The best movies new to Netflix, HBO Max, and Prime (February 2023)

It’s February, finally! You know what that means: There’s a whole bushel’s worth of movies new to streaming this month to dive into and watch.

We’ve pored over the movies now available to Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Hulu, and more to bring you best of what this month has to offer so far in terms of subscription streaming selections. This month we’ve got Edge of Tomorrow“The 2014 time loop action movie starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and the Lord of the Rings trilogy available on Netflix. Black MenPeacock, the comedy indie-anime show On-Gaku: The Sound of OursAnd more. Here’s what to watch this month, based on everything new across the platforms.

Netflix: New Features

It was (2017)

Image by New Line Cinema

Genre: Horror/thriller
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Andy Muschietti
Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgård, Sophia Lillis

Stephen King stories are popular and have been so for nearly 50 years. But, there haven’t been many recent Stephen King books that have had such an impact. It’s Chapter One did. This movie smartly takes King’s epic story about a group of kids (and, later, adults) who face off with a murderous alien clown and splits it into two halves, telling the story of the young kids in Chap.Save their less interesting adult stories by e Chapter 2. Although it hampered the sequel’s progress, it allows for greater freedom. Chapter 1This is a good scare-as-you-can ride, with Pennywise the Dancing Clown’s terrifying antics. —Austen Goslin

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Image by New Line Cinema

Genre: Fantasy/adventure
Run time: 2h 58m (The Fellowship of the Ring); 2h 59m (Two Towers); 3h 21m (The Return of the King)
Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen

Peter Jackson’s game-changing trilogy returns to Netflix this month — that’s right, all three movies, for nine and a half hours of your viewing pleasure, with as many intermissions as you want. Starring in this best-ever cinematic adaptations of high fantasy, are Sean Astin and Viggo Morensen.

Frodo Baggins’ story of Frodo and the One Ring has remained timeless. The Lord of the Rings movies, especially because of their groundbreaking special effects, have also survived remarkably well since their 2001-03 releases. Beyond blockbusters, Jackson and his crew — including screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh — made each film deeply personal. J.R.R. Tolkien’s prose and humanistic themes comes through in every line. We could say more (a year’s worth of more), but we don’t want to take up another nine and a half hours of your time. —Susana Polo

Underworld

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Genre: Dark fantasy/action
Run time: 2h 1m
Director: Len Wiseman
Cast:Kate Beckinsale. Scott Speedman. Shane Brolly.

Are you sick of laughing at vampires? Are you tired of the funny vampires? How we work in the ShadowsAre you ready to turn your nose up? Are you bored of Anne Rice’s vampires? Is it possible to wish that Lestat would stay in a well for the next century? Do you want some vampire media that’s full of The MatrixIn wood-paneled rooms, cosplayers are seen humming in unison. You can also see it here badass werewolf fights? Something that takes itself so seriously it’d probably flinch away from any wardrobe piece not made of lace, leather, or silk?

Could I please introduce you? UnderworldIt is kind of a vampire/werewolf. Romeo and Juliet with explosions and sort of a plot line from your college buddy’s The Masquerade of the Vampire LARP? Bill Nighy, a vampiric leader who was woken from torpor far too early is the hidden jewel of this whole thing. —SP

Hulu has a new feature

Beale Street could talk

Image: Annapurna Pictures

Genre:Romantic drama
Run time: 1h 59m
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast:KiKi, Stephan James and Regina King

Barry Jenkins’ 2018 adaptation of James Baldwin’s 1974 novel Beale Street could talkThis is a beautiful and touching story about love and hope. It’s also a tale of institutional racism and malign indifference by the carceral government. KiKi Layne stars as Clementine “Tish” Rivers, a young woman who falls in love with her childhood friend Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James) and becomes pregnant with his child.

Dreaming of their life together, the couple’s hopes for the future are dashed when Fonny is falsely accused of rape and sent to jail. Boasting an impressive cast of supporting performances, led by Regina King and Colman Domingo as Tish’s parents, Beale Street could talkIt is truly a masterpiece of cinematic excellence. —Toussaint Egan

Prime Video: New!

Crank

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

Genre: Action/thriller
Run time: 1h 28m
Directors:Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine
Cast: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Carlos Sanz

Viewers need to be in a very particular mood to enjoy 2006’s Crank, and that mood is expressly not “looking for a sophisticated, emotional adult drama that sheds light on the human condition.” Writer-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor — the revved-up duo behind Gamer The hilariously terrible Spirit of Vengeance – Ghost Rider — borrowed the premise of the classic 1949 noir movie D.O.A.Here, a fatally poisoned person attempts to solve his own crime before he goes mad. It was hilariously insane. Jason Statham stars as a professional assassin who’s been poisoned, and can only stay alive as long as he keeps his heart racing through a series of frantic set pieces involving everything from picking fights with thugs to grabbing his girlfriend (Amy Smart) for some exceptionally exhibitionistic public sex. It’s all tongue-in-cheek and mercilessly silly, but Neveldine and Taylor are fully aware that the breathless, adrenalized action is mostly aimed at provoking shocked laughter. Statham loves to play a tough, one-note role and then subverts stereotypes. This one’s pure goofy fun. —Tasha Robinson

Devil in Blue Dress

Image: Sony Pictures

Genre: Neo-noir mystery/thriller
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Carl Franklin
Cast: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals

Carl Franklin’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s excellent novel has it all: steamy noir Denzel, Don Cheadle in a “you have to see it to believe it” role, and all the necessary pieces for a great LA detective movie. It’s a crying shame we weren’t treated to many more Mosley adaptations with Denzel as Easy Rawlins. —Pete Volk

HBO Max: New!

The Crazies (2011)

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Genre:Horror
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Breck Eisner
Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson

Bleak, violent, and decidedly mean, this remake of George Romero’s 1973 horror classic borrows some of the earlier movie’s biggest beats while turning its anger up to 11. This remake follows the story of a plane that crashes in small-town America. Chemical weapons are unleashed, infecting those who have been infected with rage-filled killers and monsters. Original was made at the peak of distrust of governments following Watergate and Vietnam. It plays the conspiratorial story as a covert CIA operation within U.S. borders. While the original is being remade, it plays up the security system a bit more. It allows a faceless government to inflict terror on the same town its evil creation was doomed. —AG

Edge of Tomorrow

Image: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Genre: Sci-fi/action
Run time: 1h 53m
Director:Doug Liman
Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton

This is one of the greatest time loop movies. Edge of TomorrowStars Tom Cruise in the role of a soldier who is forced to save the world from alien invasions. Emily Blunt plays the role of Rita Vrataski, a war hero who helps Cruise train. One of the most exciting parts about this is Edge of Tomorrow is that it’s the rare Tom Cruise vehicle that allows him to play against type. Edge of Tomorrow spends most of its run time breaking down our most competent movie star — best known as an ace pilot, pool prodigy, hotshot lawyer, and action super-genius — and letting us watch him fail over and over and over again until he gets it right just once. It’s simultaneously the most human Cruise has felt in a movie in decades, and one of the few on-screen reminders that one reason he’s so good at being a star is because he works so damn hard at it. —AG

Swiss Army Man

Image: A24

Genre:Black comedy
Run time: 1h 37m
Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Cast:Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. Mary Elizabeth Winstead

With Daniels’ martial-arts-comedy-slash-existential-essay You can have everything at once showing up all over this year’s Oscar nominations, it’s a perfect time to revisit their previous feature-length film, Swiss Army ManThis film feels in many ways like the one where they tried to find out how crazy they could be while still winning an audience. Paul Dano plays Hank, the lonely sadsack who lives on an island alone. Daniel Radcliffe plays Manny, the lonely, sad-sack Hank meets and becomes friends with. He then uses Manny’s rotting body to escape and live on an isolated island.

Just like the funniest parts of Everything is Everywhere (we’re looking at you, anal-insertion fight sequence), Swiss Army ManIt is ridiculously absurd, straight-forward about it and filled with silly special effects. (It’s also a lot grosser and more fart-focused than EEAAO.) Also, like EEAAO, it’s warm, humanistic, and philosophical. For a movie largely built around transgressive jokes about death and the decay of the human body, it’s surprisingly philosophical, thoughtful, and life-affirming. —TR

Peacocks are now in stock

Black Men

Image: Columbia TriStar Home Video

Genre: Sci-fi action-comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Cast:Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Linda Fiorentino

All three Black Men movies are hitting Peacock this month, but let’s be real: You only need to watch the first one. Starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones (and shoutout to Vincent D’Onofrio in an early and unforgettable villain turn) in one of the last great biracial buddy cop action comedies of the 1990s, Men in BlackThis movie is absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Second of all, it’s more subversive than we give it credit for.

The Men in Black are more than cops — better, the movie tells us. The “best of the best of the best” decorated soldiers, cops, and covert agents in America wash out of MiB recruitment the moment they fail to show an instinctual empathy for those on the other end of their guns. While the movies have focused on street scenes and spectacle, the original depicts New York City’s role as an important hub for blue-collar (or space alien) immigrants. We are all aliens, but they walk among us. They want freedom from persecution and happiness for themselves and their families. —SP

Speed

Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Genre: Action/thriller
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Jan de Bont
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock

Type of the Crank Jan de Bont’s 1994 thriller was the best of its time. Speed Or, as The SimpsonsIt was aptly named. The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down) has such a dumb premise that it’s almost brilliant. A terrorist wires a Los Angeles city bus to explode if its speed drops below 50 mph, so the LAPD — particularly Keanu Reeves as the one-man army dealing with the bus issue — has to find ways to keep it tearing around town while trying to save the people stuck on it. Michael Bay must have thought of this. Speed when he directed 2022’s Ambulance.The genius of Speed This is the seriousness with which de Bont views this insane idea. It also shows how sharp and smooth he executes it. Reeves successfully sells the concept of a police officer dealing with such a bizarre plot and all that follows. This one isn’t exactly a smart movie, but it’s still satisfying, and it’s easy to get yanked into the action as the writing team tries to come up with one new speeding-bus-related problem after another. —TR

Criterion Channel has a new channel

On-Gaku : Our Sound

GKIDS Image

Genre:Comedy musical
Run time: 1h 11m
Director: Kenji Iwaisawa
Cast: Shintaro Sakamoto, Tateto Serizawa, Tomoya Maeno

Based on Hiroyuki Ohashi’s manga, Kenji Iwaisawa’s 2019 hand-drawn animated feature centers on a group of rowdy high school troublemakers who discover a sense of purpose and creative fulfillment after forming a small rock band after school. This independent animation was created by an artistic team that has no previous experience in animation. On-Gaku : Our SoundThis is an oddball comedy about coming of age that taps into Ohashi’s DIY spirit and aesthetic to make a film that captures that delicate yet resilient spirit. Iwaisawa’s film is as hilarious as it is visually impressive, and it’s one that absolutely warrants your attention this month. —TE