New movies to watch this weekend: See ‘Mortal Kombat II’ in theaters, rent ‘The Drama,’ stream ‘Send Help’ on Hulu

I’m film critic Brett Arnold, back with another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies released on Friday. This week’s buzziest release is Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to 2021’s arcade game adaptation, while Hugh Jackman stars in the charming, family-friendly mystery The Sheep Detectives. (You can get an 11-year-old kid reporter’s take here.) Also in theaters: Billie Eilish’s 3D concert film, codirected by none other than James Cameron.

If you’d rather have a movie night at home, A24’s dark comedy The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is now available to rent or buy. And so is the horror sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the latest “eat the rich” entry.

And on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, the wild Rachel McAdams-Dylan O’Brien thriller Send Help, directed by Sam Raimi, hits Hulu. For a different vibe (and a grouchy octopus!), let Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures pull your heartstrings.

Let’s get into it!

🎥 What to watch in theaters

The biggest release: Mortal Kombat II

Why you should skip it: Five years after Mortal Kombat debuted in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the sequel is here. Despite playing like an apology and a course correction for that first movie, which nobody really liked, it somehow manages to be even worse. Maybe that’s because the same creative team that made the last one is back, including amateur director Simon McQuoid.

The fan-favorite champions — now joined by Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), a Jean-Claude Van Damme-esque washed-up ‘90s action movie star — are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds-barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders. The movie is merely a vehicle to display the series’s trademarked “fatalities,” which sounds fun on paper but is completely undone by ruinous filmmaking.

The problem with the first movie — if memory serves, there’s no chance in any realm that I’m revisiting that stinker — is that it’s a movie called Mortal Kombat, based on the iconic arcade fighting game, and the plot of that one revolved around somebody trying to prevent the tournament in which people fight to the death from taking place. It was also quite boring, treating the material like a superhero movie origin story — learn how Kano got that scratch and how Jax got his arms!

Mortal Kombat II continues this inane “our hero getting their weapon” nonsense — Kitana gets her fan blades in the opening scenes, fan service made embarrassingly literal — while also doubling down on the self-serious tone that marred the 2021 film. This really puts it at odds with itself as it clunkily shifts between deadly serious, like the opening sequence in which Kitana’s dad is murdered before her eyes, and extremely silly once the Johnny Cage plot kicks in.

Silly is the right idea, but director McQuoid’s incompetence in the action arena makes it hard to get behind. It also doesn’t help that it looks like an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess with costumes from the nearest Spirit Halloween or that the screenplay throws out ideas like “strength is not a closed fist.” This is a Mortal Kombat movie — it can be, and arguably should be, about fighting and perhaps a bit less solemn.

Worst of all, it’s actually insulting to the action movie genre how badly Mortal Kombat II botches what should be an easy lay-up for featuring impressive fight choreography with jaw-dropping visual flourishes, given the fantastical nature of the games.

The fights are so choppily edited and poorly constructed that you can’t see the skills of any of the performers and therefore never feel the impact of any of it. At the very least, a movie of this size and scale should get the fundamentals right, and it firmly does not, opting for terrible-looking, rubbery CGI instead of stuntmen and hideous digital backgrounds rather than exotic real locations. It looks cheap despite being insanely expensive!

Mortal Kombat II seemed like a lot of fun from the trailers, like it learned from what went wrong the last time. Nope! Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Alas, this one’s poised to be a hit, so prepare yourself for Simon McQuoid to strike again.

What other critics are saying: Reviews are mixed, but many are kinder than I am! The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck writes, “The film has its rewards, mostly of the unsophisticated kind, since the fight sequences come fast and furious and the cheesy dialogue has enough groan-worthy one-liners to inspire a thousand drinking games.” Benjamin Lee at the Guardian was more cutting: “Being treated like a premium format blockbuster does not do a film like Mortal Kombat II any favors, its junkiness less charming and more distracting, a street fighter suddenly forced to go pay-per-view.”

How to watch: Mortal Kombat II is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Get tickets

A great option: The Sheep Detectives

Why you should see it: The Sheep Detectives is about as good a movie starring entirely computer-generated talking sheep could be, I reckon!

In this utterly charming and delightful film based on the 2005 novel Three Bags Full, Hugh Jackman stars as George Hardy, a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives, following clues, investigating human suspects and proving that even sheep can be brilliant crime solvers.

The mystery is fun and engaging, but what’s most unexpected here is that the film explores very human ideas through its talking sheep characters; it’s ultimately a movie about accepting the tough things in life, such as the inevitability of death.

It’s quite moving watching these sheep unlearn the comforting lies they were told — like that sheep don’t die but just become clouds — in their pursuit of the truth in the murder mystery they’re caught up in, all to honor the human who died. The screenplay from Craig Mazin — yes, the same man who wrote the award-winning HBO series Chernobyl — really elevates the material.

The Sheep Detectives sits comfortably alongside classics like Babe and its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City, as a fun, accessible movie for both children and adults that isn’t afraid to get at quietly devastating emotional truths in the process, all in a lighthearted, funny way. That’s no small feat.

What other critics are saying: Everyone digs it! Guy Lodge at Variety writes, “There’s wisdom amid the silliness, as the story gently makes a case for the necessity of grief, mindfulness and mortal awareness. … That’s more than you might expect from a film called The Sheep Detectives.” Mashable’s Kristy Puchko calls it “a feel-good movie that’s sure to delight all ages.”

How to watch: The Sheep Detectives is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Get tickets

But that’s not all …

• Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D): Leave it to visionary director James Cameron, who codirected this 3D concert film with its subject, Billie Eilish, to use the format in such an immersive way that it actually feels like you’re in the crowd. It also quite cleverly depicts the fan experience, how much Eilish’s music means to her fans and the inverse of that relationship from the pop star’s point of view. I was also quite taken with the behind-the-scenes flourishes that you usually don’t see in something like this — like when the camera stays with her as she slyly enters the stage, which we learn soon after was actually Eilish’s idea. The end result showcases Eilish’s skill, craft and vision as much as it does Cameron’s. If you’re not an Avatar fan, this will technically be your favorite James Cameron movie since Titanic. Get tickets

💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy

The biggest release: The Drama

Why you should see it: How well do you know your partner? We all think we know the people in our lives, but do we really? How much of what we know about our spouse was learned during courtship, when you were two different people than you are today? Can a person fundamentally change?

The Drama, a pitch-black comedy about marriage that’s actually about much bigger ideas, including race — but also a plot twist I can’t tell you that is the centerpiece tease of the above trailer — asks these questions. But let’s just say that the unmentioned detail (click here if you want the spoiler) makes it about American culture in a very specific way.

Kristoffer Borgli’s fourth feature film, his second in a row at A24 after the Nicolas Cage-starring Dream Scenario, stars Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as a couple preparing for their wedding. During a night of wine and food tasting to finalize their menu, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson) play an off-the-cuff game with their best man, Mike (Mamoudou Athie), and his wife, maid of honor Rachel (Alana Haim, who gets to shine here like never before).

They all drink and reveal the worst things they’ve ever done. What Emma decides to share is the big reveal. The rest of the movie revolves around Charlie convincing himself that he is about to marry a psychopath and that he must not actually know her as well as he thought he did. There’s definitely a racial element at play too, with two interracial couples and their differing reactions to certain revelations shaping Borgli’s point on how these characters see one another. You’ll appreciate my vagueness when you watch it!

The Drama is slyly brilliant in the way it gets at the inherent performance involved in the dating process: how we all want to serve up the best version of ourselves, accentuate the positives and maybe leave out some of the negatives entirely. It’s a movie about the disconnect between how we present ourselves and who we actually are and the hypocrisy that can come with pretending otherwise. There are several characters in the movie who spill dark secrets, and what they reveal, and how they react to the other reveals, speak volumes.

It’s also impeccably crafted and particularly well edited; the first act lays the foundation for their relationship via flashback as Pattinson reads his speech aloud to his best man, cutting to the moments in jarring fashion for comedic effect, purposefully subverting rom-com meet-cute tropes with the more uncomfortable truth beneath them. Is it creepy that he lied about reading a book to get her attention?

Thankfully, Borgli is as interested in making the audience laugh as he is in making them squirm, and he excels at both. The Drama builds to an incredibly satisfying third act of chaotic madness and ends on a surprisingly tender note that made me want to experience it all again.

What other critics are saying: Reviews are all over the place! William Bibbiani at TheWrap writes, “It’s disquieting, and even though it’s also riveting, it’s difficult to shake the sense that everyone is getting away with something they shouldn’t.” Time’s Stephanie Zacharek, however, says, “It’s hard to have any idea what The Drama is trying to say or do, beyond tease its audience with its lack of specificity.”

How to watch: The Drama is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.

Rent or buy

Another option: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

Way back in late 2019 — nearly seven 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 eye rolls 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 unremarkable 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.

The film opens 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).

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 loved 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. Weaving is great again here, even if she had more of an arc in the first film. In this film, 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 “WTF?!” 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 2: Here I Come is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.

Rent or buy

But that’s not all …

• Exit 8: This Japanese adaptation of a puzzle-based video game is creepy and compelling until it reveals itself, like most modern horror films, to be About Something. A man trapped in an endless subway passageway sets out for the exit. The rules of his quest are simple: If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. Even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor? And yes, that’s a metaphor! It’s appropriately disorienting and a smart way to adapt a video game, but whenever it veered into deeper meaning, it lost me. Rent or buy

📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have

The biggest release: Send Help

Why you should see it: Evil Dead mastermind Sam Raimi returns to the genre that made him, marking his first horror flick since 2009’s wonderful Drag Me to Hell, and his first R-rated affair since 1997’s The Gift.

Send Help is a survival horror film about a meek employee and Survivor lover, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), and her insufferable boss (the increasingly prevalent Dylan O’Brien), who become stranded on a deserted island. As the only survivors of a plane crash, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive as power dynamics are completely inverted. It’s like Triangle of Sadness but honed in on modern-day office culture and flipping that gendered power imbalance that can exist in the workplace.

The bad news? The film, as most do these days, relies far too heavily on lousy digital effects, from the backgrounds to CGI wild boars to terrible-looking digital compositing, as a hilarious amount of blood is splashed onto McAdams’s face.

There are enough of his directorial flourishes throughout — as well as running gags; keen-eyed viewers will notice both Bruce Campbell and the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 in there somewhere — to make it feel enough like a Raimi film. He even somehow sneaks a Deadite-looking zombie into the proceedings.

It’s broad and silly stuff that’s completely elevated by not only its director’s depraved, slapstick sensibilities but also its two stars, who are both having so much fun in their roles that it really ups the ante on how often you’ll be laughing and/or screaming. There’s a hilarious puking scene that bests all other Raimi puke scenes, and that’s saying something. It’s probably trashier than you’re expecting from the trailers, which is also a plus in my book. It’s got some great twists.

It truly feels as if McAdams was game for whatever craziness was thrown at her, and she excels in the role as we see her character morph under her new circumstances. O’Brien is so good at playing the sniveling asshole you immediately hate, and his shift is similarly delightful to behold. He’s quickly becoming one of the most exciting actors these days, after a killer 2025 that included amazing dual performances in Twinless and a terrific turn in the under-seen Anniversary.

Send Help is a two-hander that feels like it’s engineered to be a performance showcase for its pair of leads, and thankfully, they’re both more than up to the task. It’s also a treat to see Raimi flex his skills on material that’s beneath his pay grade at this point — he’s the man behind the original live-action Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies and the latest Doctor Strange movie, after all — but far more in my wheelhouse. Having iconic composer Danny Elfman on board doesn’t hurt, either. What year is it again?!

What other critics are saying: It’s a hit! Clarisse Loughrey at the Independent writes that the film ultimately “becomes the best of both worlds: indulgent Raimi splatter fueled by a satisfying touch of righteous rage.” IndieWire’s Alison Foreman calls it “wickedly lovable with the potential to be timeless,” adding that it’s “controlled delirium microwaved on high heat. At 66, Raimi reminds us who he was when he made horror-comedy history with Evil Dead II and, more important, why his voice still matters.”

How to watch: Send Help is now streaming on Hulu.

Watch on Hulu

Why you should maybe watch it: If you enjoyed Netflix’s My Octopus Teacher back in 2020, you may also enjoy Remarkably Bright Creatures, a movie that takes the true-life concept that octopuses are extremely intelligent and empathetic and constructs a warm, treacly narrative around that idea.

Based on a 2022 bestseller, the film stars Sally Field as lonely widow Tova, who forms an unlikely friendship with a curmudgeonly octopus named Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina) at the aquarium where she works. Meanwhile, a young man named Cameron (Lewis Pullman) is searching for his birth father, which leads him to Tova. Unbeknownst to them both, Marcellus is on a mission to solve a mystery that will heal Tova’s heart and ultimately connect their lives in a profound, life-changing discovery.

There are no real surprises here, and everything unfolds as you’d expect. It’s ultimately a tear-jerker about two sad individuals finding solace in one another, and the chemistry between Pullman and Field really helps sell material that could otherwise have floundered.

Some may find Remarkably Bright Creatures too corny and/or mawkish to get behind, but those who do enjoy it will really love it and find it to be a cozy and heartwarming watch.

What other critics are saying: Most are on board, but there are detractors. Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com writes, “When the film escapes the confinement tank of its numerous hand-me-down cliches, you’re happy to follow the water trail to see where it leads.” The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager, however, was not amused: “Eliciting exasperated laughs at its every manipulation, it may be the most ridiculously corny movie of all time.”

How to watch: Remarkably Bright Creatures is now streaming on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix

But that’s not all …

• Whistle: This horror movie is a shameless knockoff of so many other, much better horror movies — it’s basically mixing Final Destination lore with a Talk to Me-style “teens messing around with a cursed object” flick — but it gets the details right where it counts to a degree that won me over by the end. A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumbles upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec death whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle emits a terrifying sound that summons their future deaths to hunt them down. There’s a single kill so ingenious and so reminiscent of the creative death sequences in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise that I have no choice but to recommend it to horror fans. And I appreciate that filmmaker Corin Hardy found a unique way into a very familiar setup; the rationale behind the deaths and how and why they unfold is macabre enough to stand out. Stream on Shudder

• We Bury The Dead: Daisy Ridley plays a woman desperate to find her missing husband, following her terrifying yet moving journey as she confronts grief, loss, and … the undead! The specifics of the premise are rich: After a catastrophic military disaster kills the entire population of an island, the dead don’t just rise — they hunt. Ava searches for her missing husband, but what she finds is far more terrifying. It’s a somber and thoughtful meditation on death, dying and grief, more so than a violent or tense zombie action movie, but I found it effective in its chosen register. It reminded me a lot of 28 Years Later, which also used the zombie movie subgenre to pontificate about death in ways that alienated large chunks of the audience expecting action rather than profundity. Stream on Hulu

• Greenland 2: Migration: This Gerard Butler sequel depicts the aftermath of a comet strike that decimated most of the planet and how the Garrity family must leave the safety of their Greenland bunker to traverse a shattered world in search of a new home. The original was a solid apocalyptic disaster movie that was less interested in the disaster itself and more concerned with the chaotic bureaucracy of the government’s response and how people treat one another in a looming end-of-the-world scenario. Migration is more of the same, frankly, but with slightly diminishing returns. Ultimately, it’s a decent sequel to a better-than-average disaster flick. Stream on HBO Max

That’s all for this week — we’ll see you next week at the movies!

Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year.