New movies to watch this weekend: See 'The Mongoose' and 'Everest: The Other Side' in theaters, rent or buy 'Verity,' stream 'Ali G: Who Iz I?' on Prime Video

Welcome to Trust Me, I Watch Everything , a weekly guide to notable new movies opening or becoming available each Friday.

It's a fairly slow week in theaters. Instead of some buzzy wide releases, we're getting a handful of smaller films, including Liam Neeson's The Mongoose and the IMAX-sized documentary Everest: The Other Side.

If you'd prefer a movie night at home, you can rent or buy the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, or check out Ridley Scott's post-apocalyptic drama The Dog Stars starring Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin.

Over on streaming services you're likely already paying for, Ali G: Who Iz I? makes its way from theaters to Prime Video, and Minions & Monsters is finally on Peacock.

Last but not least, it's Halloween weekend! I've rounded up 37 of my horror faves — some satisfyingly spooky, some truly sick — for those planning an at-home fright fest.

Why you should skip it: I've been known to enjoy my fair share of late-period Liam Neeson actioners, but this one is a real low-rent snoozefest.

Neeson plays a falsely accused war hero with nothing to lose as he leads police on an epic televised cross-country car chase. He's helped by members of his former Special Forces Army battalion (including Ving Rhames), and closely monitored by a fascinated public rooting for his safe getaway. Marisa Tomei stars as his ex-wife, and Michael Chiklis is the lead cop on his tail.

The problem isn't the performances — everybody is serviceable-to-good here — but the editing, clunky pacing and amateurish directing from first-time filmmaker (and Neeson's longtime stunt coordinator) Mark Vanselow. There are a lot of flashbacks and attempts to tie Neeson's PTSD into his current predicament.

It eventually becomes a story about people across the country watching the car chase on TV and learning about this guy's story, earning him grassroots support as the police chase him for a crime we'll learn about over the course of the film. This is the most interesting element of the movie, but it feels like it comes too late.

The movie is mostly Liam Neeson behind the wheel of a car, and while the use of real vehicles is worth praising, that's where the compliments begin and end. The stunt driving has its moments, but there aren't enough of them to recommend watching this.

As such, it's for Neeson completionists only.

What other critics are saying : They're not kind. Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies writes, "The makers of this chase movie clearly are more interested in the variety of vehicles they can play with than in any of the human characters in this story." Robert Kojder of Flickering Myth adds, "This isn't saying much given the track record of the past 10 years or so of Liam Neeson's filmography, but this is especially dull and dreadful even for his recent roles."

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

Why you should skip it: This allegedly inspirational documentary is described as an intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct north face of Mount Everest, the most difficult and dangerous climb on the mountain and the most coveted ski line on Earth. It's something only a handful have ever achieved, and no one has successfully skied down.

Maybe becoming a parent has softened me, but I found this movie borderline despicable. It treats a dangerous and stupid vanity project like skiing down Everest as if it were some important mission this couple simply had to do rather than a dumb thing no one should ever do, especially as parents with young kids. It's as if everybody is shocked when an avalanche occurs at the avalanche factory!

I just can't imagine finding this inspiring or anything but a horror show about people stuck in cycles of tragedy, and then engaging in more tragedy to make it mean something. I found it difficult to laud their efforts as an example of drive and persistence rather than, say, recklessness. What is presented as a tribute struck me as bone-chilling in retrospect, and the film feels overly reverent rather than digging into anything thorny. Cool shots of the mountains, though!

What other critics are saying : I'm in the minority on this one. AP's Jake Coyle says the movie "becomes a mournful and increasingly solitary march." I'm more with Variety's Guy Lodge , who writes, "To Morrison, as well as to the filmmakers, this awful backstory makes something cathartic of his accomplishment. Many in the audience, however, will query the point of it all."

How to watch: Everest: The Other Side is now playing in theaters nationwide .

Breeder : An ingenious premise and a terrific lead performance really make Breeder stand out from similar low-budget indie horror fare. An eccentric poodle breeder (Dot-Marie Jones) lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. He soon learns that there's a catch. The twist is best discovered in real time, so let's just say this woman is actually interested in breeding more than just animals. Get tickets .

My colleague Kelsey Weekman covered this one.

Why you should probably skip it: We can't talk about Verity the movie without first talking about Verity the book.

It's a novel by Colleen Hoover, the modern queen of WTF-romance who's also responsible for It Ends with Us. I really can't overstate her impact: She outsold the Bible in 2022 and built a pop-star-level fan army to become one of the few living authors considered a household name. Hoover's books, which are wildly popular on the bookish side of the internet, are soapy, emotional and — let's be honest — pretty bad. But that's what makes them delicious. And Verity is the most delicious of them all. It's a one-star book that offers a five-star reading experience.

In the film, Dakota Johnson plays a struggling novelist named Lowen who's hired to take over a popular series as a ghostwriter after its original author, Verity (Anne Hathaway), is incapacitated. Lowen moves into Verity's home, becomes entangled with Verity's husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) and uncovers Verity's disturbing autobiographical writing that may be evidence of a crime.

I found myself begging the cinematic gods that the movie version of Verity would feel just as ridiculous as the book. It's an erotic thriller that's heavy on bonkers plot points. For instance, it opens with Lowen witnessing a car crash and getting blood spattered all over her clothes right before an important meeting. Later, she bites her headboard at the exact same place Verity once left bite marks. No spoilers, but Verity is portrayed as so ghoulishly cruel toward her children that she might as well be a cartoon witch.

The movie preserves many of the book's wilder happenings, but Hoover's quirkily absurd writing style is extracted from the screen, which sucks the campiness right out of it. It's not bad enough to be good in a fun way, but it's also not good enough to be authentically good. Hathaway, in her fifth movie of the year , seems to be having the most fun. And I appreciated that it's likely the first movie to feature a Hot Ones interview as a major plot point.

I once gleefully watched videos about the book titled " Verity by Colleen Hoover is an unhinged dumpster fire. And that's an understatement." and " Verity by Colleen Hoover is literally the WORST book ever written". But I could never summon that much emotion to talk about the movie, which is ultimately just fine.

What other critics are saying: The ones who like it find it fun and campy , but the ones who don't went hard. "A flat-footed dud, at once overwrought and underplotted, and barely propped up by A-list stars who look either embarrassed, confused or indifferent to be there," Variety's Guy Lodge writes . TheWrap's Amelia Emberwing says Verity has its issues, but it "feels like the perfect movie to put on with your girlfriends."

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

Why you should skip it: Ridley Scott's post-apocalyptic "thriller" — I put that in quotes for a reason — is not the action-heavy sci-fi flick that the trailers are selling. To put it simply, The Dog Stars is a shockingly derivative work that audiences have seen before, and there's just not enough variation or anything unique done with the subject matter here to recommend it.

Based on the 2012 book of the same name , The Dog Stars is set in a world ravaged by a pandemic. A widowed man (a brooding Jacob Elordi) lives a lonesome existence in a Colorado airplane hangar with his dog and a dour gunman he has befriended (Josh Brolin). When a mysterious transmission comes over the radio while he's flying his old Cessna, it sparks a hunt for its source.

It's every bit as generic as that sounds, and there unfortunately aren't any real surprises along the way. Despite admirable work from the cast, it never fully grabs you. It's so dull that I found my mind wandering to the question of why anybody would make this particular movie in 2026. There are obvious COVID parallels, but the film doesn't do anything with them. It feels dated and so familiar that it constantly begs the question: why?!

The biggest problem with it is that it lacks propulsiveness, or any sort of energy, really, until it's far too late. There's some action and excitement in the third act, which is well-staged in typical Ridley Scott fashion, though it feels at odds with the more grounded, melancholic, character-focused drama that makes up the rest of the film. The script is the biggest issue here, as the characters come off as archetypes more than real people. Scott is a strong enough director that his contributions, including some stunning aerial photography, do impress even when the rest is boring you to tears.

The Dog Stars does come to life at a certain point toward the end of its punishing 2-hour runtime — an uncanny sequence with Allison Janney has more verve than the rest of them combined — but the rest is as forgettable as movies get.

What other critics are saying : It's getting brutal reviews. TheWrap's William Bibbiani writes, "There are way too many faults in these Stars . Woof." Monica Castillo at the AV Club adds, "This messy look at the end of the world isn't Scott's darkest film, but it's one of his worst misfires."

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

Ghost in the Cell : Indonesian genre filmmaker Joko Anwar ( Satan's Slaves, Impetigore) returns with a horror movie that leans more toward comedy, unafraid of going too silly and over-the-top. At a notorious prison, an invisible force begins killing inmates brutally, compelling enemy gangs and corrupt guards to work together as they try to survive the mounting bloodshed. It's probably the closest we'll ever come to an extremely R-rated Stephen Chow horror movie. The wackiness of Chow is there, but it's all filtered through insane gore and staged death scenes that feel straight out of the beloved Hannibal TV series. It's an ambitious soup that also functions as biting social commentary on government corruption, and there's even a plot-driven reason why these characters must dance. You've truly never seen anything quite like this one. Rent or buy .

Never After Dark : Fans of Japanese horror movies are in for a treat, as Never After Dark plays like an arthouse take on something like The Grudge . A traveling psychic who helps lost souls cross over encounters a powerful entity at a remote house. While investigating its origins, she uncovers dark secrets and faces a deadly threat from an unexpected source. The movie's approach to the spooky stuff is terrific — it really nails the balance between the supernatural and staying firmly grounded in reality. The main character is assisted by her sister, who died when they were young and is now forever a teenager in the spirit realm. It's just a really good ghost story, told with both care and gusto, and positively dripping with atmosphere. Mainstream American horror movies like The Conjuring and its sequels should aspire to be this good and tense. Rent or buy .

Forgotten Island : This new original animated movie from DreamWorks is beautifully designed and equally beautiful in its messaging about nostalgia and how you'll always have the memories of the ones you loved, no matter how far you drift apart in life. The movie itself is extremely busy and frenetic, jumping from one otherworldly character introduction to another as our leads traverse the titular forgotten island to which they've been magically transported. But it's laugh-out-loud funny throughout, and the bond between the two leads is so palpable that it all works in spite of its nonstop raucous energy. DreamWorks Animation is often thought of as "less than" Pixar; this movie feels like an attempt to hit the emotional highs that that studio is known for, and it works quite well. It's charming and sweet, and the characters learn important, bittersweet life lessons along the way. Rent or buy .

📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have

Why you should skip it: Ali G: Who Iz I? sees Sacha Baron Cohen return to a comedic character best left in the past, and that idea of his irrelevance in the modern era is the entire engine of the movie. Unfortunately, it lacks the laugh-out-loud antics of Borat , even though it does manage to deliver some of the same "holy crap" moments associated with Baron Cohen's 2018 Showtime satire series Who Is America?

After 20 years spent "chillin', tokin' and bonin'", Ali G (Baron Cohen) is surprised to discover that his long-term girlfriend, Julie, is eight months pregnant. Faced with an extra mouth to feed, he heads to America to reclaim his former glory, but soon encounters adversaries who will ultimately threaten his and his child's very existence.

In addition to Ali G, Baron Cohen also plays a couple of other characters, including Who Is America?' s Col. Erran Morad, a former Mossad agent, as well as the ultra-woke leftie Dr. Nira Cain-N'Degeocello, who becomes the butt of jokes about cultural appropriation.

It all comes off a bit stale and largely lacks the shocking "people reveal unflattering things about themselves" energy that makes Borat and even Bruno occasionally insightful. There is a section, however, that features Baron Cohen tricking a bunch of right-wing provocateurs into thinking they're committing crimes, and that bit feels more in line with what Who Is America? was all about.

Too much of the humor relies on a Baron Cohen character waltzing into a room and acting insane as the camera pans around to capture unsuspecting people's reactions. Saying provocative things in a room full of people who are not going to take kindly to it just feels cheap and lazy here, and the reactions aren't particularly compelling.

Ali G: Who Iz I? feels like it's trying to make the point that both sides of the political aisle are so extreme nowadays that everybody deserves to be made fun of equally. But that thesis doesn't exactly hold up even within the movie itself.

What other critics are saying : Most are negative, but there are some fans, like Nick Schager at the Daily Beast , who writes, "Despite its inherent limitations and more than a handful of easy-target gags, it's always mildly amusing — and, on a couple of memorable occasions, legitimately laugh-out-loud funny." TheWrap's Todd Gilchrist , however, writes, "Whether he's considered repugnant or delightful, Sacha Baron Cohen has always elicited a strong reaction. Ali G: Who Iz I? does not. After a quarter of a century pushing boundaries, that makes this his most offensive project yet."

How to watch: Ali G: Who Iz I? is now streaming on Prime Video .

Why you should watch it: This $5 billion franchise for children didn't have to make a feature-length love letter to making movies that's as full of references from the silent era and the Golden Age of Hollywood as it is to more modern allusions like Spielberg movies and a literal George Lucas cameo, but I'm glad they did. The nods to George Méliès, Citizen Kane, Metropolis and the antics of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd may be lost on your toddlers, but film critics, and hopefully parents at large, should appreciate them. The Minions are now the kings of Hollywood, and they're paying their respects.

Minions & Monsters, the third standalone Minions film, but seventh overall in the Despicable Me universe, tells the story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try to save the planet from the mayhem they had just created. It's Babylon for babies; those yellow guys are Singin' in the Rain !

As someone mostly aware of the Minions through pop culture osmosis rather than actually watching the previous films, I still found most of the jokes that involve shoving these creatures into cinema history to be clever, funny and kind of impressive. They work as slapstick for children, but have more value to the cinephile parents whose kids dragged them to the theater.

When the movie shifts gears to focus on the actual plot and the titular monsters that were promised, it's less engaging and more slapdash, but I doubt the intended audience of children will mind. There are a couple of off-color jokes that arguably go too far, including a beheading gag that was maybe a bit much for a movie that I took my 3-year-old to, but it's more confusing than upsetting. There are so many subplots that the throughline is hard to find, but those sequences serve a dual purpose in referencing the types of movies being paid homage to here.

As a former cinema studies major, Minions & Monsters played to my specific interests, and I appreciated that my kid and I could both have fun watching it. Since these movies inherently owe a debt to silent-era comedy, making that connection explicit within the film itself is meaningful and may even inspire kids to seek out the classics; nobody tell them the Minions don't appear! Between Minions & Monsters and Jackass: Best and Last , the legacy of Buster Keaton is alive and well.

What other critics are saying: Appealing to the film dorks paid off, as it's the best-reviewed entry in the series. Amy Nicholson of the Los Angeles Times writes, "I'll admit, I snorted the first time I saw a TikTok of teens gussied up in suits to see a Minions movie. But after watching Minions & Monsters make nods to Metropolis and Casablanca , I understand." Adds Damon Wise at Deadline : "The whole thing is an anarchic delirium reminiscent of the kind experienced by Bart and Milhouse after drinking an all-syrup Super Squishee; thankfully, the comedown is quick and relatively painless."

How to watch: Minions & Monsters is now streaming on Peacock .

Gentle Monster : Lea Seydoux is extraordinary in this disturbing drama about a woman discovering that her husband, the father of her child, is charged with possession of child sexual abuse material. Filmmaker Marie Kreutzer expands the scope of the film as we follow the female police officer assigned to the case and see the troubles she herself is having with her aging father. The film seems to suggest that there's no such thing as a "good man" and that monstrous, evil behavior can lurk in both the most unexpected places and the most normal-seeming people. It reminded me a bit of You Can See Everything, the movie of the moment, in that it's ultimately about the unknowability of others. It's an unsettling and uncomfortable viewing experience. Now streaming on Netflix.

That's all for this week! We'll see you next Friday.

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