Every month, Netflix adds a roster of films to its lineup that we don’t get to include in our weekly streaming guides because they’re not brand new productions.
We reckon they still deserve attention though, especially when their arrival on the streamer often tends to come quietly.
So, settle in on the couch with your favourite snack, for here are our top picks of Netflix’s latest movie acquisitions!
Films new to Netflix that you should watch this weekend:
The Rooster
- 2023
- Drama
- Directed by Mark Leonard Winter
- Australia
- Classification: MA
- Runtime: 110m
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
‘Nudity is a soul undressed in actor-turned-writer-director Mark Leonard Winter’s at times bleakly comic debut feature’ – Stephen Russell, ScreenHub.
When the body of his oldest friend is found buried in a shallow grave, Dan, a small-town cop, seeks answers from a volatile hermit who was the last person to see his friend alive. As Dan gets closer to the truth, he must confront his own personal demons and he discovers that hope can be found in unlikely places.
Crazy Stupid Love
- 2011
- Romcom
- Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
- USA
- Classification: M
- Runtime: 143 minutes
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 79%
Cal Weaver is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily. Cal’s seemingly perfect life unravels, however, when he learns that Emily has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Over 40 and suddenly single, Cal is adrift in the fickle world of dating. Enter, Jacob Palmer, a self-styled player who takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to be a hit with the ladies.
Babel
- 2006
- Drama
- Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
- USA
- Classification: MA
- Runtime: 142 minutes
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 69%
In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world.
The Fast and The Furious franchise
- 2001-2023
- Action
- Various directors
- USA
- Classification: M
- Runtime: N/A
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 54% for the first film, The Fast and the Furious … but Furious 7 (2015) ranks the highest, at 81%
Also known as Fast & Furious, these ten films are centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with street racing, heists, spies, and family.
Dredd
- 2012
- Sci-Fi
- Directed by Pete Travis
- USA
- Classification: MA
- Runtime: 140m
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 80%
In the future, America is a dystopian wasteland. The latest scourge is Ma-Ma, a prostitute-turned-drug pusher with a dangerous new drug and aims to take over the city. The only possibility of stopping her is an elite group of urban police called Judges, who combine the duties of judge, jury and executioner to deliver a brutal brand of swift justice. But even the top-ranking Judge, Dredd, discovers that taking down Ma-Ma isn’t as easy as it seems in this adaptation of the popular comic series.
You can only pick one!
If you’re hard pressed for time, I would recommend watching Dredd. Before he was Billy Butcher, and before she was Cersei Lannister, Karl Urban and Lena Headey were Judge Dredd and Ma-Ma. An explosive sci-fi action that mostly flew under the radar, Dredd is a perfect weekend watch for its ability to keep your interest in a story about supercops. Fun fact: the set design of the film’s tower was based on Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, a densely populated and largely lawless structure that planes had to narrowly pass by on entry to the airport.
