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, there’s a packed lineup of VOD options for viewers looking to enjoy their Fourth of July weekend from the comfort of their air conditioned homes. After years of lackluster films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets back to basics with the character-driven CGI-light Thunderbolts*. The John Wick franchise continues to expand with Ballerina, which danced into theaters last month following eight years of production delays and reshoots. Danny and Michael Philippou are building their own interconnected horror universe, following their record-breaking 2023 debut Talk to Me with Bring Her Back. Immortals battle in Netflix’s The Old Guard 2, while DC Comics’ latest anime, Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, travels to Max.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch on streaming this weekend!
New on Netflix
The Old Guard 2
Genre: ActionRun time: 1h 47mDirector: Victoria MahoneyCast: Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts
Immortal killing machine Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron) lost her regeneration powers in 2020’s slick action film The Old Guard. Now she’s trying to navigate life while facing a new threat to her team (played by Uma Thurman), as well as the return of an old friend, who is out for vengeance after being trapped for centuries at the bottom of the ocean.
From our review:
Whenever Mahoney tries to go bigger, the intended thrills evaporate mid-sequence. In the first action scene, there’s a potentially great car stunt muddled by a clunky cut, with middling visual effects to not-quite-finish the job. The whole movie has a cheap, drab look, eventually sending its characters across generic catwalks to fight anonymous henchmen, scored with electronic music that sounds like it came pre-programmed with a new keyboard. Some dialogue that might have sounded thoughtful in the comic-book source material doesn’t work in a movie. There are also some lines that shouldn’t have made it past a first draft in any medium: “I’m scared of what she’s capable of, and so should you,” a character says at one point. Huh?
New on AMC Plus
The Luckiest Man in America
Genre: DramaRun time: 1h 30mDirector: Samir OliverosCast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, David Strathairn
Based on a true story, The Luckiest Man in America stars Golden Globe-winner Paul Walter Hauser as an ice-cream-truck driver competing on the popular ’80s game show Press Your Luck. His winning streak baffles the show’s host (Walton Goggins) and executive producer (David Strathairn), and things get tense as they try to figure out the secret behind his luck.
New on Hulu
The Actor
Genre: Crime thrillerRun time: 1h 38mDirector: Duke JohnsonCast: André Holland, Gemma Chan, May Calamawy
The surreal adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel Memory follows an actor (André Holland of Moonlight) who wakes up with amnesia after being beaten and left for dead in a small town in Ohio. As he tries to piece together who he is and what happened, he has problems distinguishing between the truth and his past roles.
In the Lost Lands
Genre: Action fantasyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Paul W.S. AndersonCast: Dave Bautista, Milla Jovovich
Dave Bautista guides a sorceress played by Milla Jovovich through a fantastical post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of a powerful artifact in an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s short story of the same name. The latest collaboration between Jovovich and her husband, Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson, is a dark, action-packed fairy tale.
From our review:
Anderson’s world-building and eye for compelling visuals throws you right into the sheer scale of In the Lost Lands, evoking massive castles and other huge structures in this desolate land with the unnatural sheen of digital photography and his strong eye for light and shadow. Martin’s typically evocative location names also help out: The protagonists visit Fire Fields, Shadow’s Bane, and my personal favorite, Skull River (which is, it turns out, a more literal name than you might expect).
New on Max
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League
Genre: Superhero animeRun time: 1h 29mDirector: Junpei Mizusaki and Shinji TakagiCast: Koichi Yamadera/Joe Daniels, Daisuke Ono/Houston Hayes, Akira Ishida/David Matranga
The followup to 2018’s Batman Ninja pits the Bat-Family against yakuza versions of the Justice League, who are leading an invasion of Gotham City. While there are some very silly moments, like a tribute to Voltron and a Wonder Woman music video, the film is also surprisingly earnest, showing a real affection for DC’s biggest heroes even as Batman beats them up with his “science ninja techniques.”
From our review:
Batman Ninja director Junpei Mizusaki and writer Kazuki Nakashima reunited for the sequel, with Shinji Takagi joining as co-director, delivering another zany mashup of Batman characters and anime tropes. This outing tilts the balance further toward DC Comics storylines, for a more coherent plot than its predecessor’s. That’s admittedly a low bar, given that Batman Ninja involved Batman enlisting an army of monkeys to fight mecha piloted by his rogues gallery. The animation and music team are also the same, keeping the quality of the action, which moves at a breakneck pace, complete with speed lines and suspense-building fight tunes.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Genre: Black comedyRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Rungano NyoniCast: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri
The A24 film follows a Zambian family coping with the death of an uncle, who was found lying dead on an empty road in the middle of the night. Dark secrets come to light as they plan the funeral and debate the best way to mourn and how to deal with old trauma.
New on Paramount Plus
Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado
Genre: Family adventureRun time: 1h 36mDirector: Alberto BelliCast: Samantha Lorraine, Jacob Rodriguez, Daniella Pineda
The live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s adventure show Dora the Explorer follows Dora (Samantha Lorraine), her talking monkey, and her friends as they search for a wish-finding magical artifact in the Amazon while pursued by mercenaries. A reboot rather than a sequel to Dora and the Lost City of Gold, the new film premiered as part of a celebration of the show’s 25th anniversary.
Monster Summer
Genre: Adventure horrorRun time: 1h 37mDirector: David HenrieCast: Mason Thames, Julian Lerner, Abby James Witherspoon
When a strange encounter leaves one of their friends acting like a zombie, a group of kids enlist the help of a creepy retired police detective (Mel Gibson) to investigate in this Stranger Things-style throwback horror flick. It’s a goofy mystery geared toward families with a taste for ’90s nostalgia.
New on Prime Video
Heads of State
Genre: Action comedyRun time: 1h 53mDirector: Ilya NaishullerCast: Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Looking for a little patriotic fun for Independence Day? John Cena plays an action star elected president of the United States who has to team up with the Prime Minster of the UK (Idris Elba) to unravel a conspiracy after an attack on Air Force One leaves them stranded in Belarus. With the help of an MI6 agent (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and a CIA officer (Jack Quaid), they’ll need to put aside their differences to stay alive.
New to rent
Ballerina
Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 2h 5mDirector: Len WisemanCast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne
Set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, Ballerina follows Eve (Ana de Armas), a ballerina/assassin/bodyguard on a quest for vengeance. Her mission puts her at odds with Wick (Keanu Reeves) himself as she kills her way through the franchise’s glamorous world, battling cultists with style.
From our review:
While Ballerina’s wafer-thin plot leaves a thousand open questions about how this world could possibly work (honestly, another Wickiverse trademark), and several of the plot beats make no sense (like Winston casually breaking the rules of his vaunted, beloved assassin-safehouse hotel The Continental), in the end, most audiences are only really going to care about, and remember, Ballerina’s fight sequences. And while they aren’t all stunning — particularly in the draggy first act, as Eve learns to fight — the movie builds up to some sequences that stand out among the franchise’s most ambitious, wild efforts.
Bring Her Back
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 44mDirector: Danny and Michael PhilippouCast: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips
Danny and Michael Philippou follow up their smash hit Talk to Me with another A24 horror film. A pair of step-siblings in foster care become the subjects of an occult ritual meant to resurrect their foster mom’s dead daughter. Family drama morphs into dark, extremely gory action in the new tale of demonic possession with subtle connections to the Philippous’ previous movie.
Ice Road: Vengeance
Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 53mDirector: Jonathan HensleighCast: Liam Neeson, Fan Bingbing, Marcus Thomas
The sequel to 2021’s The Ice Road has truck driver Mike McCann (Liam Neeson) embroiled in a kidnapping on a bus on the way to Mt. Everest. He’ll have to protect the passengers and a village from mercenaries and corrupt cops by showing off both his shooting and driving skills in hostile terrain.
Thunderbolts*
Genre: Superhero actionRun time: 2h 7mDirector: Jake Schreier Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell
A cast of misfits gathered from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe have to team up to save themselves and maybe become real heroes along the way in this refreshingly funny film. Don’t worry if you’re not caught up on every new MCU release — the film features brief summaries of everyone’s backstories as each of the characters gets their own emotional arc.
From our review:
For the first time since Avengers: Endgame, Thunderbolts* feels like a starting point, something great that Disney can use to build toward the future. More important than all that, however, is the fact that Thunderbolts* is the first time in a long time that Marvel has actually made a good movie — one that cares about story and characters more than it cares about references and multiverses.
Tornado
Genre: Action dramaRun time: 1h 31mDirector: John MacleanCast: Kōki, Tim Roth, Jack LowdenEmbracing the connections between Westerns and samurai stories, Tornado is a tale of vengeance set in 1790s Scotland. The film from Slow West writer-director John Maclean follows a young woman tracking down the members of a gang who killed her samurai-turned-puppeteer father.
The post Thunderbolts*, Ballerina, Bring Her Back, and every movie new to streaming this weekend appeared first on Polygon.
