This week has a ton of new movies to watch on streaming, including the new Predator movie Prey, Uncharted on Netflix, Lightyear, and Minions: The Rise of Gru.
After a light few weeks in new movie releases, this week is perhaps the busiest of the year so far. The new Predator movie, Prey, drops on Hulu (and it’s really good!), three big animated movies (Lightyear, Luck, and Belle) make their streaming debuts, Uncharted finally lands on Netflix, and two Best Picture nominees — Licorice Pizza and Belfast — finally land on streaming.
That’s not all! There’s also a new Ron Howard movie about the Thai cave rescue, a slasher on Peacock, the new Minions movie, an intriguing horror movie starring Rebecca Hall, and so much more.
Here’s everything new you can watch at home this weekend.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Dan Trachtenberg’s prequel to the long-running Predator film franchise stars Amber Midthunder (Hell or High Water) as a Comanche warrior in 1719 who discovers the prey she thought she had been stalking is in fact a vicious headhunter from another world hellbent on killing humans for sport.
From our review:
Trachtenberg, who made the similarly pared-down franchise extension 10 Cloverfield Lane, has one major thing to offer in Prey: efficiency. This is a movie about a young woman on a collision course with a spine-ripping alien dude in a cool skull mask. The other members of Naru’s tribe are there to naysay and/or become Predator fodder. A late-arriving band of fur traders also offers up some huntable bodies. Trachtenberg finds ways to present the efficiencies of their short, brief lives with a flourish: He sets up action with overhead shots, sometimes from far above for lay-of-the-land establishing shots, and sometimes giving the camera just enough space for a full view of obstacles like a particularly sticky mud pit.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home) stars in Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer’s 2022 adaptation of the Uncharted action-adventure video game series as Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who teams up with partner-mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to search for the lost treasure of Ferdinand Magellan.
From our review:
The filmmakers have the right idea of what makes an Uncharted action set piece, whether they’re molding a sequence after something from the games, or inventing something entirely new that would fit within one of them, like a bit involving characters battling inside pirate ships hoisted into the air by airplanes. But the execution is flat, inconsequential, and boring. Not even a remix of the Uncharted theme during a climactic shootout, padded up to that point by generic action muzak, brings joy.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
Chris Evans (Avengers: Endgame) stars in the 2022 Toy Story spinoff Lightyear as Buzz Lightyear — the human, not the toy — a Star Command Space Ranger who accidentally crashes his exploration vehicle on an inhospitable alien planet. Stranded with no way home, Buzz must find a way to manufacture a new fuel source to power his ship, all while fighting off the mysterious Zurg and his army of killer robots.
From our review:
As a Flash Gordon-style space adventure packed with fast-moving alien creepy-crawlies, snappy banter, and big explosive action, Lightyear is perfectly enjoyable. There’s a lot of funny business about Buzz narrating his actions as if he’s the hero in a space serial, and a strange, silly scene about the sandwiches of the future. It’s no wonder all this would appeal to Andy and his generation, who likely see it much like 6-year-olds in our world might: as an exciting rush through a world packed with killer robots, icky monster-bugs, and cool laser swords.
But Lightyear is so clearly calibrated to be something more: a thoughtful meditation on the passage of time. Its biggest ideas all point to the need to connect with people and live in the present rather than the past. It’s a warning about all the things we might miss if we fixate on past mistakes instead of letting them go. And on that level, the film never hits as hard as it’s meant to.
Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max
Mamoru Hosoda’s sci-fi fantasy anime Belle follows the story of Suzu, a reserved high school student living in a rural village. Mourning the loss of her mother, Suzu finds solace and validation by escaping into the massive online world of “U,” where her virtual alter-ego “Belle” is a globally recognized pop singer. After one of her concerts is interrupted by a mysterious figure known as the Dragon, Suzu sets out in search of him in hopes of better understanding the unspoken connection they share with one another.
From our review:
The kid-friendly moral of Beauty and the Beast (or at least the 1991 Disney version) is a simple one: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.
