Mortal Kombat, Stowaway, and 10 new movies you can now watch at home

It’s Friday, and the 93rd Academy Awards are finally upon us! The nominations for Best Picture are stacked this year, from films like Judas and the Black Messiah and Nomadland to Minari and Sound of Metal. In slightly less timely but no less exciting entertainment news, Criterion released their high-definition restoration of Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 crime thriller classic Memories of Murder and Netflix today premiered their latest fantasy adaptation Shadow and Bone.

When you’re not busy watching a very bizarre, host-less Oscars ceremony this year, there’s a ton of new movies available to rent and stream from home this weekend, from the highly-anticipated Mortal Kombat reboot and the lycanthropic horror thriller Bloodthirsty to the sci-fi drama thriller Stowaway and the dark romantic comedy We Broke Up. To help you get a handle on what’s new and available to watch, here are the movies you can watch on VOD this weekend.

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Mortal Kombat (2021)

Where to watch it: Available to stream on HBO Max

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

The battle for Earthrealm returns to the big (and small) screen in the long-awaited reboot of Mortal Kombat. Cole Young lives a pretty average life as an MMA fighter. That is, until he’s viciously attacked by Sub-Zero (Joe Talsim, The Night Comes for Us) ; the otherworldly Cyromancer (*heavy sigh*) and merciless lieutenant assassin of Shang Tsung, the tyrannical emperor of an alternate universe known as Outworld. Fearing for his life, Cole must join forces with Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee, The Meg), and Jax (Mehcad Brooks, Supergirl), as well as Shaolin warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin, Power Rangers), Kung Lao (Max Huang, Kingsman: The Secret Service), and mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) to train for an martial arts tournament unlike any other… one that will shape the fate of the multiverse for generations to come. From our review,

The film’s R rating earns its keep through the film’s technical flourishes: the unsettling sound of a dagger crunching on bone; the jarring beauty of blood and rain mixed together on flower petals and leaves; the laugh-out-loud grossness of a beating heart being pulled out of someone’s chest. The key here is tone, and Mortal Kombat is thoughtful with it. That first fight with Sanada and Taslim is the film’s most emotionally weighty, and the stakes of the well-shot and well-edited clash carry through the remainder of Mortal Kombat.

Bloodthirsty

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Lauren Beatty stars in director Amelia Moses’ supernatural horror thriller Bloodthirsty as Grey, an indie rock singer. After being invited to work by a successful music producer with a notorious reputation, the musician experiences dreams and episodes imagining herself as a werewolf. As Grey’s work with the producer continues, her disturbing visions become more real and intense with each passing day. —TE

Stowaway

Where to watch it: Stream on Netflix

© 2021, Stowaway Productions, L

Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), Toni Collette (Hereditary), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost), and Shamier Anderson (Goliath) star in Joe Penna’s sci-fi thriller Stowaway. When an unintended stowaway on an interplanetary mission to Mars compromises their ship’s life support systems, a crew of astronauts must find a way to science their way out of that shit and make unthinkable choice in order to survive. —TE

Trigger Point

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) stars in 24 director Brad Turner’s latest action thriller Trigger Point as Nicolas Shaw, a retired U.S. special operative recruited into an elite team of undercover assassins tasked with taking out the worst of the worst. After he’s framed for the death of his fellow team members, Shaw is forced to go AWOL in order to discover the truth and clear his name, all while staying one step ahead of the authorities tasked with bringing him down. —TE

Vanquish

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Bad Boys writer-turned-director George Gallo’s latest action crime-thriller Vanquish stars Ruby Rose as a former Russian drug courier who is forced to work as hitman for a retired cop (Morgan Freeman) after he abducts her daughter. There’s neon lighting, shoot outs, and characters looking sternly through glass panel walls. It ain’t John Wick, but it works I guess! —TE

We Broke Up

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Break-ups are never easy. Especially when they occur around big social events like holidays and birthdays. William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) and Aya Cash (The Boys) star in director Jeff Rosenberg’s We Broke Up as Doug and Lori, a 10-year couple who — you guessed it! — break up just days before the wedding of Lori’s little sister. Rather than bite the bullet and confront the awkward messiness of their relationship status to their respective families, Doug and Lori attempt to pretend they’re still together until the wedding is over. Billed as a comedy from the producer of 500 Days of Summer and Juno, there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll end up breaking it off amid a life-affirming lesson with some mumblecore laughs along the way. —TE

And here’s what dropped last Friday:

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Nobody

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

“Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk goes full John Wick” is the sales pitch in Hardcore Henry director Ilya Naishuller’s action crime-thriller Nobody. Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is, to put it pointedly, a nobody; a schlubby, mild-mannered family man who experiences a mid-life crisis in the wake of an attempted robbery of his home. Now, most guys in this situation would either hit the gym, install a shit-ton of Nest camera, purchase an oversized pistol to compensate, or some mix-and-match combination of the three. But then, most folks aren’t wet-workers who faked their own death to allude a vengeful drug lord hellbent on skinning them alive in order to retire and start a new life as a schlubby, mild-mannered family man. With equal parts comedy and action, Nobody looks like a great time for anybody looking for an explosive underdog action flick. —TE

New Gods: Nezha Reborn

Where to watch it: Stream on Netflix

Photo: Netflix

New Gods: Nezha Reborn is a steam/cyberpunk-ish take on the Ming dynasty novel Investiture of the Gods that follows the story of Li Yunxiang, a young motorbike delivery driver who discovers that he’s the reincarnation of Nezha, the child-god nemesis of the powerful Dragon Clan which reigns over the land with an iron fist. It falls to Li to master his newfound powers and face off against his pursuers in order to settle his ancestor’s 3,000 year old grudge. From our review,

New Gods: Nezha Reborn draws heavily on pan-Asian folklore and myth for its narrative spine. Nezha in particular has been a popular character for centuries, evolving from god to general to child to spirit in myths as disparate as the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, China’s 1979 animated hit Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, and the 2019 Chinese CGI feature Nez Ha, also currently streaming on Netflix. (That film takes a much more slapstick-driven approach to Nezha’s heavenly guardians in particular, and the visual approach starts off cartoony and child-centered compared to Nezha Reborn. But it eventually develops its own resonant emotional drama, and its own staggering action sequences. The two films make an enjoyable double feature, just to see two radically different interpretations of the same classic characters.)

Jakob’s Wife

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Producer-turned-filmmaker Travis Stevens takes a page out of Santa Clarita Diet’s playbook with his new indie horror comedy Jakob’s Wife, but instead of zombies, it’s vampires! Barbara Crampton (You’re Next) plays Anne Fedder, the dutiful wife of her small-town minister husband Jakob (Larry Fessenden) who, frustrated and sullen over the mundanity of her life, attempts to initiate an affair with an old flame. An unusual turn of events yields a serendipitous answer to Anne’s yearning for a new lease on life in the form of being unexpectedly sired by vampire! Shenanigans quickly ensue, as Anne and Jakob bond over the former’s newfound unyielding thirst for blood. —TE

Monday

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon; $6.99 on Apple and Vudu

Photo: IFC Films

Weekend flings are all fun and games until Monday rolls around and it’s time to return to the real world. Mickey (Sebastian Stan, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Chloe (Denise Gough, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt) learn that the hard way in director Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ romantic drama, Monday. When Chloe gives up on her life in the states to start a new life in Greece with her fast-made lover Mickey, tensions soon begin to boil as the two gradually realize that neither of them truly knows what they want out of the relationship. And when they do, will there be any hope of a future between them? —TE

Ride or Die

Where to watch it: Stream on Netflix

Aiko Nakano/NETFLIX © 2021

Adapted from Ching Nakamura’s manga series Gunjō, Ride or Die follows Rei (Kiko Mizuhara, Norwegian Wood), a lesbian in her 20s who decides to murder the husband of her former classmate Nanae (Honami Sato) when she learns of the brutal domestic abuse she suffers at his hand. Turning to each other for love and companionship in the aftermath, Rei and Nanae at an emotional impasse as they struggle for meaning in the midst of their shared trauma. —TE

The Rookies

Where to watch it: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon; $6.99 on Apple and Vudu

Photo: Shout! Studios

Resident Evil and Monster Hunter alum Milla Jovovich stars in Alan Yuen’s Chinese action thriller The Rookies. When extreme sports athlete and certified daredevil Zhao Feng (Talu Wang) is recruited by “Bruce” (Jovovich) into the Order of the Phantom Knighthood, a clandestine spy organization charged with protecting the world, his entire life is thrown for a loop. Think along the lines of a Chinese riff on the over-the-top action of Fast & Furious and Mission Impossible with the tongue-in-cheek irreverence of Kingsman: The Secret Service. —TE

Source: https://www.polygon.com/streaming/2021/4/23/22387566/mortal-kombat-netflix-stowaway-new-movies-to-watch