It’s July and we’re hurtling through the summer movie calendar, with exciting new releases like Spider-Man: About the Spider-Verse, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning part oneAnd Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate illuminated movie screens in the US Even more major tentpole releases, such as Barbie And Oppenheimer, will be released later this month. But if you’re looking for something closer to home to watch, look no further – there’s plenty of great movie on streaming to watch from the comfort of your home.
Each month, we pick five sci-fi movies to watch at home, on Netflix, and other streaming platforms. This month, we’ve got recent releases just making their way to streaming, movies from directors with new work on the way, and deeper off-the-beaten-track pieces that are sure to thrill you.
65
Image: Sony Pictures release
Year: 2023
Duration: 1h 33m
Drivers: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Form: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt
It’s a question as old as archeology itself: what Real killed the dinosaurs? You know, aside from the giant meteor that hit the site of what is now known as Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. It’s a bit like asking who Real built the pyramids, even if the answer is obvious and unfortunately Egyptian slave labor. Anyway, in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ sci-fi action debut, the answer is an ancient alien astronaut named Mills (Adam Driver) who crash-landed on Earth 65 million years ago after taking on orbit to get his medical treatment. daughter to pay.
After rescuing Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), the only other survivor of the crash, Mills is forced to fight his way through a host of prehistoric predators to reach his ship’s escape pods – the only remaining way to return to its home world – before that big colossal meteor I mentioned earlier hits the planet. While the original premise of 65 is much more complicated than it has any reason to be, the Beck and Woods movie is all in all an entertaining sci-fi romp, anchored by an unsurprisingly strong lead from Driver, cool action sequences and cool alien tech.
65 is available to stream on Netflix. It is also available for rent Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.
Destruction
Image: Universal Pictures
Year: 2018
Duration: 1h 55m
Director: Alex Garland
Form: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson
Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s eco-horror novel is one of the director’s better works (though Ex Machine still reigns supreme, sorry). Natalie Portman stars as Lena, a biology professor who agrees to go on an expedition to the Shimmer, an anomalous zone in Florida’s western panhandle filled with plants and creatures mutated by the radiation of a meteor impact. Searching for answers to her husband’s unexplained disappearance, Lena faces a world of fantastical horrors beyond her wildest fears and is forced to confront disturbing questions about herself and the future of humanity.
Exploring the nature of depression and self-destruction, Destruction features one of the most memorable final acts in any sci-fi film of the 2010s, thanks to the delightfully unsettling performance by actor and returning Garland employee, Sonoya Mizuno. If you’re looking for a thoughtful, terrifying and, above all, bizarre sci-fi drama with strange creatures and even stranger secrets, Destruction is the answer.
Destruction is available to stream on Netflix. It is also available for rent Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.
Arrival
Image: Paramount Pictures
Year: 2016
Duration: 1h 56m
Director: Dennis Villeneuve
Form: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Based on the 1998 short story ‘Story of Your Life’ by Ted Chiang. Arrival is the Dune the director’s first foray into hard sci-fi and easily ranks as one of his best. The film, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, centers on Louise Banks (Adams), a linguistics professor assigned by the US government to lead a team of researchers on a first-contact expedition when 12 mysterious landing spaceships over the planet. With a beautiful score composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson – his last collaboration with Villeneuve before his death in 2018 – this romantic sci-fi story finds something new about the intrinsic power of language and communication.
Arrival is available to stream on Prime video. It is also available for rent Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.
Belle
Image: GKIDS
Year: 2021
Duration: 2 hours 4 minutes
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Form: Kaho Nakamura, Ryo Narita, Shota Sometani
Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Kids, Summer Wars) returns with yet another animated sci-fi fantasy in the form of Belle. The film follows Suzu, a reserved and quiet teenage girl mourning the loss of her mother who retreats into the immersive online world of “U”, unintentionally becoming a famous pop idol named Belle. When one of Belle’s concerts is disrupted by a monstrous user known only as “Dragon,” Suzu tries to learn more about this mysterious person with whom she involuntarily feels she shares a deep and profound bond.
The setting of “U” feels like the pinnacle of Hosoda’s career-long fascination with the internet and social media, a dizzying unreal metropolis populated by colorful avatars and giant whales with loudspeakers in their backs. The story is one of trusting yourself to open up to others and in turn loving others for who they are, despite their appearance, with rousing musical numbers complemented by beautiful animation. Belle is the movie for you if you crave a fantastic sci-fi musical drama that is bursting with heart.
Belle is available to stream on max. It is also available for rent Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.
Johnny Mnemonic: In black and white
Image: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Year: 1995
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Robert Longo
Form: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi Kitano
Robert Longo’s directorial debut gets a bum rap. Sure, it’s not exactly the cyberpunk landmark either Blade Runner or The Matrix would be, but it has a cheesy charm that still makes for an entertaining experience. Johnny mnemonic suffered significant post-production edits that siphoned off the more satirical and tongue-in-cheek tone of Longo’s original vision in pursuit of something more conventional, and as a result it feels like a film splitting in two different directions. The black-and-white version of the theatrical cut, supervised by Longo himself, is closer to the director’s intended vision and makes for a more satisfying and surreal watch.
Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny, a “mnemonic courier” who carries sensitive information between powerful clients via an implant placed in his brain. Johnny accepts one last job to recover his own lost childhood memories and finds himself caught up in a deadly plot involving unscrupulous megacorporations, ruthless yakuza, luddie biohackers, all-powerful artificial intelligences and sentient dolphins. Dolph Lundgren also makes a delightfully hammy performance as a vengeful assassin with a penchant for Biblically inspired executions. How could you not would you at least check that out?!
Johnny Mnemonic: In black and white is available to stream on Criteria channel.