What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

Hostage

Want something classy and British, maybe a slick, high-stakes political thriller? You’re in luck. Suranne Jones plays the British prime minister whose husband is kidnapped during a state visit from the French president (Julie Delpy, 55). Both leaders are in danger, and they’re forced to work together (uneasily) for both their own safety and the safety of their political futures. This one looks good.

Watch it: Hostage, Aug. 21 on Netflix

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Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Upload , Season 4

It’s time to return to the near future of Upload, full of holographic phones, 3D food printers and a virtual-reality afterlife called Lakeview whose niceness depends on how much you can afford. In the final burst of four new episodes, computer programmer Nathan (Robbie Amell) and his pals must confront a sentient AI that threatens to take over the world, both virtually and IRL.

Watch it: Upload, Aug. 24 on Prime Video

Don’t miss this: The Best Things Coming to Prime Video this Month

New at the movies this week

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☆ Eden , R

Imagine a real-life Lord of the Flies for grownups, with three cohorts of settlers trying to survive on an isolated, previously uninhabited island in the Galápagos in the 1930s. First to arrive is a German physician (Jude Law, 52) and his ailing wife (Vanessa Kirby). The doc’s philosophical back-to-nature writings inspire a WWI vet (Daniel Brühl) and his initially mousy wife (a riveting Sydney Sweeney) to build their own homestead for their young family in the harsh, unforgiving terrain. Then comes a pearl-necklace-wearing baroness (Ana de Armas) and her polyamorous entourage, with few survival skills and a foolhardy plan to build a luxury hotel. The fact-based film by Ron Howard, 71, occasionally dawdles, but he keeps pulling you back with all the narrative twists and lush cinematography. —Thom Geier

Watch it: Eden, in theaters Aug. 22

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⭐⭐⭐☆ ☆ Highest 2 Lowest, R

Spike Lee’s latest joint is a stylishly slick remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime drama High and Low starring Denzel Washington, 70, as an aging, financially over-leveraged music mogul who’s thrust into a moral dilemma when he learns his teenage son has been kidnapped for a $17 million ransom. When it turns out that the son of his chauffeur and childhood buddy (Jeffrey Wright, 59) was the one snatched by mistake, he debates whether to still pay the ransom. The fascinating ethical questions are marred by an overintrusively melodramatic score, and the nuanced storytelling retreats for some conventional and implausible chase scenes in the third act. But Washington is electric, as is rapper and novice actor A$AP Rocky as the shrewd kidnapper. —Thom Geier

Watch it: Highest 2 Lowest, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆ ☆ Nobody 2, R

In tIn a by-the-numbers sequel to the 2021 surprise hit action comedy Nobody, Bob Odenkirk’s non-fully-retired ex-CIA assassin decides to take his family of four for a summer trip to a past-its-prime amusement park that he remembers from his youth with ex-FBI dad (Christopher Lloyd, 86). Turns out the place is overrun by violent baddies and crooked cops, led by a cackling crime boss played with over-the-top menace by Sharon Stone, 67. Odenkirk, 62, continues to channel John Wick and Taken-era Liam Neeson, 73, in the ultraviolent action scenes, while tossing in a bit of Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Vacation between fights. And his onscreen wife (Gladiator's Connie Nielsen, 60) turns out to be an excellent markswoman. But too often this feels like a Ferris wheel ride that’s stuck in the same familiar circles. —Thom Geier

Watch it: Nobody 2, in theaters