Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix and every new movie to stream this week

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix and every new movie to stream this week

    Every week at Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases for streaming and VOD, and highlight the biggest and best new movies to watch at home.

    This week, Bad Boys: Ride or Diethe new buddy cop film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, comes to VOD this week, along with the Hindi action thriller Kill. There are many more exciting releases to choose from that are also new to streaming this week, such as Ghostbusters: Frozen Realm on Netflix, the crime thriller directed by Michael Keaton Knox is leaving about Max, the science fiction drama The beast on Criterion Channel, and more.

    Here’s everything new to check out this weekend!


    New on Netflix

    Ghostbusters: Frozen Realm

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Photo: Sony Pictures

    Genre: Supernatural comedy
    Playing time: 1h 56m
    Director: Gil Kenan
    Form: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard

    The Ghostbusters are back with an all-new movie, and this time it’s Bill Murray! Set three years after the events of Ghostbusters: AfterlifeThe Spengler family must join forces with the veteran Ghostbusters to stop a raging demonic entity from freezing all of New York City. Oh, and Slimer is there, because of course.

    From our review:

    The Ghostbusters franchise doesn’t really seem to have anyone in it anymore. It’s not funny. It’s not scary. It’s largely abandoned its new younger characters and the older actors hardly seem to care. Frozen Kingdom‘s unintended answer to the question seems to be that Ghostbusters is now a nostalgic corporate culture given cinematic form. Sure, it lacks all the charm and silliness that the original Ghost Hunters so many fans — but stick around long enough and the filmmakers will bring out the proton packs again, and there’s always someone new to slime. It’s a franchise that’s been reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in the hope that we’ll buy another ticket and try to relive the emotions we felt when we first encountered its world.

    New on Hulu

    Woman

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man with striking tattoos on his neck is pressed against a wall by another person in Femme.

    Image: Anton/Utopia

    Genre: Thriller
    Playing time: 1h 39m
    Directors: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
    Form: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Aaron Heffernan

    After being brutally attacked by an unknown man and their group of friends, a drag queen named Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) confronts their attacker — a closeted young man named Preston (George MacKay) in a gay sauna. Jules begins an affair and plots his revenge on Preston, unaware of Jules’ true identity and intentions.

    Sleeping dogs

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man wearing a hairnet holds a puzzle piece and stares at a glass table full of puzzle pieces.

    Image: Nickel City Productions/The Avenue

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Playing time: 1h 50m
    Director: Adam Kuiper
    Form: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas

    After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he tries to find the true perpetrator, he must fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.

    New on Max

    Knox is leaving

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Maximum

    A man wearing sunglasses stands in a dark doorway.

    Image: FilmNation Entertainment/Saban Films

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Playing time: 1h 54m
    Director: Michael Keaton
    Form: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden

    Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentlemanabout a hitman who is struggling. Now he is back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman who is struggling. This time the hitman is John Knox, a hitman separated from his family who takes on one last job after being diagnosed with dementia.

    New on Criterion Channel

    The beast

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel from July 28

    Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), a pale man and woman in light blue-gray sweaters, stand face to face, looking into each other's eyes in an abstract neon blue space in a scene from The Beast

    Image: Kinology

    Genre: Sci-fi romance
    Playing time: 2h 26m
    Director: Bertrand Bonello
    Form: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda

    To suggest Cloud Atlas meets The Age of Innocence meets Mulholland DriveThat’s about the easiest way to describe it The beastthe science fiction romantic drama by Bertrand Bonello. Léa Seydoux (Ghost) plays Gabrielle, a woman living in the near future who undergoes a process to “purify” her DNA of strong emotions by reliving her past lives. Her procedure becomes more complicated after she crosses paths with Louis (George MacKay), a man she may or may not have loved in a past life.

    From our review:

    The beast‘s three timelines play with genres that seemingly cannot be mixed: a classic period romance, a gripping horror thriller, and dystopian sci-fi. That places them on a logistical divide, but Bonello binds them together aesthetically and emotionally. Through his long, thought-provoking close-ups of Gabrielle and Louis in each section, he creates a sense of longing and isolation across time, tying together human experiences from the past, present, and future and placing them in a sharp and chilling context.

    New on Shudder

    Humane

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    A group of worried-looking men and women sit at the end of a kitchen island.

    Image: IFC Films

    Genre: Horror
    Playing time: 1h 33m
    Director: Caitlin Cronenberg
    Form: Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher

    Caitlin Cronenberg’s feature film debut is a horror thriller worthy of the family name. Set during a global ecological collapse, Humane follows estranged siblings who discover that their mother and father have chosen to participate in a national euthanasia program as a form of public service. When things go wrong, the family will have to choose one of their own to act as a replacement participant. Of course, things get personal.

    New for rent

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die

    Where to watch: Available to rent at Amazon, Appleand Vudu

    Will Smith sits in the passenger seat as Martin Lawrence drives, as the two laugh in a scene from Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

    Photo: Frank Masi/Columbia Pictures

    Genre: Buddy police action
    Playing time: 1h 55m
    Directors: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
    Form: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens

    The Bad Boys are back for another tour! Bad boys for life Directors Adil & Bilall return for the latest installment in the franchise, this time following partners and best friends Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) as they attempt to clear the name of their late boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) when he is posthumously implicated in a criminal conspiracy.

    From our review:

    The direction of El Arbi and Fallah is the most striking aspect of Ride or dieThe couple has evolved since then Bad boys for lifewho cast themselves as enthusiastic Bayhem students, eager to deploy camerawork that’s as thrilling as the shootouts they capture. Frantic drone shots zoom through gunfire, cameras pan over the barrel of a gun, and nothing ever, ever stays still. It’s a little overwhelming: restrained compared to Bay’s previous effort, they go a little too far here. Their action shines most when it features someone who can credibly kick ass on screen, like Jacob Scipio, who returns as Mike Lowrey’s long-lost son of Bad boys for life.

    Kill

    Where to watch: Available to rent at Amazon, Appleand Vudu

    In the movie Kill, Lakshya is stabbed in the throat with a knife by an unseen person in camouflage clothing.

    Image: Lionsgate

    Genre: Action thriller
    Playing time: 1h 45m
    Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
    Form: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi

    In this thriller, an army commando leads a mission to rescue his girlfriend from an arranged marriage – only to find himself in a Also saving a train from a gang of bandits. Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won second prize for the People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness.

    This is what Pete Volk, curator-editor of Polygon, said had to say about it:

    Kill makes the most of the close-quarters setting and the wide variety of weapons on display — knives, limbs, fire extinguishers, and the architecture/layout of the train itself all play a part in the fight. It’s a real treat for action fans, especially when things take a turn 45 minutes in and the violence ramps up significant. Dead doesn’t go from 0 to 60; it starts at 60 and goes to 200. The action design of the film is basically divided into two halves, allowing the team (and Lakshya as the lead) to show different approaches to the fight scenes. I won’t say at a lot, to avoid spoilers, but the action design becomes much more deadly in response to the events of the story, which allows Kill starting with a more classic, non-lethal martial arts approach to the action, before moving on to something more akin to what you’d find in a horror film.

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