Happy Friday, Polygon readers!
Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. This week we have the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from executive producer Seth Rogen, a new horror movie based on a classic Stephen King short story, the last Indiana Jones film starring Harrison Ford, and much more!
Love Again, the new romantic comedy starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan, arrives on Netflix this weekend. Moving On starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda premieres on Hulu, while Robert Rodriguez’s new psychological thriller Hypnotic starring Ben Affleck makes its streaming premiere on Peacock. Plus, a variety of new releases on VOD including The Pod Community, King of Killers, and the French coming-of-age drama Astrakan.
Here’s everything new to watch over the weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: James C. Strouse
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Celine Dion
Struggling with the death of her fiancé, a young woman (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) sends romantic messages to his old cell phone number mourning what she lost, only for them to be sent to a charming young journalist (Sam Heughan). Tasked to write a story on her, the journalist and the woman inadvertently hit it off as they navigate the challenges of love in the wake of grief. Also Celine Dion plays a fictional version of herself.
New on Hulu
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 25m
Director: Paul Weitz
Cast: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Malcolm McDowell
This new comedy stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as two estranged friends who, reunited by the recent passing of their beloved mutual friend, work together to get back at their friend’s widower (Malcolm McDowell) after old tensions flare up again.
New on Max
The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 23m
Directors: Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer
Cast: James Urbaniak, Patrick Warburton, Michael Sinterniklaas
The Venture Bros. creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer return with an all-new adventure set after the events of the series. With Hank still missing, Dean embarks on a cross-country search for his brother while Dr. Venture preps for a big make-or-break product launch back in New York. Meanwhile, the Guild of Calamitous Intent and OSI team up to track down a nefarious antagonist who’s throwing a wrench in the carefully maintained order of organized villainy.
Will Hank ever return home? What’s the deal between Dr. Venture and his nemesis The Monarch, and will we ever learn the true identity of Hank and Dean’s mom? The answer to all these questions and more lies at the end of this feature-length special!
From our review,
The finale leaves the door open to the possibility of future adventures for this family — none have been greenlit, but in this age of infinite revivals and infinite nostalgia, anything is possible. If this movie is well and truly a wrap for The Venture Bros., though, Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart could not be any more worthy or fitting of a farewell to one the greatest animated comedies to air on television. It’s not goodbye; it’s only see you later, Team Venture.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, J. D. Pardo
Ben Affleck stars in this new psychological thriller from Planet Terror director Robert Rodriguez as a police detective who is called upon to solve a case concerning a mysterious suspect named “Lev Dellrayne” (William Fichtner) who supposedly has the power to coerce people into aiding his crimes through hypnotic suggestion. The plot gets a lot more complicated from there, including detective’s long-dead daughter, a clandestine government operation, and several twists that culminate into one of the most batshit wild endings of the year.
New to rent
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Where to watch: Available to purchase on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Animated superhero action comedy
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Jeff Rowe
Cast: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon
This Seth Rogen-produced animated reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reimagines the origin story of Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo; four turtles mutated by a mysterious ooze who grow up under the tutelage of their adoptive father Splinter (Jackie Chan). When the turtle brothers cross paths with April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), an aspiring high school journalist, the turtles decide to help her in uncovering a shadowy crime syndicate led by a mysterious crime boss who goes by the name “Superfly.”
The Boogeyman
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Supernatural horror
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Rob Savage
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair
Based on Stephen King’s 1973 short story of the same name, The Boogeyman follows a teenage girl named Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) who find themselves inexplicably stalked by a malevolent otherworldly presence seemingly connected to their deepest and darkest fears.
From our review,
The adapted version of The Boogeyman is full of classically tailored scares and creeping mood. Even more so than Lights Out or James Wan’s Conjuring movies, Savage’s take on the creature feature is buttoned up and often overextended in the attempt to keep the Harper family’s bereavement at the center of the story. The action gets a bit repetitive: In the wake of Lester’s death, the film oscillates between Boogeyman attacks in the increasingly familiar Harper home, and Sadie’s trips to school, where she’s tormented for being a sad sack who wears her dead mom’s dresses. (Are high schoolers the real monsters? Makes you think.) Savage is playful about teasing out the dark corners of the home — whoever invented the cordless light ball deserves residuals on this film, given how often it rolls into the shadows to catch the silhouette of a spindly monster — but eventually, the jump scares wear thin.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Where to watch: Available to purchase on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Action adventure
Run time: 2h 34m
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen
Harrison Ford’s final outing Indiana Jones sees the whip-wielding archaeologist adventurer embark on one last intrepid expedition with his estranged goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they race across the world in search of an ancient artifact before a nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) gets his nefarious hands on it.
From our review,
Mangold is a very fine director capable of helming solid crowd-pleasers (Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line) and even breathing new life into the dying X-Men franchise with Logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks anonymous. Its visual style is drab in a way that drains the film of any personality. When Indiana Jones makes his way through boobytrapped caves in torchlight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the contrast between the outside world and this creepy tomb evokes a singular wonder. But virtually every scene in darkness here is scantily lit and hard to see. And like many a modern blockbuster, Dial of Destiny leans on rapid cuts that heighten the pace of Indiana’s brawls with the Nazis, but the choreography is barely discernible.
The Pod Generation
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi romance
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: Sophie Barthes
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rosalie Craig
What if Gattaca wasn’t a dystopian retro futuristic drama starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, but instead a quirky sci-fi romance drama starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor? That’s essentially what director Sophie Barthes’ latest film is in a nutshell: A couple is offered the opportunity to conceive a child through an artificial womb (or pod), only to discover that parenthood and life are more unpredictable they at first imagined.
King of Killers
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Action
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Kevin Grevioux
Cast: Frank Grillo, Alain Moussi, Georges St. Pierre
It’s always exciting when a creator gets to adapt their own work, and it’s always exciting when there’s a new Frank Grillo action movie. King of Killers is both.
Kevin Grevioux (Underworld) directs and co-stars in this adaptation of his own comic book, where the world’s best assassin (Grillo) hires a bunch of the world’s next-best-assassins to see if they can kill him. Bloody mayhem ensues.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: David Depesseville
Cast: Mirko Giannini, Jehnny Beth, Bastien Bouillon
This critically acclaimed French film shot on 16mm is a raw coming-of-age story about an orphan sent to live with new foster parents. The debut feature for director David Depessville, Astrakan premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year and blends a grounded approach to its storytelling and look with moments of magical realism.
This content was originally published here.
