The big movie premiering this weekend is Minecraft, an adaptation of the hit video game starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa and Jennifer Coolidge.
While it’s expected to do well at the box office, Minecraft isn’t for everyone, so you may be looking for other options.
If you subscribe to HBO and Max, then this list is for you. What to Watch is recommending three movies to binge this weekend that will provide you with a decent hour or two of entertainment.
In the mood for a strange romance set in the Emerald Isle? Or how about an underappreciated action movie that’s similar to — and better than — Suicide Squad? If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, then keep on reading.
‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ (2020)
COVID messed up a lot of people’s plans, and the film industry wasn’t immune to that disruption. As a result, the few movies that were released didn’t get the spotlight they deserved, and one of them was Wild Mountain Thyme, an unusual romance set in Ireland starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan.
They star as childhood friends Rosemary and Anthony, who have lived next door to each other for nearly 30 years. Rosemary loves Anthony, but he doesn’t seem interested. In reality, Anthony loves her as much as she loves him, but he’s hiding a big secret that could get in the way of their happy ending.
Wild Mountain Thyme was written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, who made one of the best rom-coms of all time, Moonstruck. This one is weirder but no less enchanting, and Blunt and Dornan have great chemistry as the introverted lovers. Be warned: the ending is a bit strange, but that doesn’t invalidate the movie’s charms.
Wild Mountain Thyme is streaming on Max.
‘The Losers’ (2010)
There was a time between 2004 and 2010 when Chris Evans would star in nothing but comic book adaptations. Now known primarily for his role as Captain America in the MCU, he also starred as Johnny Storm in the first big-budget Fantastic Four film, and as an evil ex-boyfriend in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He was also part of The Losers, an action-comedy comic book adaptation that flopped in 2010 and has been pretty much forgotten about since.
Evans plays Jensen, a computer hacker who is part of a black-ops team known as the Losers. After a botched mission leaves them betrayed by their boss Max (Jason Patric) and stranded in Bolivia, the Losers are approached by a mysterious woman named Aisha (Zoe Saldaña) who offers them a way out of the country and an opportunity to get revenge on Max. But can the Losers trust someone who is not one of them, especially after they have just been nearly killed by Max?
The Losers isn’t great, but it’s a perfectly “mid” action movie that gets the job done without any fuss or pretension. Evans plays the comic relief instead of the hero, and he’s good at it. The rest of the cast, which includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Idris Elba, fire as many one-liners as they do bullets. They’re having fun, and you will, too.
The Losers is streaming on Max.
‘The Tale’ (2018)
Laura Dern is one of the best actresses working right now, and while she won an Oscar for her supporting performance in Marriage Story, she deserved an award for her devastating work in The Tale. The film, a hit at Sundance in 2018 that debuted on HBO the very same year, didn’t get as much attention as it deserved, but it’s a drama that will haunt you in the best way possible.
Jennifer Fox (Dern) is a successful professor and documentarian whose life is upended when her mother discovers an essay she wrote when she was a teenager. The movie then slowly reveals the contents of that essay, which involve Jennifer’s time at a horse training camp when she was 13. As the adult Jennifer re-examines her uncomfortably close relationship with professional coach Bill (Jason Ritter) and his wife, Mrs. G (Elizabeth Debicki), she begins to realize she may have experienced sexual abuse under their care.
The Tale is streaming on Max.
