Kathryn Bigelow’s new thriller A House of Dynamite headlines this week’s streaming releases alongside the VOD debut of Benedict Cumberbatch/Olivia Colman’s The Roses, and new crime drama series Down Cemetery Road from the creators of Slow Horses.
SERIES
Down Cemetery Road S1
29 October 2025 – Apple TV
It is most definitely not a secret around these parts how much I love Slow Horses, Apple TV’s fantastic adaptation of Mick Herron’s British spy novels. Hence, I am totally stoked that the streamer is staying in the Herron business with Down Cemetery Road, a brand-new crime mystery series based on Herron’s 2003 novel (which was the start of his Zoë Boehm series and his literary debut). Slow Horses TV writer Morwenna Banks heads this production, which stars the dynamite duo of Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. Thompson stars as P.I. Zoë Boehm who gets contacted by Sarah Tucker (Wilson), a woman living in a quiet Oxford suburb who gets concerned when a neighbouring house explodes and a little girl disappears in the aftermath. What begins as a missing person case though spirals out into a “complex conspiracy that reveals people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.”
Star Wars: Visions Vol. 3
29 October 2025 – Apple TV
After two critically acclaimed runs, the Star Wars animated anthology series returns for a third season! Nine new studios have produced thrilling new shorts inspired by the Star Wars universe, but seen “through the lens of the world’s best anime creators”. Three of those shorts – The Duel: Payback, The Lost Ones, and The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope – will be follow-ups to previous stories, alongside six new all-original tales.
MOVIES
A House of Dynamite
24 October 2025 – Netflix
While the early part of filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow’s career had some rough patches outside of absolute classics like Point Break and Strange Days, the trail-blazing director has been on a hell of run ever since she won the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, the first woman in history to ever do it. So, when a new Bigelow production drops, you take notice. Especially when it boasts a cast consisting of Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, and more thespian heavyweights. A House of Dynamite will see this ensemble cast thrown into a nail-biting thriller that could very well be happening on the news right now, as a single unattributed intercontinental missile is launched at the United States, forcing a massive scramble to determine both who is responsible and how to respond.
Eden
24 October 2025 – Prime Video
Starring Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney, Eden is the star-studded latest film from acclaimed Hollywood director Ron Howard. Based on the shocking true story of several European settlers in pre-World War II who attempted to settle on on the isolated Floreana Island, in the Galápagos Islands, hoping to make a new life there. But due to conflicting goals and life choices, they soon discover that their greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.
Hedda
29 October 2025 – Prime Video
Writer and director Nia DaCosta has certainly had a very eclectic career thus far. After really making her mark with unexpectedly good horror revival Candyman, she then pivoted to the MCU for the criminally underrated The Marvels. And now DaCosta is hopping genres once more with Hedda, billed as “a provocative, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play”. Tessa Thompson stars in the title role of Hedda Tesman, a newlywed woman in early 20th century trapped in a boring marriage she did not seek and an overbearing house she doesn’t want. While torn between the lingering ache of a past forbidden love and the quiet suffocation of her present life, she finds all her long-repressed desires and hidden tensions suddenly erupt over the course of one charged night during a high-profile party.
RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
The Roses
Purchase: Apple TV – R200
Rental: Apple TV – R170
1989’s The War of the Roses (an adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name) is a black comedy classic starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a wealthy couple whose seemingly perfect marriage begins to fall apart, resulting in a messy divorce battle that pulls in everybody around them. The film was so popular in certain countries, that its title has become media shorthand for high-conflict divorce cases. So, I guess it was only a matter of time before we got a remake! The Roses stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose, a successful architect and acclaimed restaurateur, respectively, who met and fell in love ten years earlier in a storybook romance. A decade later though, now married with children, a sudden upheaval in their lives forces them into different roles, prompting the start of a no-holds-barred years-long rivalry between the two. That may not sound like the start of a comedy, but it is… Kind of. In his 6/10 review, Sam mentioned that despite Colman and Cumberbatch’s obvious talents, and the film very, very funny at times, director Jay Roach’s approach has “an inconsistent tone” which is “darkened by too many emotions”, resulting in “a black comedy that tickles the funny bone, but also bends it in an awkward direction.”
The Bad Guys 2
Purchase: Apple TV – R180
Rental: Apple TV – R45
I never paid much attention to the release of The Bad Guys, a 2022 Dreamworks Animation effort that was seemingly solid but not a grand commercial success. One day I happened to randomly see it playing on TV and remembered that it was actually well liked by critics and decided to watch it. And damn, if it wasn’t an absolute blast! So, of course when The Bad Guys 2 released in cinemas earlier this year, I… well, I actually embarrassingly missed it. If you’re an idiot like me, no worries though as you can now watch the sequel at home! The Bad Guys 2 brings back the crew of Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), a group of infamous criminals who in the first film pretended to have been reformed after being caught, only to genuinely find themselves wanting to do good instead of a life a crime. In the sequel though, the group had found themselves struggling to fit into society again given their checkered pasts. When one of them gets framed for a crime they didn’t commit, it starts a series of madcap events that will see the gang have to team up with an all-female criminal squad (voiced by Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, and Maria Bakalova) to perform one last heist before true retirement.