Big Streaming Drops This Week: Lilo & Stitch on Disney+, Liam Neeson Is The Naked Gun, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, and a Ghost Cat on HBO Max
Here are the most notable movies arriving on streaming and VOD this week, with quick facts so you can decide what to watch tonight. Below you’ll find where each title landed, who’s in it, and a short, factual description.
- Highest 2 Lowest — Apple TV Plus
- Lilo & Stitch — Disney Plus
- Friendship and Ghost Cat Anzu — HBO Max
- A Working Man — Prime Video
- Dangerous Animals — Shudder
- Heads of State and The Naked Gun — available to rent
New on Apple TV Plus
Highest 2 Lowest
Genre: Crime thriller. Run time: 2h 13m. Director: Spike Lee. Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera.
The film is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low. In it, New York music mogul David King (Denzel Washington) faces a ransom demand of $17.5 million after kidnappers take the wrong child; the story follows his decision-making and how social sentiment factors into that choice.
New on Disney Plus
Lilo & Stitch
Genre: Science fiction comedy. Run time: 1h 48m. Director: Dean Fleischer Camp. Cast: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Hannah Waddingham.
The live-action adaptation follows an experimental alien that escapes custody and lands in Hawaii. A local family takes the creature in while the CIA, the United Galactic Federation, and a scientist search for it.
New on HBO Max
Friendship
Genre: Black comedy. Run time: 1h 41m. Director: Andrew DeYoung. Cast: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara.
The A24 film centers on two new neighbors who form a friendship as adults. Their bond leads to shared activities and, eventually, a deterioration that affects both their lives.
Ghost Cat Anzu
Genre: Anime. Run time: 1h 35m. Directors: Yôko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita. Cast: Mirai Moriyama, Noa Gotō.
Based on Takashi Imashiro’s manga, Ghost Cat Anzu follows an 11-year-old who lives at her grandfather’s shrine and befriends an anthropomorphic ghost cat. The film mixes everyday life with supernatural elements.
Ghost Cat Anzu works best when the mix of the mundane and the mythical is balanced. For instance, Anzu inviting a host of forest spirits to his temple for a party is a hilarious setup that gives Karin a chance to relate her feelings to the ragtag group. But the eventual journey to the land of the dead ends up dragging and muddling the movie’s message.
New on Prime Video
A Working Man
Genre: Action thriller. Run time: 1h 56m. Director: David Ayer. Cast: Jason Statham, David Harbour, Michael Peña.
The story follows Levon Cade, an ex-black ops soldier turned construction foreman in Chicago. When his boss’s daughter is kidnapped, Cade uses his past skills to pursue the kidnappers linked to the Russian mob.
New on Shudder
Dangerous Animals
Genre: Survival horror. Run time: 1h 38m. Director: Sean Byrne. Cast: Jai Courtney, Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston.
The plot centers on a surfer who is taken by the captain of a shark-cage-diving boat; the captain is a serial killer focused on feeding victims to sharks, and the surfer must try to survive.
New to rent
Heads of State
Genre: Action comedy. Run time: 1h 53m. Director: Ilya Naishuller. Cast: Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
The film follows an unlikely team-up between the U.S. President (an action star played by John Cena) and the UK Prime Minister (Idris Elba) as they try to unravel a conspiracy after an attack leaves them stranded abroad.
The Naked Gun
Genre: Action comedy. Run time: 1h 25m. Director: Akiva Schaffer. Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston.
This entry revives the Police Squad spoof series with Liam Neeson in the role of Frank Drebin Jr. The plot involves a plot by tech mogul Richard Cane and other wealthy figures that Drebin must stop.
