It’s finally here: Avatar: The Way of Water is at last available for home viewing. James Cameron’s latest epic blockbuster won hearts, minds, and the box office in late 2022, and while audiences still have to wait a bit longer for its Disney Plus (or maybe HBO Max) premiere, you can now watch The Way of Water at home.
That’s not all that’s new to streaming this week: The sequel to the fun Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston Netflix romantic comedy Murder Mystery drops this week, Tetris arrives on Apple TV, and Creed III also makes its way to digital storefronts for rent and purchase.
New on Netflix
Murder Mystery 2
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Romantic comedy/mysteryRun time: 1h 29mDirector: Jeremy GarelickCast: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Strong
The first Murder Mystery was a delightful surprise, as far as Netflix original movies go — a charming and funny romantic comedy that doubled as a crime movie, with very game movie stars in the leading roles and veteran TV director Kyle Newacheck pulling it all together. The sequel sees the reins passed off from Newacheck to newcomer Jeremy Garelick, and our leading couple traveling to their friend’s wedding only to encounter more murders and kidnappings.
Kill Boksoon
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: ActionRun time: 2h 17mDirector: Sung-hyun ByunCast: Jeon Do-yeon, Hwang Jung-min, Fahim Fazli
A top-level assassin has to balance her two lives: that of an elite killer, and that of a mother of a teenage girl. When she makes a career-defining decision to repair her relationship with her daughter that puts her job in question, she becomes hunted by the people she’s spent her life working for.
New on Hulu
Rye Lane
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Romantic comedyRun time: 1h 22mDirector: Raine Allen-MillerCast: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, Poppy Allen-Quarmby
Two young people recovering from tough breakups find connection in each other in this London-set romance. Rye Lane is the feature debut of director Raine Allen-Miller, and was nominated for Best Feature Film in the International Narrative Competition at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
Hunt
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Spy thrillerRun time: 2h 11mDirector: Lee Jung-jaeCast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin
Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae directed and starred in this period-piece spy thriller. It’s a complex mystery with plenty of drama, so you might want to consider touching up on 1980s Korean politics first in order to follow the complicated narrative.
From our review:
This isn’t a simple good-guy/bad-guy story: It’s about the limited choices in a fascist regime, for citizens and enforcers alike, and about the extremes it drives them to. Both men are rats in the same trap, looking for every possible path where they might chew their way out. It turns them against each other, but also makes them alike in more ways than they’d want to admit. The results are intense, engaging, and sometimes hard to watch, given that the real victims here are the people caught in the crossfire. But for fans of action cinema and espionage drama in particular, Hunt is a must-see. The tone and execution are highly different from Squid Game, but it’s just as much a murderous battle for supremacy where the outcome is never obvious.
New on Apple
Tetris
Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus
Genre: Biographical filmRun time: 1h 58mDirector: Jon S. BairdCast: Taron Egerton, Mara Huf, Miles Barrow
No, this isn’t an adaptation of the game itself, as fun as that might be. Instead, Tetris tells the story of how the iconic game came to be one of the most popular video games across the globe. It appears to play out more like a spy movie than a business story.
From our review:
Tetris’ creation and its worldwide spread is a great story, but the complexities of its thorny rights issues and lawsuits don’t fit with the cartoon villainy and heavy dramatization of Apple’s new film. Despite Baird and Pink’s best attempts at cinematic tension and surprise twists, this story plays better elsewhere, in the retellings with a firmer grip on reality.
New on Showtime
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Where to watch: Available to stream on Showtime
Genre: Black-comedy horrorRun time: 1h 34mDirector: Halina ReijnCast: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la Herrold
A young woman named Bee (Maria Bakalova) and her girlfriend, Sophie (Amandla Stenberg), are invited out to a hurricane party at a secluded mansion by Sophie’s friends: a spoiled group of rich 20-somethings with a penchant for drama. Upon playing a find-the-killer murder-mystery party game, the group quickly learns that a real killer is in their midst.
From our review:
Bodies Bodies Bodies starts to play like a compressed Scream, sped up as if the filmmakers believe they’re playing to a generation that can’t keep both eyes on a full-length feature film. The filmmakers make the compelling choice to ratchet up both the bloodshed and the absurdity in tandem. Rather than letting satire give way to horror-movie tension, they make the recriminations and defensiveness increasingly louder and more ridiculous as the characters feel more endangered. At one point, mortal peril is interrupted by the equally shocking betrayal that one friend may be hate-listening to another’s podcast.
New on Shudder
The Unheard
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Genre: HorrorRun time: 2h 5mDirector: Jeffrey A. BrownCast: Lachlan Watson, Michele Hicks, Brendan Meyer
When a young woman decides to try out an experimental procedure for her hearing loss, she ends up hearing things. Spooky things! Things related to the disappearance of her missing mother. It’s an interesting premise, and the second feature film from director Jeffrey A. Brown (The Beach House).
New on VOD
Avatar: The Way of Water
Where to watch: Available to purchase for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi adventureRun time: 3h 12mDirector: James CameronCast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver
James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his 2009 Academy Award-winning sci-fi adventure epic Avatar has finally arrived.
Set 16 years after the original film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi lover Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are forced to flee their home with their family to seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina Na’vi tribe after a human army — led by a resurrected Na’vi Avatar clone of Jake’s nemesis, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) — returns to Pandora to despoil the planet of its natural resources… and eradicate any Na’vi who stand in their path.
From our review:
Avatar: The Way of Water tells a simple but engaging story in an imaginative, beautiful environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does — once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world — the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.
Creed III
Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sports dramaRun time: 1h 56mDirector: Michael B. JordanCast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors
Michael B. Jordan makes his directorial debut with the third installment of the highly acclaimed spinoff of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky series. Creed III sees Adonis Creed (Jordan), the long-lost son of Rocky’s onetime rival, Apollo Creed, at the top of the world having retired as heavyweight boxing champion. That all changes, however, when Adonis comes face to face with his childhood friend Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), who has his own long-held aspirations of becoming a heavyweight champ.
From our review:
Creed III faces the unique challenge of bringing the Rocky series out of Sylvester Stallone’s shadow. The ninth installment of the franchise that started with 1976’s Rocky is the first to feature Stallone neither on screen nor in a creative capacity. This time, the directorial reins have been handed to Michael B. Jordan, who plays Rocky’s protege Adonis in the Creed movies. In his directorial debut, Jordan, a self-professed anime and manga fan, imbues the spinoff/threequel with a cinematic zest the series has never seen before, expanding the visual language of the Hollywood boxing movie in remarkable ways.
Smoking Causes Coughing
Where to watch: Available to rent for $7.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Fantasy comedyRun time: 1h 20mDirector: Quentin DupieuxCast: Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier
The new film from director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber), also known by his musical alias Mr. Oizo, is an irreverent parody of Japanese sci-fi tokusatsu (“special effects”) films and the iconic Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers) TV franchise.
After getting their asses kicked by an alien turtle monster, the five superheroes known as “the Tobacco Force” are sent to a team-building retreat to improve their working relationships. Things, as you can probably expect, do not go exactly according to plan.
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham
Where to watch: Available to rent for $14.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Superhero fantasy/horrorRun time: 1h 26mDirectors: Christopher Berkeley, Sam LiuCast: David Giuntoli, Gideon Adlon, Karan Brar
Set in 1920s Gotham, this supernatural spin on Batman sees an “ancient evil” awaken that Batman must thwart. The voice cast includes Gideon Adlon (Sick), David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad), John DiMaggio (Futurama), and Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul), among others.
Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 52mDirector: Lizzie GottliebCast: Robert Caro, Robert Gottlieb, Bill Clinton
This documentary follows the story of acclaimed journalist and biographer Robert Caro, author of 1974’s The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, and his longtime editor, Robert Gottlieb. The film focuses on both Caro’s and Gottlieb’s lives, the impact of their work together, and the former’s goal to complete the final volume of a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson before he dies.
Champions
Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sports comedyRun time: 2h 4mDirector: Bobby FarrellyCast: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson
Bobby Farrelly, better known as one half of the Farrelly brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) makes his solo directing debut in this remake of a Spanish movie from 2018. Champions follows Woody Harrelson’s character, Marcus Marakovich, a hotheaded minor league basketball coach who gets arrested and ends up coaching a team of players with intellectual disabilities as a part of his community service.
The post Avatar: The Way of Water, Netflix’s Murder Mystery 2, Tetris, and every other movie you can stream from home this weekend appeared first on Polygon.
