inside LOVEFiLM

The weasel flies west at midnight… OK, so this line isn’t actually in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but I can’t help but think it might have been better for it. Not much, just a little. Or maybe it would have been more at home in spy spoof Top Secret! (you can stream this, you know).

Either way, last week’s Tinker Tailor premiere was huge fun, and – to begin this post of pointers towards our best streaming content – you can find the Tinker Tailor cast members in various other movies, all ready to watch instantly, in our Tinker Tailor cast collection.

Double DiCaprio this month sees Leo in the explosive actioner Blood Diamond, set during the 1999 Sierra Leone civil war, and as a CIA agent in Body of Lies, opposite Russell Crowe and – in fantastic form – TTSS cast member Mark Strong.

A pair of Pirates movies are available too. Watch the joyous, off-kilter voyage that launched the whole escapade, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, at no extra cost. And get the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, on pay-per-view, as Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush go back to basics, and add Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane (Lovejoy, as far as I’m concerned) into the mix.

There’s more from the chameleonic Depp, in animated form in animal-comedy-western Rango, plus ghostly scare-fare Insidious, and Marion Cotillard in drama Little White Lies – all also on a pay-per-view basis.

And in the no-extra-cost camp, some films that have always proved really popular when we’ve streamed them before: De Niro, Liotta, Pesci and co in Scorsese’s all-time gangster classic Goodfellas. Al Pacino and Colin Farrell up to CIA shenanigans in The Recruit. Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in genre-bending buddy movie Shanghai Noon. And The Matrix – why wouldn’t you?!

Caped cartoon capers abound in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (it’s really good, and it’s not the only one we’ve got, actually), plus animated ants in The Ant Bully. And it might be worth checking out Daniel Craig playing a washed-up Hollywood star in Flashbacks of a Fool.

Oh, and from October 1, you can stream Twilight: Eclipse. As part of your normal subscription. At no extra cost. As if anyone’s going to be interested in that…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

The end of the Cold War was, by and large, a good thing. Finally, the US and Russia could stop comparing the size of their nuclear warheads, and Europe – stuck in the middle – was able to relax a bit. Countries to the east of München found freedom to grow, trade and host stag weekends. And the Eurovision Song Contest became an annual lesson in European co-operation and/or conflict.

But the fall of the iron curtain was not all positive. Aside from the boost to David Hasselhoff’s music career (which is possibly reason enough to put the wall back up), an entire literary genre lost its home.

I’m sure there are still spies sneaking about all over the world, but they’re not confirming that “in winter, the badger and the mole sleep side by side” in Leningrad, and frankly, it’s just not right. Today’s spy writers have to set their adventures in the Middle East, Africa, China, Mars… anywhere other than Russia or Berlin.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, written in 1974, has no such concerns. Entrenched in the deepest traditions of espionage and the frigid hostilities between East and West, the novel and subsequent BBC mini-series were hugely popular, and the new film, out in cinemas from 16th September, looks set fair too. We certainly loved it and you can read our review here.

What is certain is that Tomas Alfredson put together a stellar cast. It’s a real Who’s Who of British talent, from hot new stars (Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch) through to those in their prime (Colin Firth, Mark Strong) and all-time movie legends (John Hurt and Gary Oldman). With this in mind, here’s a collection of films featuring the Tinker, Tailor cast that you can stream on the LOVEFiLM service.

Gary Oldman plays Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in punk rock biopic Sid and Nancy, which also features Kathy Burke, while Mark Strong and Simon McBurney star in Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, a tense thriller also set in the shady world of international intelligence.

Oldman turns up in several other titles in the collection including Air Force One, Track 29, The Backwoods and even as the narrator on the superb Italia ’90 documentary, One Night in Turin. Strong can be seen in Revolver, Flashbacks of a Fool, Sunshine and Jane Austen’s Emma. And Toby Jones appears in The Mist, W., Rembrandt’s J’Accuse and The Painted Veil.

Multiple-award winners John Hurt and Colin Firth feature in titles like A Single Man, The Proposition, The Plague Dogs, The Shout, The Hit, Relative Values… the list goes on and on!

You can find them all in our Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Cast collection. But remember, if you’re caught streaming loads of great films while you should be doing something vital around the house… we never had this conversation. Right?

Rob Holloway, Senior Content Manager – left to his own Devices, he probably would.

So, September means Autumn in my book – though, admittedly, that ‘book’ is now a bit dog-eared, yellowing, and amateurishly covered in wallpaper, because “they last longer that way”.

And Autumn means park football, pouring rain, chilly mornings, shrinking daylight hours (not too dissimilar to August, then), and no longer feeling guilty about being indoors watching films when you should be outside “getting some fresh air (and/or a girlfriend)”.

If our Top 20 September Movies feature is anything to go by (we do one of these every month), there’s a score of very good reasons to continue “going square-eyed”.

Top of the pops for me is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – the cinematic remake of John le Carre’s legendary novel. Gary Oldman takes over the role of George Smiley (that Alec Guinness played so memorably in the 1979 BBC mini-series), hired to root out a mole right at the top of the British Secret Service during the height of the Cold War.

Quite like the look of the Fright Night remake too, with Colin Farrell and former Tardis-keeper David Tennant in vampire horror antics, and Drive, a chase actioner that’s one of two Ryan Gosling movies on the list. And I’ve already seen Warrior, a stunning, superbly shot fight film starring Tom Hardy. It opens on 23 Sept. All I can say is: Book. Tickets. Now.

We’ve got two Pirates voyages on streaming – POTC 1: Black Pearl to watch at no extra cost, and POTC 4: On Stranger Tides on pay-per-view. And there’s a double helping of Leonardo DiCaprio too – Blood Diamond and Body of Lies both available to watch instantly as part of your normal subscription.

Loads more good stuff besides, of course, so have a look for yourself to see what you fancy.

Final shout must go to a DVD movie that somehow slipped below my radar until now: Tucker & Dale vs Evil. It stars Firefly/Serenity’s Alan Tudyk as Tucker, one half of a redneck duo who are mistaken for backwoods killers by a bunch of spring-breakers. It’s a teen slasher parody, it might be terrible, it might be great; but either way, I cannot wait…

Darren Bignell, Senior Communications Manager

I don’t know about everyone else but I had an excellent Bank Holiday weekend – hours of watching films and playing games, mainly LA Noire, which has taught me that being a woman in the ’40s was not good for your health, and that if someone looks away while talking to you, they are definitely lying. Most of the time. But even with the extra day I still haven’t caught up on even half of the things I want to see and play…

I totally missed Source Code when it came out in the cinema – a film with Jake Gyllenhaal, a science-fiction/time-twisty plot and directed by Duncan Jones, the man who gave me Moon to love and cherish forever. It’s top of my rental list, with a few others which have “odd” as a common feature.

As a big fan of sci-fi and anything weird, I’m also looking forward to seeing Attack the Block. I used to watch Adam and Joe religiously and I love it that Joe of the duo has gone on to make a proper film. Even if I suspect that, post riots, my sympathies may be a bit skewed towards the aliens…

In the same area of weird, Red Riding Hood, Sucker Punch and Beastly also appeal, though with differing expectations of quality. Likewise, I’ve heard mixed things about Your Highness, and while I worry that the trailer may have included the best bits, I’m still hoping to be entertained, and a parody is always welcome. Though I know it won’t come close to The Princess Bride.

Lastly, I have been dying to see Insidious. The moment I saw the trailer, with the weird face behind Patrick Wilson, I knew it was a film for me – horror movies that are genuinely frightening and spooky are always right up my street. I get chills just thinking about that trailer…

All this film watching is going to seriously hamper my game-playing time, of course. I haven’t even finished Gears of War 1 and 2, and yet I cannot wait to see Gears of War 3; more alien busting action from the one and only Marcus Fenix. Oo-rah!

Then there’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which looks ah-maz-ing, and has three different modes of play: action, stealth or hacking. Though I suspect my usual stealthy preference will give way to all-out ‘blow it up! blow it up!’ terror when I face a boss.

And finally, there’s the return of zombies, albeit in a beautiful holiday setting in Dead Island. To be honest, I will likely watch Dead Island being played, rather than play it myself. Horror movies are fine, but horror-survival games… well, we don’t get on. I blame Silent Hill. It freaked me out forever and now I can’t play horror games at all.

Seeing all of that I’m wondering when I’m ever going to fit it all in… If anyone has one of those time-turner things from Harry Potter, please get in touch.

Alexa Muir, Merchandising Manager