Imagine this: Friday rolls around and you decide you want to go to the movies. There’s only one problem. You look up the week’s new releases, and none of them strike your fancy. Feeling disappointed, you open Netflix and scroll endlessly trying to find something that grabs your attention.
Each week, reporter Shane Weinstein takes a look at what major motion pictures are hitting theaters and offers suggestions of alternate films to take in on Netflix. Here are his alternatives for the week of April 10, 2015.
New This Week: “The Longest Ride” (Starring Scott Eastwood and Britt Roberson)
Netflix Alternative: “One Day” (2011, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess)
New This Week: “Ex Machina” (Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Corey Johnson and Oscar Isaac)
Netflix Alternative: “Robocop” (1987, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen and Kurtwood Smith)
“Dredd” screenwriter Alex Garland’s long awaited directorial debut, “Ex Machina,” also hits theaters this week. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson (best known for playing Ron’s older brother Bill in the Harry Potter films) as a young programmer who finds himself selected to participate in an elite experiment that examines the human qualities being put into artificial intelligence. Currently sitting at an 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has garnered incredibly positive reviews from critics, but if the movie just seems to far “out there” for you, check out '80s cult classic "Robocop." The film tells the story of a deceased Detroit cop who is revived via a robotic suit. It reached cult-classic status in the years following its release, and rightfully so. A defining entry in the sci-fi action genre, the movie holds up incredibly well, and it’s interesting to think about how revolutionary it was at the time of its release. While the recent remake fell flat, the original is well worth another watch.
That’s it for this week. Be sure to check back next week when I’ll have alternates for “Child 44,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” and “Monkey Kingdom”
Contact this reporter at seweinst@asu.edu or on Twitter: @S_Weinstein95
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