The D&D movie, Netflix’s A Man Called Otto, and every new movie to watch

This weekend is a great time to get out and enjoy the outdoors. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3The latest and presumably last MCU film from James Gunn (director-turned DC Studios boss) is finally in theaters. If the adventures of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and his merry band of vigilante mercenaries isn’t quite your speed, don’t sweat it: There are plenty of new releases to stream and rent from the comfort of your home.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesThe VOD selections are led by a film starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and others. But The Pope’s Exorcist, How to Destroy a Pipeline” RenfieldAlso, new releases starring Nicolas Cage or Nicholas Hoult are now available to rent at home. You can save money on your weekend entertainment by renting movies. You can watch the psychological thriller for free! The InsideThe comedy drama Peacock is now streaming (not to confuse with the Bo Burnham special) featuring Willem Dafoe. OttoNetflix releases the road-movie romance starring Tom Hanks and brings it to Netflix. Bones & All starring Timothée “Muad’dib” Chalamet, is finally available to stream on MGM Plus.

There’s a smorgasbord of movies to choose from, so let’s dive in and see what’s next on the menu.

Netflix has launched a new feature.

Otto

You can watch the following:Netflix has a number of movies and TV shows available to stream

Niko Tavernise/Columbia Pictures

Genre: Dramedy
Run time: 2h 6m
Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller

Tom Hanks goes against type in this dark comedy adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel Ove, playing a grumpy, lonely widower who — against his own antisocial nature — inadvertently sparks a friendship with his new next-door neighbor and their child. Warning: This film contains a number of gags about the suicide.

Peacock – New and Improved

The Inside

You can watch the following:Streaming available on Peacock

Focus Features

Genre:Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Vasilis Koutsoupis
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck

Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, The Lighthouse() plays the role of a New York City art thief caught in mid-robbery inside a New York Penthouse. Running low on food, with no way to contact the outside world, he’ll have to devise a way to escape to safety, or risk coming undone by his own madness.

MGM Plus: New Features

The Bones

You can watch the following:MGM Plus offers streaming of movies and TV shows

Yannis Drakoulidis/MGM

Genre: Horror/romance
Run time: 2h 10m
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg

Please call me by your name director Luca Guadagnino and star Timothée Chalamet team up once again for a romantic-horror road movie about love and cannibalism. Chalamet co-stars as Lee, an intense young drifter with a hunger for human flesh, but the main focus is on his fellow “Eater” Maren (Taylor Russell), who’s searching for belonging and certainty in a harsh and uncertain world.

Our review is:

Prepare yourself for intense violence and bloodshed. The Bones is the kind of film that’s better experienced in the moment than in descriptions. Each new revelation about Maren’s past and present is unfolded carefully, in part because she doesn’t really understand her own nature, and has to learn about it alongside the audience. Screenwriter David Kajganich (a writer-producer-developer on the much-beloved horror series The Terror) never feels like he’s in a hurry to get to any particular part of the story. Guadagnino allows Maren plenty of time to pick up new information through dialogue, starting with new acquaintance Sully.Bridge of Spies’ Mark Rylance, once again disappearing into an incredible performance), then with newer acquaintance Lee (Chalamet), a world-wise boy about her age.

VOD: New Releases

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

You can watch the following:Rent it for just $19.99 at Apple, Amazon and Vudu

Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

Genre:Fantasy adventure
Run time: 2h 14m
Director: Jonathan Goldstein
Cast: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page

Chris PineStar TrekEdgin ( ) is a former bard who has become a thief. He leads an unlikely group of adventurers in a quest for a powerful, lost artifact. Edgin Darvis and his friends will need to take initiative to defeat a villain bent on dominating the world.

Review of our article

This film has a playful tone, but it is also very serious, as the situations are grave for all the characters. Rodriguez’s barbarian is still reeling from a broken relationship, and when her storyline pays off, it’s hilarious — but the audience is still invited to feel and empathize with her pain. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn’t re-create game mechanics or a sense of improvisation as well as, say, Vox Machina, the Legend of Vox Machina, but it is the best Dungeons & Dragons movie we could have hoped for. Not only is it a fun fantasy movie, it’s a great adaptation of a gaming session. And it’s an invitation into a new and more visual version of a world dedicated players already love — and that the filmmakers seem to love, too.

The Pope’s Exorcist

You can watch the following:Rent it for just $19.99 at Apple, Amazon and Vudu

Image: Sony Pictures

Genre: Supernatural horror
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Julius Avery
Cast: Russell Crowe Daniel Zovatto Alex Essoe

Russell Crowe has played a lot of larger-than-life roles throughout his career: A Roman general-turned-gladiator, a Royal Navy admiral fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, Superman’s dad, that one guy who built a really big boat, Robin Hood, et cetera. In Julius Avery’s new supernatural horror movie, Crowe dons the black robes and white collar of an exorcist — the Pope’s exorcist, no less — as he fights against the forces of the underworld to save the life of a possessed child.

How to Destroy a Pipeline

You can watch the following:Rent it for just $6.99 at Apple, Amazon and Vudu

Picture: Neon

Genre:Environmental Heist is a thriller
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Cast: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage

Director Daniel Goldhaber (Cam) adapts Andreas Malm’s incendiary 2021 non-fiction book, following a group of climate activists who, disillusioned by the ineffectiveness of divestment movements and the inaction of government regulation, band together to pull off a politically charged act of property damage-as-environmental protest: blowing up an oil pipeline in West Texas.

Review of our article

How to Destroy a PipelineThis is one of the few movies that can weaponize a political message in a way that’s effective by combining it with genre-based storytelling. The movie feels revolutionary: it’s the type of film that inspires artists as well as budding activists for future generations. It’s exciting, tense entertainment with an explosive, memorable final line of dialogue. This movie will likely be the best of 2023.

Renfield

You can watch the following:Rent it for just $19.99 at Apple, Amazon and Vudu

Photo: Michele K. Short/Universal Pictures

Genre: Comedy horror
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Chris McKay
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina

Nicolas Cage plays Dracula, and his character Robert Montague Renfield is played by Nicholas Hoult. Robert Montague Renfield must deal with the toxic relationships he shares with Dracula.

Our review is:

Hoult is appropriately doe-eyed and self-effacing as Renfield — he’s probably the most sincere part of an otherwise cynical project — but he’s the only actor who seems to have been allowed to tap into anything resembling a comedic or dramatic soul. He’s also the only one not saddled with dialogue that plays like amateur improv. He isn’t grating to watch. That’s the bare minimum for an actor on screen, yet it’s a prerequisite that nearly every other facet of RenfieldFrom its mindless action, which is devoid of thrills or gross comedy to the scattered story about a man trying to defame his scumbag boss, this film falls short. It should be the most relatable of all comedies. Instead, it’s just a series of disconnected images, strung together by half-baked quips that you could place in the mouth of practically any other character. This would have the same result.