New this week: ‘True Lies,’ Wallen and ‘Creed’ film fest
By The Associated Press
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.
MOVIES
— With “Creed III” coming to theaters on Friday, Prime Video has you covered for all your Creed and Rocky needs. “Creed” and “Creed II,” along with every Rocky film from No. 1 through “Balboa,” will be available to watch on Prime Video starting Wednesday. You could also do a Sofia Coppola double feature of “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation” while trying to decide which Coppola-inspired T-shirt to purchase from Uniqlo’s celebration of the filmmaker (also available next week).
— Best picture Oscar nominee and Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” comes to Hulu on Friday, giving stragglers plenty of time (well, nine days) to watch the riotous and bodily social satire before the Oscars, where it’s also up for best director and best original screenplay. It’s the English-language debut for Swedish director Ruben Östlund who takes a scalpel to the privileged classes on board a luxury yacht, starring Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon and Woody Harrelson as a Marxist ship captain. I wrote in my AP review that “The beauty and pleasure of something like “ Triangle of Sadness ” is in the details, like the well-observed and precisely crafted awkwardness over who should pay the restaurant bill, or the rules about who gets to sit in the front row of a fashion show shifting in real time.”
MUSIC
— Morgan Wallen is back with new music — a lot of music. “One Thing at a Time” has a whopping 36 songs, including “Man Made a Bar” with Eric Church. His sister, Ashlyne, joins him on “Outlook.” “This record represents the last few years of my life, the highs and the lows,” Wallen says in his announcement. (Some of the lows include facing rebuke for being caught using a racial slur.) Early singles include “You Proof” and “Thought You Should Know.” The album ends with the tune “Dying Man” and the lyrics: “Codeine, it got Elvis/Whiskey, it got Hank/I always thought somethin’ like that/ Might send me on my way.” The album drops Friday.
— Willie Nelson approaches his 90th birthday later this year with plenty going on — he just won a Grammy for best country album, he’s among the 2023 nominees for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and he has a new album: “I Don’t Know a Thing About Love.” Nelson and his band recorded fresh interpretations of 10 classic compositions penned by the legendary American songwriter Harlan Howard. The songs include “Busted,” the story of a dirt-poor farmer bemoaning his overdue bills, crop failures, and other financial woes while maintaining a sense of hope for the future.
— A huge box set celebrating the musical tie between Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello now serves as a memorial to Bacharach, the iconic composer who died earlier this month. “The Songs of Bacharach & Costello” is a comprehensive 45-song set that includes live performances of Bacharach and Costello performing several songs from the album “Painted From Memory” and three rare and unreleased live performances from 1998 and 1999, including a stark and gripping “In The Darkest Place.” The collection will be available in a variety of formats, including streaming starting Friday.
— Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy
TELEVISION
— Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis never made a sequel to their 1994 action, comedy movie “True Lies,” directed by James Cameron, but CBS has a new TV series with the same title inspired by the film. Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga now co-star as Harry and Helen Tasker. Harry is a secret international spy who pretends to have a career in computers that takes him on the road a lot. On a mission in Paris doubling as a romantic getaway for the couple, Harry’s double life is exposed and she must join the team. “True Lies,” executive produced by Cameron, debuts Wednesday on CBS.
— “Alaska Daily,” the ABC drama created by “Spotlight” director and co-writer Tom McCarthy and starring Hilary Swank, returns from hiatus Thursday. The series follows the staff at a struggling Alaska newspaper whose new star reporter, Eileen Fitzgerald, was hired to join an ongoing investigation about murdered Indigenous women. It’s inspired by the decades-old problem of missing and murdered Alaska Native women.
— Amazon has adapted “Daisy Jones & the Six,” the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid into a limited series debuting Friday. Riley Keough and Sam Claflin star as the lead singers of a 1970s rock band who make beautiful music together but behind-the-scenes they’re either at each other’s throats or trying to fight their feelings. The story charts the band’s early days, fame and abrupt breakup with flash forwards to older versions of the characters looking back on the story. Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, executive produces.
— Alicia Rancilio
VIDEO GAMES
— Times were tough in China at the end of the 2nd century, with the Late Han Dynasty battling to cling to control as rebels rose up. Throw in some dragons, demons and other mythical monsters and you have the blood-drenched setting of Koei Tecmo’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Your character is a nameless warrior who’s just trying to stay alive amidst all the chaos. You do have some mad martial arts skills and a handful of magic spells, and if things get hairy you can summon a supernatural beast of your own. Wo Long comes from Japan’s Team Ninja, developers of the brutal hack-and-slash classics Ninja Gaiden and Nioh. Prepare to unleash havoc Friday on the PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One and PC.
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