Britt Hayes is a writer, movie lover, and sensible sweater enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She watches too much TV and never eats her vegetables.
Britt Hayes
New Netflix Instant Releases: June 2015
Next month brings a whole new batch of streaming content to Netflix Instant, including the Wachowskis’ new original series Sense8, as well as Orange Is the New Black Season 3, and the Netflix Original documentary on the life of the legendary Nina Simone. In addition, some new seasons of your favorite television shows, as well as beloved classic films and recent favorites. Read on for your guide to the new Netflix Instant releases arriving in June.
Watch David Letterman’s Final ‘Late Show’ Entrance Ahead of Tonight’s Farewell
You don’t have to wait until later tonight to begin saying goodbye to David Letterman (though if you’re like us, you’ve already started that process) — you can do it right now. The venerable, longtime Late Show host is ending his 33-year run with tonight’s episode, which promises to be a fantastic, hilarious and appropriately heartwarming sendoff. But before we get to that, you can watch Letterman’s final Late Show entrance right now.
SNL Cut This Perfectly Hilarious Short Featuring Louis C.K. and Bruce Chandling
Every week, SNL ends up having to cut a sketch or two for time — these segments are released online as “digital exclusives.” Sometimes, those segments are better than anything else that aired, like this short that was cut from the Season 40 finale, featuring Louis C.K. and Kyle Mooney’s pitiful fictional comedian Bruce Chandling.
‘Minions’ Trailer: Travel Through Time With Your Favorite Sidekicks
Giving the little yellow sidekicks from the Despicable Me films was inevitable, but at least Minions looks fun. The new, full trailer for the spinoff has arrived, taking you on a journey back through time to learn the origins of these weird little creatures and following them on their endeavor to find a new villain to serve.
SNL Ranked: Reese Witherspoon Doesn’t Disappoint, But This Episode Sure Does
Reese Witherspoon has had an interesting time lately: the producer of Gone Girl, nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Wild, and the recent star of the not-so-funny Hot Pursuit. But Witherspoon is funny — she’s also immensely charming and versatile (obviously), and she knows how to light up a room. Unfortunately, she’s not really the star of this week’s SNL, suffering from the same fate that befell Scarlett Johansson in last week’s underwhelming episode. Throughout the bulk of the episode, Witherspoon is more like a supporting player than the star, and I’m growing concerned about how terrible these female-hosted episodes have been lately and what that says about SNL in general.
‘Magic Mike XXL’ Trailer: The Boys Are Back, and This Time They’ve Got Puns
The first teaser for Magic Mike XXL was a glorious thing of hilarious beauty, perfectly deploying Ginuwine’s “Pony” and promising that yes, this is a sequel we want to see. Now the first full trailer has landed online, and it is super pun-heavy, but also pretty charming and funny, as the gang returns with a few new additions for a rowdy road trip adventure.
‘The Visit’ Trailer: M. Night Shyamalan Returns to Take You to Grandma’s House
After a brief intermission, M. Night Shyamalan is back. In addition to the new Fox series Wayward Pines, the twist-y filmmaker also has a new movie coming out: The Visit. We first heard about the film last year, but other than the casting of Kathryn Hahn, production has remained fairly quiet. With Shyamalan’s latest hitting theaters in just four months, the first trailer has arrived to reveal just what The Visit is all about.
New Netflix Instant Releases: May 2015
It’s time again to ready your queues, as Netflix prepares to add a bunch of new titles to their streaming service. Coming up in May, we’ve got the new original series Between and Grace and Frankie, as well as classic films, new favorites, and acclaimed hits like Inglourious Basterds and Fruitvale Station. Read on for our guide to the new releases hitting Netflix Instant in May.
‘Star Wars’ Plane That Looks Like R2-D2 Will Take Off This Fall
Ultimate Star Wars fans, take notice. Pretty soon you’ll be able to board a special Star Wars plane painted to look like R2-D2, perfect for taking flight — though not to a galaxy far, far away, unfortunately. You’ll need to talk to NASA about that. All Nippon Airways is launching the very special plane this fall in honor of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In case you weren’t aware, Star Wars is kind of a big deal again. It’s pretty much all we talked about on the internet today.
SNL Ranked: Taraji P. Henson Is Great in an Episode That Has No Idea What to Do With Her
Taraji P. Henson is only the eighth black woman to host SNL in 40 years, which is only half the reason why her appearance on the show is awesome — in addition to her killer role as Cookie on Empire, Henson is a versatile actress who’s been impressing us for some time now. That versatility certainly came in handy as this week’s guest host, although the writers never really figured out how to use Henson’s strengths. Read on as we rank this week’s SNL sketches from great to not-so-great.
Google Is Developing an App to Keep You From Seeing Spoilers, You’re Welcome
It’s a familiar scenario for most people: You haven’t watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones or Mad Men, or you’ve yet to make it to the theater to check out the latest movie your friends have all been gushing over. But social media is an irresistible force, so you hop on Twitter or Facebook anyway, and soon find yourself navigating a minefield. At any given moment, you might read a spoiler. Lucky for you, there may soon be an app for that.
SNL Ranked: Michael Keaton Gets Wonderfully Weird
Coming off the major acclaim (and major awards buzz) for Birdman, Michael Keaton returns to host SNL for the third time in his long and varied career. Keaton possesses a great deal of comedic sensibility, and his hosting gig this weekend almost seems a bit tardy, given his recent career resurgence. Better late than never. How did Keaton fare back on the SNL stage? Read on for your weekly sketch rankings!
SNL Ranked: Dwayne Johnson Truly Is Franchise Viagra
SNL returns with an all-new episode, bringing Dwayne Johnson back to, uh, rock the stage for the fourth time as guest host. Johnson has charisma almost as big as his formidable biceps, and it’s always a treat to see him flex his comedic muscles. Okay, enough with the brawny puns. Johnson really delivers on his promise in this week’s episode, which is, aside from a couple of hiccups, almost entirely perfect. Read on for your weekly SNL sketch rankings.
‘Transformers’ Franchise Gears Up for More Sequels and Spinoffs With Akiva Goldsman
Since Michael Bay decided to make Transformers: Age of Extinction his last directorial outing with the franchise, it’s been unclear just where the series is heading. We’d heard talk of Mark Wahlberg returning to continue the storyline that began with last summer’s film, but little else since then. Taking a cue from Disney’s Star Wars plans (along with every other major studio’s “expanded universe” attempts), Paramount has hired Akiva Goldsman to create a “writers room” and brainstorm new sequel and spinoff ideas.
‘Star Trek 3’ Will Have the ‘Spirit of the TV Show,’ According to Writer and Star Simon Pegg
It was good news when Roberto Orci left the director’s chair on Star Trek 3. It was really good news when Fast and Furious franchise director Justin Lin took over. And it was even better news when it was announced that Simon Pegg would take over scripting duties, officially getting us excited for the third installment in the franchise after the somewhat disappointing Star Trek Into Darkness. And now Pegg is getting our hopes up even more, promising that the upcoming sequel is inspired by the original Star Trek television series.
Bradley Cooper to Direct and Possibly Star in ‘A Star Is Born’ Remake With Beyonce
It was recently reported that Bradley Cooper has been looking to make his directorial debut, and although it was rumored that his first project would be Honeymoon With Harry, Cooper’s first film might be something different — and a little more exciting. Cooper is eyeing the long-gestating remake of A Star Is Born featuring none other than Queen Beyoncé herself.