Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other platforms.
The most eagerly awaits movie coming premiering this week is Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F in which Eddie Murphy returns for another action-comedy turn as Axel F. Over on Prime, Space Cadet looks promising, but the real movie-star of this (and every) July Fourth is Jaws. I love that shark.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
It's been almost 40 years since cop-out-of-water Axel Foley busted bad guys in Beverly Hills, and Eddie Murphy returns to the title role with some world-weariness to add to his panache. Old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) are on hand, but there's some new blood too: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Axel's partner, and Taylour Paige plays his daughter, whose life is in danger until Pop F. comes to save the day. This mixture of action, comedy, and Eddie Murphy worked in the 1980s, but will it in 2024? Watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F to find out.
Where to stream: Netflix
Space Cadet
Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is chosen to fly in a space shuttle mission? Space Cadet is like the training montage made into a fish-out-of-water comedy. It stars Emma Roberts as Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, a Florida party girl who’s always dreamed of being an astronaut. Her background is in bar-hopping instead of astrophysics, so she lies on her LinkedIn and gets into NASA’s competitive astronaut training program. Surrounded by ambitious PhDs and engineers, Simpson tries to keep up her “smart and accomplished” ruse long enough to be blasted into space. If you like female-led comedy and jokes about science, Space Cadet might be your favorite movie.
Where to stream: Prime
Jaws (1974)
Jaws is the ultimate July Fourth movie and you should make watching it a holiday tradition. The first summer blockbuster in cinema history, Jaws was a national sensation on its release, with viewers and critics and focusing on the terrifying shark. In hindsight, it's clear that the once-in-a-lifetime performances from leads Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw do way more to sell the terror than that dumb-looking rubber Great White.
Where to stream: Peacock
Sprint
Sprint: the World's Fastest Humans takes us into the world of elite sprinters so we can learn what motivates someone to devote their lives to the pursuit of speed. If you're planning to watch the track and field events at the Olympics later in the month, this is a perfect way to get to know some of the top athletes competing.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Back to the Future series
Back to the Future is a perfect movie, and the other two entries in the series are alright too. If you have a few rainy days this summer, there are a lot worse ways to spend them than gathering the family and basking in the '80s glow of this trilogy. It still works all these years later.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Beekeeper
The Beekeeper should be terrible. The premise makes you picture a slimy producer at a Hollywood development meeting saying, “It’s John Wick—but with bees!” But miraculously, The Beekeeper is not terrible. People like this Jason Statham-led action movie enough that it’s sitting at 92% audience approval at Rotten Tomatoes. Even finicky critics like The Beekeeper enough for a 71% fresh rating. It’s not going to change your life or anything, but it you’re looking for a dumb-fun action flick about a British badass who beats everyone up, The Beekeeper is for you.
Where to stream: Prime
Rocky 1-6
If you’re looking for a summertime movie binge, consider hitting play on the first five Rocky movies and following the career of the Italian Stallion from his unlikely title fight shot in 1976’s Rocky to his brief career as a trainer in 1990’s Rocky 5. The Rocky franchise follows an arc as dramatic and erratic as its main character's: It goes from a downbeat beginning about a palooka whose redemption comes through surviving a beating instead of winning a fight, to the over-amped, montage-heavy live-action cartoon Rocky IV, where Rocky KOs Ivan Drago in a battle that’s really about America-brand Freedom beating up Communist oppression. Then there’s the coda, Rocky V, where Rocky doesn’t even box.
Where to stream: Prime
Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly
There are few film franchises better than Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and Ugly), Steely-eyed Clint Eastwood defines cool as a nameless antihero locked in epic struggles against black-hatted adversaries (usually played by Lee Van Cleef) in a mythic version of the the American West. These aren’t really stories about cowboys as much as legends of Gods from some unfamiliar pantheon. So watch all these movies instead of doing anything else, please.
Where to stream: Prime
Evil Dead Rise
1981’s The Evil Dead is one of the best horror movies ever made, but sadly, it’s only streaming on AMC+. Prime subscribers get a tasty consolation prize with Evil Dead Rise, a thoroughly enjoyable, suitably bloody, modern addition to the franchise. Evil Dead Rise drops the isolated cabin-in-the-woods location in favor of a Deadite invasion in a city. It also features characters that are interesting enough that you might think they exist for reasons other than to be killed and eaten by undead monsters. They don’t, of course, because this is an Evil Dead movie. Like all the Evil Dead movies, it’s a gory, scary, silly, and fun treat for fans of horror mayhem.
Where to stream: Max, Hulu
Last week's picks
Fancy Dance
I've been reading hot-takes about the death of small, smart, indie cinema for my entire life, but the spirit lives on in movies like Fancy Dance. Lily Gladstone stars as Jax, whose life on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma consists of caring for her niece Roki, played by Isabel Deroy-Olson, and searching for her missing sister. When custody of Roki is threatened by Roki's father, Jax grabs her niece and goes hunting for Roki's mother, a search that becomes a deeper investigation of the place of Indigenous women in a colonized world.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Kung Fu Panda 4
It seems impossible that the fourth movie in a series about a Panda who knows martial arts would be good enough to have a Rotten Tomatoes audience score 87%, but Kung Fu Panda 4 smashes through conventional ideas of cinematic quality like they're wooden planks at a strip mall dojo. Jack Black is back as Po, and this time he's looking for a protege to take over as Dragon Warrior so he can be promoted to Grand Head Poobah or something. To find the right animal, Po heads out on one last (yeah, right) adventure. The search puts Po and his pal Zhen in the crosshairs of the wicked sorceress Chameleon and tests the limits of his kung fu skills. If you have kids, they'll like it, and if you happen to catch a scene or two when you're not looking at your phone, you won't mind it.
Where to stream: Peacock
I Am: Celine Dion
This original Prime documentary explores singer Celine Dion's struggle with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disease. Described in a press release as an "emotional, energetic, and poetic love letter to music," I Am: Celine Dion takes viewers from the dressing room to the recording studio to the stage and captures an intimate look at the superstar singer's private life and struggles.
Where to stream: Prime
A Family Affair
Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King lead the cast of A Family Affair, a romantic comedy that begins with Zara (King) walking in on her mom (Kidman) and her ex-boss (Efron) in the middle of a passionate tryst. The ex-boss is an impossibly self-centered celebrity—so Zara is not at all sure how to deal with the new relationship. This exploration of love, sex, and identity is the kind of charisma-powered, crowd-pleasing movie that romantic comedy fans can't get enough of.
Where to stream: Netflix
Judy (2019)
Judy explores the oversized life of iconic movie star Judy Garland—specifically, her last years in London, when films like The Wizard of Oz were a distant cultural memory and Garland was too broke to pay her hotel bill. Trying to stage another in an endless series of "comebacks," Garland juggles her professional responsibilities with her fierce protectiveness over her children, all while battling alcoholism and drug addiction. Darci Shaw plays young Judy, but the movie really belongs to Renée Zellweger, whose portrayal of time-has-caught-up-with-her Judy is heartbreaking.
Where to stream: Prime
Breakin' On The One
This documentary tells the story of how the Black and brown kids from New York’s poorest neighborhoods spawned a worldwide musical and cultural revolution through dance, music, and fashion. On August 15, 1981, New York breakdance crews the Rocksteady Crew and the Dynamic Rockers appeared at the Out-of-Doors Festival to settle their differences through a breaking battle. Ripples from the showdown reverberated all over the world, and Breakin' On The One explores that epic breakin’ battle and the significance of breakdancing and hip-hop through archival footage and interviews with the dancers, DJs, MCs, and B-boys and girls who were there. If you’re into hip-hop, or fascinated with how cultural revolutions begin, check out Breakin’ on the One.
Where to stream: Hulu
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