Staying In? Cinema Alternatives & Feel-Good Picks to Watch This Week
With cinemas closed and social distancing in full swing, here are smart substitutes for the big releases, plus a movie-of-the-week and a binge-worthy TV classic.
Got your own recommendations? Drop them in the comments or tweet us @explosionpod.
Cinema Alternatives
What we would’ve seen: No Time To Die
Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes
Synopsis: Bond’s tranquil retirement in Jamaica ends when CIA pal Felix Leiter pulls him into a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist—leading to a new threat armed with dangerous tech.
Originally delayed; then scheduled for 12 November 2020.
Try these instead
Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% | IMDb: 7.4 | Metacritic: 75
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie |
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie (story & screenplay), Drew Pearce (story)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin
Synopsis: With the IMF disbanded, Ethan Hunt and team face the Syndicate—elite operatives engineering global chaos—while a mysterious agent, Ilsa Faust, plays both sides.
Rationale: Big-swing spy spectacle with globetrotting set pieces, a pitch-perfect femme fatale in Rebecca Ferguson, and a coolly menacing villain—very Bond-coded vibes.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% | IMDb: 7.4 | Metacritic: 75
Directed by: Guy Ritchie |
Written by: Jeff Kleeman (story), David C. Wilson (story), Guy Ritchie (story & screenplay), Lionel Wigram (story & screenplay)
Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Jared Harris, Hugh Grant
Synopsis: A CIA agent and a KGB operative form an uneasy alliance to stop a shadowy org from proliferating nuclear tech in the 1960s.
Rationale: Slick, stylish, and funny—the chemistry crackles, the wardrobe slays, and it’s an underrated dose of Cold War caper energy.
Movie of the Week
Paddington 2 (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% | IMDb: 7.8 | Metacritic: 88
Directed by: Paul King | Written by: Paul King, Simon Farnaby
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw
Synopsis: Settled with the Browns, Paddington takes odd jobs to buy Aunt Lucy the perfect birthday present—until a thief nicks it and our small, polite bear must set things right.
Why now: It’s pure joy, kindness, and marmalade—plus an all-timer comedic turn from Hugh Grant. “If we’re kind and polite the world will be right.”
TV to Binge
Community (2009–2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% | IMDb: 8.5 | Metacritic: 74
Created by: Dan Harmon | Episodes: 110 × ~22 min
Starring: Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Chevy Chase, Jim Rash
Synopsis: A disgraced lawyer heads to community college and forms a study group that becomes a meta-comedy dream team.
Why binge: A fearless sitcom that reinvented itself weekly—paintball epics, mockumentaries, 8-bit adventures—and launched a wave of talent (Donald Glover, the Russo Bros., Ludwig Göransson).
