The Princess, The Bad Guys and 11 other new movies to watch at home this weekend

This week sees the premiere of The princessthe “Rapunzel meets The raid‘ action movie starring Joey King on Hulu and the animated comedy’s streaming premiere The Bad Boys on peacock.

That’s not all: Edgar Wright’s Giallo-inspired horror thriller Last night in Soho comes to HBO Max, the Norwegian sci-fi comedy Blown up and the drama of 2022 beauty Premiered on Netflix, the 2009 Japanese fantasy drama air doll Streams on the Criterion Channel, and there are tons of new VOD releases including a 4K restoration of the 1956 epic Ilya Muromets: The Sword and the Dragon.

So you know what’s new and available, here are the new movies to watch this weekend via streaming and VOD.

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The princess

Where to see: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Hulu

Joey King (The kissing booth) plays in Le-Van Kiet’s “Rapunzel meets The raid“Action film as a strong-willed princess who, after refusing to marry the cruel suitor to whom she is engaged, is kidnapped and imprisoned in a secluded tower of her father’s castle. Determined to undermine her would-be husband’s malicious plans, she must cut a bloody path of carnage to escape and save her kingdom.

From our review:

It’s really satisfying to watch a fantasy princess in a torn, bloodied wedding dress stab the men who try to control her. Princesses and other wealthy women shedding their constricting dresses and corsets for a more battle-ready look isn’t new: watch again, Merida’s dress is bursting at the seams as she prepares her bow, Elizabeth swaps her robes for more practical battle attire in Pirates of the Caribbean, or more recently Grace fighting with her predatory new in-laws Ready or Not.

The Bad Boys

Where to see: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: DreamWorks

This animated heist film follows a group of anthropomorphic animal criminals who get caught, pretend to be reformed, and then realize they actually want to be who they say they are. With an ensemble cast that includes Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos and more, we can all agree on one thing: yes, Mr. Wolf is pretty hot.

From our review:

It’s all pretty easy stuff, and after recent mainstream triumphs like To redden and charm from two different branches of Disney, The Bad Boys could cement DreamWorks’ status as the B-squad of contemporary American animation, where spectacle is the default and emotional growth is a little. But the better DreamWorks cartoons come alive when they’re stripped of Disney formulas, rather than chasing after them or self-consciously spoofing them. Even if The Bad Boys similar to other films, he steals them gracefully, with his own sensitivity and energy.

Last night in Soho

Where to see: Available to stream on HBO Max

Image: focus functions

Edgar Wright’s Giallo-inspired psychological thriller stars Thomasin McKenzie as Eloise, a 1960s-obsessed young woman who moves to London to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer. After beginning to experience startling dreams in which she is transported to a Soho nightclub in the body of an aspiring singer named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), Eloise’s dreams become increasingly vivid and violent, blurring the line between hallucinations and reality.

From our review:

Central, as a study of Wright’s own nostalgic tendencies, soho is a fascinating cultural object. In previous work he has shown an interest in the fragility of nostalgia. in the hot fuzz and The end of the world, Characters are committed to unrealistic nostalgia and are castigated for it. Stylistically, however, he has always leaned toward homage, going back as far as again Distance, with its countless visual and textual references to Hollywood and esoteric cinema. Homage in itself borders on nostalgia: in Wright’s case, it’s a celebration of bygone styles and aesthetics, and a deep, wistful love of decades-old cinema seeps through his filmography.

soho feels like Wright’s most explicit questioning of his own sentimental impulses, yet his most stylistically grandiose work. But this story also focuses on the violent and lurid exploitation of women. This is certainly Edgar Wright in his Edgar Wright-iest, but even if he opposes celebrating the past Last night in Sohohe celebrates it himself, in a way that’s hard to resist and sometimes even harder to enjoy.

Blown up

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Julianne Leikanger / Netflix

The Norwegian science fiction comedy Blown up follows the story of two childhood friends, Sebastian (Axel Bøyum) and Mikkel (Fredrik Skogsrud), who find themselves on the front lines of a battle against alien invaders after being reunited for a laser tag bachelor party. Similar to Edgar Wright’s 2013 film The end of the world, Blown up seems to address similar issues in relation to the issues of lifelong friendship, maturity, and delayed development.

beauty

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Stephanie Meiling/Netflix

Niecy Nash stars in the 2022 drama beauty as a gifted young singer struggling to maintain her identity after accepting a lucrative record deal, sparking intense conflict between her, her family, the label and her friend as she attempts to forge her career.

air doll

Where to see: Available to stream on Criterion Channel

Image: The Criterion Channel

shoplifters Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2009 drama tells the story of an inflatable doll (Bae Doona) who develops consciousness and falls in love while her owner is at work.

The long night

Where to see: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: shudder

A New York transplant recipient (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her boyfriend (Nolan Gerard Funk) return to their childhood home down south to search for clues to their birth parents. Shortly after their arrival, however, a supernatural cult terrorizes the couple as part of their esoteric plan to bring about the apocalypse.

Ilya Muromets: The Sword and the Dragon

Where to see: Available to rent for $4.99 from Amazon and Apple

Image: Vinegar Syndrome/Deaf Crocodile

The gripping 1956 epic from legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko Ilya Muromets: The Sword and the Dragon stars Boris Andreyev as a bogatyr (“knight”) who inherits a sword from an aging giant and embarks on a decades-long battle against Tugar invaders who threaten his homeland and family. Re-adapted for television by Roger Corman in the 1960s and continued in an episode of Infamous Mystery Science Theater 3000this new version of the original film has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm negative.

doula

Where to see: Available for $5.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Universal Pictures

When an LA couple expecting a baby is suddenly confronted with the death of their midwife, they hire their son to take over this irreverent comedy.

Mothers Sunday

Where to see: Available for $4.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Sony Pictures Classics

Based on the novel of the same name by Graham Swift Mothers Sunday follows the story of Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), a maid living in post-war England who has a secret love affair with the son of a neighboring manor, who is engaged to be married off to another woman. The film follows three different eras in Jane’s life when an unexpected turn of events sends her on a journey to become a writer.

Down with the king

Where to see: Available for $5.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Stage 6 Movies

Rapper and musician Freddie Gibbs are the stars of the 2021s Down with the king as Mercury Maxwell, a famous rapper who, disillusioned with the pressures of being a celebrity, abandons his career to find a new life as part of a small-town farming community.

cryo

Where to see: Available for $6.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Saban Films

The 2022 sci-fi horror thriller cryo follows five scientists who prematurely awaken from cryosleep with no memory of who they are or how long they slept. When the group learns that a killer is hiding in their midst, they must solve the mystery of how they got there and why they woke up in the first place.

Rubicon

Where to see: Available to rent for $5.99 from Amazon; $6.99 on Apple, Vudu

Image: IFC Midnight

The sci-fi thriller of 2022 Rubicon follows the crew of a space station who believe they are the only people left after a catastrophe that engulfs the earth’s surface. When an SOS message breaks through the planet’s cloud-shrouded surface, pleading for food and assistance, the astronauts and scientists aboard the Rubicon are faced with a difficult choice of what, or who, is to live or die for.

From our rating:

On an emotional level Rubicon is a film about how isolation leads to a closed-off attitude and how easily the horizon shrinks even when you can see the curvature of the earth from your bedroom window. We can all relate to it. On a moral level, though – and this is very much a moral game in the guise of a self-contained pressure cooker thriller – it’s about balancing your responsibilities to yourself and your family against your responsibilities to society. The problem is that his metaphor is so overblown, with the future of humanity on one side of the scale and three people in a tin can on the other, that it never quite makes sense.