When it comes to the latest batch of new movies to watch this week, a strong field of options hits streaming services and digital retailers.
The biggest titles include two summer theatrical releases, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
The new movies to watch this week include a range of genres, from an action thriller starring Ben Affleck (Hypnotic) to a horror mystery (The Last Voyage of the Demeter) to a buddy comedy (Moving On). There’s truly something for everybody, so pop that popcorn and get streaming!
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (digital)
The fifth Indiana Jones movie is the last to star Harrison Ford as the whip-wielding, fedora-wearing archaeologist. If you didn’t catch it in theaters, you’re not alone, since the latest Indy installment didn’t really fire up the box office. And according to TG’s Rory Mellon, Indiana Jones 5 is "definitely a movie that can wait” for streaming.
Dial of Destiny is set in two time periods. In 1944, Indy and archaeology colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) recover a Nazi-stolen artifact, a time-traveling device called the Archimedes Dial, from scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson). In 1969, Voller is working for NASA and trying to get his hands on the dial again. Jones teams up with Shaw's daughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to stop him for good.
Buy digitally on Amazon right now (release date Aug. 29)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (digital)
The titular chapter of Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula has scared the daylights out of readers over the last 125 years, and now it’s been adapted into a chilling film. The story begins at the end, with the wreckage of a ship washing ashore in England. Four weeks earlier, the Demeter takes on private cargo to carry from Bulgaria to London.
Nobody knows what’s inside the 50 unmarked crates, but it’s telling that the locals in the origin port refuse to touch them. On the voyage, eerie events begin to occur, like the death of the ship’s animals and sightings of a mysterious figure. By the time the remains of the Demeter are found, the crew has disappeared.
Buy digitally on Amazon right now (release date Aug. 29)
The Baker (digital)
This action thriller sounds like a Liam Neeson vehicle — a baker with a dangerous past — but instead, Ron Perlman takes the lead role. As a former military soldier, Pappi Sabinski has a special set of skills but put them aside long ago to run a bakery.
When his estranged son gets into trouble, Pappi finds himself taking care of his 8-year-old granddaughter Delphi (Emma Ho). She’s a sensitive kid whose traumatic experiences have rendered her mute. Pappi will have to tap into his past when a brutal drug lord known as The Merchant (Harvey Keitel) comes looking for some missing inventory.
Buy digitally on Apple right now (release date Aug. 29)
The Boogeyman (digital)
Many of Stephen King’s works have been adapted for the screen, but The Boogeyman has only been made into two short films. Director Rob Savage’s take is the first feature-length adaptation of the creepy short story.
High school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are reeling from the recent death of their mother. They aren't getting much support from their father, Will (Chris Messina), a therapist dealing with his own pain. A disturbed patient arrives at their home, ranting about an evil entity that killed his children. Soon after, the girls are terrorized by a sinister creature that feeds on the suffering of its victims.
Buy digitally on Amazon right now (release date Aug. 29)
The Pod Generation (digital)
It won’t be long before AI can take the most mundane and thankless tasks off our hands — like procreation! This sci-fi romantic comedy tweaks the idea that technology can replace human. In the not-so-distant future, the corporation Pegasus offers couples the chance to truly share the experience of pregnancy via detectable artificial wombs, or pods.
Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are a New York City couple who wants to start a family. Rachel is able to fast-track them to the top of the Pegasus waiting list, though Alvy is a purist who would rather rely on nature than tech. But he’s ready to take a leap of faith for Rahel’s sake, and so begins their wild ride to parenthood.
Buy digitally on Apple right now (release date Aug. 29)
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Did you know Guy Ritchie released a movie this year? Yeah, me neither. This spy action comedy never made it onto the radar, despite starring Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza and Josh Hartnett.
Statham is Orson Fortune, a super spy who is tasked with retrieving a deadly new weapons technology before it’s sold by the billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant). Fortune reluctantly gathers a team of some of the world’s best operatives, as well as Hollywood movie star Danny Francesco (Hartnett) to help them distract Simmonds, his biggest fan.
Stream on Starz (via Prime Video) starting Sept. 1
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (digital)
Another decade, another reboot of the TMNT film franchise. The seventh of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies is not unlike the ones that came before it: A chemical "ooze" transforms turtle brothers Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello into humanoid mutants.
Under the care of adoptive rat father Splinter, they’ve been sheltered in New York City’s sewers and taught in the art of ninjutsu. But now that they are teenagers, they long to have normal lives. They make a new friend, April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), an aspiring journalist who helps them take on a crime syndicate in the hope of gaining acceptance.
Buy digitally on Amazon starting Sept. 1
Hypnotic (Peacock)
It’s rare that a movie involving Ben Affleck makes barely a ripple in the global entertainment-industrial complex, yet just like the Guy Ritchie joint on this list, that’s what happened. The action thriller from director Robert Rodriguez stars Affleck as Austin detective Danny Rourke, who finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole of reality-bending crimes.
Aided by the psychic Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), Rourke begins to pursue a mysterious man who pulls off a bank heist — a man who may also know something about the disappearance of his young daughter. But as they get closer to the truth, Rourke discovers a far deeper conspiracy than he could have ever imagined.
Stream on Peacock starting Sept. 1
Moving On (Hulu)
If Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin decide to just make projects together for the rest of their careers, we are all blessed. Grace and Frankie has concluded its run on Netflix, but the longtime collaborators have gone to movies like 80 for Brady and Moving On.
The latter is a comedy (of course) about two estranged friends who reconnect at the funeral of another mutual pal. They decide to exact revenge on the widower (Malcolm McDowell) for the harm he caused decades earlier. As they plot and scheme, Evelyn and Claire come to grips with the past and with each other.
Stream on Hulu starting Sept. 1
