THE TEN HOTTEST SHOWS TO WATCH RIGHT NOW
ON RAKUTEN TV
1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
The final film from the great Sergio Leone is an epic, decades-spanning gangster saga, the power of which is underlined by an indelible score from Ennio Morricone. Starring Robert De Niro and Elizabeth McGovern.
2. ARLINGTON ROAD
Tense thriller in which a history professor (Jeff Bridges) gradually becomes convinced that the nice neighbours with whom he has become friendly (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack) are actually terrorists but those close to him dismiss his concerns as paranoia.
3. WALLACE AND GROMIT’S CRACKING CONTRAPTIONS
This brilliant Aardman collection from the Wallace and Gromit (below) canon is well worth a watch. Each of the ten short episodes features our stop-motion heroes’ experiences with one of Wallace’s ridiculous contraptions.
4. NATURAL BORN KILLERS
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are the lovers on a killing spree that makes them media celebrities in Oliver Stone’s violent 1994 crime drama.
5. MEEK’S CUTOFF
Michelle Williams stars in this intense 2010 western from director Kelly Reichardt (First Cow). The year is 1845 and tensions rise among a group of emigrant settlers lost in Oregon.
6. HAMBURGER HILL
Based on the true story of a US infantry squad’s efforts to capture a hill during the Vietnam War, this brutal, realistic film has always been overshadowed by Platoon and Apocalypse Now but is actually a powerful addition to the collection of Vietnam dramas.
7. BLUE STEEL
A rookie NYPD officer (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers that the Wall Street broker she’s dating is actually a serial killer obsessed with her. This OTT but stylish 1990 crime flick was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, later the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar.
8. THE GIANTS
Three-part documentary (from Thursday) telling the stories of four Hawaiian sumo wrestlers who became the first foreigners to reach the highest levels of the Japanese sport.
9. UNDER SUSPICION
This psychological thriller, in which Gene Hackman is a lawyer suspected of child murder and Morgan Freeman is the investigating detective, is flawed but nevertheless makes for enjoyable, twisty hokum.
10. HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
Epic drama starring Thandiwe Newton and Anika Noni Rose as sisters whose lives take very different courses in post-colonial
Nigeria. Also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Boyega.
Rakuten is a pay-as-you-go platform but all of the above are free to watch with ads