For college student Ry (Maia Reficco), life is short. She has a chronic illness that doesn’t give her a lot of options in her young life, but she decides to enjoy the time she has left. Along with her loving but overprotective mother, Isolde (Eva Longoria), she travels to Mallorca for one last summer vacation. But she gets more than she bargained for when she meets local fisherman Julián (Fernando Lindez). They immediately fall head over heels in love with each other, which doesn’t sit too well with Isolde.

Based on the book by Anna Todd, The Last Sunrise gives you exactly what you want – pretty people falling in love in pretty places while everyone around them tells them that their love is forbidden. It’s a soapy story, and Ry’s illness doesn’t get in the way of making her radiantly gorgeous, but the film doesn’t even aim for realism. This is escapist fluff and is about as deep as cotton candy, but it’s enjoyable while it lasts. 

The Last Sunrise starts streaming on August 26.

The Nickel Academy was a reform school for young boys in Florida, and, like many institutions in the Deep South in the 1960s, was segregated and dangerous for its Black students. That’s why Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) bond immediately – they’re both quiet and don’t really belong there. But even their close friendship can’t insulate them from the horrific abuse inflicted upon them by their fellow students and teachers. Life is hell in the Nickel Academy, and it will take a miracle for them both to leave with their sanity and spirits intact.

Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar at the 2025 Academy Awards, Nickel Boys is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s critically acclaimed novel, the film adopts a first-person perspective to tell its story.  This fixed perspective allows for great moments of beauty, like a time-lapsed shot of a man lying in a train car and a hand reaching out to touch a spider’s web, but it also doesn’t let you escape the often harsh nature of the film’s story. It’s worth it just to experience Nickel Boys, one of the most unique movies made in the last decade.

Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) life could be better — she works at a dead-end job and lives with two British slobs in a Milwaukee apartment complex. The only bright spot in her life is her best Friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph), who is about to get married. Annie is happy for her, but she’s dismayed when she starts growing closer to fellow bridesmaid Helen (Rose Byrne). Annie doesn’t like competition, and she’s determined to make Lillian realize Helen is a stuck-up snob who isn’t worthy of her friendship.

Upon its release in the summer of 2011, Bridesmaids became a runaway hit; in the years since, it’s grown even more in stature. There’s a good reason for that — it’s a hilarious comedy with surprising depth. Wiig, who cowrote the script, leads a superb cast that includes Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper, and the film contains several comedic set pieces, like when the women start to get sick at a very fancy bridal shop, that are just about perfect. Bridesmaids is the type of film you wish had a sequel, but are also relieved no one’s dared to replicate such greatness.

When Project Hail Mary begins, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) has no idea where he is or how he got there. A relatively normal middle-grade science teacher, he wakes up in a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. He soon discovers why he’s floating in space – he’s part of a last-ditch attempt to save Earth from a rapidly cooling Sun. His only support is Rocky (James Ortiz), an alien creature who can only communicate through music. They both need to save their respective home planets, but the odds don’t look good, and it’s almost certain that even if they do succeed, there’s no way they can travel back home.

A critical and commercial hit, Project Hail Mary is one of 2026’s best movies and a surefire 2027 Oscar contender. There are plenty of reasons why: it has an interesting story that blends fantastic sci-fi elements with realistic science; the production values, including the cinematography and visual effects, are top-notch; and the central friendship between Ryland and Rocky is surprisingly touching. Project Hail Mary is blockbuster filmmaking at its very best, and now, it’s one of Prime Video’s must-watch titles.

Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) is a college student with an unusual pet: a super-smart chimpanzee named Ben (Miguel Torres Umba). He’s been properly trained by dad Adam (Troy Kotsur), but when Lucy returns home and invites several friends over for a party, she realizes something’s off. She’s right – Ben is infected with rabies and soon turns into an unhinged killer who can rip the jaws of a person without breaking a sweat. Now Lucy is trapped in her own home, and the only way out is by getting rid of Ben for good.

Primate is prime B-movie fun, so don’t expect King Kong. It’s essentially a slasher film with an ape as the antagonist, but it’s brutally effective for what it is. The kills are super graphic, and the director milks genuine tension out of Lucy’s unfortunate predicament. If you are curious to see how Nope’s Gordy’s subplot (another ape who went wacko, this time on a children’s TV show set) would work as a feature-length horror film, then Primate is up your alley.

Primate starts streaming on July 24.

Michael B. Jordan is about to direct and star in another remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, so now is a good time to watch the stylish 1999 version starring Pierce Brosnan. The James Bond actor stars as Thomas Crown, a stupidly wealthy billionaire who likes to steal priceless works of art in his spare time. He’s very good at it, but he meets his match when insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) comes close to exposing him. Crown’s not going to let that happen, and he’ll do anything to stop her — and that includes seducing her.

The Thomas Crown Affair is what movies are made for — to watch impossibly gorgeous people fall in love and deceive each other in luxurious apartments and houses you can never afford. It’s silly escapism done incredibly well, with the two leads generating so much heat, you’ll need to take a cold shower after watching the film. The 1968 original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway is just as good, and here’s hoping the 2027 version will be just as intriguing — and irresistibly sexy.

In a secluded Mennonite community somewhere in America, a young woman awakens to discover she’s been sexually assaulted. While all the men leave town to bail her attackers out and return them to the community, the women — many of them victims themselves — hold a tense meeting to decide if they should stay and let things remain the same or leave and settle in a town that’s not used to their unconventional lifestyle.

That’s the straightforward setup to Women Talking, but the film itself is anything but simple. Writer/director Sarah Polley, who won an Oscar for her screenplay, probes the minds of each of her characters, revealing their reasons for and against leaving the only way of life they’ve ever known. Change is necessary, some argue, but it’s also scary and not at all easy. The stellar cast includes Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Ben Whishaw and Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Jessie Buckley.

Four young men in the Ryan family have enlisted in World War II; three have already died, leaving James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) as the sole surviving son. To spare his family any more pain, the U.S. Army orders Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squadron to retrieve Ryan from battle and send him home. That sounds simple, but in war-torn France riddled with Nazi soldiers and snipers, it’s more like a suicide mission. Still, John is a man of honor, and he’ll save Private Ryan even if he has to sacrifice his own life to do so.

An instant masterpiece when it was released in the summer of 1998, Saving Private Ryan remains intense, visceral and unforgettable almost three decades later. The opening sequence depicting D-Day rightly received its flowers from critics and audience, but the entire film is enthralling, with intense battle sequences mixed with moments of quiet introspection and moments of stolen beauty. Saving Private Ryan is one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies, and with a filmography that includes E.T. and Jaws, that’s saying something.

What if they made Aladdin for adults? The result would look something like Three Thousand Years of Longing, George Miller’s mature reimagining of the 1001 Arabian Nights with Idris Elba as the cinema’s sexiest genie ever. When mousy British scholar Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) buys an antique at an Istanbul market on a work trip, she discovers Djinn (Elba) trapped inside. Like a good genie, he has to grant her three wishes, but Alithea instead wants to hear stories about his long and eventful existence. 

That sets up the basic plot of Three Thousand Years of Longing, which chronicles the Djinn’s fantastical life and his many masters, all of whom wished for their hearts’ desires – and got more than what they bargained for. Alithea only really wants one thing – to love the Djinn. But can a human woman and a magical creature have a relationship? Only Miller, the wildly inventive Aussie auteur behind the Mad Max films and a great Babe sequel, is crazy enough to find out. And you’d be crazy not to watch one of the most unusual romantic fantasies ever made. Did I mention Idris Elba stars as a sexy genie?

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is a nice guy, but he’s a bit shy and withdrawn. When he reveals he has a new girlfriend, Bianca, to his older brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and his pregnant wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer), they’re thrilled at first. But they soon realize Bianca isn’t what they thought she’d be – she’s fake and doesn’t seem interested in anything Lars has to say. There’s a good reason for that – Bianca isn’t a real person. Lars is dating a sex doll, and both Gus and Karin have to figure out if Lars has truly lost his marbles or if he’s just really lonely.

That’s the comical setup to Lars and the Real Girl, and while some jokes are made at Lars’ expense, it’s mostly an empathetic film about a young man who doesn’t want sex so much as he wants companionship. Bianca isn’t a sex toy to Lars; instead, she’s someone to take care of and worry about, just like Gus does with Karin. The film succeeds in threading the line between being serious and whimsical, resulting in a sweet film containing one of Gosling’s best performances.

Firefighting runs in Brian McCaffrey’s (William Baldwin) family – his late father died during a blaze he was trying to extinguish, and his older brother, Stephen (Kurt Russell), is the resident hero at the local Chicago station Brian just joined. But Brian believes he can be greater than both of them, and sets out to prove it by needlessly risking his life on the job. Stephen is worried Brian will kill himself, especially when a mysterious arsonist sets rampaging fires that have an unexpected backdraft effect that injures one of their own. Will Brian walk into a situation he can’t escape from? And will Stephen be there to save him?

Backdraft is a thriller where the fire itself seems to be the main antagonist. Director Ron Howard lays it on pretty thick, depicting the fires Brian and Stephen come across as a living, breathing animal they have to tame. But hey, it works, and the film generates plenty of suspense when the brothers investigate who is setting up these fires that are killing specific people. In addition to Russell and Baldwin, Backdrafts sports an impressive cast that includes Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh and more.

It’s the end of the road for super spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), who has survived runaway trains, scaling the world’s tallest building without any safety gear and swatting away dozens of symbolic doves while fighting on a beach. But in the supposedly last Mission: Impossible film, The Final Reckoning, he faces an enemy he might not vanquish — AI.

The rogue computer program The Entity has become sentient and is threatening to unleash nuclear warfare on the world. Ethan can’t let that happen, so with the help of beautiful thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) and computer maestro Luther (Ving Rhames), he sets out to find a way to disable The Entity for good. But to do so, Ethan will have to leap one more tall skyscraper and climb aboard a military submarine to successfully save the world one last time

Master jewel thief Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is a criminal with a conscience — he may break the law, but he won’t harm anyone if he doesn’t have to. When he calls off a planned robbery due to the harm it will surely inflict on innocent bystanders, his fence, Money (Nick Nolte), hires the psychopathic robber Ormon (Barry Keoghan) to execute it. That starts a chain of events that sees Mike recruit frustrated insurance agent Sharon (Halle Berry) to help him swindle one of her clients — with Ormon close behind. Can Mike avoid resorting to violence to get what he wants?

Crime 101 is an old-school crime flick like Heat or Miami Vice — in other words, it’s the best Michael Mann movie not directed by Michael Mann. Hemsworth is smooth as silk as the impossibly talented — and ridiculously handsome — Mike, who never saw a diamond he couldn’t swipe, while Berry, Keoghan, Nolte and Mark Ruffalo as a suspicious cop clearly relish playing parts in a dialogue-heavy, densely plotted crime saga. The movie is long at around 140 minutes, but it’s worth it.

Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is a kind-hearted criminal who robs McDonald’s instead of banks. He’s eventually caught and sent to prison, but when he escapes, he decides to hide out at the one place the authorities would never look — the local Toys “R” Us store. Subsisting on a diet of candy and soda, Jeffrey managed to evade the cops for a while, but when he grows close to unsuspecting store employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), his fugitive lifestyle threatens to come to an end. How long can Jeffrey fool Leigh — and stay out of jail — before he’s found out?

The premise of Roofman sounds unbelievable, but it’s actually based on a true story — with some embellishments, of course. Even if it weren’t, the movie would still win you over with its engrossing story and pair of lead performances. As the thief who steals fast food restaurants and Leigh’s heart, Tatum is terrific — charming, sly and desperate to get back to his family. Dunst is also terrific as a single mother won over by Jeffrey, even though she knows little about him. One of 2025’s under-the-radar films, Roofman is ripe for discovery in 2026 by viewers who crave a crime movie with a surprisingly tender center.

After optometrist Anna (Zooey Deschanel) and teacher Russ (Charlie Cox) split up, they are forced to share weekly custody of their dog, Merv. However, when Merv is diagnosed with depression, it seems like the only thing that can cheer him up is seeing his parents back together. In the exes’ bid to make their dog happy again, they find that spending time together is reigniting some sparks of their own.

While it’s easy to see where the film is going as soon as it starts (such is the case with many holiday rom-coms), Merv is nevertheless a cute, softhearted film that will hit the Christmas-themed romantic comedy sweet spot for many people. Plus, the movie is carried in no small part by a lot of cute dog antics from rescue dog Gus, who plays the titular canine and is sure to win over animal lovers.

Hedda is writer/director Nia DaCosta‘s inventive re-imagining of Henrik Ibsen‘s play, Hedda Gabler. In this version of the story, the title character is played by Tessa Thompson, the setting is moved to the 1950s and some traditionally male characters are now female.

At the beginning, Hedda (Thompson) is married, but not happily, to George Tesman (Tom Bateman). Hedda doesn’t have much time for George when her former lover, Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss), reenters her life alongside a new romantic partner, Thea (Imogen Poots). Hedda is a manipulator at heart, and she attempts to destroy Eileen’s new relationship while driving her back to her wild and drunken ways. It’s all fun and games to Hedda until someone turns the tables on her.

Hedda is streaming on Prime Video.

Richard Stark‘s Parker novels may no longer be as popular as they once were, but audiences love a good heist film, and Play Dirty had a big debut on Prime Video. Mark Wahlberg plays Parker, a cunning thief who has been stabbed in the back by one of his crew, Zoe (Rosa Salazar).

Normally, Parker would repay such a betrayal by killing anyone foolish enough to cross him. But Zoe has a line on such a good score that he and his friend, Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), are cautiously on board. But the real question is simple: Who’s going to betray whom first?

Play Dirty is streaming on Prime Video.

Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is just an unassuming bank employee in Novocaine, and the only thing special about him is that he can’t feel any physical pain. He can feel love, however, and he’s very taken with his coworker, Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder).

When bank robbers kidnap Sherry, Nathan takes it upon himself to rescue her. To do that, Nathan has to push his body’s immunity to pain to its limit. Nathan may not feel his injuries, but even his body has its limits.

Novocaine is streaming on Prime Video.

We all need to escape from reality, and movies are a great way to do that. A new one in the escapist movie canon is The Map That Leads to You, a Prime Video original that stars two impossibly gorgeous people in equally stunning locations. Outer Banks actress Madelyn Cline plays Heather, who meets Jack (KJ Apa) while on a European vacation with some friends. They instantly connect and start a love affair, but their different outlooks on life threaten to tear them apart. Will their brief encounter grow into an affair to remember? Or will their romance evaporate before sunrise?

The Map That Leads to You deals with some serious themes, but it isn’t that deep. It’s a frothy fantasy that pretends its two attractive leads have serious problems, but there’s no question love will win at the end. Is the movie sufficiently pretty to look at? Yes. Does it make you forget your problems for most of its 98-minute runtime? Also yes. That’s all one can hope and ask for with The Map That Leads to You, a low-key charmer of a movie that will make you swoon.

You might have heard of Robbie Williams if you’re a major fan of the mid-’90s to early 2000s Britpop or simply live in the United Kingdom. He’s a star there and in other parts of the world, but he never quite broke through in America. So why stream a biopic of the British singer if you don’t even know him? Because Better Man, the movie that’s based on Williams’ life, is a blast to watch and features a singing, dancing and drug-taking CGI monkey as Robbie. 

The film chronicles Robbie’s life as a teen pop idol in the boy band Take That in the ‘90s to his success as a solo artist, belting out hits like “Angels,” “Rock DJ” and “Let Me Entertain You.” As is typical with these tales of fame and fortune, there are lots of drugs, some sex and one or two near-death experiences. Better Man doesn’t deviate too much from the standard musical bio script, but it’s in the execution of its well-choreographed musical sequences where it truly shines. You may not be a fan of Robbie Williams when you start this movie, but you will be when you finish it.

The Sonic movies are better than they have any right to be, and the winning streak continues with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the latest entry in the video-game-turned-movie series. This time around, Team Sonic — Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) — encounter a new foe: Shadow (Keanu Reeves), who’s been imprisoned by the U.S. military for 50 years and is kinda upset about it. He’s not the only new threat they’ll have to face as Gerald Robotnik (Jim Carrey), granddad to Ivo (also Carrey), wants to take over the universe. 

It’s all very silly, but it works, and that’s due to the cast having fun with the thin material. Reeves is perfectly cast as a vengeful hedgehog who isn’t as bad as he looks, while Carrey chews even more scenery in a dual role as two mad scientists with father/son issues. The movie is funnier than you’d think, and the special effects accurately convey the madcap glory of the ‘90s Sega games it’s based on.

Who would’ve thought that Ben Affleck’s most enduring action role is as assassin/accountant Christian Wolff rather than the DCEU’s Batman? Christian is back in this follow-up to the 2016 sleeper hit, and he’s ready to file some tax returns — and kick some ass. This time, Wolff teams up with his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to find a missing Salvadoran family. 

Like the original, The Accountant 2 works as a mid-budget action movie that has a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor. Affleck and Bernthal have great chemistry as bickering brothers who can take down a room full of bad guys and can still make some time for a line dance. The Accountant 2 is a goofy action movie, but it’s also an entertaining one that’s ideal for home viewing.

Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) hates Henry (Nicholas Galitzine). That’s a big problem, since Alex is the son of the U.S. president (Uma Thurman) and Henry is heir to the British throne. They need to get along so Alex’s mom can finish a trade deal with Britain that’s key to her re-election campaign, but what no one expected was for them to fall in love with each other. Now they have an even bigger problem to solve, and it’s not clear there’s any solution.

Based on a popular YA novel by Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue is better than you might think. While it never strays too far from its opposites-attract rom-com formula, it executes it just about perfectly. Perez and Galitzine have genuine chemistry with one another, which helps sell the dramatic stakes toward the end. You actually want their ridiculously gorgeous and obscenely wealthy characters to get everything they want, and you can’t help but smile when they do.

It’s been five years since Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) last saw her former BFF Emily (Blake Lively), who went to prison for her crimes. So it’s a bit of a shock for her to see Emily waltz into her book reading and ask her to be her maid of honor at her upcoming wedding in Capri. How can Stephanie resist a free vacation and more material for a future bestseller?  But is Emily truly reformed, or is she just plotting revenge on the woman who took everything away from her?

Another Simple Favor has just enough of the same off-kilter humor that made the original such a treat back in 2018. Lively and Kendrick are a good comedic duo, and the movie’s twisty story is entertaining enough to keep you glued to the screen. 

“Are you not entertained?” Russell Crowe memorably asked in the first Gladiator all those years ago. That question pops up again in the sequel, and the answer is a muted “kinda.” Gladiator II isn’t perfect, and it fails to match the raw muscular power of its predecessor, but it’s still mostly entertaining and has one of Denzel Washington’s most enjoyable performances ever.

Decades after Maximus Meridius’ death, his exiled son Lucius (Paul Mescal) follows in his father’s footsteps and seeks revenge on the powerful people who killed his wife. But his need for vengeance will bring him back to a home he has never known and a mother (Connie Nielsen) who abandoned him to protect him. Can Lucius fulfil his destiny while also satisfying his need to honor the family he lost?

Elliott (Maisy Stella) is at a crossroads. She’s about to leave for college and is in a casual relationship with another girl, Chelsea (Alexandria Rivera). One night, she takes some psychedelic mushrooms with her friends and hallucinates a future version of herself, Older Elliott (Aubrey Plaza). Proving she’s the real thing, Older Elliott cryptically tells her younger self three things: spend more time with your family, appreciate the farm that you grew up in and avoid a boy named Chad. She disappears, but leaves her number in younger Elliott’s phone.

That’s the far-out premise of My Old Ass, a comedy that isn’t ashamed to be sentimental. Elliott doesn’t exactly believe anything her future self says at first, but gradually, she finds herself growing closer to her family. Chad eventually appears, and it’s in this development that My Old Ass reveals itself as an effective tearjerker in disguise. Plaza is great as always; if everyone grew up to be like Older Elliott, we’d all be OK.

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) is a New Yorker you don’t want to cross. A con woman who makes her living selling fake coins to unsuspecting people over the phone, Bridget steals her crooked dentist husband’s drug money and hides away in a small town upstate. Bridget’s not one to rest on her laurels, and soon, she seduces local dumb hunk Mike (Peter Berg) in an elaborate insurance scam that will pad her pockets and allow Mike to leave his hometown forever. But Bridget’s past catches up with her fast, and Mike soon finds himself in over his head in a way he never imagined.

One of the greatest neo-noirs ever made, The Last Seduction hasn’t aged a bit, even though it’s three decades old and was initially released as a cable movie on HBO. The movie is tough and unsentimental, and it features one of the best female performances ever from Fiorentino. As the calculating Bridget, she’s always one step ahead of everyone, and that includes the audience. You keep expecting her to let up, to show some kind of humanity, and she never does. Bridget’s rotten to the core, and it’s fun watching her be so very bad.

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