winedari raidon urchin
Tina Popielarczyk
Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, Peacock, Max, Apple TV+, Paramount+ and others boast all sorts of streaming films for fans with various tastes, from comedy and horror to an Anne Hathaway double feature. There are recent theatrical releases like Zac Efron's buzzy pro wrestling drama, a restored 1970 Beatles movie available for the first time in decades, plus a slew of original flicks such as Jerry Seinfeld's Pop-Tarts movie, a new film adaptation of a John Green book and a return to the film world for Brooke Shields, in a Netflix flick perfect for moms of all stripes.
Yarn sculptor Aren (Justice Smith) is recruited by wise mentor Roger (David Alan Grier) into a secret organization of Black agents whose mission is to keep white people comfortable, and Aren's first assignment turns messy when love gets in the way of the job. It's a satirical take on the "magical negro" trope that makes some points about race and culture before losing its way (and any sort of bite) when the film turns into a predictable rom-com.
An entertaining blast rather than being blasphemous, the biblical epic stars LaKeith Stanfield as the title character, a weed dealer in Jerusalem circa A.D. 33 who sees the respect Jesus gets and touts himself as "the new messiah." Directed by Jeymes Samuel ("The Harder They Fall"), it's a bold, thought-provoking retelling of the resurrection story through the lens of Black culture that anyone can relate to, believer or not.
Like "Carol" painted with some noir-ish shades, the 1960s-set thriller casts Thomasin McKenzie as the title character, a mousy secretary at a Boston boys prison who lives at home with an abusive dad (Shea Whigham) drinking himself to death. Eileen gets a pick-me-up at work with the arrival of sophisticated psychologist Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), who pulls the fragile younger woman into unfortunate circumstances.
A very ripped (and amazing) Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson play members of the Von Erich pro wrestling dynasty in this gripping 1980s-set biopic. Raised by their ex-wrestler father (Holt McCallany), the Von Erichs find success in the ring while navigating a series of tragic losses outside it in director Sean Durkin's touching story of Americana mixed with sibling rivalry, parental pressure and brutal despair.
It's nice to see Brooke Shields still relevant, and as a lead in a rom-com no less. ("Suddenly Susan" hive, rise up!) But this cheeseball affair is only for Shields completists: The actress plays a famous geneticist whose daughter (Miranda Cosgrove) drops the bomb that she's suddenly getting married, and then the protective mom finds out at the destination wedding in Thailand that the father of the groom is her college ex (Benjamin Bratt).
What could easily be just another R-rated "one crazy night" teen comedy gets a boost from its lively main characters. Jess (Antonia Gentry) and Hannah (Julia Lester) made a pact to have the perfect senior prom at 13, but on the eve of the big night, Jess dumps her cheating beau and Hannah comes out as a lesbian. When they have to scramble to find the perfect dates, assorted shenanigans and, of course, personal growth ensue.
Jerry Seinfeld's delightfully ridiculous directorial debut explores the origins of Pop-Tarts with an extremely silly not-so-true story and tons of gags and cameos. The comedian and Melissa McCarthy play Kellogg's employees tasked in 1963 with creating a toaster pastry before their competitors, a processed food spin on the space race that also involves a milk mafia, disgruntled breakfast cereal mascots and a heap of nostalgia.
The super-cool sci-fi sequel is one of several new movies available on your favorite services: Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, Max, Hulu and Disney+ have a bunch of good stuff to watch from your couch. There's original fare like a Jennifer Lopez sci-fi action extravaganza and documentaries on the Beach Boys and the Blue Angels, plus theatrical releases arriving on streaming, such as Michael Mann's Enzo Ferrari biopic and a Dakota Johnson superhero flick.
Amazon is finally streaming one of last year's best movies! Better late than never to see Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright at the absolute top of his game as a curmudgeonly academic who writes a book with stereotypically Black tropes as a joke and is shocked when it becomes a hit in this tremendously funny and thoughtful film.
The futuristic sci-fi thriller casts Jennifer Lopez as a counterterrorism expert out to take down a robot (Simu Liu) bent on wiping out most of mankind. What's better than rom-com J.Lo? Action-hero J.Lo making friends with an AI and taking on villainous machines in mechanized armor.
You guessed it, this documentary chronicles the musical legacy of the Beach Boys. With interviews and archival footage, the film digs into the origins behind their signature harmonies, the genius of Brian Wilson, a rivalry with The Beatles in the 1960s and the game-changing influence of their "Pet Sounds" album.
Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass play best buds living in a biosphere, the last two dudes on Earth after an apocalyptic situation, when evolution throws them a curve ball. That's all you should know going into this clever character study about sexuality, masculinity and friendship, because it's got quite the twist.
"Top Gun: Maverick" star Glen Powell and J.J. Abrams produce this documentary taking viewers behind the scenes of the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron. The movie chronicles a year in the lives of these elite pilots, with veterans helping rookies get up to speed for a thrilling and dangerous show season.
In this clunker of a "Spider-Man" spinoff, Dakota Johnson at least exudes sassy scrappiness as a suddenly psychic paramedic who has to protect a trio of potential future crimefighters. Unfortunately, everybody in this thing gets stuck in its web of nonsense, which boasts bad dialogue and rampant B-movie silliness.
The "Napoleon Dynamite" filmmakers are behind this engaging animated comedy featuring musical animals and nifty songs. Farm pony Thelma (voiced by Grammy winner Brittany Howard) becomes a viral singing sensation after she's accidentally covered in pink paint and glitter, but finds out being famous has its drawbacks.
Learn how to adjust your downloads settings to get Netflix to automatically manage it for you with its Smart Downloads features, and how to manage downloads for countries with restricted licenses. For more, learn about Netflix's hidden menu or see CNET's reviews of all the streaming services
If you're familiar with using Netflix on your mobile device, you've probably noticed the dark "Download" button that sits right below "Play." Clicking that button starts a download of a local version of the movie or TV show you want.
You can download Netflix movies and TV shows on iPhone, iPad, Android and Amazon Fire devices, as well as computers with Windows 10 or 11 and some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Netflix downloads are set by default to only use Wi-Fi, though you can change that in your app settings.
TV shows can be downloaded individually by clicking the download icon next to each episode. On Android devices, you can download an entire season of a show by tapping the separate Download Season button next to the My List, Rate and Share links near the top of a movie or show listing.
Netflix allows you to keep a maximum of 100 downloads on as many devices as are included in your subscription plan. Each of the downloads has a different expiration date based on its content license -- some expire as early as 48 hours after you first start watching. Downloads can be renewed, but some have a limit on how many times per year. If a movie or show leaves the Netflix service, all downloads for it immediately expire.
You can delete individual movies and shows by unselecting the check box next to each title. You can remove all of your downloads by going into your App Settings and clicking "Delete all downloads" under Downloads.
A "Downloads" tab (called "My Downloads" on Windows) that sits at the bottom of the Netflix app shows you which downloads are in your library and lets you play them. It also lets you customize your download settings, such as Smart Downloads.
When turned on, Download Next Episode will automatically delete TV show episodes once you've watched them and then download the next episode in the season. It's a no-brainer for anyone who downloads TV shows, which is probably why the feature is turned on by default in Netflix apps.
Downloads for You expands the automatic downloading and deleting options for Netflix that are used in Download Next Episode. The feature is available in the iPhone, iPad and Android versions of the Netflix app, as well as some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.
After Downloads for You is turned on, Netflix uses your viewing habits and preferences to download movies and TV shows that the service thinks you will like. Once you watch them, they're automatically deleted.
If you don't want to watch a downloaded title, you can delete it the same way you would delete downloads that you initiated manually. You can also click the icon of a square surrounded by a broken circle to cancel downloads in progress. Downloads for You only works over Wi-Fi.
Turning that feature on will then open up options for limiting how much data Netflix will automatically download for each user profile, anywhere from 0.5GB to 9.5GB. (Netflix notes that one hour of video at normal quality is about 0.25GB.)
Whether a movie or TV show can be downloaded on Netflix depends on its content license, and licenses vary from title to title. Netflix says that it tries to make as many titles available for download as possible, and when a movie or show is not downloadable it's usually because of three reasons:
In my informal survey, the titles I found mostly likely to be excluded from downloading are popular TV shows from cable or broadcast networks. "Grey's Anatomy," "Gilmore Girls" and "The Walking Dead" are three shows you can stream on Netflix, but not download.
90f70e40cf