On Demand Weekly

Last night the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) celebrated the Golden Globes nominees and winners.  Some are pay per view movies, some are premium content found on HBO or Showtime and some are free from NBC and AMC, but all are available right now via video on demand.

• The Hangover - Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical
• Meryl Streep/Julie & Julia – Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
• Christoph Waltz/Inglourious Basterds - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
• Up - Best Animated Feature Film
• Madmen - Best Television Series – Drama

Last night the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) celebrated the SAG nominees and winners.  Some are pay per view movies, some are premium content found on Showtime and some are free from NBC and CBS, but all are available right now via video on demand.

• Christoph Waltz/Inglourious Basterds - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
• Inglourious Basterds – Outstanding Performance by a Cast
• Dexter/Michael C. Hall - Best Actor– Drama

On Demand Weekly's VOD Spotlight highlights stories in the On Demand industry. Adam Schartoff interviews actor Manish Dayal from the exciting new series"Rubicon" on AMC. Adam spoke to Manish about getting started, the impact of Video On Demand (VOD) on TV and "Rubicon." 
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On Demand Weekly: Is “Rubicon” your first series?
Manish Dayal: In a recurring role, yes.

ODW: How many episodes have you appeared in?
MD: I have been in 3.

ODW: Will you be in further episodes?
MD: Yes. I’m in Season 2. PI hope that we get picked up. I think we will. I think we have a good shot. The show’s been doing really well. I haven’t seen anything recently but the last few episodes have been real exciting. It’s the first time I’ve been in a tv show where I can’t wait until the next week.

ODW: It’s a fun show. The writing is really good. It’s taught. Does it follow or preceded "Mad Men"?
MD: It precedes "Mad Men."

ODW: So, they’re riding your coat tails, I guess you could say.
MD: That’s right. We’re their lead in.

Manish Dayal / Rubicon (AMC)

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (Magnet Releasing)

Click Here For On Demand Weekly's Exclusive Interview With Director Eli Craig

TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL On Demand
By Chris Claro

Rare is the truly original idea. With virtually every movie pitched as a mashup of two (or more) established properties – “It’s AMERICAN BEAUTY meets THE BOURNE IDENTITY” – it isn’t often that a film shows a glimmer of originality.

Paradoxically, TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL,

a film that takes on the tropes of hillbilly slasher films

and turns them on their bloody ear,

is one of the freshest and funniest films to come along in a while.

Full of all the expected chainsaws, wood chippers, and obnoxious college students, the film mixes gore and comedy to tell a story about how appearances can deceive. Seemingly stereotypical hillbillies Dale (Tyler Labine, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk, FIREFLY) want nothing more than to fix up Tucker’s cabin in peace and quiet. But a series of misunderstandings and overreactions sets off a chain of bloody slayings that upend expectations and turn the victims into their own worst enemies.

Throughout, director Eli Craig – son of Sally Field – makes the most of what was clearly a shoestring budget to twist the clichés of the form in much the same way that John Landis did thirty years ago with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. By casting a knowing eye toward the hoary devices of the rural horror flick – nubile skinny-dippers, campfire ghost stories, graphic deaths – Craig, as Landis had before him, tweaks the genre while maintaining its traditions.

The screenplay, by Craig and Morgan Jurgenson, is predicated on the idea that people – and movies, for that matter – shouldn’t be judged solely on their looks. In subverting the expectations of the audience by inverting the conventions of the film, Craig and Jurgenson offer a kind of meta commentary on thirty years’ worth of slasher flicks.