Want to see James Bond as a bank robber, and a teenager with a stupidly big sword take on death gods? You’re in luck as the Pierce Brosnan-led action comedy The Out-Laws and Part 2 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War lead this week’s streaming releases!
MOVIES
The Out-Laws
Netflix – 7 July 2023
It’s pretty common for people to not get along with their in-laws. Especially when your in-laws are outlaws. Yes, that’s the entire joke in the title of this new Netflix action comedy, which luckily looks to be a lot more fun than that bit of on-the-nose naming! Adam Devine stars as Owen, a mild-mannered young bank manager who has never met his fiancé’s “off the grid” parents before they show up for Owen and Parker’s (Nina Dobrev) wedding. When the bank where Owen works gets robbed though, he starts to suspect that Parker’s parents – played by a ridiculously suave and sexy Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin – are actually none other than an infamous bank-robber duo. Cue the hilarity.
Missing
Apple TV/Google Play Movies – 7 July 2023
Since its release in 2018, I’ve been passionately recommending Searching to every single person that would listen, and more than a few who wouldn’t. With its pioneering of the “screenlife” format and boasting, in my opinion, a career best performance by Jon Cho, it was phenomenal. Just a pity almost nobody watched it. And now a standalone anthology sequel, Missing, is available for rental on Apple TV and Google Play Movies, and ya’ll better not make the same mistake twice! Starring Euphoria’s Storm Reid, this one follows a teenage girl who has to find her missing mother after she disappears on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend. Once again, like it did in Searching, the entire story plays out from the POV of the modern technology the girl has to use to frantically piece together her mother’s whereabouts.
Fall
Showmax – 10 July 2023
Yo, where my acrophobia sufferers at? Not at the top of a 610m tall broadcast tower, that’s for damn sure! Released last year, Fall is a super tense survival thriller that will you chewing through your fingernails like a rabid beast. That’s if you don’t have a thing about heights and thus never clicked play to begin with. If you do give it a go, this one is super simple: Two women pull off a daredevil stunt to climb aforementioned tower, only to get stranded at the top with no communication and no way down. Well, there is a way down. A very quick way, in fact, but they definitely don’t want to take that route!
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Netflix – 10 July 2023
It’s still school holidays, and if you’re looking for something to get you a brief moment of peace… oops, sorry, I meant something to entertain the kids, then look no further than Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. The animated musical comedy is an adaptation of Bernard Waber’s classic 1965 children’s book which follows a family who move into a New York house previously owned by a failed stage magician. Initially terrified by his new home, young son Josh starts to come out of his shell after he stumbles across and befriends Lyle, a singing crocodile previously owned by the magician that’s secretly been living in their attic!
SERIES
The Horror of Dolores Roach
Amazon Prime Video – 7 July 2023
When it comes to keeping our small businesses afloat, lots of people are out there killing themselves. Dolores Roach also killed others. And fed them to people. Not on purpose though and she’s totally not happy about it! Justina Machado stars in this horror-comedy as the titular accidental serial killer, who after being unjustly imprisoned for 16 years, is just trying to keep her tiny massage business afloat to turn around her life when a grabby customer triggers a series of increasingly horrific events that threaten to send Dolores back to the slammer.
A Friend of the Family S1
Showmax – 7 July 2023
Ready for your next chilling true story that will have you upset at your TV screen but unwilling to stop watching? Anna Paquin and Colin Hanks star as Mary Ann and Bob Broberg, who along with their teenage daughter Jan (McKenna Grace), was just your average nice American suburban family in the 1970s. However, when the couple befriended the charismatic Robert (Jake Lacy), things took a turn for the sinister. Over the course of years, this “friend of the family” manipulated the Brobergs, culminating in multiple kidnappings, sexual assaults, and brainwashing of Jan. Now, over 50s later, Jan Broberg herself, who went on to become an actress, executive produces this dramatic retelling of those unbelievable events.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – Part 2
Disney+ – 8 July 2023
If you’re like me, you’ve been champing at the bit for this one. It’s been a long seven months since Part 1 of long-awaited anime series Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War left us all on a big cliffhanger, but now the wait is finally over as Part 2, subtitled “The Separation”, will start bankai-ing its way into your eyeballs weekly from this coming Saturday. There’s no word on the official count, but Part 1 consisted of 13 episodes and it’s expected to be the same here. AND THEN THE WAITING STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN FOR PART 3 AND PART 4!
The Afterparty S2
Apple TV+ – 12 July 2023
I’ll be honest, I have no damn idea why I still haven’t watched The Afterparty. Created by Christopher Miller, one half of the creative genius duo – with frequent partner Phil Lord – behind The Lego Movie, The Jump Street movies, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and more, this anthology murder mystery is packed with ridiculous amounts of star power. The first season starred the likes of Tiffany Haddish, Dave Franco, Ilana Glazer, Ben Schwartz, and more. And now season two is here, featuring Ken Jeong, Jack Whitehall, Jon Cho, Paul Walter Hauser, among others, and it looks as crazy as ever.
The Secrets of Hillsong S1
Disney+ – 12 July 2023
Expanding on the explosive original 2021 Vanity Fair exposé by investigative journalists Alex French and Dan Adler about international Hillsong megachurch, this four-part docuseries explores the numerous scandals that have plagued the popular church. Featuring interviews with former pastors ousted from the church, as well as several members, it offers fresh revelations and allegations of discrimination, racism, grooming, misuse of church funds, sexual abuse, and more.