Earvin “Magic” Johnson docuseries “They Call Me Magic”; Emmy Award-winning “Boys State”; “The Velvet Underground,” the acclaimed documentary from director Todd Haynes; Critics Choice Award-winning and Emmy and Grammy Award-nominated “Beastie Boys Story”; the global smash hit documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry”; Werner Herzog’s Critics Choice Documentary Award nominee “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds”; as well as upcoming documentaries “The Supermodels” and “Number One on the Call Sheet” from acclaimed storytellers Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Datari Turner and Dan Cogan, and more.
Apple TV+ is home to award-winning Apple Originals from today’s most imaginative storytellers. Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all your favorite screens. Since the debut of Apple TV+ just over two years ago, Apple’s series and films have earned more than 240 awards and over 953 nominations, including recent recognition from the Academy Awards, SAG Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, NAACP Image Awards, as well as past Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards, plus more.
Hulu’s Crush | First look – Streaming April 29th
When an aspiring young artist is forced to join her high school track team, she uses it as an opportunity to pursue the girl she’s been harboring a long-time crush on. But she soon finds herself falling for an unexpected teammate and discovers what real love feels like.
UNCHARTED | Available on Digital April 26 and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-Ray™ & DVD May 10
Street-smart thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune lost by Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world’s oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother…but only if they can learn to work together.
BONUS MATERIALS4K ULTRA HD, BLU-RAY and DIGITAL
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Behind the Scenes Featurettes
- Becoming Nathan Drake
- Big Action Breakdown: C-17 Globemaster
- Charting the Course: On Set with Ruben Fleischer
- Never a Dull Moment: Stunts & Action
- The Buddy System
- Villains, Backstabbers & Accomplices
- Commentary with Director Ruben Fleischer
DVD
- The Buddy System
Hulu Original Film “The Valet” – Premieres May 20
In “The Valet,” world famous movie star, Olivia (Samara Weaving) faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photo of her with her married lover, Vincent (Max Greenfield). The hard-working valet Antonio (Eugenio Derbez) accidentally appears in the same photo and is enlisted to pose as Olivia’s new boyfriend as a cover up. This ruse with Olivia thrusts Antonio into the spotlight and unexpected chaos. In this fish out of water romantic comedy, two worlds and cultures collide as both Olivia and Antonio start to see themselves more clearly than ever before. “The Valet,” directed by Richard Wong and written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, is the English-language remake of the hit French film.
CAST: Eugenio Derbez (“CODA”), Samara Weaving (“Nine Perfect Strangers”), Max Greenfield (“New Girl”), Betsy Brandt (“Breaking Bad”), Carmen Salinas Lozano, Amaury Nolasco, Marisol Nichols, Diany Rodriguez, Tiana Okoye, John Pirrucello, Ravi Patel, Noemí González, and Lunay.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK | New Official Trailer & Poster – In Theaters May 27th
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU – New Trailer and Poster Now Available – In Theaters July 1st
This summer, from the biggest global animated franchise in history, comes the origin story of how the world’s greatest supervillain first met his iconic Minions, forged cinema’s most despicable crew and faced off against the most unstoppable criminal force ever assembled in Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Long before he becomes the master of evil, Gru (Oscar® nominee Steve Carell) is just a 12-year-old boy in 1970s suburbia, plotting to take over the world from his basement.
It’s not going particularly well. When Gru crosses paths with the Minions, including Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto—a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please—this unexpected family joins forces. Together, they build their first lair, design their first weapons, and strive to execute their first missions.
When the infamous supervillain supergroup, the Vicious 6, oust their leader—legendary martial arts fighter Wild Knuckles (Oscar® winner Alan Arkin)— Gru, their most devoted fanboy, interviews to become their newest member. The Vicious 6 is not impressed by the diminutive, wannabe villain, but then Gru outsmarts (and enrages) them, and he suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. With Gru on the run, the Minions attempt to master the art of kung fu to help save him, and Gru discovers that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
Featuring more spectacular action than any film in Illumination history and packed with the franchise’s signature subversive humor, Minions: The Rise of Gru stars a thrilling new cast, including, the Vicious 6: Taraji P. Henson as cool and confident leader Belle Bottom, whose chain belt doubles as a lethal disco-ball mace; Jean-Claude Van Damme as the nihilistic Jean Clawed, who’s armed (literally) with a giant robotic claw; Lucy Lawless as Nunchuck, whose traditional nun’s habit hides her deadly nun-chucks; Dolph Lundgren as Swedish roller-skate champion Svengeance, who dispenses his enemies with spin kicks from his spiked skates; and Danny Trejo as Stronghold, whose giant iron hands are both a menace to others and a burden to him.
The film also stars Russell Brand as Young Dr. Nefario, an aspiring mad scientist, Michelle Yeoh as Master Chow, an acupuncturist with mad kung fu skills, and Oscar® winner Julie Andrews as Gru’s maddeningly self-absorbed mom.
Steered by the franchise’s original creators, Minions: The Rise of Gru is produced by visionary Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and his longtime collaborators Janet Healy and Chris Renaud. The film is directed by returning franchise filmmaker Kyle Balda (Despicable Me 3, Minions), co-directed by Brad Ableson (The Simpsons) and Jonathan del Val (The Secret Life of Pets films), and features the iconic voice of Pierre Coffin as the Minions and a killer ’70s soundtrack courtesy of legendary Grammy-winning music producer Jack Antonoff.
Black Bird to Premiere July 8, 2022 on Apple TV+
Apple unveiled a first look and the premiere date for “Black Bird,” a gritty, suspenseful six-episode psychological thriller developed and executive produced by Dennis Lehane that will premiere globally with the first two episodes on Friday, July 8, 2022 on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday. The series is adapted from the true crime memoir “In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption” by James Keene and Hillel Levin.
Inspired by actual events, when high school football hero, decorated policeman’s son, and convicted drug dealer Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison, he is given the choice of a lifetime — enter a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), or stay where he is and serve his full sentence with no possibility of parole. Keene quickly realizes his only way out is to elicit a confession and find out where the bodies of several young girls are buried before Hall’s appeal goes through. But is this suspected killer telling the truth? Or is it just another tale from a serial liar? This dramatic and captivating story subverts the crime genre by enlisting the help of the very people put behind bars to solve its mysteries.
In addition to Egerton and Hauser, “Black Bird” stars Sepideh Moafi, Greg Kinnear and Ray Liotta.
“Black Bird” is developed and executive produced by Lehane. The first three episodes are directed by Academy Award-nominee Michaël R. Roskam (“Bullhead,” “The Drop”), who also serves as executive producer. Lehane, Egerton and Roskam executive produce alongside Richard Plepler through his EDEN Productions; Bradley Thomas, Dan Friedkin and Ryan Friedkin executive produce through Imperative Entertainment; Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert executive produce through EMJAG Productions; and Kary Antholis also executive produces, along with the book’s author James Keene. Jim McKay and Joe Chappelle also direct. The limited series is produced for Apple TV+ by Apple Studios.
Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL, and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com , for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial.
For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.*
