Welcome to another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies released on Friday. I’m Brett Arnold, film critic and host of At the Movies Again, a weekly Siskel & Ebert-style movie review show.
This week in theaters, you can catch a pair of high-profile new releases: Amazon-MGM’s mega-budget sci-fi adaptation Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling, and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, a sequel to the 2019 horror-comedy.
There weren’t any new releases worthy of recommending for rental this week, so let’s skip to the ones on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, where there’s a bunch of fresh stuff, including a Peaky Blinders movie on Netflix and the recent Chris Pratt sci-fi action flick Mercy on Prime Video.
Read on, as there’s a lot more, and there’s always something for everyone.
🎥 What to watch in theatersMy recommendation: Project Hail Mary
Why you should see it: Ryan Gosling and his ample reserve of charming movie-star energy help power the extremely familiar Project Hail Mary to be big-screen worthiness despite some other elements that occasionally get in the way.
Science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light-years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction. But an unexpected friendship may mean he doesn’t have to do it alone.
If it sounds like you’ve seen this all before, though, that’s because Project Hail Mary is essentially a mash-up of several popular works of science fiction, including the decade-old Matt Damon flick The Martian, which was based on a book written by Andy Weir, the same guy who wrote the bestseller on which Project Hail Mary is based.
Gosling does incredible work throughout, carrying the movie on his back so thoroughly that I hope he checked in with a chiropractor after filming. It’s essentially a one-man show, and he does an excellent job of guiding the audience through it all, and by the time a spider-like rock creature is introduced, he plays off his scene-partner puppet with gusto. Sandra Huller of Anatomy of a Fall fame is also great in her scenes on Earth as the no-nonsense head of the expedition.
The movie pays lip service to classic sci-fi films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind while simultaneously stealing the plot of Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece Interstellar. It ultimately morphs into an E.T.-style story about a human befriending an alien creature and discovering we’re not all that different. There’s also a spacewalk scene that reminded me of Gravity! No, you’re not crazy to reference Armageddon or even Cast Away!
In addition to its plot similarities to The Martian, Project Hail Mary also emulates The Martian’s Obama-era hopecore ideal that if all the smartest people in the world put aside their differences and work together, nothing is impossible. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like Arrival, too. Also, am I the only person who remembers that bad Netflix movie, Spaceman, starring Adam Sandler, from a few years ago? How did we end up with two movies about a guy talking to a spider-like creature in outer space?! That movie must’ve ripped off this book!
Anyway, as the movie goes on and on (and on and on, it ends about 15 times), it’s as if you’re watching the filmmakers attempt to convince themselves as well as the audience that the movie is an Important Work of sci-fi grandeur on the level of classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which it’s somehow longer than.
Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have good reason to want to prove themselves — they became incredibly in-demand after the popularity of their 21 Jump Street reboot and The Lego Movie, but were famously fired mid-movie while making Disney’s Han Solo Star Wars spin-off before beloved director Ron Howard took over.
And on a technical level, the movie looks great — I was especially taken with the look of the alien creature’s ship — it’s the storytelling that falters. The movie aims to please so much that it undercuts any potential drama; it’s preordained that everything will work out fine. It’s so desperate to entertain that it constantly undercuts tension with jokes, which gets irritating even if Gosling is good at selling it.
Part of the problem here is the flashback structure, which kills momentum by doubling back to fill us in on the story, which isn’t all that compelling because we’ve all seen the movies it’s ripping off. It is also a reminder of the incongruity between Gosling’s character as presented in space and as portrayed on Earth, where he’s a meek science teacher.
Despite the movie constantly joking about his lack of space captain abilities, he’s able to fly the ship when the movie needs him to, and there’s little point in spending so much time with his character refusing the mission. I’ve seen the future, he’s already there!
In short, Project Hail Mary mostly delivers as IMAX-sized spectacle, anchored by Ryan Gosling’s incredible work despite the movie’s increasingly derivative nature and protracted finale.
What other critics are saying: It’s incredibly well-reviewed, which is partially why I felt I had to level-set expectations. There’s something so tryhard about it to me! David Fear at Rolling Stone writes, “Gosling can actually sell us on an everyman thrust into extraordinary circumstances while still beguiling us with old-school snap, crackle, and pop.” Mashable’s Kristy Puchko writes, “Imagine The Martian meets Half Nelson meets E.T., and you’ll get some idea of the mirthful mash-up that is Project Hail Mary.”
How to watch: Project Hail Mary is now playing in theaters nationwide.
My bonus recommendation: Ready or Not: Here I Come
Why you should see it: Way back in late 2019 — nearly 7 years ago, if you can believe it — Ready or Not, Parasite, and Knives Out all debuted in quick succession, and a new subgenre was born.
“Eat the rich” movies have since invaded multiplexes and streaming services to the degree that new ones – like the recent Glenn Powell vehicle How to Make a Killing, for example — are likely to induce eyerolls and groans more than interest. The list also includes recent flicks like The Menu, The Hunt, Infinity Pool, Triangle of Sadness, Saltburn, Glass Onion, and dozens more that are too anonymous to recall.
This is all to say, that Ready or Not 2 — appropriately subtitled Here I Come, capitalizing on a titling opportunity that took the Now You See Me team an entire extra movie to figure out — arrives at a time when my arms begin to fold at the very idea of yet another movie where a bunch of evil rich people explode into bloody piles of viscera. Thankfully, the movie ups the stakes in a way that’s just knowingly silly enough to work.
Opening Halloween II-style, just moments after Grace (Samara Weaving) survives an all-out attack from the Le Domas family from the first movie. Our heroine discovers she’s reached the next level of a Satanic game for the High Seat of a world-controlling council. Four rival families are hunting her to win the throne, and whoever wins rules it all. This time, she’s accompanied by her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side.
Ready or Not: Here I Come takes the John Wick sequel route by adding a bunch of silly world-building mythology that basically amounts to “the richest families in the world are all part of an Illuminati-like secret society.” It adds a literal book of bylaws to the proceedings and an emcee of sorts, in a new character played by Elijah Wood, who, unfortunately, is saddled with tons of exposition about how the game works.
Despite being a same-as-last-time-but-more-style sequel, it works well enough because its tongue is firmly planted in cheek. The film shows its hand early with a delightful cameo from legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg as the head of a powerful family, watching a war unfold on cable news, making a phone call saying “ceasefire now,” and watching as the newscast breaks news of the instant change he just called for. I appreciated the big swing, but people who appreciated the low-stakes of the single evil family’s antics in the first film may be disappointed.
The cast being totally game for the goofiness certainly helps; Buffy legend Sarah Michelle Gellar and beloved The Pitt star Shawn Hatosy join the fray, as the children of Cronenberg’s character, who aim to kill Grace and take the throne for themselves. Samara Weaving is great again here, even if she had more of an arc in the first film. Here, her character is in full primal-scream mode from the jump, understandably so, but I found her hardening over the course of that film to be a key selling point.
Newton is good enough but doesn’t have much to do; the bickering sister angle feels shoehorned in and grows a bit tired. At one point, she makes reference to how shocking it is every time someone explodes, which made me laugh, considering the opposite is true for anyone who’s seen Ready or Not and filmmaking team Radio Silence’s other, weirdly similar film, Abigail. It’s so expected that it’s now boring, and characters reacting in a “what the fuck?!” fashion was already old when they busted it out last time.
It’s hard for a 2026 “eat the rich” movie not to feel completely dated, but the go-bigger approach helps Ready or Not 2’s cascade of exploding rich folks feel fresh enough.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are pretty mixed. Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times writes, “no spoilers, but it’s no coincidence that Here I Come finally gets more interesting once it tires of hide and seek. Finding a fresh plot twist is the only way it ekes out a draw.” The AV Club’s Andy Crump was kinder, musing, “Weaving is great at expressing helpless surrender and whiteknuckle petrification… The effect of her performances is cathartic, frequently hysterical, and key to Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come‘s success.”
How to watch: Ready or Not: Here I Come is now playing in theaters nationwide.
But that’s not all …
Rose Byrne in Tow (Courtesy of Roadside Attractions/Everett Collection)
(©Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Tow: Fresh off an Oscar nomination for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Rose Byrne returns in a tragic yet good-spirited film based on a true story. Byrne plays a woman living in her Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle. When her car is stolen and impounded, she is thrust into a relentless legal battle against an indifferent bureaucratic system. It’s a social realist drama that empathizes with the struggle of those just barely hanging on, illustrating how a simple problem can easily cascade into a nightmare if you don’t have the money to fix it. It’s not as gloomy as it sounds, though, finding plenty of moments of levity alongside the frustration. Byrne is great, as always, and the supporting cast sports a deeper bench than you’d expect. It’s as if Erin Brockovich were about a woman fighting to beat the system solely for herself. Get tickets.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already haveMy recommendation: Sisu: Road to Revenge
Why you should watch it: The 2022 revenge-action film Sisu was a treat for fans of over-the-top, stylized violence. It was a movie about a Finnish man becoming a one-man army and killing a bunch of Nazis in 1944, his determination to exact revenge after the death of his family making him literally immortal. It was pretty fun, but it got a little repetitive by the end. There are only so many ways to kill Nazis!
Thankfully, its sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge, learned from its predecessor’s mistakes and delivers an even better film that has no problem one-upping itself throughout, delivering intensely gory action set pieces that are so increasingly creative, each and every kill got an actual laugh from me. They found a bunch of new and exciting ways to kill bad guys!
Our hero from the last film dismantles the house where his family was murdered and loads it onto a truck to rebuild it somewhere safe. He soon finds himself in a violent cross-country chase as the Red Army commander who killed his family comes back to finish the job. That commander is played by character actor Stephen Lang, most recently of Avatar and Don’t Breathe fame, and his presence ups the ante in a big way.
It goes from a Mad Max: Fury Road-inspired sequence to a “what if the plane in North by Northwest had a turret and bombs,” at a moment’s notice. It’s essentially a feature-length chase scene, involving everything from tanks and trucks to planes and trains.
It’s an absolute blast and a marked improvement on the original in just about every way. It sets the tone right up top with a ludicrous kill that made me guffaw and stays that ridiculous and fun throughout. And it’s all wrapped up in under 90 minutes. Bring on Sisu 3!
What other critics are saying: It’s a hit! William Bibbiani at TheWrap writes that it’s “everything you could want from a rough-and-tumble, tough-as-nails action movie.” The Los Angeles Times’ Amy Nicholson calls it “the action spectacular of the year” that she likens to “a scrappy, indie translation of Mad Max: Fury Road.”
How to watch: Sisu: Road to Revenge starts streaming on Netflix on Saturday.
My sort-of recommendation: Mercy
Why you should maybe watch it: Director and super-producer Timur Bekmambetov is back with yet another “screenlife” movie, also known as a movie that unfolds largely on a computer screen. He produced the best-of-the-form Unfriended, as well as Searching and its sort-of sequel Missing. He takes the concept to ambitious new heights in Mercy, crafting a futuristic sci-fi action-thriller that is largely limited to the computer screen, and in which Chris Pratt is confined to a chair the entire time.
In the near future, an advanced AI judge (who looks like Rebecca Ferguson) tells a captive detective (Chris Pratt) that he’s on trial for the murder of his wife. If he fails to prove his innocence within 90 minutes, he’ll be executed on the spot. This premise allows the movie to sport one of my favorite taglines in recent memory: “Prove Your Innocence to an AI Judge or Face Execution.”
The movie is at its best when we see Pratt using the technology he helped create to try to solve the mystery he’s presented with. The movie is at its worst when it’s frontloading Pratt’s character with terrible (and clichéd) personality traits, making damn sure the audience thinks, “This guy is actually capable of killing his wife.” It’s a strange choice that doesn’t exactly get you on his side.
Mercy also wants to have its cake and eat it too with regard to its depiction of the Mercy system and AI judges. Pratt acknowledges that the system is a “kill box” at one point, yet his character is meant to be a staunch advocate for its usefulness. The technology is as evil as the movie needs it to be at one moment, and super-helpful and actually concerned with the truth the next. Ferguson is good and appropriately robotic as the human face of the AI; Pratt, sadly, shows the limits of his dramatic acting chops throughout.
Mercy isn’t a great movie, but it’s compelling enough when it needs to be for a relatively easy, breezy and largely entertaining watch, if only to see how its particularly contrived mystery resolves.
What other critics are saying: It appears I’ve been far kinder to this film than most critics! Lindsay Bahr at the AP writes, “At times, it feels as tedious as watching a stranger’s increasingly frustrating call with a robotic customer service representative play out in real time.” Owen Gleiberman at Variety, however, was into it, writing, “The premise of Mercy makes it sound like the sort of thin, doctrinaire anti-technology, anti-police-state thriller that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have starred in 40 years ago. But the movie turns out to be a notch or two better than you expect.”
How to watch: Mercy starts streaming on Prime Video on Sunday.
But that’s not all …
Barry Keoghan and Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (Courtesy of Netflix/Everett Collection)
(©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man: The creator of Peaky Blinders, a BBC historical crime-drama television series that became one of Netflix’s most notable acquisitions, has said in interviews that one doesn’t need to have watched the show to enjoy this standalone movie, so I put that to the test. Amid the chaos of World War II, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) returns from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet. With the future of his family and country at stake, Shelby must face his demons and choose whether to confront his legacy or burn it to the ground. It is indeed easy enough for newcomers to follow, and I’d imagine fans will get even more out of it on an emotional level. Barry Keoghan is appropriately menacing, and the Oscar-winning Murphy is as reliable as ever. The biggest surprise to me was the anachronistic soundtrack; this was the last place I expected to hear a couple of recent Fontaines D.C. tunes! Now streaming on Netflix.
Is This Thing On?: Despite not actually laughing at any of the stand-up comedy in this movie about a stand-up comedian, I still liked the movie! Will Arnett shows off his dramatic chops — BoJack Horseman fans know he’s got ’em — as the lead, a man named Alex adjusting to midlife while going through a divorce with someone he seems to actually like and finding his way in the comedy scene. Laura Dern plays his ex, Tess, a lovely and logical woman trying to move on from Alex. Is This Thing On? was directed by Bradley Cooper, who’s on an incredible hot streak after helming and starring in the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born and 2023’s Maestro, though the Academy and I agree that this one just wasn’t quite as interesting as the others. What I liked most about the movie wasn’t necessarily the sum of its parts, but what it made me think about: How, when a marriage falls apart, it’s not always for a specific reason, but a slow dissolution of passion and friendship lost to time and passivity. As Dern’s character puts it, being unhappy during a relationship is not the same as being unhappy with one, and it takes active work from both parties to overcome that. Now streaming on Hulu.
Wicked: For Good: Wicked: For Good is easily one of the worst movies of the year. The problems here are admittedly inherent to the Broadway show that it’s adapting; the harsh truth that fans of the original production already knew is that the second half is simply far less compelling than the first. All the good songs are in that first section, as well as all semblance of anything new regarding these characters. The second half is marred by its need to tie all these elements back to the original The Wizard of Oz. The play and the book upon which it is based are, ultimately, fan fiction! The closer the material gets to that original text, the deadlier it becomes, and Wicked: For Good is almost entirely reliant on references to the beloved classic. Remember the Cowardly Lion? Here’s how he got so cowardly! You know the Tin Man? Well, he was once a normal man! The movie opens with the Yellow Brick Road being paved! It’s Easter egg cinema at its worst. It’s shocking how much worse Wicked: For Good is than the first one. Now streaming on Peacock.
That’s all for this week — we’ll see you next week at the movies!