Want to know what’s coming soon to digital and what to watch right now on Vudu? Here is your weekly guide to the latest releases:
What are the latest new releases to watch right now?
With perfect timing, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is new to Vudu today, to rent or purchase digitally. The feature, which is the directorial debut of The Roots drummer and The Tonight Show bandleader Amir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, was honored this morning with an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Previously, the film won six Critics Choice Documentary Awards, as well as many other honors.
Part concert film and part history lesson, the movie presents never-before-seen footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Also referred to as the “Black Woodstock,” the event included performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Sly and the Family Stone, among many other greats. And you can see even more clips and behind-the-scenes material when you pick up your copy of this essential music doc today.
What other 2022 Oscar nominees can we watch right now?
A number of this year’s Academy Awards contenders are already available on Vudu or coming soon to the digital VOD service. Belfast, which is up for Best Picture, Best Director (Kenneth Branagh), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Supporting Actress (Dame Judi Dench) and Best Supporting Actor (Ciarán Hinds), is actually newly available to purchase in 4K UHD today following its Home Theater rental window.
Other Best Picture Oscar-nominees available include King Richard, which is also newly available to purchase in 4K UHD. The sports biopic is also nominated for Best Actor (Will Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Film Editing.
Dune is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The sci-fi adaptation is one of the most nominated movies of the year.
In the Best Actress category, Jessica Chastain is nominated for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which is also up for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Kristen Stewart is nominated for Spencer. The other movies in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category are Cruella, also up for Best Costume Design, and House of Gucci.
For Best Visual Effects, you can find the hit action-comedy Free Guy and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. And for Best Original Song, Vudu also has Encanto, No Time to Die, which is also up for Best Sound, and Four Good Days, which marks songwriter Diane Warren’s 13th nomination (with no wins).
Speaking of Encanto, the Best Animated Feature nominees include that hit Disney release plus Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney/Pixar’s Luca, The Mitchells vs. The Machines and the Danish documentary Flee. The last of those movies is also up for Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature. And Encanto is also up for Best Score, too. The prison-uprising film Attica is also up for Best Documentary Feature.
There are a lot of 2022 Oscar nominees still coming soon to Vudu. For example, the Bhutanese family film Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, which is up for Best International Feature, is due on digital this Friday, February 11. And Best Documentary Feature contender Writing with Fire should be available in early March. Plus, Best Visual Effects nominee Spider-Man: No Way Home will be out before you know it. You can pre-order all three now.
Are there any other new releases we need to watch this week?
Red Rocket, from acclaimed filmmaker Sean Baker (The Florida Project), is also new to Vudu today. The comedic drama stars former MTV personality and one-time actual adult film performer Simon Rex as a washed up adult entertainer. He returns home to Texas, where he moves back in with his estranged wife and mother-in-law while also dating a young doughnut shop worker.
This movie is really great, and yet it will also make you feel kind of grimy afterward. Rex’s character is a total charmer, but he’s definitely not a likable guy. If I had my way, the actor would have received an Oscar nomination this week for his performance. Also, Bree Elrod and Independent Spirit Award nominee Suzanna Son are absolutely perfect as his wife and girlfriend, respectively.
What movies are great to pair with that new release?
While you're checking out Red Rocket, I have to recommend Sean Baker’s previous movies as well. He’s best known for the Oscar-nominated drama The Florida Project (which you can get in two-back bundle with Red Rocket) and the fabulous indie Tangerine, which was shot entirely with iPhones, but the best fit for a double feature is Baker’s breakout feature Starlet, about an aspiring actress and her friendship with an elderly widow.
Movies not directed by Baker I’d recommend as a pairing include Terrence Malick’s Badlands, which has a related plot, only with a spree killer in place of an adult film star, as well as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, which is also about adult film performers, and Lovelace, a biopic about Linda Lovelace, who was coerced into working in the adult film industry by her husband.
Can you recommend some great movies for Valentine’s Day?
With Valentine’s Day coming up in the next week, Vudu has a huge deal on romantic movies worth viewing for the holiday. They’ve got such essentials as Titanic, Pretty Woman and The Princess Bride. I recommend you also make an evening out of these double feature ideas from the mix & match two-for-$9.99 section: Emma. with Pride & Prejudice; From Here to Eternity with Casablanca; Say Anything with Love and Basketball; Brokeback Mountain with Disobedience; and Waitress with Mystic Pizza.
Here are some more pairings I suggest from the Valentine’s Day sale: Much Ado About Nothing with Romeo and Juliet, for two Shakespeare adaptations; She’s the Man with Warm Bodies, for modern takes on the Bard; Pretty in Pink with Some Kind of Wonderful, for a double dose of John Hughes; When Harry Met Sally with Moonstruck, for a couple of tales of NYC in the ‘80s; Sleepless in Seattle with You’ve Got Mail for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan times two; and Splash with Roxanne, for a Daryl Hannah duo.
The sale also includes a bunch of bundles, including the complete saga of the Twilight franchise, the Brad Pitt pairing of Legends of the Fall and A River Runs Through It, and the Sabrina original and remake set. And there are television series, such as I May Destroy You and The Great. Plus, there’s a collection of Hallmark Channel movies, with fitting titles like The Lost Valentine, Valentine Ever After, A Valentine’s Match and Valentine in the Vineyard.
Are we celebrating any big movie and TV anniversaries this week?
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Dante’s Peak, which is one of the two volcano-focused disaster movies from 1997, and Richard Linklater’s SubUrbia. Also, the Sean Connery eco-drama Medicine Man turns 30, Pedro Almodovar’s Law of Desire and the Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling movie Over the Top both turn 35 and the sequel Death Wish 2 turns 40.
Plus, the World War II submarine movie Das Boot and caveman flick Quest for Fire both made their way to U.S. theaters 40 years ago this week. Meanwhile, Ralph Bakshi’s animated feature Wizards turns 45, the musical Cabaret turns 50, Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! turns 70 and Tod Browning’s Freaks turns 90.
More recent titles with anniversaries include the sci-fi remake Rollerball, which turns 20 years old this week. Also, the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose, the Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit, the Silence of the Lambs prequel Hannibal Rising and Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz turn 15 and Safe House and Think Like a Man both turn 10. Plus, John Wick: Chapter 2 is already 5 years old!
Can you recommend some more great movie deals on Vudu?
With Super Bowl LVI happening this Sunday, Vudu is spotlighting essential football movies, and many of them are on sale. Of those, I recommend the ‘70s classics Brian’s Song and Heaven Can Wait and the very different high school movies Remember the Titans and Varsity Blues. And you’ve gotta have both Rudy and The Waterboy in your pigskin movie mix.
Vudu’s latest Actor’s Spotlight showcases the work of Sarah Silverman, Terry Crews, Eiza Gonzalez and Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke. Here are my picks for the best underrated or under-seen titles starring each of them: Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, for Silverman; Mario Van Peebles’s Baadasssss!, for Crews; the James Cameron-produced Alita: Battle Angel, for Gonzalez; and Keith Gordon’s World War II drama A Midnight Clear, for Hawke.
What must-see movie is coming soon to Vudu?
The top-grossing movie in theaters right now — with emphasis on gross — is Jackass Forever, and you really ought to see it on the big screen as soon as you can (buy tickets here). But if you can’t, or if you just want to buy it when it arrives on digital, you can now pre-order your copy of the hilarious nonfiction comedy right here.
There is no known date for when the sequel is coming to Vudu, but in the meantime, you can stock up on other installments of the franchise with Vudu’s Jackass sale. This deal includes all three of the previous full features plus Jackass 2.5 and Jackass 3.5 as well as the Johnny Knoxville-led movies Bad Grandpa and Action Point and three volumes of the original MTV Jackass show.
What are the 10 most popular movies on Vudu?
Who you gonna call to find out the top movie on Vudu this week? Ghostbusters! That’s right, the sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife has moved into the #1 slot while new digital releases House of Gucci and American Underdog debuted in the #2 and #3 spots, respectively. Another new movie, the action-comedy Last Looks, starring Mel Gibson, Charlie Hunnam and Morena Baccarin landed at #17.
See the full top 10 list below.
1. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
2. House of Gucci
3. American Underdog
4. Dune
5. Sing 2
6. The Matrix Resurrections
7. Clean
8. The 355
9. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
10. Clifford the Big Red Dog
