Behold, these 16 movies will premiere next month on Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon and Hulu!
Since we’re likely to have about as many new mainstream theatrical releases in August as we did in July (probably none), it’s once again up to the various streaming platforms to provide a month’s worth of new feature-length films. And quite frankly there’s a lot this month, including a healthy selection of both “intended for streaming” and “initially intended for theaters” flicks debuting between August 6 and August 28.
This will not include VOD (“priced to rent”) films nor is this a list of every old/catalog movie arriving to every streaming service. This is the new stuff available on the likes of Disney+, HBO Max and Netflix starting next month, in order of release date.
Oh, and obviously these release dates could change (and/or new movies could be added) along the way. Now, presuming I didn’t miss any, without further ado…
Release date unknown:
Class Action Park(HBO Max)
This documentary is focused on the infamous Action Park, which earned a reputation as an uncommonly dangerous amusement park during its existence in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The New Jersey-based location was known for its perilous and highly unregulated attractions, with rides seemingly unbound by “basic notions of physics or common sense.” Johnny Knoxville’s Action Point, a blink-and-you-miss-it theatrical bomb from the summer of 2018, was centered on a fictionalized version of this locale. Considering my wife’s fondness for weird/perilous vacation destinations (“Momventure… where the lucky ones die first”), this should be an easy sell.
August 7:
Work It (Netflix)
Directed by Laura Terruso (Good Girls Get High), this dance comedy stars Sabrina Carpenter as a young woman who needs to win an upcoming competition in order to get into her dream college) but little in the way of natural talent. Alas, she has no natural dancing talent, so she recruits a handful of young men and women and forms her own gee-whiz dance squad. The Girl Meets World star is featured alongside the likes of Jordan Fisher, Liza Koshy, Michelle Buteu and the perennially underused Keiynan Lonsdale (he was such a natural fit for the Legends of Tomorrow crew, but alas…). Anyway, if you liked Center Stage and Feel the Beat, well, here you go.
Howard (Disney+)
This Don Hahn-directed documentary concerns the too-short life of Howard Ashman, the man who penned the songs for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid before dying of AIDS in 1991. Hahn directed the dynamite Waking Sleeping Beauty documentary which chronicled the mid-80’s-to-early 90’s Disney animation renaissance period. That 2010 theatrical release was willing to dwell on the negative/pick at scabs despite being an authorized Disney documentary and took time to note how Ashman’s successes and death affected the company as a whole.
Boyz in the Wood (Amazon)
Written and directed by Ninian Doff, this Eddie Izzard vehicle premiered at last year’s South by Southwest Film Festival before being acquired by Amazon. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it concerns four city boys on a camping trip convention trying to escape an unexpected peril while the police try and fail to help.
An American Pickle(HBO Max)
Initially intended for theatrical release later this year, Sony sold this Seth Rogen comedy to the Warner Media streaming service. The film, debuting on August 6, and directed by Brandon Trost and based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella, concerns an American immigrant in 1920 who falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years before awaking in 2020 America.
