This is a big week on streaming for long-running science fiction film series. Tron: Ares gets 3D printed onto Disney Plus, continuing the franchise about programmers getting sucked into the digital world of the Grid with a story of an AI soldier going rogue. A young Yautja must prove himself worthy of his clan by defeating an unkillable monster in Predator: Badlands, which connects the Predator and Alien movies without requiring knowledge of either series. You can hunt it down on VOD.
Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk offers a less action-packed and more dystopian vision of the future, competing for your attention on Starz. For something more absurd than dark, rent Radu Jude’s bizarre spin on Dracula, a meta work about a filmmaker using AI to create a movie about the iconic vampire.
Here’s a rundown of the most notable new releases on streaming and VOD, including the biggest, best, and most popular new movies you can watch at home right now.
New on Disney Plus
Tron: Ares
- Genre: Science fiction action
- Run time: 1h 59m
- Director: Joachim Rønning
- Cast: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters
Rival tech CEOs Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) are racing to find a way to make digital constructs permanent in the real world. When Julian sends his AI super soldier Ares (Jared Leto) to steal code from Eve, he winds up losing control of his creations. Since this is a Tron film, expect light cycle racing, a Jeff Bridges cameo, and lots of CGI.
From our review:
As thin as the characters and plot are, Tron: Ares’ action sequences are stunning. The 29-minute time limit for game constructs imported into the physical world forces the story to move at a frantic pace, as AIs race to reach their targets before they disintegrate. It also allows numerous fights to have clever resolutions, with characters working to run out the clock or prevent the digital constructs from respawning.
New on Shudder
Chain Reactions
- Genre: Documentary
- Run time: 1h 42m
- Director: Alexandre O. Philippe
Actors, writers, and directors including Stephen King, Patton Oswalt and Takashi Miike discuss the impact that Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had on them personally and on the genre at large. The film explores what draws audiences to horror and what makes the classic so disturbing and hard to replicate.
New on Starz
The Home
- Genre: Psychological horror
- Run time: 1h 35
- Director: James DeMonaco
- Cast: Pete Davidson, John Glover, Bruce Altman
The Purge creator James DeMonaco explores the horror of aging as graffiti artist Max (Pete Davidson) is ordered to do community service at a retirement home. While Max is told to stay away from the serious cases on the fourth floor, the death of one of the seniors he’s befriended leads him to investigate what’s really going on there.
The Long Walk
- Genre: Dystopian thriller
- Run time: 1h 48m
- Director: Francis Lawrence
- Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing
Frances Lawrence’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novel The Long Walk is set in a bleak version of the United States where teenage boys hoping for a better life enlist in an annual competition where they must walk nonstop for days. Those who fall behind are shot, but the last one standing has their wish granted.
New to rent
Dracula
- Genre: Satire
- Run time: 2h 50m
- Director: Radu Jude
- Cast: Adonis Tanța, Gabriel Spahiu, Oana Mardare
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World director Radu Jude crams numerous takes on the legendary vampire into his nearly three-hour film about a director (Adonis Tanța) who uses AI to come up with the perfect money-making movie. Shot in Transylvania with a tiny budget, the tribute to B-movie icon Ed Wood is a celebration of bad art.
Hallow Road
- Genre: Psychological thriller
- Run time: 1h 20m
- Director: Babak Anvari
- Cast: Rosamund Pike, Matthew Rhys, Megan McDonnell
Maddie (Rosamund Pike) and Frank (Matthew Rhys) are woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from their 18-year-old daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell), who has hit someone with her car while driving down a remote road. As the parents race to help her, they pivot from trying to save the victim to protecting their child.
Not Without Hope
- Genre: Survival thriller
- Run time: 2h 1m
- Director: Joe Carnahan
- Cast: Zachary Levi, Quentin Plair, Terrence Terrell
Based on a true story, Not Without Hope follows a group of friends whose fishing boat capsizes in a storm off the coast of Mexico. Stranded at sea, the brawny buddies struggle against hypothermia, hunger, and thirst while the Coast Guard tries to stage a rescue mission.
Oscar Shaw
- Genre: Action
- Run time: 1h 33m
- Director: R. Ellis Frazier and Justin Nesbitt
- Cast: Michael Jai White, Tyrese Gibson, Isaiah Washington
Martial artist Michael Jai White plays Oscar Shaw, a retired detective trying to avenge the loss of his closest friend. He’ll fight to clear his neighborhood of the influence of a vicious new gang through lots of shoot-outs.
Predator: Badlands
- Genre: Science fiction action
- Run time: 1h 47m
- Director: Dan Trachtenberg
- Cast: Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
The young Yautja Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is sentenced to death for being too weak, and his only chance to prove himself involves traveling to the “death planet” Genna to kill its apex predator. Teaming up with a badly damaged android (Elle Fanning), Dek learns how to navigate the hostile terrain and claim his birthright.
From our review:
Badlands feels less like a Predator movie and more like part of the Avatar franchise, another property Disney got in the Fox merger. It deals with the same themes of questioning what you will sacrifice for your family — biological or found — and environmental exploitation, richly rewarding characters who appreciate the beauty of nature and learn to use it in a respectful fashion. Just like in Avatar, none of these themes are especially deep, and the villains are cartoonishly evil. But while Avatar delves further into its exploration of grief and loss, Badlands quickly moves on to more whimsical fare. There’s a whole fight scene involving Thia’s disembodied legs that adds a distinctly cheesy beat to what’s otherwise the film’s best action sequence.
