Best streaming platform offers right now? As the competition between video streaming services intensifies, differentiation is ever-important. Hulu continues to offer both a strong on-demand streaming library and a robust live TV option. The service is an excellent option for watching popular TV shows and we like its broad platform support, even if Hulu’s original series are hit-or-miss. On the live TV front, Hulu’s channel coverage is top-notch and its DVR features compare well to the competition’s. Despite a few missteps, Hulu keeps its Editors’ Choice award because no other service can quite match its combination of streaming content. What Can You Watch on Hulu? Hulu’s on-demand library has always been about TV shows and that emphasis remains. The service offers hundreds of seasons and thousands of episodes from major networks. The rise of network-specific streaming services, like Paramount+ and NBC’s Peacock, has cut into this content library. However, Disney’s role in Hulu and its vast library of former 21st Century FOX content that doesn’t fit Disney+’s more family-friendly profile will likely keep Hulu afloat.
Hailed as a master guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, Keith Urban is one of the most successful country artists of the past two decades. Since the release of his American major label debut album in 1999, Urban has charted his own unique path in country music and influenced the genre along the way. Everything hasn’t always been perfect for Urban, however. It took him a little while to find his niche in the country world and he has dealt with addiction, which he overcame with the help of his wife, Nicole Kidman. Although Urban has been in the spotlight for many years, there are 10 facts about the singer that may be news to some fans. His fans know him as Keith Urban, but it turns out Urban’s real family name is slightly different than the last name he goes by. Urban was actually born Keith Lionel Urbahn, with an added ‘h’ in the name. While that small change likely doesn’t change the pronunciation of his name, it may surprise some fans. He was born on October 26, 1967 to his parents, Robert “Bob” and Marienne Urbahn, who owned a convenience store. He has one brother, Shane.
In what hasn’t exactly been a great year for action movies so far, Bad Boys for Life has to be the biggest surprise. Given its lengthy production history, its January release date, and the departure of series director Michael Bay — the action auteur gets a winking cameo here, perhaps taking a break from shooting Netflix’s 6 Underground — this movie could’ve been a disaster. Instead, Smith and Lawrence easily slip back into the roles that made them action movie icons in the ’90s and the writers find a way to update the garish, over-the-top aesthetic of the series for the franchise era. In a wise decision, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah don’t even bother trying to top the excess and mayhem of Bay’s Bad Boys II.Bad Boys For Life is a gentler, sillier movie than its predecessor, less interested in moments of vulgarity than in scenes of sitcom-like human connection and familial melodrama. There are explosions and car chases through the streets of Miami and jokes about getting too old for this shit, but the material is given a light touch that lets the two stars do what they do best.
Aviva tackles the multifaceted nature of gender identity in fittingly diverse fashion, depicting the highs and lows of a couple’s relationship via narrative and modern-dance means – as well as by having both a man and a woman play each of its protagonists, male Eden (Bobbi Jene Smith, Tyler Phillips) and female Aviva (Zina Zinchenko, Or Schraiber). That Bunuelian device speaks to the masculine and feminine sides of both characters, whose ups and downs together and apart form the basis of Boaz Yakin’s (Remember the Titans) unconventional semi-autobiographical tale. From email pen pals, to husband and wife, to estranged exes, Eden and Aviva’s love story is told from both external and interior vantage points. The writer/director employs narration, shifts in perspective, flashbacks, and wild dramatic scenes—both male and female Edens and Avivas sometimes share the screen, partying, arguing or having passionate sex—to provide an intimate sense of the desires and fears propelling these conjoined figures forward. Yakin’s sinuous, passionate indie is as entrancing as it is daring. See additional details on jazmine orozco. As mentioned, a video streaming service’s success largely depends on what its library offers. That’s why so many services are investing heavily in developing high-quality original content. Consider, for example, Netflix’s Stranger Things, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, all of which are Emmy-winning shows. Without these hooks, standalone video streaming services would likely be unable to compete with existing entertainment behemoths. Several platforms have also saved popular shows from the grave in an effort to build a compelling library. For instance, Roku is bringing back all the originals from the ill-fated Quibi. Apart from on-demand video streaming services, complete cable-replacement services are now just as mainstream. Some of the best live TV services, for example, such as Hulu and YouTube TV, offer robust lineups of local, news, sports, and lifestyle channels. Others have specialties. For instance, Locast is an excellent option for local channels, AT&T TV is the best for regional sports networks (RSNs), and Philo is custom-built for lifestyle and entertainment fans.
This one didn’t open theatrically, so once upon a time it probably wouldn’t have qualified for this list. But screw it, we live in extraordinary times — and besides, this atmospheric murder thriller set in a small New England fishing village is the kind of artfully mounted, suspenseful little charmer they don’t really make anymore, so it feels extra special. Two cash-strapped sisters, struggling to hold onto their house in the wake of their mom’s death, find themselves in the middle of what appears to be an elaborate, twisted conspiracy involving the town brothel and a gaggle of old-timers with some dark secrets. The central mystery itself is interesting, but the main attractions here are the colorful cast of characters and the compelling sense of place established by writer-directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy.
Andrew Patterson’s The Vast of Night is a marriage of the old and the new, blending effects-aided cinematic showmanship to old-school radio drama. In the director’s sterling feature debut (written by James Montague and Craig W. Sanger, and framed as an episode of a Twilight Zone-ish show called “Paradox Theater”), two 1950s high schoolers – confident radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and telephone operator Faye (Sierra McCormick) – stumble upon a strange signal that, they come to suspect, originates from the stars looming above their small-town-USA home. Like Orson Welles’ classic 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast, the film is a tale of potential invasion that plays out over radio waves, and Patterson thus naturally focuses on intently listening faces, and the spoken words that captivate them, as a means of generating anticipation, mystery and suspense. At the same time, his centerpiece sequences are models of formal precision and depth, as protracted shots across sprawling fields, through crowded gymnasiums, and in and out of cramped buildings create pulse-pounding tension while simultaneously conveying the propulsive flow and binding, interconnected nature of narrative storytelling itself.
Apart from its original movies, such as El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and The Irishman, Netflix also currently offers the most high-quality movies of any streaming service, eclipsing competitors such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO. One of the problems with Netflix’s seeming endless lineup of content is that you might not know what you should watch next. Once Netflix’s Shuffle Play feature launches later this year, that will hopefully be a problem of the past. The rumored N-Plus content hub and Netflix’s upcoming ‘Geeked Week’ virtual event seems poised to address this discoverability problem and build out fan communities. Netflix recently raised the price of each its two higher-end subscription plans. For $8.99 per month, you can stream unlimited standard-definition content on a single device. The Standard tier, which now costs $13.99 per month (up from $12.99), unlocks HD content and supports streaming on two devices simultaneously. The top-of-the-line Premium plan costs $17.99 per month (up from $15.99). This tier gives you four concurrent streams and access to 4K content where available. Notably, Netflix no longer offers a free trial option, but says that it is not cracking down on password sharing.