What to Watch This Weekend - June 4, 2011

June 4, 2011 - 13:48 -- RokuGuide

Here in the south, we're well into a multi-week heat wave that is keeping a lot of people indoors. Hopefully they're staying cool and keeping entertained with their Roku. Whatever the weather where you're at, if you're in front of the TV this weekend then please read on for my picks and suggestions on what to watch on Roku.

SnagFilms on RokuSnagFilms currently delivers close to 200 feature-length documentaries on its Roku channel, including 22 music documentaries. You may have seen the banner ads for Buena Vista Social Club (1999) on the Roku DVP. Filmed in Havana, this is one of my favorite music documentaries. It brings together aging Cuban musicians from the pre-Castro era. (View the trailer here.) I just finished watching Down From the Mountain, which features onstage peformances and backstage sound bites from the soundtrack artists from O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), including Alison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, and Ralph Stanley. (View the trailer here.) Rolling Stones fans won't want to miss the five-part Rolling Stones - Just For The Record (2002): "Told by band members, fellow musicians, biographers and fans, Just For The Record features over 50 exclusive interviews, and spans a period of 40 years, from the beginning of the band in London in 1962, to their 2002 world tour Forty Licks."

NetflixNetflix recently announced a deal with Miramax that adds a lot of additional titles to the Netflix streaming library. Films now available to Netflix subscribers include Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and The English Patient. Read the RokuGuide article for more information on this and on shows now available from MTV, Nickelodeon, and others.

WhiskeyIf you're into animation, check out Comic Vine and Giant Bomb on the Whiskey channel. Comic Vine brings you trailers and clips from animated movies and shows such as Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, The Looney Tunes Show, and Green Lantern. Giant Bomb is focused on gaming enthusiasts with promotional videos for video games (Race, Shoot and Stunt Drive in Cars 2) and behind the scenes looks at video game development (How Skullgirls is Getting Animated).

Khan AcademySchool is now out for most students, but your kids can keep their math and science skills polished over the summer on the Khan Academy channel. Khan Academy has lessons in a dozen math topics (including algebra, calculus, differential equations, geometry, and statistics), four science topics (biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics), as well as lessons on economics and other subjects.

FlixsterGoing to the movies this weekend? Flixster has trailers for the latest movies, including The Hangover Part II, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Trailers are also available for upcoming films and for movies recently-released on DVD and Blu-ray.

New Roku ChannelsIf none of my picks interest you, five new Roku channels were added to the Channel Store this week. Try them out and leave comments on the RokuGuide channel pages letting other know what you think about them.