Streaming guide: New movies rated on your streaming platforms

It’s one of the most-hyped movies of 2021, but can it keep the kids entertained this weekend? Find something to watch in lockdown with our streaming guide.

Leigh Paatsch rates the latest movies on Binge, Netflix, Disney Plus and more.

The one where it really is all about family

LET HIM GO (M)

★★★★

BINGE or RENT

The last time we saw Kevin Costner and Diane Lane together on the big screen was as Clark Kent’s parents in the Superman flick Man of Steel. Now the veteran stars have been reunited to play vigilante grandparents in what turns out to be a very impressive genre thriller set in the American west in the early 1960s. Costner’s George is a retired lawman, and Lane’s Margaret is his resourceful wife. Together, they make a pact to not only ascertain the exact whereabouts of their lost grandson, but also haul him back to a safe place his own mother and her new husband are in no shape to provide. A long and worrying journey interstate puts George and Margaret on a collision course with a set of outlaw in-laws who will not relinquish their grip on the child, and will do anything to keep it that way. Pacing and performances (especially Lesley Manville as the evil backwoods matriarch who is Margaret’s polar opposite) remain in the right zone throughout here, even if the storytelling sometimes lacks in clarity. Based on the novel by Larry Watson.

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane in Let Him Go.

The one trying to finish a never-ending story

INFINITE (MA15+)

★★½

PARAMOUNT+ or RENT

Take a big, dumb slab of sci-fi, and then keep dropping a big, dumb anvil of action on it until everything – including your mind – is reduced to dust. If it’s empty-vessel escapism you’re after, this wonkily watchable affair will deliver what little you need. Mark Wahlberg is a frowny, hyper-stressed kind of guy who has just learned he is an “Infinite”: one of a chosen few with a superior set of survival skills acquired in multiple past lives. With the world possibly about to end, the Infinites may be the planet’s only chance. But first there must be many explosions, car chases and firings of fancy futuristic weapons. Wahlberg can handle this kind of low-calibre, high concept stuff in his sleep, and proves an adequate lead for such unchallenging fare. Please note: some viewers will be unable to watch Infinite without experiencing a constant sensation that Wahlberg is about to put on a white suit and demand that everything in the movie be “Ladbroked.”

Mark Wahlberg in Infinite on Paramount Plus. Picture: Paramount Plus

The one that hits the (very) high notes

THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? (M)

★★★★

FOXTEL, AMAZON or RENT

The moment when your heart will break in this excellent new documentary comes at the close. After reliving all the fame, fortune, triumph and tragedy experienced by The Bee Gees, the group’s main singer-songwriter Barry Gibb quietly applies the most poignant context: “I would give it all up – the hit songs, everything – if I could have my brothers back.”

With his twin younger siblings Robin and Maurice long gone – preceded by the sad demise of the trio’s “baby” brother, Andy – it is now left to Barry Gibb to tell the remarkable story of The Bee Gees for one last, definitive time. While the Gibbs boys’ formative years as British immigrants living in Brisbane are glossed over quickly, it is only because there is so much rich and revealing ground to cover here. The long chain of hits racked up during their first burst of fame while based in late 1960s London forms a body of work that most bands would gladly settle for. However, phase two in the US a decade later triggered an unprecedented global chart domination that makes The Bee Gees one of the true all-time greats of popular music.

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is an excellent new documentary. Picture: Getty Images

The one that goes the thump

CHUCK (M)

★★★½

NETFLIX, SBS ON DEMAND

Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) wasn’t much of a boxer, but he did have one big fight in him. In 1975, the part-time pug stunned the world by lasting 15 rounds with then-World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali. Sylvester Stallone was definitely watching that night, as there is a lot of Wepner’s underdog DNA to be found in the enduring character of Rocky Balboa. This bruising biopic of Wepner is primarily concerned with what became of the fighter once the spotlight dimmed, and various addictions and afflictions came calling. Co-stars Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale).

Liev Schreiber plays boxer Chuck Wepner in Chuck. Picture: Paramount Home Media

The one that reads it and weeps

THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER (M)

★★★½

NETFLIX

Hopeless romantics needing a hefty helping of hearts breaking, mending, opening and closing should clear their appointment book ASAP for this beautifully rendered love story. Actually, what you’re getting here is two love stories for the price of one, linked in ways best left to your imagination (and best kept away from all cynicism). Ellie (Felicity Jones) is a jaded writer profiling a famous editor who has recently passed. While sifting through the subject’s personal archives – guarded by a rather frosty chap named Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan) – Ellie stumbles upon a fascinating love letter to someone known only as ‘J’. While Ellie tries to decode the meaning of this seeming random piece of correspondence, we get to meet the mystery woman herself. Played by a well-cast Shailene Woodley, ‘J’ is a stunning glamourzon of the mid-1960s who has multiple mysteries of her own to solve. This is lovely lightweight stuff, with solid performances and striking vintage fashions on display throughout.

Shailene Woodley as Jennifer Stirling in The Last Letter From Your Lover.

The one that sets fire to your money

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (PG)

★

RENTAL (premium surcharge)

A truly dreadful, decades-too-late reboot of the intermittently dreadful 1996 basketball cartoon Space Jam. A face-palmingly terrible plot has LeBron James trapped inside a computer with Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang. Should you elect to pay the thirty-dollar premium to allow this dreck into your home, be aware you’re paying about forty dollars too much.

LeBron James steps into Michael Jordan’s shoes in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

The one that acts its (stone) age

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE (PG)

★★½

BINGE, AMAZON

A recent sequel to the 2013 animated hit. This time around, the caveman Crood clan is pitched against some better-resourced rivals named the Bettermans. From their posher position up the evolutionary scale, the Bettermans keep looking down upon the Croods until both must join forces to stave off the looming threat of attack by a weird super-species known as Punch-Monkeys. There are fleeting sequences charged with undeniable fun children will truly love, and flat spots where parents will wish the blasted thing would hurry up and end already.

Originally published as Streaming guide: New movies rated on your streaming platforms