1st seasons of The Last Of Us, Julia, East New York, Let The Right One In, American Gigolo & Bump

Top Gun: Maverick is now streaming on Showmax, having just been named Best Movie, Best Wide Release Movie and Best Action & Adventure Movie at Rotten Tomatoes’ Golden Tomato Awards, which recognise the best reviewed films of the year. The title has also been nominated for six Oscars: Motion Picture of the Year, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Visual Effects, and Song, as well as Best Song for Hold My Hand by Lady Gaga BloodPop.

After more than 30 years of service as one of the navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Oscar nominee Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. 

When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Sundance winner Miles Teller), call sign “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.” Rooster’s father trusted Maverick; he isn’t about to make the same mistake.

Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears. 

Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Emmy winner Jon Hamm (Mad Men), four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (Westworld), multi-award-winner Val Kilmer (Heat) and Monica Barbaro (UnREAL) co-star. 

The biggest box office hit in South Africa last year, and the second biggest globally, Top Gun: Maverick has already won more than 60 international awards and is one of the 100 top-rated movies of all time on IMDb. It was also named the best film of 2022 by media as varied as Complex, The Globe and Mail, IMDb, People, The Telegraph, Total Film, Uproxx, and The Washington Post. 

As Rotten Tomatoes says, “Top Gun: Maverick is why we love the blockbuster experience: exhilarating action with big emotional stakes and an on-your-feet sunset ending.”

Similarly, Independent calls it “as thrilling as blockbusters get”; Daily Telegraph hails it as “unquestionably the best studio action film since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road”; and Time/Out says, “You will want to high five someone on the way out.” 

Top Gun: Maverick has been shortlisted in multiple Oscar categories and is already nominated for four 2023 BAFTAs, including Cinematography and Special Visual Effects; the Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble; and a Grammy for its soundtrack, among other honours.  

Showmax is also streaming the original 1980s classic, Top Gun, directed by the late Tony Scott and co-starring the likes of Oscar winner Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Emmy winners Anthony Edwards (ER) and Tom Skerritt (Alien), multi-award-winner Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally) and the late Kelly McGillis (Witness). Top Gun won an Oscar for Giorgio Moroder’s Take My Breath Away, a Grammy for Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Steven’s Top Gun Anthem, and the 1987 People’s Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture, among other accolades. 

So whether you’re feeling a need for speed, or Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, old-school action or 80s nostalgia, it's time to strap in to Showmax. 

Watch the Top Gun: Maverick trailer: 

https://youtu.be/giXco2jaZ_4

Watch the Top Gun trailer:

https://youtu.be/xa_z57UatDY

Showmax’s January movie line-up also includes the Oscar-nominated House of Gucci, the BAFTA-winning Licorice Pizza, and the animated blockbuster The Addams Family 2, with Jordan Peele’s Get Out, just named one of the top 100 films of all time in Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade critics’ poll, available from 26 January 2023, and 2022 BAFTA winner Together, starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan, available from 30 January 2023. 

Showmax is also home to a wealth of Tom Cruise classics, including Mission: Impossible - Fallout, American Made, Oblivion, Interview With The Vampire, and The Last Samurai, as well as Jack Reacher and its sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.  

In an effort to assist customers in their hunt for those hard-to-find items, Builders, the leading home improvement, DIY, and building materials retailer, has launched a new online tool called Product Finder.

This new solution utilises a dedicated team of Builders Sales Specialists to locate and source niche décor and outdoor products, a tool, storage solutions, or fittings, whether customers saw the item online, spotted it in a magazine, or encountered it outside the country. Best of all, the platform can even find items the retailer doesn't stock.   

“In the last two years we have seen a surge in South Africans spending more time at home online to search for solutions to fix or improve their homes.  Builders has always had the “we will find it for you” philosophy although there was not a dedicated way to ensure that we do deliver on these requests or any way to track requests and follow up on the leads. The Product Finder Tool means that we can now deliver on this in a seamless and efficient manner”, says Nicole le Roux, Senior Manager Digital Sales.

However, as exciting as taking on a new project can be, struggling to find the right power tool, paint colour, or exotic door handle can quickly dampen things, especially in the age when everything should be accessible online.

The team receives orders uploaded to the track and trace system and can either source requests in-house using Builders vendors or source products from external vendors if the retailer doesn't stock that specific item.

According to a recent Statista report looking into South Africa’s mobile internet user penetration 2018-2027, in 2022, 78.6 percent of the South African population accessed the internet via mobile device. This share is projected to grow to over 90 percent by the end of 2026 indicating a massive potential for digital ecommerce solutions. 

“Our new digitised track and trace system merges this convenience of ecommerce that our customers have grown to love with the Builders’ commitment to going the extra mile to provide the most valuable shopping experience possible. As a result, we can help even more of our loyal customers find whatever they’re looking for, no matter how niche it is”, says Trevor Perumal, VP Commercial.

Builders says the entire process is transparent to customers, who receive a trace number that they can use to track their product progress from initialisation to the finalisation of their request.

To access the platform, customers need to:

• Navigate to the Product Finder tool on the Builders website
• Leave their contact details so they can describe the product they’re looking for over the phone or manually input the product details or upload a picture online
• Confirm the order description they’ll receive from the Sales Specialist
• Accept or reject the quote, which includes a picture of the sourced item
• Check out and proceed to payment if they’re happy with their product

Builders says the new tool will also help the retailer determine which products to include in its in-store range based on search trends and that it will continuously monitor the platform and scale its team to ensure it can keep up with the demand.

Whether you’re a DIY enthusiast, a homeowner, a small business or a large contractor, Builders has all your needs covered, and more! For more information go to https://www.builders.co.za/.