Murderous ballet dancers are pirouetting onto streaming this weekend. The John Wick spinoff Ballerina makes its spectacular bloody debut on HBO Max. An LA-based dance troupe is held hostage by a gang led by a former prima ballerina played by Uma Thurman in Pretty Lethal, which leaps onto Prime Video.
Tom Gormican blends snake-related jump scares and meta humor in Anaconda, his remake of the 1997 cult classic, which slithers onto Netflix. You don’t have to feel bad about watching the Hulu original Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice while prepping breakfast or folding laundry because writer-director BenDavid Grabinski will explain the time travel crime movie’s plot several times.
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 Netflix
Anaconda
- Genre: Action comedy
- Run time: 1h 39
- Director: Tom Gormican
- Cast: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn
A meta reboot of the unlikely franchise about a giant killer snake follows a group of longtime friends who decide to pursue their childhood dream of remaking their favorite film, Anaconda. When they travel to the Amazon Rainforest, they find an all-too-real reptilian star, but also get some help from Anaconda star Ice Cube.
Sisu: Road to Revenge
- Genre: Action
- Run time: 1h 29
- Director: Jalmari Helander
- Cast: Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake, Stephen Lang
The sequel to Jalmari Helander’s 2022 revenge movie Sisu follows grizzled Finnish commander Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) as he faces off against the brutal Red Army officer Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang). As the stoic Aatami tries to move his home from Soviet territory to unoccupied Finland, he’s repeatedly attacked by evil men, providing an excuse for lots of explosions and gory deaths.
From our review:
There’s a kind of straight-faced ridiculousness to a lot of Road to Revenge. Some of it comes in the form of the improbably extensive damage Aatami takes en route without capitulating. (“Sisu,” we’re told in expository text at the beginning of both movies, is an untranslatable Finnish ideal, “a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination.”) Some of it’s in the resourceful but unlikely means he uses to destroy the men hunting him down. He has a truck and his fists. They have guns, explosives, motorbikes, body armor, planes full of bombs, and more.
New on HBO Max
Ballerina
- Genre: Action thriller
- Run time: 2h 5m
- Director: Len Wiseman
- Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne
Set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, Ballerina follows Eve (Ana de Armas), a ballerina/assassin/bodyguard on a quest for vengeance. Her mission puts her at odds with Wick (Keanu Reeves) himself as she kills her way through the franchise’s glamorous world battling cultists with style.
From our review:
While Ballerina’s wafer-thin plot leaves a thousand open questions about how this world could possibly work (honestly, another Wickiverse trademark), and several of the plot beats make no sense (like Winston casually breaking the rules of his vaunted, beloved assassin-safehouse hotel The Continental), in the end, most audiences are only really going to care about, and remember, Ballerina’s fight sequences. And while they aren’t all stunning — particularly in the draggy first act, as Eve learns to fight — the movie builds up to some sequences that stand out among the franchise’s most ambitious, wild efforts.
New on Hulu
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
- Genre: Science fiction action comedy
- Run time: 1h 47m
- Director: BenDavid Grabinski
- Cast: Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González
Gangster Nick (Vince Vaughn) travels back in time to save his partner in crime Quick Draw Mike (James Marsden). But the biggest obstacle to the plan is the past version of Nick, who wanted to have Mike killed because he was having an affair with Nick’s wife Alice. The film is basically a simplified version of Rian Johnson’s Looper.
From our review:
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice isn’t a bad movie, it’s not a very smart one. Constant plot recapping aside, this is a quick-moving comedy with plenty to enjoy. Marsden is as likable as ever, even as a seedy gangster. González is a total badass. And Vaughn continues to do the same smooth-talking shtick he’s done for decades, and it still works.
New on Paramount Plus
Primate
- Genre: Horror
- Run time: 1h 29m
- Director: Johannes Roberts
- Cast: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant
Basically Cujo with a chimpanzee instead of a dog, the campy slasher Primate follows Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), a college student who returns home to Hawaii on vacation with some friends. Their trip turns terrifying when Lucy’s family pet, a rescued chimpanzee, contracts rabies and goes on a murderous rampage.
New on Peacock
Bambi the Reckoning
- Genre: Horror
- Run time: 1h 21m
- Director: Dan Allen
- Cast: Roxanne McKee, Tom Mulheron, Nicola Wright
The team behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey continues to turn children’s stories into nightmares by making Bambi into a mutant out for revenge. The twisted buck attacks a family while a group of hunters try to kill him to cover up crimes that have filled the local forest with monsters.
New on Prime Video
Mercy
- Genre: Science fiction thriller
- Run time: 1h 40m
- Director: Timur Bekmambetov
- Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis
Accused of killing his wife, LAPD detective Christopher Raven (Chris Pratt) is put on trial by the Mercy Capital Court, where he has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to an AI judge (Rebecca Ferguson) or be executed on the spot. Raven’s investigation leads to dark truths about himself, his relationship, and the justice system he advocated for.
Pretty Lethal
- Genre: Action thriller
- Run time: 1h 28m
- Director: Vicky Jewson
- Cast: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds
When their bus breaks down in the Hungarian forest on the way to a prestigious dance competition in Budapest, the members of an LA-based ballet troupe find their way to an inn run by the legendary prima ballerina Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman). They wind up being held captive by gangsters and have to work together to escape.
New on Shudder
The Mortuary Assistant
- Genre: Supernatural horror
- Run time: 1h 31m
- Director: Jeremiah Kipp
- Cast: Willa Holland, Paul Sparks
An adaptation of DarkStone Digital’s 2022 horror game of the same name, The Mortuary Assistant follows new mortician Rebecca Owens (Willa Holland) as she spends the night shift embalming bodies alone. But when she encounters demons who know everything about her, she needs help from her strange mentor (Paul Sparks) to survive.
New on The Criterion Channel
Resurrection
- Genre: Science fiction
- Run time: 2h 36m
- Director: Bi Gan
- Cast: Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao
Bi Gan’s surreal film is set in a world where humanity gave up the ability to dream in exchange for immortality. A shapeshifting monster called the Deliriant (Jackson Yee) has found a way to dream by living inside movies, and his memories provide a tour of 100 years of cinema spread across four stories.
From our review:
Bi is trying to get his arms around so much in Resurrection: the whole history of film, for one thing, at an uncertain moment for the medium. The story of the Deliriant, one of a dying breed of dreamers, suggests an elegy for the death of cinema, and each segment is haunted in its own way by a vaguely doomy sense of loss, of things ending, or of illusions losing their substance. The film’s final images are of a waxwork theater melting away to nothing. But the movie’s energy is anything but defeated, and the clue is in the title. Resurrection is a rebirth; Bi kills the movies so he can bring them back to life through the power of his own cinematic will.
New to rent
Goat
- Genre: Animated sports comedy
- Run time: 1h 40m
- Director: Tyree Dillihay
- Cast: Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre
Goat Will Harris (Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin) has dreamed of being a professional roarball player since he was a kid, but other players don’t think he can compete because of his small size. When he joins a team desperate to end their decade-long losing streak, Will has to navigate their big personalities and flaws to turn things around.
How to Make a Killing
- Genre: Black comedy thriller
- Run time: 1h 45m
- Director: John Patton Ford
- Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick
Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) grew up hearing stories about a family fortune he would one day inherit, even though his mother was exiled from her wealthy family. Tired of waiting, he decides to start killing the competition and finally finds himself getting ahead in the world as he takes his cousin’s place at an investment firm.
Redux Redux
- Genre: Science fiction thriller
- Run time: 1h 49m
- Directors: Kevin and Matthew McManus
- Cast: Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus, Jeremy Holm
After her daughter is murdered by the serial killer Neville (Jeremy Holm), Irene (Michaela McManus) uses a machine to travel the multiverse looking for a world where her child is still alive and kills Neville over and over again. But her quest is interrupted when she rescues a teenager who wants her own shot at vengeance.
From our review:
Redux Redux demonstrates what makes multiverse stories so compelling. While the concept has become overused as a gimmick for comic book crossovers, it’s at its best in more personal, grounded tales about regretful people searching for better versions of their lives.
Send Help
- Genre: Survival horror thriller
- Run time: 1h 53m
- Director: Sam Raimi
- Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert
Overworked middle manager Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is denied a promotion by her new boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), but given a chance to prove herself on a business trip to Bangkok. When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, Linda takes charge of keeping them both alive.
Sirât
- Genre: Thriller
- Run time: 1h 54m
- Director: Óliver Laxe
- Cast: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez Arjona, Richard Bellamy
The Academy Award-nominated film follows Luis (Sergi López) as he searches for his daughter who went missing months ago while attending a rave. Luis and his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona) hope to find answers by following a group of partiers deep into the Moroccan desert, not realizing how dangerous the journey is.
Wardriver
- Genre: Crime thriller
- Run time: 1h 33m
- Director: Rebecca Thomas
- Cast: Dane DeHaan, Sasha Calle, William Belleau
Cole (Dane DeHaan) is a hacker for hire who gets blackmailed into wiping out Sarah’s (Sasha Calle) checking account. But when Cole finds out her money comes from a mob lawyer, he tries to replace what he took to protect Sarah and help her escape.
