‘Butterfly,' ‘Night Always Comes,' plus more new movies and TV shows to stream this weekend
Allyson Riggs / Netflix
'Night Always Comes'
After fighting cosmic entities in
Available on Netflix
'The Legend of Ochi'
The latest A24 flick to hit HBO Max,
Available on HBO Max
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New TV shows now available to stream
Daniel Dae Kim in "Butterfly."
Juhan Noh/Juhan Noh/Prime
'Butterfly'
Any project starring Daniel Dae Kim is a must-see in my book, and it's especially intriguing to see him pop up in a spy thriller with 'Butterfly,' which dropped all six episodes on Prime Video this week. Pulling double duty as both star and executive producer, the former 'Lost' actor and recent
Available on Prime Video
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'Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser'
Promising contestants life-changing money and weight-loss results, 'The Biggest Loser' was a pop culture marvel during its 18-season reign, but the show was mired in controversy over its treatment of participants. Netflix explores the legacy of the series in the new documentary 'Fit for TV,' premiering Friday, featuring interviews with the show's creators, producers, contestants, and more.
Available on Netflix
Binge-worthy weekend TV pick
"Project Runway" kicked off its 21st season in July.
Disney/Spencer Pazer
'Project Runway'
Season 21 available on Hulu; seasons 1-20 available on Peacock; select past seasons also available on Hulu, Netflix, Roku, and Tubi
Movie night pick
Director Eli Roth on the set of "Thanksgiving."
Pief Weyman
'Thanksgiving'
It's a little early in the year for turkey dinners, but Newton native and director Eli Roth carves up a bloody good time with his 2023 holiday horror flick,
Leaving Netflix on Sunday; available on Hulu beginning Sunday
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Matt Juul is the assistant digital editor for the Living Arts team at the Boston Globe, with over a decade of experience covering arts and entertainment.
Matt Juul can be reached at
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Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Hollywood will never stop remaking, rebooting and recycling the old same stories
The Naked Gun. 28 Days Later. I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jurassic Park. Thought these are all titles from 2025, you could be forgiven for thinking they came from Moviefone. This year's summer blockbuster season has been dominated by nostalgic fare: reboots, remakes and sequels. And while the retold story has been an element of the movie business going back to its earliest days, studios seem to be cashing in more than ever before — and audiences are buying in. From Lilo & Stitch becoming the year's first billion-dollar box office earner, to Happy Gilmore smashing Netflix audience records (47 million watched it on the streaming service in the first three days it was available), to King of the Hill clocking in as Disney's biggest adult animated premiere in five years, the desire for old stories made new seems to have never been higher. "We all look back with, you know, rose-coloured glasses on the times we grew up in as better," Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra explained to CBC News in a recent interview. "Right now especially, the world is a little bit of an unsure place. And I think that the comfort of these movies and that collective feeling of togetherness we got when we watch these movies … it's why people are going back to theatres."A return to the well Hollywood's affection for recycled and rehashed stories started right alongside Hollywood itself: going as far back as Georges Méliès' L'Arroseur from 1896, a remake of the previous year's L'Arroseur arrosé. And 1903's The Great Train Robbery was infamously recreated in an essentially a shot-for-shot remake the year after, then numerous times after that. And the trend of journalists pointing out remakes is nearly as old as the remakes themselves. "Remaking old films is really old hat for the cinema people," read a 1937 article from the New York Times. "Although the screen has only recently emerged from its swaddling clothes and managed to crawl just about halfway into its metaphorical knee-pants, it already belies its years and even casts fond, reminiscent glances backward." "More often than not these yearnings for the past have been prompted by pecuniary rather than esthetic motives. Depending upon one's point of view, the studios may be regarded either as taking critical stock of themselves or as cashing in on their old preferred. The latter view seems more consistent with the facts." Other than the flowery language, the complaint that a given year was overloaded with remakes sounds like it could have come from today.'They often miss the soul' "I am not a fan. I continue to not be a fan of live-action remakes because they often miss the soul," explained director Dean DeBlois, despite releasing a live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon earlier this year. "Too often they feel like they are lesser versions of the animated movie to me." So why have remakes and reboots become the dominant fare of 2025's movie slate? According to ComScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it comes down to dollars and cents. The summer blockbuster has been a tentpole for Hollywood going back decades; Dergarabedian notes that it generates roughly forty per cent of North America's total box office. So success often depends on studios launching their surest bets during this "play it safe" period where they have the best chance of satisfying the widest-possible audience. That, Dergarabedian says, is not a recipe for originality."As much as so many people decry the lack of originality in movies, when you look at the top 10 movies of the year, generally speaking, there might be one or two out of the top ten that are true original films," he said. "That right there tells you why studios, marketers, PR folks, advertisers — they love the tried and true and those known brands." Instead, it was a recipe that led to films built around spectacle and excitement, with studios relying on huge franchises and superhero fanaticism to draw in ever-higher box office receipts. But as recently as 2023, a string of blockbuster bombs suggested audiences were no longer as interested in that fare. Chasing those audiences, Dergaradedian says, meant studios started making movies that might appeal to even wider demographics. And over the last two and a half years, he says that's led to PG movies out-grossing PG-13 movies for the first time. That spurred a return to films and shows that people remembered from their own childhoods, he said. Film titles that were already thought of as wholesome and accessible, or were remade to be as inoffensive as possible, as with Lilo & Stitch, a live-action remake with a sanitized ending that drew wide criticism. It was a move foreshadowed by Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman, who told the LA Times ahead of the film's premiere that changes were made to the original story because "to do the kind of box office that I think we're going to do, you need to get everybody."The nostalgia impulse Robert Thompson, Syracuse University's professor of television and popular culture, says the desire to return to familiar stories far predates movies; as evidenced by The Odyssey being viewed as a sequel to The Iliad, and both being retellings of ancient Greek myth. Even genre itself is a larger extension of the remake, according to Thompson. Likening it to the auto industry, he says stories — like cars — historically couldn't be made for each individual audience member's tastes. Making narratives similar enough to fit a genre was the solution. "You're not going to make each driver an individual automobile. You've got to churn those things off of an assembly line," he said. "And that's what genre is all about … getting something that works and keep doing it. Over and over again." The problem is what Thompson believes is potentially driving this current cycle of remakes and reboots: A reactionary shift to the digital age's fracturing of pop culture. As the internet and streaming democratized entertainment, we went from consuming media from a few dominant viewpoints to a landscape full of competing productions giving voices to demographics that never had them before. That complicated what sorts of stories and stances were viewed as right or acceptable, Thompson says. The ensuing fear and discomfort some felt fed a desire to return to a simpler time; to recreate a media landscape they viewed as preserving traditional social norms, "because we celebrate this traditional, fictionally perfect past." He suggests our current glut of rose-coloured stories celebrating that past has reverberated through media. "In the sense of, 'Let's just go back to when things were simple. Let's go back to when things were good. Let's make art great again.' "
Boston Globe
41 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
This week's TV: Paul Reiser, Abbi Jacobson star in a new animated comedy, plus an Amanda Knox series
What else is coming down the TV pike this week? The Legoization of the world continues with the premiere of 'LEGO Masters Jr. , ' the young folks' version of the 'LEGO Masters' game show. Hosted by Kelly Osbourne (daughter of It's been many years since the Dallas Cowboys were dominant, but they make for juicy storytelling as long as Jerry Jones is in charge. The Netflix series 'America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys' tells the story of the Jones era, from the Arkansas oilman's controversial decision to fire beloved head coach Tom Landry in 1989, through the glory years of the 1990s, and up to the mediocre present. The series premieres Tuesday. Are we not men? The new wave band that preached 'de-evolution' gets a new moment in the sun with Do you subscribe to the The Swimmer ,' the 1968 adaptation of the John Cheever story starring Burt Lancaster. It's about suburban complacency, but it's also one of cinema's most devastating portraits of alcoholism. You may have noticed that TV can't get enough of true crime and tabloid scandal. The latest offering is 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,' a limited series starring Grace Van Patten as the woman wrongfully convicted of the 2007 murder of fellow exchange student Meredith Kercher. It premieres Wednesday on Hulu. Chris Vognar can be reached at
Tom's Guide
41 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
Netflix has 15 new releases this week — full list and the 7 you need to watch
Netflix is adding 15 new shows and movies to the streaming service this week and there are a few must-watch new titles you'll want to add to your watchlist. If you're into political thrillers, "Hostage" stars Suranne Jones as a fictional British Prime Minister and Julie Delpy as a French President, and they're quickly thrust into the middle of a political nightmare. Sports fans and documentary lovers will want to check out "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys," which gives us a never-before-seen look at the rise of Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys as the NFL's preeminent brand. These aren't the only shows and movies worth keeping an eye on. I've found seven top picks in all worth considering for your watchlist this week, including "The 355," a much-maligned box office bomb that is surprisingly beloved by audiences. So for more to watch, read on for all of my top picks, a full list of everything new on Netflix this week and the scoop on what's leaving Netflix this week. If you need more, check out our guide to everything new to Netflix in August, and check out our first look at "Nobody Wants This" season 2. "Hostage" is a new political thriller miniseries starring Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton, the Prime Minister of the U.K. She's in a tense border standoff with the French President, Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), and they arrive at a summit to hash things out. But once she's there, she suddenly gets a call — her husband has been abducted. The abductors deliver an ultimatum to Abigail. She needs to give up her power and resign as Prime Minister to get her husband back. If she refuses, she could lose him for good. Of course, the trailer reveals she'll do no such thing. So now, she needs to navigate challenges from Toussaint, the terrorists and her own political allies (and enemies) at home to get her family back without losing everything. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 21 The Dallas Cowboys have been a relevant name in the NFL for decades. Legendary coach Tom Landry took the team to five Super Bowls in the 1970s, winning two of them. But by the time 1989 rolled around, things reached their nadir, and Jerry Jones took advantage to scoop up the franchise for $150 million. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. That may seem like chump change today for a franchise worth $12.8 billion, but at the time, failure would have left Jones with nothing. So it was a shock when the first thing he did was fire Landry and hire Jimmy Johnson, the University of Miami coach who Jones played with at the University of Arkansas. The rest, as they say, is history. The Cowboys would win three Super Bowls in the 1990s — though they've never been back since. "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys" tells the whole tale, including all the drama, with never-before-seen footage and interviews with Cowboys legends, including Jones, Johnson, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin. You won't want to miss it. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 19 "The 355" stars Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong'o as rival spies all hunting for a special decryption program drive that can access any digital system on Earth, but they're not alone. Criminal mastermind Elijah Clarke (Jason Flemyng) also wants the drive, and he'll kill anyone to get it. One of the people he kills is Mace's partner (Sebastian Stan), and it's his off-screen death that throws these women into a globetrotting race against each other, which eventually puts them directly in the path of Chinese MSS spy Li Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing). It's important to set your expectations appropriately going into "The 355." While billed as a franchise starting girl-boss team-up between some of the hottest actresses of the 2010s, it's a run-of-the-mill action popcorn flick that just happens to feature women instead of men in the leading roles. Critics hated it, but if you go in only expecting to have a (hopefully) fun time watching these women work against, and then later with, each other, you might have a good experience, like most people who've seen this movie and rated it on Rotten Tomatoes. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 21 If you loved "Bojack Horseman," then you'll want to check out "Long Story Short," from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, who also created the former series. This animated sitcom tells the story of a middle-class Jewish family, specifically the three siblings of the family: Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield). "Long Story Short" follows these three and the people in their lives across more than 30 years, shifting back and forth between their highly religious childhood and the experiences of their ordinary adult lives. It's also already been renewed for a second season, so don't worry about committing only for the show to be canceled. From watching the trailer, I'll admit that I'm a bit underwhelmed by the animation, which looks similar to the animation of "Bojack" but somehow less refined. However, I was not underwhelmed by the story and writing overall, which had me laughing at multiple points during the one-minute and 45-second trailer. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 22 Jussie Smollett was riding high at the start of 2019, one of the stars of the Fox drama series "Empire." But on Jan. 29, he reported to Chicago police that he had been the victim of a hate crime, alleging that he had been physically attacked outside his apartment and assailed with racial and homophobic slurs. But a mere two weeks later, Chicago police announced that he had instead paid two brothers to stage the assault, and within less than a month, Smollett was charged with a felony for filing a false police report. Here's where things take yet another turn. After a deal that saw the charges dropped following community service — which Smollett completed — he was tried again in 2020, this time sentenced to jail time and significant restitution to the city of Chicago. This saga just resolved itself this past May, with Smollett and the city settling civil claims after the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling Smollett's due process was violated. Now, "The Truth About Jussie Smollett?" looks to tell the full story, including a reexamination of whether Smollett was telling the truth this entire time. It also features interviews with Smollett, making this documentary compelling to watch regardless of the conclusion. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 22 "Rivers of Fate" stars Domithila Cattete as Janalice, a Brazilian girl in Belém do Pará whose life seems to be cursed. But things for her go from bad to worse once she's kidnapped by human traffickers who intend to prostitute her in a sex trafficking operation. She's not the only cursed character in this Brazilian miniseries from Oscar-nominated "City of God" screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani. There's also Preá (Lucas Galvino), who is struggling to come to terms with his doomed fate as the leader of a gang of 'water rats,' criminals who operate in the rivers near the city on Brazil's northern Atlantic coast. Then there's Mariangel (Marleyda Soto), who seeks revenge for the death of her family. All three characters are used to highlight the struggles of life in Pará, and their stories intertwine as they try and shake their cursed fates. Don't miss this gripping miniseries when it hits Netflix this week. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 20 Another foreign language addition to Netflix this week, "Fall for Me" is a German drama set in the Spanish island paradise of Mallorca and it looks gripping. The erotic thriller stars Svenja Jung as Lilli, a German woman who visits Mallorca to live with her sister Valeria for a while. But upon her arrival, she finds her sister is shockingly engaged, soon to be married to Manu, a Frenchman, and the pair plan to invest their money in a high-quality bed-and-breakfast. Lilli smells a scam, so she starts looking into Manu's true intentions. That digging leads her to cross paths with Tom (Theo Trebs), an enigmatic nightclub owner, and he and Lilli begin a steamy, heated romance. Their affair is either destined to be short-lived or doomed to failure, because Tom seems to have some sinister secrets he's hiding from Lilli, based on the movie's trailer. Don't miss "Fall for Me" when it arrives on Netflix this week. Watch on Netflix starting Aug. 21 AUGUST 18 "CoComelon Lane" season 5 (Netflix family) The CoComelon Lane kids are back, exploring their world and embracing their imaginations on fun field trips to the airport, an apple orchard and more! AUGUST 19 "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys" (Netflix sports series) Through never-before-seen footage and interviews, this series tells the definitive story of the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones' impact on NFL history. AUGUST 20 "Rivers of Fate" (BR) (Netflix series) When a teen is kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring, a river pirate and a fierce mother embark on separate quests to find her — until their paths cross. AUGUST 21 "Death Inc." season 3 (ES) (Netflix series) When the founder of Torregrosa Funeral Home dies, his scheming right-hand man is poised to take over the business. But the owner's widow has other plans. "Fall for Me" (DE) (Netflix film) Lilli is suspicious of her sister's new fiancé, but when an attractive stranger enters her life, she's suddenly distracted by the thralls of desire. "Gold Rush Gang" (TH) (Netflix film) At the tail end of World War II, a bandit leader and his crew go up against his sworn enemy and the Japanese army to rob a train full of gold. "Hostage" (GB) (Netflix series) When the British prime minister's husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice. "One Hit Wonder" (PH) (Netflix film) These two singers never had much luck with their careers. Now, they're risking everything for a chance at stardom — and love. AUGUST 22 "Abandoned Man" (TR) (Netflix film) After serving time in prison for his brother's crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece. "Long Story Short" (Netflix series) From the creator of "BoJack Horseman" comes this animated comedy about a family over time, following siblings from childhood to adulthood and back again. "The Truth About Jussie Smollett?" (GB) (Netflix documentary) From RAW, the producers of Don't F**k with Cats and Tinder Swindler, comes The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, a shocking true story of an allegedly fake story that some now say might just be a true story. Featuring interviews with police, lawyers, journalists, investigators who claim to have uncovered new evidence about the case, and with Jussie himself, this compelling documentary invites the audience to decide for themselves who is telling The Truth About Jussie Smollett? Leaving 8/19/25 "Gangs of London" seasons 1-2"Into the Badlands" seasons 1-3"Kevin Can F**k Himself" seasons 1-2"Preacher" seasons 1-4"Un-Real" seasons 1-4"The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" season 1 Leaving 8/21/25 "Kung Fu Panda 4" Leaving 8/22/25 "The Boss Baby" Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately:
