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Netflix

This year was always going to be a big one for Netflix.

The streaming service is nearly one-quarter of its way through the $5bn content and acquisition strategy it promised for 2016, with 600 hours of original content scheduled for release before December ends.

Most of that will be available globally, including their three fastest-growing markets, India, Japan and Korea, while the bulk of it’s exclusive content will be television shows. 30 have been slated for this year, including the return of Daredevil, Orange Is The New Black, and 80s favourite Voltron.

There’ll be plenty of Netflix-only movies too, ten at the last count, with War Machine, Special Correspondents and Pee Wee’s Big Holiday due before the Christmas sales begin.

In fact, one such exclusive arrives this week, in the form of a sequel to the Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Elsewhere, you’ll find a family Us...

A busy day of reviews as we take a look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas, American Hustle and Saving Mr. Banks. Laremy also watched Nebraska and Fruitvale Station so we discuss those briefly and today we held the Winter 2014 Box Office Draft, which includes movies from January 2014 thru April. A quick reminder of our upcoming Holiday Schedule where we will be taking a break from December 16-26, returning on December 27. If you are on Twitter, we have a Twitter account dedicated to the podcast at @bnlpod. Give us a follow won'tchac I want to remind you that you can call in and leave us your comments, thoughts, questions, etc. directly on our Google Voice account, which you can call and leave a message for us at (925) 526-5763, which may be even easier to remember at (925) 5-bnl-pod. Just call, leave us a voice mail...

Millions of babies were born in the U.S. this year (with a few more arriving before December ends, probably) and most of them were named Sophia or Jackson. Or Sofia or Jaxson. Or maybe Jaxon, but hopefully not Jaxon. This according to BabyCenter.com, who released a list of the top 100 baby names of 2013. This is the first year Jackson has topped the list, while Sophia is holding it down at #1 for the fourth year in a row.  The rest of the top 5 are as follows. For girls: 1. Sophia 2. Emma 3. Olivia 4. Isabella 5. Mia For boys: 1. Jackson 2. Aiden 3. Liam 4. Lucas 5. Noah For comparison's...

Andy Samberg's first post-SNL movie was Adam Sandler's comedy That's My Boy but lest you think he's staying on the laugh track, the first trailer for the upcoming Sundance flick Celeste and Jesse Forever shows us a mature, subdued side of Samberg, who is on the cusp of divorcing Celeste (Rashida Jones, who co-wrote the screenplay) but remains best friends with his ex...until he meets someone else.

With direction from Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind, December Ends), Celeste and Jesse Forever looks at a couple who met in high school, married young and then started to drift apart but when they decided to separate, they still wanted to stay in each other's lives, which struck some of their friends as unhealthy and naturally made for some awkward moments when they both re-emerged on the dating scene.

The trailer, which premiered on Apple, strikes a balance between romance,...

Elijah Wood has joined the cast of Celeste and Jesse Forever , according to a story at The Hollywood Reporter . The film, already set to star Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Emma Roberts, Chris Messina and Ari Graynor, arrives with a script from Jones and her writing partner, Will McCormack. The story deals with a young couple (Jones and Samberg) who are going through a divorce. Wood, who next appears in the upcoming series "Wilfred" and at least a cameo role The Hobbit , will play a business associate of Jones' character who, according to the original story, is "a metrosexual who tries to be her 'saucy gay friend.'" Lee Toland Krieger ( The Vicious Kind , December Ends ) will direct the project, taking over the reins from the previously-announced Seth...

Lee Toland Krieger's December Ends won the City of Calabasas Best Picture Award at the 2006 Method Fest Ceremony, held at the Carlson Family Theater at Viewpoint School in Calabasas as the eighth annual Method Fest Independent Film Festival drew to a close. The Standard Pacific Homes Geraldine Page Award for best actress was shared by Agnes Bruckner and Kelli Garner, the female leads of the festival's opening-night film, Dreamland. The pair also was awarded the Valley of the Stars Rising Star Award on Friday. The New Millennium Homes John Garfield Award for Best Actor went to Josh Janowicz for his performance in December Ends.