With so many options to choose from in theaters and on streaming platforms, it’s easy to miss great movies when they’re first released. It’s rare these days for any movie enthusiast to not have an ever-expanding list of box office blockbusters or highly-acclaimed independent films that they need to get around to watching.
Fortunately, we’ve got three hit movies that are ready to watch right now on streaming platforms, in Deep Cover, KPop Demon Hunters, and A Minecraft Movie, and they should be your first choices when you settle in to relax this weekend. They’re all new (or relatively new) to their respective platforms, and all three have been highly successful in one way or another.
KPop Demon Hunters On Netflix
The Acclaimed Animated Fantasy Musical Sensation
The visually-stunning anime KPop Demon Hunters checks the box for several different genres in a complete and entertaining package that will entertain even those who aren’t familiar with or fans of KPop as a music genre. It features the voice talents of Arden Cho (Avatar: The Last Airbender), May Hong (Hacks), and Ji-young Yoo (Until Dawn), among other notable stars.
The тιтle sure isn’t subtle, as KPop Demon Hunters follows the fictional KPop girl group HUNTR/X, who rock stages by day and slay literal demons by night. Over the course of the movie they face off with a rival KPop boy band, the Saja Boys, whose members are secretly demons bent on draining energy from fans to weaken the barrier between the demon and human worlds.
The movie is exactly as wild as that synopsis sounds, but it simply works. Since it released on Netflix on June 20th, it’s earned a 97% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score from critics, and an accompanying 86% Popcornmeter score from audiences. It makes fun of pop culture, and KPop in particular, but does so in a subtle, clever way.
On top of everything else, the songs are catchy as can be. It barely feels like you’re watching a musical, but the infectious beats and lyrics of the original KPop songs will get stuck in your head all the same, whether you are a big KPop fan or not.
A Minecraft Movie On HBO Max
The Box Office Juggernaut Video Game Movie
A Minecraft Movie may not be for everyone, but for parents whose kids love the game or adults who love the game, A Minecraft Movie is wildly entertaining. It’s not a coincidence that it grossed over $950 million at the box office, as the background of each sH๏τ is loaded with enough Easter eggs that one viewing will never be enough.
Starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, A Minecraft Movie has one of the most significant differences in reviews between critics and audiences in recent memory. A compilation of critic reviews yielded a 48% on the Tomatometer, while more than 10,000 verified audience reviews averaged out to an 85%.
Even if you don’t know the game Minecraft all that well, it’s a visually impressive and mildly entertaining action comedy. So even if you or your kids already saw it in theaters, it dropped on HBO Max on June 24th and is ready to stream this weekend to catch everything you might have missed.
Deep Cover On Prime Video
The Well-Reviewed British Action Comedy
From BAFTA-winning director Tom Kingsley, Deep Cover stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, and Nick Mohammed as a trio of improv actors recruited by police to infiltrate the London criminal underworld as undercover informants. Predictably, things don’t go according to plan, but the trio still manage to get in far deeper than they should.
Anchored by a cast littered with major stars including Paddy Considine, Sean Bean, and Ian McShane in addition to its leading trio, Deep Cover has had critics raving since its release on June 12th. The consensus is that the fun and laughs never stop thanks to its improv-like style of comedy and a cast that is up to the task, and it’s currently Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 90%.
Deep Cover is the perfect cross-genre style of movie that works equally well for a solo watch, date night, or group get-together this weekend.
