Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the new buddy cop movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, comes to VOD this week along with the Hindi action thriller Kill. There’s plenty of other exciting releases to choose from that are new to streaming this week too, like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, the Michael Keaton-directed crime thriller Knox Goes Away on Max, the sci-fi drama The Beast on Criterion Channel, and more.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Supernatural comedyRun time: 1h 56mDirector: Gil KenanCast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard
The Ghostbusters have returned with an all-new movie, and this time Bill Murray is here! Three years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family must join forces with the veteran Ghostbusters to stop a wrathful demonic entity from freezing all of New York City. Oh, and Slimer is here too, because of course.
From our review:
The Ghostbusters franchise doesn’t really seem to be aimed at anyone anymore. It isn’t funny. It isn’t scary. It’s mostly abandoned its new younger characters, and its older actors barely seem to care. Frozen Empire’s unintentional answer to the question seems to be that Ghostbusters is now corporate nostalgia-farming given cinematic form. Sure, it’s missing all the charm and goofiness that earned the original Ghostbusters so many fans — but if you stick around long enough, they filmmakers will show off the proton packs again, and there’s always a new person to slime. It’s a franchise reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in hopes that we’ll buy another ticket and try to revisit the emotions we felt when we encountered this world for the first time.
New on Hulu
Femme
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 39mDirectors: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon PingCast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Aaron Heffernan
After being viciously attacked by an unknown man and their group of friends, a drag queen named Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) confronts their assaulter — a closeted young man named Preston (George MacKay) in a gay sauna. Striking up an affair, Jules plots his revenge against Preston, who is oblivious to Jules’ true identity and intentions.
Sleeping Dogs
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Crime thrillerRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Adam CooperCast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired homicide detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a college professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he works to track down the true culprit, he’ll have to fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.
New on Max
Knox Goes Away
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Crime thrillerRun time: 1h 54mDirector: Michael KeatonCast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden
Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, about a hitman going through some hard times. Now he’s back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman going through some hard times. This time, the hitman is John Knox, a contract killer separated from his family who takes on one last job after he’s diagnosed with dementia.
New on Criterion Channel
The Beast
Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel on July 28
Genre: Sci-fi romanceRun time: 2h 26mDirector: Bertrand BonelloCast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda
Imagine Cloud Atlas meets The Age of Innocence meets Mulholland Drive. That’s about the simplest way of describing The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi romance drama. Léa Seydoux (Spectre) stars as Gabrielle, a woman living in the near-future who undergoes a process to “purify” her DNA of strong emotions by reliving her past lives. Her procedure becomes more complicated after crossing paths with Louis (George MacKay), a man whom — in a past life — she may or may not have loved.
From our review:
The Beast’s three timelines play with seemingly unmixable genres: a classic period romance, a gripping horror-thriller, and dystopian sci-fi. That places them at a logistical disconnect, but Bonello binds them aesthetically and emotionally. Through his lengthy, thought-provoking close-ups of Gabrielle and Louis in each section, he creates a sense of longing and isolation across time, binding together human experiences of the past, present, and future, and putting them into sharp and chilling context.
New on Shudder
Humane
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 33mDirector: Caitlin CronenbergCast: Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher
The feature debut from Caitlin Cronenberg is a horror thriller worthy of the family name. Set during a worldwide ecological collapse, Humane follows estranged siblings who learn that their father and mother have chosen to take part in a nationwide euthanasia program as a form of public service. When things go awry, the family will have to choose one of their own to offer up as a substitute participant. Naturally, things get personal.
New to rent
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Buddy cop actionRun time: 1h 55mDirectors: Adil El Arbi & Bilall FallahCast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens
The Bad Boys are back for another spin around the block! Bad Boys for Life directors Adil & Bilall return for the latest entry in the franchise, this time following partners and best friends Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) as they work to clear the name of their late boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) when he’s posthumously implicated in a criminal conspiracy.
From our review:
El Arbi and Fallah’s direction is the brightest aspect of Ride or Die. The pair has leveled up since Bad Boys for Life, showing themselves as eager students of Bayhem, happy to deploy camera work as exciting as the shootouts it captures. Frenetic drone shots zoom through gunfire, cameras pivot over the barrel of a gun, and nothing ever, ever stays still. It’s a bit overwhelming: Restrained compared to Bay in their previous effort, they overreach a bit here. Their action shines brightest when it features someone capable of believably kicking ass on screen, like Jacob Scipio, returning as Mike Lowrey’s long-lost son from Bad Boys for Life.
Kill
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 45mDirector: Nikhil Nagesh BhatCast: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi
In this thriller, an army commando leads a mission to rescue his girlfriend from an arranged marriage — and then ends up also rescuing a train from a gang of bandits. Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness.
Here’s what Polygon’s curation editor Pete Volk had to say about it:
Kill makes the most of the close-quarters setting and the many different weapons on display — knives, limbs, fire extinguishers, and the architecture/layout of the train itself all play into the combat. It’s a real treat for action fans, especially when things take a turn 45 minutes in and the violence amps up significantly. Kill doesn’t go from 0 to 60; it starts at 60 and goes to 200. The movie’s action design is basically broken into two halves, allowing the team (and Lakshya as a lead) to show a variety of approaches to the fight scenes. I won’t say too much, to avoid spoilers, but the action design becomes much more lethal in response to the events of the story, which allows Kill to start with a more classic nonlethal martial arts approach to action before transitioning into something closer to what you might find in a horror movie.
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