Stream Guide: The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King & Patriot’s Day (April 13th, 2018)

April 13, 2018 / Leave a Comment

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING on STARZ

Fifteen years ago, Peter Jackson was bringing the finale to “The Lord Of The Rings” saga to an epic end with “The Return Of The King,” a three year trilogy that captured the hearts and imaginations of the world and brought to life the words of J. R. R. Tolkien like no one else could. With Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellan leading the way for this enormous ensemble cast, Elijah Wood was showing us the heart of an underdog as Frodo Baggins, the hobbit carrying the one ring to the volcano it was made while Andy Serkis launch a career out of motion capturing one of the most thought out villains ever created in Gollum. The film made $1.12 billion at the box office and would go on to win all 11 Oscars it was nominated for at the 76th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Barry Levinson is a writer, director, and producer that is very familiar with Academy Awards, having been nominated for 6 Oscars, winning one for Best Director in 1989 for his work on “Rain Man,” starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. This year, he directed a movie for HBO starring Al Pacino, titled “Paterno,” retelling the true story of the former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and his career leading up to his dismissal following the university’s child sex abuse scandal. You can bet it will have some Emmy and Golden Globe buzz. Another director who knew the golden statue well was Jonathan Demme, who passed away last year. He won his first and only Oscar at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992 for directing “The Silence Of The Lambs.” But the film that is available for streaming this week is the 2008 drama “Rachel Getting Married, ” which got Anne Hathaway an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 81st Academy Award, but she lost to Kate Winslet for her performance in “The Reader.”

One director who has never been nominated for an Academy Award is Peter Berg. His films “Lone Survivor” and “Deepwater Horizon” were nominated in certain categories, but Berg himself hasn’t been nominated. One of his most recent films, “Patriot’s Day,” chronicled the tragedy at the 2013 Boston Marathon and starred an ensemble cast including Mark Wahlberg, J. K. Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and Michelle Monaghan. Another director that has eluded an Oscar is Joel Schumacher. Before he was making “Batman Forever” and “Phone Booth,” he was making the Michael Douglas drama “Falling Down,” in which Douglas plays a disgruntled unemployed defense worker that psychotically and violently lash out against society. Schumacher’s closest taste of Oscars gold was likely “The Phantom Of The Opera” which was nominated for three Academy Awards to which he missed out on Best Director.

Two television shows land on the list this week. One is the brand new Netflix Original Series “Lost In Space” based on the 1960s show that now has a cult following. You might also remember the 1998 film with the same title, starring William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman. Now Netflix takes a stab at the IP following the adventures of a family of pioneering space colonists whose spaceship veers off-course. The other television show to binge this weekend is the sixth season of “New Girl” which comes just as the seventh and final season is about to begin. The season focused mainly on Nick (Jake Johnson) and his relationship with Reagan (Megan Fox) while Jess (Zooey Deschanel) secretly pined for Nick back. It also saw Nick getting further into his writing career and sees Cece (Hannah Simone) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) getting a house and Cece pursuing new career avenues beyond tending the bar.

The last three films on the list include the Kate Beckinsale vampire film that started the “Underworld” franchise, the Beatles song musical “Across The Universe,” starring Jim Sturgess and “Westworld” star Evan Rachel Wood, and lastly the documentary “Kate Plays Christine” follows that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil’s preparation for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a newscaster who committed suicide on live television in 1974 titled.