Three days doesn’t sound like a long time, but you can watch so many movies in a 72-hour timeframe.
Maybe that’s why Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Apple TV decided to release some of their biggest late summer/early fall releases this Labor Day weekend.
The Watch With Us crew are big nerds, which is why we’re over the Forest Moon of Endor with the streaming release of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.
We also love a good thriller, and HBO Max is now streaming one with Fuze, starring Theo James, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and a ticking time bomb in the heart of London.
We also recommend streaming the Scary Movie reboot with Anna Faris and the Apple TV spy thriller Mayday starring Ryan Reynolds.
‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu’ (2026) — Disney+
The knives were out last May when Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu debuted in theaters and pleased almost no one. Critics complained it seemed like a shortened season of The Mandalorian (they’re not wrong!), while fans thought the story lacked the epic scope that’s typical of Star Wars films. But the film plays better on streaming, and it’s an enjoyable side quest that isn’t as offensively bad as, say, The Rise of Skywalker.
New Republic Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) needs to bring in notorious crime lord Janu Coin (Jonny Coyne), but she doesn’t know where he is. That’s why she tasks Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his pint-sized partner, Grogu (Grogu), to find him. But the duo first has to do a favor that involves tracking down another elusive criminal, Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White). Jabba’s surviving son has a bad rep, so even if they find him, they might not survive long enough to gain crucial intel concerning Coine’s whereabouts.
‘Fuze’ (2026) — HBO Max
When an unexploded World War II bomb is found in the heart of London, the police call in Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his crew to defuse it. Nearby, Giorgos Karalis (Theo James) and a team of robbers drill their way into a bank, looking for valuable jewels to steal. These incidents appear to be isolated, but they’re both happening at the same time for a reason and soon all of London is embroiled in a daring criminal escapade that threatens to go off the rails — and might kill lots of innocents.
Fuze is a deceptively tricky crime thriller that starts simple and ends up needing a flashback to fill in the blanks of its complex story. It all makes sense, though, and credit director David Mackenzie for making sure you know who the important players are and why they’re teaming up or backstabbing each other. At a brisk 96 minutes, the film is the perfect length to generate maximum tension without any unnecessary padding.
‘Scary Movie’ (2026) — Paramount+
26 years after they survive a brutal massacre that left most of their friends dead, Cindy (Anna Faris), Brenda (Regina Hall), Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and Ray (Shawn Wayans) find themselves once again menaced by Ghostface. Now middle-aged and with teens of their own, the “core four” must reunite to protect their loved ones from a killer who knows them all too well.
Whether or not Scary Movie is a good film is beside the point – they’re all kinda bad, with over-the-top acting, a script littered with holes and some lazy sight gags. But the Scary Movies that are entertaining, like the original and the third installment, work because they have enough jokes to make the other flaws seem irrelevant. This reboot barely passes that test, with a still-game Faris and Hall willing to do anything for a laugh. Yes, it’s stupid, but 2026’s Scary Movie is also funny when it needs to be, and that’s enough.
‘Mayday’ (2026) — Apple TV+
It’s 1987, which means the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is still on. That’s why U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) is so on edge after his top-secret spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union. He survives the crash, but he might not live long enough in a country that’s hostile to anything American. Fortunately for Troy, he’s found by Nikolai (Kenneth Branagh), a reclusive outdoorsman who loves American culture, especially Top Gun. Nikolai likes his foreign friend enough to help him leave the country in one piece, but their journey to sanctuary is complicated by a determined Red Army who wants to capture Troy, dead or alive.
Reynolds hasn’t made a lot of memorable movies lately, but Mayday is a surprisingly entertaining film that’s a welcome love letter to all those buddy cop action films of the 1980s. Like Red Heat and Spies Like Us, Mayday throws together two unlikely actors, in this case Reynolds and Branagh, and lets them cook. Branagh in particular is a hoot; the normally serious British actor clearly relishes using a thick Russian accent to play a lovable Ruskie whose KGB background is useful when avoiding Soviet authorities. Mayday is so engaging to watch that you wish you could see it in a proper movie theater with others around you.
