Sonic 2, Ambulance, and more new movies you can watch at home

Another week, another group of movies new to streaming on VOD for you to sift through. This time around, the sequel to Sonic to Hedgehog lands on Paramount Plus and the Michael Bay action movie Ambulance (one of our favorite movies of the year so far) hits Peacock.

There’s also an intriguing college comedy thriller on Prime Video, the Ti West horror movie X at a reduced rental price, and the usual group of streaming originals, including a Hulu documentary about the late rapper XXXTentacion and a dark Turkish drama on Netflix.

Without further ado, here are the new movies available for you to watch at home this week.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: Paramount Pictures/Sega of America

Ben Schwartz returns to reprise his role as the lovable super-fast hedgehog in the top-grossing sequel to 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog. When the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) returns to conquer the Earth alongside a mysterious new ally named Knuckles (Idris Elba), Sonic will have to join forces with his buddy Tails the two-tailed fox (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) in order to save the day.

From our review:

Maybe some of this is supposed to be homage, like the way Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) calls the movie Snow Dogs “the woooooorst” in the frequently GIF’d sing-song cadence of Schwartz’s Parks and Recreation character, Jean-Ralphio Sanderson. Either way, the frantic shameless grabbing at cultural knicknacks defines the experience of watching Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This sequel is technically more fun and more engaging than its predecessor — while placing its strongest emphasis on the more part. Robotnik’s concern about dying a derivative death makes sense — Carrey’s scenes are the only moments where the Sonic movies start to feel like they might formulate a distinctive comic voice.

Ambulance

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Photo: Andrew Cooper/Universal Pictures

One of our best movies of 2022 so far, Ambulance is a return to form for jock auteur Michael Bay after a decade and a half of making mostly Transformers movies. This one stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as bank-robbing brothers who are chased by police across Los Angeles while driving a hijacked ambulance (including some stunning breakthroughs in using drones to film action).

From our review:

Ambulance belongs to a specific breed of action film that has been chased out of theaters over the last couple of decades by the fantastical, digital franchise blockbuster. It’s a one-shot idea that sets off a practical spectacle of car crashes, gun battles, stunts, and sweaty acting, orchestrated by a deranged ringmaster of a director who will stop at nothing to get the shot he has in mind. It’s stupid, exciting, unruly (with a 136-minute run time), and strangely refreshing.

Emergency

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Amazon Studios

Donald Elise Watkins (Black Box) and RJ Cyler (The Harder They Fall) star in the satirical college comedy thriller Emergency as two Black college roommates who, after a night of intense partying, return home to an unconscious woman on the floor of their apartment. Fearing they will be implicated in wrongdoing, the pair, along with their roommate Carlos, attempt to drive the woman somewhere safe without calling the police, all while the woman’s sister (Sabrina Carpenter) desperately searches for her.

X

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Christopher Moss/A24

Ti West’s first horror movie in nearly a decade is a slasher following a group of young people making a porno in Texas, unbeknownst to the shotgun-toting old man whose cabin they’re using as a set. It is now available at a reduced rental price.

From our review:

As funny as X gets at times, however, it’s just as effective at providing scares as it is at provoking laughs. Once the kills begin, West unleashes heavy gore and entertaining death scenes, enhanced by effective, novel editing that West and his co-editor David Kashevaroff use to enhance the scares, or create new ones. From smash cuts and juxtapositions to cutting away from a kill to an unrelated scene to screen wipes and split-screens, X makes for an unpredictable experience.

Umma

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Saeed Adyani/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sandra Oh stars in the 2022 psychological horror film Umma as a mother living on a quiet American farm coping with her daughter’s impending departure to college. When the remains of her estranged mother arrive at her doorstep, they set in motion a chain of events that unearth painful memories and grisly apparitions of the past that threaten to consume both her and her family.

From our review:

The themes Shim wants to explore have powered plenty of notable horror pictures, most recently including Relic, Run, and Hereditary. By comparison, Umma seems to be operating with the safety on, which strands the actors into looking uneasy but never truly terrified. As a horror lead, Oh is especially static. Rather than letting loose with frustration or fear, committing to Amanda’s inner monster, or varying her performance in any way, she looks continuously dismayed, conveying all the soul-shaking terror of someone dreading a long bus ride. Stewart fares a little better, especially when she’s paired with Odeya Rush as a more socialized girl her age. But the movie doesn’t have much imagination when it comes to the effects of her character’s near-total isolation. Chris is pretty much just a well-adjusted girl without a cell phone.

A Banquet

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: IFC Midnight

Scottish director Ruth Paxton makes her feature debut with this horror movie about a widow (Sienna Guillory) with two daughters. One of them (Jessica Alexander) undergoes what she believes to be a sort-of religious experience. Because of this experience, she refuses to eat, while her mother attempts to care for her.

Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: DC Entertainment/Warner Bros. Animation

What, you thought Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were the only multiverse movies coming out this year? Well, you thought wrong! When Lex Luthor uses an ancient Kryptonian power to imprison all of Earth’s mightiest heroes, the DC Super Hero Girls are forced to travel across dimensions in search of help. With no one else to turn to, they’ll have to settle for the help of the Teen Titans.

Kick Like Tayla

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Amazon Studios

A documentary about Aussie rules football player Tayla Harris, Kick Like Tayla promises “unprecedented access” into her life on and off the field. Harris was the subject of an online harassment campaign in 2019, and the movie focuses on her response to that abuse and how she uses her platform to advocate for women in sports.

A Taste of Hunger

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Magnolia Pictures

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) and Katrine Greis-Rosenthal star in the Danish drama A Taste of Hunger as Carsten and Maggie, a culinary power couple who strive to make their mark on the Danish gourmet scene by opening their own popular restaurant in Copenhagen. Despite their relative happiness, the two become obsessed with the one thing they don’t have — a Michelin star. Willing to sacrifice everything, including possibly their own marriage, Carsten and Maggie are forced to face the consequences of their ambition and decide what truly matters to them: prestige or each other.

Look at Me: XXXTentacion

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Hulu

The 2022 documentary Look at Me follows the life of the popular and controversial emo rap singer XXXTentacion. Composed of archival footage of the singer’s last years, as well as interviews by his friends and family members, the film charts X’s rise to prominence, the allegations of domestic abuse involving his ex-girlfriend, and his death in 2018.

Captors

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

The survival thriller Captors follows Alys, a survivor of sex trafficking who is lured to a cabin in the woods and tormented by a mysterious man who forces her to fight for her survival.

There Are No Saints

Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Saban Films

Written by Paul Schrader (The Card Counter) and directed by Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, There Are No Saints follows the story of “the Jesuit” (José María Yazpik), a former hitman imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. When his wife is murdered and his son is kidnapped by a ruthless cartel boss (Ron Perlman), he devises an elaborate plan to escape prison, rescue his son, and avenge his wife’s murder.

A Taste of Whale

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Greenwich Entertainment

This French documentary investigates a controversial tradition on the Faroe Islands where 700 pilot whales are slaughtered every year.

Zero Contact

Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Lionsgate

Filmed entirely via Zoom, the sci-fi thriller Zero Contact follows the story of five people from the far corners of the world who, compelled by the dying wish of the late tech titan Finley Hart (Anthony Hopkins), are forced to work together to shut down Hart’s most secret invention: a machine with the power to either save the world or destroy all life on Earth. So it’s kind of like 2004’s iRobot, only with webcams and no Will Smith.

Godspeed

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

This dark Turkish movie is about a combat veteran dealing with the effects of his experience who escapes from a hospital to attempt to stop a wedding.