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What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week
‘Coyote vs. ACME’ brings Looney Tunes back to the big screen, and Robert De Niro tracks a serial killer on Netflix
Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin costar in the film "The Dog Stars," opening in theaters this weekend.
Fabio Lovino/20th Century Studios
What’s on this week? Whether it’s what’s on cable, streaming on Prime Video or Netflix, or opening at your local movie theater, we’ve got your must-watch list. Start with TV and scroll down for movies. It’s all right here. (And speaking of TV, don’t miss our fall 2026 TV preview!)
The Whisper Man, R (Netflix)
AARP The Magazine cover star Robert De Niro is about to have a very busy second half of 2026. In November, he returns to multiplexes with the latest Meet the Parents installment, Focker-in-Law. Before that, you can catch the 82-year-old screen icon in this dark, harrowing thriller about a widowed crime writer (Adam Scott) who turns to his estranged father, a retired police detective (De Niro), after his young son is abducted by a serial killer known as “the Whisper Man.”
Watch it: The Whisper Man, Aug. 28 on Netflix
Don’t miss this: Robert De Niro’s best movies of all time, ranked!
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Thursday Night Football (Prime Video)
Prime Video’s coverage of the new NFL season kicks off with a preseason game: the New England Patriots at Cleveland’s Huntington Bank Field, starting at 7 p.m. ET. Legendary play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, 81, returns with five-time Emmy-winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit, 56, and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung. Prime will stream 17 more games this season, including a Black Friday matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers as well as a wild card playoff game in mid-January.
Watch it: Thursday Night Football, Aug. 27 on Prime Video
Lego Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Disney+)
You may remember when all your kids wanted to do was assemble the new Lego Star Wars sets (and maybe you caught the fever as well). Now that pairing is officially in TV-land with this new special that retells the popular Mandalorian story (complete with a Lego Grogu/Baby Yoda!). A fun one to stream with the grandkids to beat their back-to-school blues.
Watch it: Lego Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Sept. 2 on Disney+
Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!
Leanne, Season 2
While the old-school TV networks have all but given up on the traditional sitcom, Netflix seems determined to single-handedly keep it alive. Exhibit A: the return of this delightfully funny series starring Tennessee stand-up comic Leanne Morgan, 60. Morgan plays a woman whose husband of 33 years left her for another woman and who now learns to lean on her wacky, tight-knit family for strength and support — including her ride-or-die sister, wonderfully played by 3rd Rock from the Sun’s Kristen Johnston, 58.
Watch it: Leanne, Aug. 27 on Netflix
Don't miss this: The Best Things Coming to Netflix This Month
Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!
Nickel Boys (2024, PG-13)
RaMell Ross’ Oscar-nominated adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning 2019 novel is a challenging film on two levels. For one, it follows two Black youths (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) who endure horrific abuse at a reform school in the Jim Crow–era South. But Ross also takes a radical approach to telling their story, inserting us into the point of view of his characters for long stretches (we see their faces only in reflections) and letting the audience piece together the details of their histories. This is a remarkable film that rewards the patient viewer.
Watch it: Nickel Boys, Aug. 27 on Prime Video
Don’t miss this: The Best Things Coming to Prime Video this Month
New at the movies this week
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Coyote vs. ACME, PG
Not since Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988 has there been such a funny, shrewd and entertaining movie weaving live action and animation. Endlessly looney and laugh-out-loud funny, the movie finds the animated Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner using ACME products — anvils, dynamite, rocket-powered roller skates — that inevitably backfire catastrophically. Frustrated, the coyote turns to forever-down-on-his-luck “billboard” lawyer Kevin Avery (a hilarious Will Forte). Together, the two losers bring a lawsuit against corporate giant ACME, represented by lawyer Buddy Crane (a dastardly John Cena). Throw in Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn and Tweety Bird, all presented with no more irony than they manifested in the original Looney Tunes, and you have a perfectly crafted slapstick legal thriller crammed with colorful characters. The film’s real-life backstory is nearly as wild: The consolidating corporate overlords at Warner Brothers Discovery shelved the completed comedy in 2023 and took a tax write-off. It’s only now playing in theaters because the curiously named Ketchup Entertainment paid $50 million to liberate it from legal limbo. Beep! Beep! —Thelma M. Adams
Watch it: Coyote vs. ACME, Aug. 28 in theaters
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Dog Stars, R
In the post-pandemic dystopia of Ridley Scott, 88, people on the ground may be untrustworthy and feral but, boy, their home planet still looks amazing from the sky. Colorado pilot Hig (a typically dreamy Jacob Elordi) holes up with veteran survivalist Bangley (Josh Brolin, 58, in yet another crusty hunk role). Outside Denver in 2035, the gents’ peace can’t last, fiendish Reapers prowl, and Hig has wanderlust, dreaming maybe there’s somewhere less rustic and more civilized. Or not. Along the way, his plane crashes and he encounters another crusty father figure, Pops (ever reliable Guy Pearce, 58), his darling doctor daughter, Cima (Margaret Qualley), and an extroverted flight attendant (Allison Janney, 66). It takes a while to get to the mad gory stuff, and then it builds and builds. But, in contrast to the disturbing dystopian film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, director Scott exits with grace and maturity as Hig and Cima admire the sparkling Dog Stars, and despite all the mayhem and mushy brains, you can almost hear Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World.” —Thelma M. Adams
Watch it: The Dog Stars, Aug. 28 in theaters
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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Franz, NR
When you consider Franz Kafka, what do you think of? A man awakening as a cockroach? The plot is so absurd that it inspired the term “Kafkaesque,” but who hasn’t awakened wondering who they are and what they’ve become? In the hands of Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland, 77, this rich biopic of the Czech novelist is more than just a timeline of his life as a Jewish artist in an upper-middle-class, observant family. With magnetic Idan Weiss in the lead, Franz succeeds in creating a portrait of one of the greatest, most original European authors of the 20th century. The film captures the irony, the humor and the acute awareness of a rich and bureaucratic culture just a few decades before the Nazis put that vibrant society under a boot heel. —Thelma M. Adams
Watch it: Franz, in theaters
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Mutiny, R
It’s time to dub Jason Statham, 59, the vengeance superhero. In his latest thriller, set in scenic Bangkok and on the high seas, the agile English action star plays Cole Reed, a bodyguard for a billionaire shipping magnate. After failing to protect his boss and being subsequently framed for the murder, Cole goes on the run to clear his name and find the good man’s killer. The trail leads to a cargo ship with an alluring third mate (Annabelle Wallis) and a shipping container hiding victims of a gang of gnarly human traffickers. One fist, one elbow, one knee, one machine gun at a time, the stoic avenger tears flesh and breaks bones on his quest to right a mounting pile of wrongs. Gory, gritty and banter-free, Mutiny is a straight shot of adrenaline but may not be for those with queasy stomachs. —Thelma M. Adams
Watch it: Mutiny, in theaters
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