Black Adam, The Woman King, and every new movie to watch at home

Black Adam, the new DC superhero film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the eponymous superhuman antihero, finally comes to VOD this weekend. It’s being released alongside several other new films to watch at home, including Gina Prince-Bythewood’s highly acclaimed historical epic The Queen of Women starring Viola Davis, James Gray’s coming-of-age drama Armageddon TimeTragicomic humor Triangle of Sadness, and the wild children’s comedy Lyle and Lyle, CrocodileThese are just a few.

There’s plenty more movies to choose from that are available on streaming as well, like Holiday Special for Guardians of the Galaxy, You can have everything at onceShowtime presents the Christmas romcom The Noel DiaryNetflix and sci-fi dark comedy Double on Hulu.

Here’s everything new to watch on VOD and streaming this weekend.


Black Adam

You should be watching:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Black Adam opening scene with Dwayne JOhnson floating and electrified

Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre: Superhero/action
Run time: 2h 5m
Director: Jaume Collett-Serra
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo

Finally — the film that promised to upend the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is now available to stream on VOD. What was the film’s success? The answer is a resounding “ehhhhhhhh.” Dwayne Johnson stars as the eponymous antihero demigod, newly awakened into the world after 5,000 years of slumber. Black Adam begins to do the best thing he can: stomp on anyone and everything that mildly upsets him.

Our review:

This is the best critique of Black Adam Johnson might have made the film in post-credits, long before it was released. DC League of Super-Pets. As Black Adam’s canine companion Anubis, Johnson notes that being an antihero is “basically exactly like a regular hero, except way cooler. Your rules are yours and you can break them. Also, you can ignore most moral and ethical conventions because no one can stop you.” Black Adam’s take on antiheroism never really contradicts that pointed takedown. The film is so focused on the idea of a black-clad mass murderer being cool that it doesn’t ever answer the questions it starts to raise about what code a hero should live by, or where the limits of redemption lie. This is a problem. Black Adam is just like the many other mediocre superhero movies it plays at subverting: It’s more focused on spectacle than on critiquing the genre, or developing any of the deeper themes it feints at exploring.

The Queen of Women

You should be watching:Amazon, Apple, Vudu, and Vudu are all available for purchase. You can rent starting Friday

The warrior Izogie (Lashana Lynch) throws a male warrior to the ground during a battle in The Woman King

Image: Sony Pictures

Genre:Historic epic
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Cast: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch

Viola DavisWidows) stars in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic as Nanisca, leader of the all-female army known as the Agojie who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey for centuries. Intimidated by an enemy that threatens to destroy their way of life, Nanisca sets her mind to the task of training up a new generation of Agojie — including a rebellious young orphan named Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) — in order to protect their homeland and ready themselves for the fight of their lives.

Our review:

The Queen of WomenIt is an easier-to-understand blockbuster to watch than the majority of summer movies. It’s burdened with many of the issues that typify big studio movies — overstretched CGI, an overstuffed plot — but it shrugs off those issues as easily as the Agojie flip enemy soldiers over their backs and into the dirt. The film is brimming with fire. More importantly, the film is full of love. It has love for life, freedom, culture, Black people, and its brave, complex, and ferocious women.

Holiday Special for Guardians of the Galaxy

You should be watching:Disney Plus streaming available

Dave Bautista as Draxx smiles surrounded by Christmas lights while wearing a Christmas sweater depicting a cat with laser eyes.

Image: Disney

Genre: Action/adventure
Run time: 44m
Director: James Gunn
Cast:Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista. Karen Gillan

Concerned for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) as he continues to mourn the loss of Gamora, Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) set out on a super-secret mission to Earth to kidnap Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon) and bring him back as a Christmas gift to raise Quill’s spirits. You think this is a solid plan?

You can have everything at once

You should be watching:Showtime streaming available

A bloodied Michelle Yeoh with a googly eye pasted on her forehead strikes a martial-arts pose in Everything Everywhere All at Once

Image: A24

Genre: Sci-fi/comedy adventures
Run time: 2h 12m
Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan

Hong Kong screen legend Michelle Yeoh stars in directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s (aka “The Daniels”) follow-up to 2016’s Swiss Army ManEvelyn (Ke Huy Quan) is an exhausted owner of a laundromat who struggles to pay her taxes. Evelyn (Ke HuyQuan), her husband, is controlled by an alternate universe version of herself who wants her to save the multiverse. Evelyn must confront her regrets and her fears in order to rescue all existence.

Our review:

All You Need’s multiverse is a remarkably flexible metaphor. It’s suitable for expressing some common frustrations the audience may relate to, about botched choices and wasted opportunity. But it’s just as suited for setting up a series of ridiculously kickass action sequences where literally anything is possible, because the characters aren’t bound by reality or causality. Kwan and Scheinert make use of that idea of the multiverse in order to allow their characters to change their bodies, costumes and skills on the spot. It’s a visually stunning and overwhelming process. But they set it all up with a clarity of thought and intention that make it surprisingly easy — and thrilling — to follow.

The Noel Diary

You should be watching:Netflix is now streaming on Thursday, November 24

A woman (Barrett Doss) smiles at a man (Justin Hartley) driving a snow-covered car with a dog in the backseat.

Photo by KC Bailey/Netflix

Genre: Holiday/rom-com
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Charles Shyer
Cast: Justin Hartley, Barrett Doss, Bonnie Bedelia

Based on Richard Paul Evans’ 2017 book of the same name, this holiday rom-com follows Jacob Turner (Justin Hartley), a popular author who returns home on Christmas to settle the estate of his estranged mother. Jacob discovers his mother’s diary, and meets Rachel (Barrett Doss), who is a mystery woman whose history may be linked to Jacob’s. This leads him on an adventure to find his father.

Double

You should be watching:Hulu streamable

Aaron Paul has Karen Gillan, wielding a katana, face off against a cutout with a photo of her face attached to it, wielding nunchucks, in Dual

Photo by RLJE Films

Genre: Science-fiction/dark comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Riley Stearns
Cast: Karen Gillan. Beulah Kaale. Theo James. Aaron Paul.

Riley StearnsSelf-Defense: How to be a good defender of yourselfThis science fiction film about Sarah (Karen Gillan) was written and directed by. It is a movie about a woman named Sarah who decides to clone her self to save her family from the pain of losing her. Sarah, who makes an unanticipated recovery, attempts to remove her clone but fails. Sarah cannot choose but to take on her clone and fight it in court.

Our review:

Although the idea is ridiculous on many levels, Stearns plays straight to the absurdity. Stearns uses the advertisement for the cloning company as a way of presenting a sad scenario, whereby a man with depression creates his own clone so that he can kill himself in peace, without any pain or suffering. The film is full of laugh-out-loud humor. Anyone who can’t see themselves chuckling at least a little bit at the bleak prospect of a new clone calmly coming across his progenitor’s corpse and taking his place would be advised to steer clear.

Cyrano

You should be watching:Prime Video available for streaming

Haley Bennett as Roxanne smiles on the other side of a stone pillar from Peter Dinklage as Cyrano in Joe Wright’s Cyrano

Peter Mountain/MGM

Genre: Romantic/musical drama
Run time: 2h 3m
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Peter DinklageGame of Thrones) stars in Joe Wright’s 2021 adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play as Cyrano de Bergerac, a man gifted with a talent for words and an aptitude for swordsmanship who harbors a deep-seated insecurity about his height.

Cyrano has an unrequited affection for Roxanne (Haley Bennett), but he agrees to ghostwrite a series love letters in confession of his love for Christian (Kelvin Henry Jr.). Or will Cyrano let Roxanne down and tell the truth?

Based on our review

It’s tempting to declare this film a cult classic in the making. But critics shouldn’t make such proclamations — audiences should. But Wright’s Cyrano, dropping on the edge of Oscar season, should deservedly find the kind of passionate fans who flocked to see the Best Picture-winning Shakespeare in Love. Wright and Dinklage create an unberesolved anguish that is worth crying over again and again. The best film musical in the past decade is Cyrano.

Oppy, Good Night

You should be watching:Prime Video available for streaming

A remote-controlled rover drone idling on the plains of a Martian dune.

Image: Amblin Television/Amazon Studios.

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Ryan White
Cast: Angela Bassett

This documentary follows the story of Opportunity, a Mars rover drone nicknamed “Oppy,” which was launched on the planet’s surface in 2003 and remained active for over 15 years. It consists of footage from the archive and interviews with engineers, scientists, and other personnel. Angela Bassett also narration. Oppy, Good NightThis film is quite moving and tells the story of a robot who defied all odds, inspiring its creators to imagine a better life.

Armageddon Time

You should be watching:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

A young boy in a brown coat (Michael Banks Repta) sits on a bench in a park beside an older man (Anthony Hopkins), leaning into a hug.

Photo: Anne Joyce / Focus Features

Genre: Coming-of-age/drama
Run time: 1h 54m
Director: James Gray
Cast: Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins

Inspired by his own childhood, James Gray’s coming-of-age period drama follows Paul Graff (Repeta), a young Jewish American boy growing up in New York, who befriends Johnny (Jaylin Webb), an African American classmate, in the 1980s. Struggling to live up to the expectations of his family and his moral reckoning with the racial prejudices and injustices of his time, Paul grows to realize he’ll have to choose who exactly he wants to become before someone else makes that choice for him.

Till

You should be watching:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

A boy in a navy blue suit (Jalyn Hall) stands next to a woman in a yellow dress (Danielle Deadwyler) beside a locomotive.

Image by United Artists Releasing

Genre: Drama biographical
Run time: 2h 10m
Director: Chinonye Chukwu
Cast: Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison

Danielle Deadwyler stars in Chinonye Chukwu’s biopic drama of Mamie Till, the woman who campaigned for justice after the violent lynching of her son Emmett Till while visiting family in Mississippi.

Triangle of Sadness

You should be watching:You can purchase Amazon, Apple and Vudu. You can rent starting Friday

A smiling young woman in an orange bathing suit (Charlbi Dean) holds a cell phone and reclines on a white chair next to a bare-chested man (Harris Dickinson) in a bathing suit.

Image: Neon

Genre: The dark comedy
Run time: 2h 27m
Director: Ruben Östlund
Cast: Harris Dickinson. Charlbi Dean. Dolly de Leon

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning dark comedy follows Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), a celebrity model couple who are invited aboard a luxury cruise for the uber-rich where anything and everything has a price. When the crew and passengers aboard the vessel find themselves stranded on a deserted island, the ship’s unhinged captain (Woody Harrelson) will have to muster enough sense and survival instinct in order to save everyone from the elements. Imagine the Fyre Festival disaster of 2017 onboard a cruise liner. This sounds like a lot of fun.

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile

You should be watching:You can purchase Amazon, Apple and Vudu. You can rent starting Friday

Lyle rides on surrey with Constance Wu, Javier bardem, and some cheering brown-haired kid holding balloons through Central Park

Photo by Sarah Shatz/Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy/musical
Run time: 1h 46m
Director:Will Speck and Josh Gordon
Cast: Javier Bardem; Constance Wu, Winslow Fgley, Shawn Mendes

Based on Bernard Waber’s bestselling children’s book series, this musical comedy follows the story of Josh (Winslow Fegley), an anxious young boy adjusting to his new life in New York City, who discovers a magical singing crocodile name Lyle in the attic of his new home. When Lyle is threatened by Mr. Grumps, the family’s ornery new neighbor, Josh will have to turn the flamboyant failed magician Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem) — Lyle’s former owner — for help.

Our review:

Lyle and Lyle, Crocodile This is surprising for a movie that focuses on the innocent antics and sweet nature of a child, as well as a singing crocodile. Bardem plays a character straight from the book at the heart of all that chaos. The film begins with what is essentially a remake of the classic Looney Tunes short “One Froggy Evening,” only played for pathos instead of laughs. Valenti first appears to be flim-flaming his route into an audition, which has been rejected by him. He’s obviously desperate for some kind of showbiz success, so when he discovers Lyle, he sees a ticket to the big time. Bardem teaches the young croc how to sing and dance. Lyle, who is cute and animated, rents a theatre for public performances. Lyle gets nervous and goes silent, just like that maddening cartoon frog, leading to Valenti’s financial ruin. Lyle then sets off on a road trip to make some extra money and pay his bills. Josh discovers Lyle and takes him to Manhattan.

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