Netflix has been a little lean on dropping original movies in August, but they’ve been saving the best for the last weekend of the month.
The streamer’s new thriller, The Whisper Man, is streaming right now, and the Robert De Niro-led movie is Watch With Us’ No. 1 pick for the best new Netflix movies to watch this weekend.
We also recommend streaming the pop-music romance Beyond the Lights and the underrated action sequel Speed 2: Cruise Control, which brings back Sandra Bullock’s scrappy Annie from the 1994 original, Speed.
‘The Whisper Man’ (2026)
Crime writer Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott) is trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. It’s been a while since his wife died, and he thinks moving to a new city with his 8-year-old son, Jake (Acston Luca Porto), will give them both a fresh start. But when Jake is kidnapped, Tom’s life once again falls apart. Obsessed with finding his son, Tom reunites with his estranged detective father, Pete Willis (De Niro), to find Jake. All clues point to a serial killer named The Whisper Man, but he’s been locked up for years. What connection does the killer have to Jake’s disappearance?
The Whisper Man is adapted from a bestselling novel by Alex North. The mystery surrounding Jake’s disappearance, and its connection to The Whisper Man, is genuinely intriguing to watch unfold. There are enough narrative twists and turns to keep you guessing and just enough characterization to make you care about Tom, Jake and the rest of the characters. The Whisper Man’s cast is surprisingly stacked, with Oscar winner De Niro, Oscar nominee Michael Keaton and TV favorites Scott and Michelle Monaghan all providing extra dimensions to their roles as reluctant players in The Whisper Man’s deadly game.
The Whisper Man is streaming on Netflix.
‘Beyond the Lights’ (2014)
Noni Jean (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a promising singer who wants to be a star, but the pressures of making it big prove to be too much. She tries to kill herself, but she’s saved at the last minute by Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker), a police officer with political ambitions. They unexpectedly fall in love, but their different lifestyles, plus Noni’s manufactured romance with prolific rapper Kid Culprit (Machine Gun Kelly), complicate their romance. Can Noni have the career she’s always wanted and the man of her dreams at the same time?
Beyond the Lights has a plot straight out of the 1930s, but Noni’s career vs. love conflict doesn’t feel outdated. That’s because director Gina Prince-Bythewood keeps things lively and modern, with topic subplots involving suicide, sexual assault and how the music industry uses and abuses its talent. Mbatha-Raw is mesmerizing as a Rihanna-like singer who wants to make everyone around her happy — except herself. The film is just melodramatic enough to be interesting without being too corny.
Beyond the Lights is streaming on Netflix.
‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’ (1997)
It’s been three years since bus driver Annie (Sandra Bullock) survived being taken hostage by a mad bomber, and she’s not ready to repeat the experience. That’s why she agrees to accompany her new boyfriend, LAPD cop Alex Shaw (Jason Patric), aboard a luxury cruise ship for a little sun and lots of relaxation. But trouble seems to follow Annie everywhere, as a disgruntled ex-employee of the cruise company, John Geiger (Willem Dafoe), kills the captain and hijacks the ship. It’s up to Annie and Alex to save the day, and Annie might not be as lucky as she was the first time.
To best enjoy Speed 2, forget that it’s a sequel to Speed 1. Few movies can match that action masterpiece, and with Keanu Reeves gone and the film taking place mostly on a slow-moving boat, it’s as far from the original as it gets. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad action film. As always, Bullock is appealing as the practical and slightly sassy heroine, who can’t believe she’s in a life-or-death situation again. Patric is pretty bland as the love interest, but Dafoe’s very evil Geiger more than makes up for it. You can see shades of the Green Goblin in his performance, and he makes his villain far scarier than he has any right to be.
Speed 2: Cruise Control is streaming on Netflix.
