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7 new movies and TV shows to watch on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, and more this weekend (July 25)
Who’s ready for another packed line-up of new movies and TV shows? Whether you’ll be seeing the final Marvel movie of 2025 – The Fantastic Four: First Steps – in a theater near you, or plan on watching something at home instead, I bet you answered “me!” to that question.
So, what’s out this week? For one, a couple of heavy hitters on Netflix, but there’s plenty to enjoy on more of the world’s best streaming services, too. You better get your skates on, then, and continue scrolling to learn more. – Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter
Happy Gilmore 2 (Netflix)
Adam Sandler is about to tee off again as Happy Gilmore, a hockey player turned golfer. It’s been almost 30 years since the original film and I’m looking forward to seeing him back on our screens.
The pressure is on, of course, as Happy Gilmore 2‘s predecessor will be a tough act to follow. But, with returning cast members like Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, and Ben Stiller as well as newcomers like The Substance‘s Margaret Qualley, I have high hopes.
Will this make it onto our esteemed best Netflix movies list or be another disappointing sequel? We’ll have to hope this isn’t a swing and a miss. – Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer
The Phoenician Scheme (Peacock)
If you’ve got an appetite for symmetry, quirky vibes, and another Bill Murray collab, Wes Anderson is back with his latest big-screen flick that’s out now on Peacock.
The Phoenician Scheme holds a 78% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes which means it’s another of Anderson’s myriad films that’s worth watching. This movie follows the daughter of a wealthy businessman who becomes the sole heir to his estate. She soon becomes the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins, resulting in a solid espionage comedy. – LB
The Sandman season 2 volume 2 (Netflix)
It’s the end of the road for Dream/Morpheus in The Sandman, with Netflix calling time on its live-action adaptation of controversial author Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel namesake. Indeed, the second half of The Sandman season 2, which brings the high-fantasy series to an unceremonious conclusion, is out now on the streaming titan.
As I said when the final season’s first volume arrived a few weeks ago, I won’t be tuning in to see how it wraps things up because of the numerous allegations made against Gaiman over the past 12 months. Still, with the show featuring in Netflix’s in-house TV charts since its return, there are people who are watching it and will want to know how it ends. For that reason alone, The Sandman 2 takes a spot on this week’s streaming list. – TP
Washington Black (Hulu/Disney+)
Washington Black, which is out now on Hulu and on Disney+, gives us a globe-trotting and sort-of time-hopping adventure that takes us from Barbados in 1829 to Nova Scotia in 1837.
An adaptation of Esi Edugyan’s Booker-shortlisted novel namesake, it follows the eponymous character whose story begins enslaved on a brutal sugar cane plantation. However, he soon takes flight – literally – as he escapes with an eccentric inventor, journeys aboard a swashbuckling pirate ship, and discovers a life of science and freedom.
This series looks to have everything you could want from one of the best Hulu shows: a coming-of-age adventure shaped by overcoming adversity, eccentric characters, and a grand narrative that spans continents. – Amelia Schwanke, senior entertainment editor
- Watch Washington Black on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally)
Death of a Unicorn (HBO Max)
Richard E. Grant as a kitschy camp villain is like managing to find an ice cream truck on the hottest day of the year. You know it’s going to be bad for your health, but you can’t just help gorging on its deliciousness. There’s every reason we shouldn’t be rooting for him in A24’s Death of a Unicorn (or most of the people in this cast), which is now on HBO Max, but he’s just so darn good as a malevolent rich man with an agenda.
The Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega-led flick is an absolutely wild beast of a movie (it’s RT scores will say otherwise, though) that makes us laugh inappropriately while terrible people are getting their skin flayed by deadly unicorns. It’s a unique perspective to have such a far-fetched moral dilemma (keep unicorns alive or harvest a cure for cancer), and the volatility of how it plays out never fails to have me on the edge of my seat. One to add to our best HBO Max movies guide? – Jasmine Valentine, entertainment writer
Acapulco season 4 (Apple TV+)
Two time-jumping series in one week? Aren’t we lucky. The critically-acclaimed Apple TV+ show Acapulco that uses flashbacks to tell its story has returned for its fourth and final season.
This time, it follows pool boy turned resort manager Máximo, played by executive producer Eugenio Derbez (CODA), as he restores the hotel Las Colinas to its former glory before the big grand reopening. As usual, we’ll also see how the working class hotel owner achieved such a feat with flashbacks to 1986.
Inspired by the film How to Be a Latin Lover, Acapulco has made a name for itself as one of the best Apple TV+ shows for its heartfelt tale about an ambitious businessman’s dream and how he made it reality. – AS
Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War (Prime Video)
Listen, if there’s a documentary about some sort of fanatical teen mania, I’m there. Prime Video‘s Shiny Happy People is back with another season, this one being titled A Teenage Holy War that looks at America’s largest evangelical youth organization founded by Ron Luce in the 1990s. Amazingly, the combination of religion, psychological warfare, and political agendas are still having an effect today, meaning we’ve got four meaty episodes of prolonged chaos to binge.
These types of fundamentalist Christian movements were created in the 1990s and 2000s to try and get young’uns on board with a blend of pop culture and youth ministry. It’s less cringey concerts with a Jesus theme, though, and more high-energy Christian rock that makes its teen fans endlessly sob. To top it all off, there’s messages promoting abstinence until marriage thrown in for good measure. Essentially, this Amazon docuseries is a smorgasbord of ideologies from start to finish – JV
For more streaming suggestions, read our guides on the best Disney+ movies, best Netflix shows, best Paramount+ movies, and best Prime Video shows.
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