5 best new movies to stream this weekend on Netflix, HBO Max, Peacock and more (Aug. 2-3)
This week marked the streaming premiere of two long-awaited 2000s horror series revivals: "Final Destination: Bloodlines" on HBO Max and "28 Years Later" on paid video-on-demand platforms. Over on Netflix, you can find the streamer's latest romance, "My Oxford Year," which promises to be a familiar escape if you're in the mood for a feel-good watch. Meanwhile, Hulu just got the riveting new historical epic "William Tell," while Peacock has a slept-on sci-fi gem starring Tom Cruise with "Edge of Tomorrow."
Not feeling these picks? Check out our round-up of all the best new shows and movies on streaming in August for more recommendations on what to watch. Now, let's dive into the best new movies on streaming this week that deserve a spot on your watchlist.
"The Life List" was one of my biggest surprises of the year so far, so Netflix's newest romantic drama, "My Oxford Year," is near the top of my watchlist. Based on the novel of the same name by Julia Whelan, it follows Anna De La Vega (Sofia Carson), a driven American student who earns a coveted Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.
However, her carefully-considered plan falls by the wayside in the face of her witty and charming tutor, Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest). As they get to know each other, sparks fly, forcing Anna to question her ambitions — especially when Jamie's hidden secret threatens to upend everything. Like many entries in this genre, it's bound to be chock-full of coming-of-age lessons about balancing the life you've planned with the one you never saw coming.
Watch 'My Oxford Year' now on Netflix
Doubling as both a prequel and a sequel, the sixth "Final Destination" film injects some new life into the campy, blood-drenched franchise by taking its premise to a haunting new level. I put it right up there with "Final Destination 2" as one of my favorite entries in the series.
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Like every "Final Destination" movie, "Bloodlines" kicks off with a jaw-dropping premonition that catastrophe is about to strike. The difference is that this time it plays out decades ago instead of in the present, when a young Iris (Brec Bassinger) foresees the collapse of a luxurious observation tower and restaurant. Though she manages to save a few people from their grisly fate, it sets off a chain reaction that puts their children, including her granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), in death's crosshairs.
Watch 'Final Destination: Bloodlines' on HBO Max now
Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland popularized the concept of fast zombies over two decades ago with "28 Days Later," and this year brought a long-awaited third installment to the beloved horror series: "28 Years Later."
I like how it nailed the gritty spirit and visual style of the original, but it was too all over the place for me. (Ralph Fiennes showing up, covered in iodine, talking about the "magic of the placenta" is as baffling with context as it is without).
Nearly 30 years after the Rage Virus turned Britain into a quarantined wasteland, whatever hope remains has long since rotted. A few survivors have carved out a fragile community walled off from the undead hordes on a remote island off England's coast. When 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) embarks on a rite of passage to the zombie-plagued mainland with his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), they learn the infected have mutated into a terrifying new threat that's more human than they thought possible.
Rent or buy now on Amazon or Apple
I have to confess I don't know much about William Tell. I vaguely remember a children's story about him shooting an apple off his son's head, but that's where my knowledge begins and ends. Though after watching director-writer Nick Hamm's new historical action epic "William Tell," which reimagines the story of the legendary 14th-century Swiss huntsman with a cinematic flair, I'm keen to learn more.
Claes Bang stars as Tell, a disillusioned Crusades soldier turned huntsman, who refuses to submit when the Austrian Empire, led by evil King Albrecht (Ben Kingsley), marches into his country. To fight back, he joins a burgeoning rebellion determined to reclaim Swiss independence. It's a good old-fashioned tale of folk heroism and hardy underdogs, but I can't help but think it would have worked better as a miniseries than a bloated 134-minute film.
Watch 'William Tell' on Hulu now
Between its star power, action-packed set pieces, and clever premise, "Edge of Tomorrow" had all the ingredients of a box office hit. But for reasons beyond me, it fell flat when it hit theaters over a decade ago, earning less than half of its $370 million budget. Thankfully, it's seen a well-earned revival on streaming platforms, and now Peacock subscribers can check out this slept-on sci-fi gem starring Tom Cruise.
Set in a future where Earth is being overrun by alien invaders, a cowardly major (Cruise) is thrust onto the front lines after being demoted. With zero combat experience under his belt, he doesn't last long — but instead of dying, he wakes up to the start of the same day. He realizes he's caught in a time loop that resets with every death, and he sets out to escape his grim fate. With the help of Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a renowned soldier rumored to have gained similar abilities after experimenting with the alien's blood, the two set out to defeat the alien horde and save humanity.
Watch 'Edge of Tomorrow' now on Peacock
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Those barriers have already long since broken down in music: many K-pop artists and songwriters are non-Korean or part of the Korean diaspora, reflecting the genre's history of foreign influences such as Japanese pop or American hip-hop. 'Once a cultural creation acquires a universality, you can't just confine it to the borders of the country of origin, which is where K-pop is today,' said Kim Il-joong, director of the content business division at the Korea Creative Content Agency, a government body whose mission is to promote South Korean content worldwide. 'Despite what the name 'K-pop' suggests, it is really a global product.' In 'K-pop Demon Hunters,' Zoey is a rapper from Burbank. In addition, the soundtrack was written and performed by a team that includes producers, artists and choreographers associated with some of the biggest real-life K-pop groups of the past decade. Streaming productions are increasingly flying multiple flags, too: Apple TV's 'Pachinko' or Netflix's 'XO, Kitty' are both American productions that were filmed in South Korea. But few productions have been able to inspire quite the same level of enthusiasm as 'K-pop Demon Hunters,' whose charm for many South Koreans is how accurately it captures local idiosyncrasies and contemporary life. While flying in their private jet, the three girls are shown sitting on the floor even though there is a sofa right beside them. This tendency to use sofas as little more than backrests is an endless source of humor and self-fascination among South Koreans, most of whom would agree that the centuries-old custom of sitting on the floor dies hard. South Korean fans and media have noted that the characters correctly pronounce 'ramyeon,' or Korean instant noodles. The fact that ramyeon is often conflated with Japanese ramen — which inspired the invention of the former decades ago — has long been a point of exasperation for many South Koreans and local ramyeon companies, which point to the fact that the Korean adaption has since evolved into something distinct. It's a small difference — the Korean version is pronounced 'rah myun' — but one that it pays to get right in South Korea. The girls' cravings for ramyeon during their flight also caught the eye of Ireh, a member of the real-life South Korean girl group Purple Kiss who praised the film's portrayals of life as a K-pop artist. 'I don't normally eat ramyeon but whenever I go on tour, I end up eating it,' she said in a recent interview with local media. 'The scene reminded me of myself.' South Korean fans have also been delighted by a pair of animals, Derpy and Sussy, which borrow from jakhodo, a genre of traditional Korean folk painting in which tigers and magpies are depicted side by side, popularized during the Joseon Dynasty in the 19th century. In the film, Derpy is the fluorescent tiger with goggle eyes that always appears with its sidekick, a three-eyed bird named Sussy. Though they have long since been extinct, tigers were once a feared presence on the Korean peninsula, at times coming down from the mountains to terrorize the populace. They were also revered as talismans that warded off evil spirits. But much like Derpy itself, jakhodo reimagined tigers as friendlier, oftentimes comical beings. Historians have interpreted this as the era's political satire: the magpie, audacious in the presence of a great predator, represented the common man standing up to the nobility. The movie is peppered with homages to Korean artists throughout history who are seen today as the progenitors of contemporary K-pop. There are apparent nods to the 'Jeogori Sisters,' a three-piece outfit that was active from 1939 to 1945 and is often described as Korea's first girl group, followed by the Kim Sisters, another three-piece that found success in the U.S., performing in Las Vegas and appearing on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' Longtime K-pop fans might recognize the demon hunters from the 1990s as S.E.S., a pioneering girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment, the label behind present-day superstars Aespa and Red Velvet. (Bada, S.E.S.'s main vocalist, recently covered 'Golden,' the film's headline track, on YouTube.) For a long time, South Korean audiences have often complained about outside depictions of the country as inauthentic and out of touch. Not anymore. 'Korea wasn't just shown as an extra add-on as it has been for so long,' Kim said. ''K-pop Demon Hunters' did such a great job depicting Korea in a way that made it instantly recognizable to audiences here.'
