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Top 20 August Movies & TV

Here's your guide to the very best viewing entertainment this month has to offer – at the cinema, on DVD, and streaming on LOVEFiLM Instant, these are our Top 20 August Movies & TV shows...

Cinema:

Brave (13 August)

Directed by: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson

After an unparalleled run of hits and a couple of sequels, Pixar strike for original ground once more. In the Scottish Highlands, the king’s daughter accidentally unleashes a curse upon her clan. Is she – hey! – brave enough to undo it?

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Take This Waltz (17 August)

Directed by: Sarah Polley

Starring: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman

Saucy comedy drama set one hot summer in Toronto, with freelance writer Margot (Williams) torn between hubbie Lou (Rogen) and Daniel (Luke Kirby), the artist across the street. Actress Sarah Polley (Away From Her) writes and directs.

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The Imposter (22 August)

Directed by: Bart Layton

Starring: Adam O'Brian, Frederic Bourdin, Frédéric Bourdin

Where The Return of Martin Guerre and Sommersby weaved fictional tales, this is the real life version – a documentary about a 16-year-old who returns to his Texas family after disappearing 3 years earlier. But is he actually their son?

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Shadow Dancer (22 August)

Directed by: James Marsh

Starring: Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson

After an aborted bomb attempt in 1990s London, Collette (Riseborough) is forced to turn informant for MI5 officer Mac (Owen), returning to Belfast where suspicion begins to mount. Directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim).

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The Watch (29 August)

Directed by: Akiva Schaffer

Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill

Richard Ayoade joins Vaughn and Hill for their favoured brand of awkward, cringe comedy, with Stiller the straight man of a faux neighbourhood watch group who stumble upon an alien invasion. Seth Rogen co-wrote the script.

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Total Recall (29 August)

Directed by: Len Wiseman

Starring: Colin Farrell, Bokeem Woodbine, Bryan Cranston

Knee-jerk reaction is that nothing can beat the Arnie original. But that 1990 version of the Phillip K Dick story isn’t aging well, frankly, and this action/sci-fi update looks hard and sexy. Kate Beckinsale co-stars and Mr Kate Beckinsale directs.

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DVD:

Delicacy (6 August)

Directed by: David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos

Starring: Audrey Tautou, François Damiens, Bruno Todeschini

Dulling the pain of her husband’s death with work, Nathalie (Tautou) drifts through life in a daze for three years until Swedish co-worker Markus (Damiens) begins to tickle her fancy. French rom-com of the type that Tautou does very well.

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The Flowers of War (6 August)

Directed by: Yimou Zhang

Starring: hristian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang

In Nanking, 1937, the only haven from the siege of the Japanese Imperial Army is within the walls of a western church, where American John Miller (Bale) joins a small group trying to survive. And then deciding to fight back.

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21 Jump Street (13 August)

Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube

Johnny Depp cameos in the movie update of the telly cop show that made his name (25 YEARS AGO!), while Tatum and Hill are the under-achieving detectives sent into a local high school to bring down a drug ring.

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (24 August)

Directed by: John Madden

Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith

The Inbetweeners for OAPs. OK, not quite, but it's a jolly ensemble of reliable British luvvies on japes abroad, seeking carefree retirement in India and finding the Marigold Hotel a bit less refurbished than they imagined. Dev Patel co-stars.

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Project X (31 August)

Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh

Starring: Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown

3 high school seniors throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. As the night progresses and word of the party spreads, things begin to spiral out of control.

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Instant:

Clash of the Titans (1 August)

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes

Available to watch as part of your package, the half-mortal Perseus (Worthington) gets jammed between beardy top god Zeus (Neeson) and dark lord Voldemort. Sorry, Hades (Fiennes). It’s epic, action-packed and – ahem – all Greek to me.

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From Paris with Love (1 August)

Directed by: Pierre More

Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak

Mild-mannered aide (Rhys Meyers) to the US Ambassador is sent to collect a larger-than-life American spy (Travolta) from Orly airport, and a chaotic spree of violence ensues. Taken/District 13 director Morel helms another action thriller.

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The Infidel (1 August)

Directed by: Josh Appignanesi

Starring: Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Archie Panjabi

Written by David Baddiel, this identity crisis comedy sees successful business owner Mahmud Nasir (Djalili), a staunch East End Muslim, make a startling discovery: he's adopted. And Jewish. Toby from The West Wing (Schiff) co-stars.

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Desperate Housewives S1-7 (1 August)

Directed by: Marc Cherry

Starring: Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross

All seven seasons of the massively popular TV series are now available to stream at no extra cost, with the soapy lives & loves of Wisteria Lane played out in spirited fashion by Hatcher, Huffman et al.

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The Back-Up Plan (6 August)

Directed by: Alan Poul

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin, Michaela Watkins

Rom-comedy of errors starring Lopez as Zoe, who – weary of waiting for Mr Right to help her become a mum – goes for artificial insemination and, later that day, meets Stan (O'Loughlin). Who could be The One. Isn’t that always the way?

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The Waterboy (8 August)

Directed by: Frank Coraci

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler

In one of his biggest hits, Sandler’s the much-abused waterboy of a successful college (American) football team, who gets fired and then lines up as a player for the neighbouring team of no-hopers, coached by the excellent Henry Winkler.

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The Blind Side

Directed by: John Lee Hancock

Starring: Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw

And here's a based-on-real-life college sports story, in which a homeless and under-educated teenager (Aaron) is taken in by the family of Leigh Anne Tuohy (an Oscar-winning Bullock), a woman with a fierce passion for the game.

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The Awakening (26 August)

Directed by: Nick Murphy

Starring: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton

In post-WWI England, author and paranormal skeptic Florence Cathcart (Hall) is invited to a countryside boarding school by headmaster Robert Mallory (West) to investigate rumours of an apparent haunting. Who thinks things will go bump?

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Death at a Funeral (26 August)

Directed by: Neil LaBute

Starring: Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Keith David

Remake of Frank Oz's 2007 black comedy by Chris Rock’s production company – the funeral of the family patriarch rapidly dissolves into resentment, blackmail and scandal when his dysfunctional clan all gather in one place.

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Darren Bignell