Avatar 2, Netflix’s Murder Mystery 2, and every new movie to watch at home

It’s finally here: The Way of Water Avatar Finally, it is available for home viewing. James Cameron’s latest epic blockbuster won hearts, minds, and the box office in late 2022, and while audiences still have to wait a bit longer for its Disney Plus (or maybe HBO Max) premiere, you can now watch Water’s Way Home.

That’s not all that’s new to streaming this week: The sequel to the fun Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston Netflix romantic comedy Murder Mystery Drops this week Tetris Apple TV now available Creed III It also finds its way into digital storesfronts that allow for purchase and rent.

Netflix: New Features

Murder Mystery II

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Mystery
Run time: 1h 29m
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Cast: Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Mark Strong

First Murder Mystery was a delightful surprise, as far as Netflix original movies go — a charming and funny romantic comedy that doubled as a crime movie, with very game movie stars in the leading roles and veteran TV director Kyle Newacheck pulling it all together. The sequel sees the reins passed off from Newacheck to newcomer Jeremy Garelick, and our leading couple traveling to their friend’s wedding only to encounter more murders and kidnappings.

Kill Boksoon

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Photo: No Juhan/Netflix

Genre: Take Action
Run time: 2h 17m
Director: Sung-hyun Byun
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Hwang Jung-min, Fahim Fazli

An elite assassin must balance two different lives. One is that of a mom of a teenager girl and the other one of an elite killer. When she makes a career-defining decision to repair her relationship with her daughter that puts her job in question, she becomes hunted by the people she’s spent her life working for.

Hulu has a new feature

Rye Lane

What to Watch:Hulu is available to stream

Photo: Chris Harris/Searchlight Pictures

Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 22m
Director: Raine Allen Miller
Cast: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, Poppy Allen-Quarmby

In this London-set romance, two young women who are recovering from difficult breakups discover a connection in one another. Rye Lane Raine Allen Miller’s feature-length debut film, it was nominated at the Cleveland International Film Festival as Best Feature Film in International Narrative Competition.

Hunt

What to Watch:Hulu is available to stream

Image by Magnet Releasing

Genre: Spy thriller
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Lee Jung-jae
Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin

Squid Game This period-piece spy thriller starring Lee Jung-jae was directed by and starred. It’s a complex mystery with plenty of drama, so you might want to consider touching up on 1980s Korean politics first in order to follow the complicated narrative.

Our review:

This isn’t a simple good-guy/bad-guy story: It’s about the limited choices in a fascist regime, for citizens and enforcers alike, and about the extremes it drives them to. They are both rats caught in the same trap and looking for any way to escape. It turns them against each other, but also makes them alike in more ways than they’d want to admit. It’s intense and engaging. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the results. For fans of action and espionage drama, this film is a must-see. HuntThis is an absolute must-see. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference in tone and execution. Squid Game, but it’s just as much a murderous battle for supremacy where the outcome is never obvious.

Apple has a new feature

Tetris

What to Watch:Apple TV Plus can stream the video

Apple Image

Genre:Film biographical
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: Jon S. Baird
Cast: Taron Egerton, Mara Huf, Miles Barrow

No, this isn’t an adaptation of the game itself, as fun as that might be. Instead, Tetris This story tells how this iconic video game became one of the most loved across the world. This story seems more like a movie about spying than an actual business venture.

It is possible to learn more from our review

Tetris’ creation and its worldwide spread is a great story, but the complexities of its thorny rights issues and lawsuits don’t fit with the cartoon villainy and heavy dramatization of Apple’s new film. Despite Baird and Pink’s best attempts at cinematic tension and surprise twists, this story plays better elsewhere, in the retellings with a firmer grip on reality.

Showtime has something new

Bodies Bodies Bodies

What to Watch:Showtime is available to stream

Gwen Capistran/A24 Photo

Genre: Black-comedy horror
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Halina Reijn
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la Herrold

A young woman named Bee (Maria Bakalova) and her girlfriend, Sophie (Amandla Stenberg), are invited out to a hurricane party at a secluded mansion by Sophie’s friends: a spoiled group of rich 20-somethings with a penchant for drama. After playing the murder-mystery-find-the-killer party game, they quickly discover that there’s a real killer among them.

Our review:

Bodies Bodies BodiesPlays like a compressed version Scream, sped up as if the filmmakers believe they’re playing to a generation that can’t keep both eyes on a full-length feature film. Filmmakers make the difficult choice of increasing both bloodshed and absurdity simultaneously. Instead of letting horror-movie tension give way to satire, the filmmakers make the defensiveness and recriminations louder as characters are more threatened. At one point, mortal peril is interrupted by the equally shocking betrayal that one friend may be hate-listening to another’s podcast.

Shudder – New

Unheard

Image by AMC Networks

Genre: Horror
Run time: 2h 5m
Director: Jeffrey A. Brown
Cast: Lachlan Watson, Michele Hicks, Brendan Meyer

A young lady decides to test a new procedure to treat her hearing loss. She ends up finding out that she can hear things. It’s quite a sight! There are many things that relate to her mother’s disappearance. It’s an interesting premise, and the second feature film from director Jeffrey A. BrownThe Beach House).

VOD: New!

The Way of Water Avatar

What to Watch:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu available to buy for $19.99

Image: 20th Century Studios

Genre: Sci-fi adventure
Run time: 3h 12m
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver

James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his 2009 Academy Award-winning sci-fi adventure epic Avatar It is finally here.

Set 16 years after the original film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi lover Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are forced to flee their home with their family to seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina Na’vi tribe after a human army — led by a resurrected Na’vi Avatar clone of Jake’s nemesis, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) — returns to Pandora to despoil the planet of its natural resources… and eradicate any Na’vi who stand in their path.

Our review:

The Way of Water AvatarThe story is simple and engaging in a creative, inspiring environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does — once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world — the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.

Creed III

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo: Eli Ade/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

Genre: Sports drama
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Cast:Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson. Jonathan Majors

Michael B. Jordan makes his directorial debut with the third installment of the highly acclaimed spinoff of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky series. Creed III sees Adonis Creed (Jordan), the long-lost son of Rocky’s onetime rival, Apollo Creed, at the top of the world having retired as heavyweight boxing champion. Adonis’s childhood friend Damian Anderson, Jonathan Majors, who also has long-held ambitions to be a heavyweight champ, changes all that.

From our review:

Creed III faces the unique challenge of bringing the Rocky series out of Sylvester Stallone’s shadow. The ninth installment of the franchise that started with 1976’s RockyIt is also the first time that Stallone has been featured on screen or in any creative capacity. This time, the directorial reins have been handed to Michael B. Jordan, who plays Rocky’s protege Adonis in the Creed movies. Jordan’s directorial debut is impressive. A self-confessed manga and anime fan, Jordan imbues this spinoff/threequel in a cinematic spark that the series has never experienced before. This expands the visual language of Hollywood boxing movies in amazing ways.

Cigarette Smoking Can Cause Coughing

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $7.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Image by Magnet Releasing

Genre: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 20m
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier

Quentin Dupieux’s new film (Rubber), also known by his musical alias Mr. Oizo, is an irreverent parody of Japanese sci-fi tokusatsu (“special effects”) films and the iconic Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers) TV franchise.

After getting their asses kicked by an alien turtle monster, the five superheroes known as “the Tobacco Force” are sent to a team-building retreat to improve their working relationships. As you might expect, things don’t go according to plan.

Batman: Gotham is in peril

What to Watch: You can rent for just $14.99 from Amazon, Apple, or Vudu

Warner Bros. Animation

Genre: Superhero fantasy/horror
Run time: 1h 26m
Directors: Christopher Berkeley, Sam Liu
Cast: David Giuntoli, Gideon Adlon, Karan Brar

Set in 1920s Gotham, this supernatural spin on Batman sees an “ancient evil” awaken that Batman must thwart. Gideon Adlon is the voice actor (Sick), David Dastmalchian (Suicide Squad), John DiMaggio (FuturamaPatrick Fabian (Saul deserves betterOther than that,

Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb

What to Watch:Rentable for as low $5.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Image: Sony Pictures Classics

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 52m
Director: Lizzie Gottlieb
Cast: Robert Caro, Robert Gottlieb, Bill Clinton

This documentary follows the story of acclaimed journalist and biographer Robert Caro, author of 1974’s Robert Moses, The Power Broker and New York’s FallRobert Gottlieb, his long-time editor. The film focuses on both Caro’s and Gottlieb’s lives, the impact of their work together, and the former’s goal to complete the final volume of a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson before he dies.

Champions

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo: Shauna Townley/Focus Features

Genre:Sport comedy
Run time: 2h 4m
Director: Bobby Farrelly
Cast: Woody Harrelson. Kaitlin Oson. Ernie Hudson

Bobby Farrelly (also known as Bobby Farrelly), is a half-brother to the Farrellys.Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About MaryThis remake of the Spanish film from 2018 features a solo debut by ), Champions follows Woody Harrelson’s character, Marcus Marakovich, a hotheaded minor league basketball coach who gets arrested and ends up coaching a team of players with intellectual disabilities as a part of his community service.