New movies to watch this weekend: See 'Godzilla Minus Zero' and 'Wild Horse Nine' in theaters, rent or buy 'Resident Evil,' stream 'Carolina Caroline' on Netflix

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

It's a busy week in theaters! Godzilla Minus Zero, the highly anticipated sequel to Japan's Godzilla Minus One, debuts nationwide in the U.S. alongside Wild Horse Nine, an Oscar player starring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich ( read our interview with the stars here ). I Play Rocky also debuts in select theaters ahead of a wider release in a few weeks.

If you'd prefer a movie night at home, you can rent or buy Zach Cregger's smash-hit Resident Evil, or the Chris Hansen/ To Catch a Predator movie Primetime.

Over on streaming services you're likely already paying for, Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner will charm you in Carolina Caroline, now on Netflix, and Super Troopers 3 debuts on Hulu.

The buzziest release: Godzilla Minus Zero

Why you should see it: Godzilla Minus One, a Japanese-made Godzilla flick, became an unexpected global smash hit following its 2023 debut. Its melodramatic story of a Japanese fighter pilot brought an almost arthouse sensibility to what would otherwise have been a blockbuster monster-movie spectacle.

The sequel Godzilla Minus Zero doubles down on these elements. While the human melodrama unfortunately overwhelms this time, the movie still delivers the jaw-dropping action and destruction where it matters in big, exciting ways.

Minus Zero sports an R rating, the first in the franchise's 72-year history, and there's a new level of brutality to the violence here that really stresses the " Godzilla movies are metaphors about nuclear war and the atomic bomb" of it all. The movie is very much about the trauma a population faces following a war, which manifests in several ways.

Two years have passed since the events of Minus One , and Japan has faced agonizing struggles to recover and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity has managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant.

The movie opens with the introduction of a new monster — other critics have revealed this, but I found it best left unspoiled — and that first set piece rocks. This new monster becomes the centerpiece of the film's best sequence, an aerial dogfight between kaiju and humans in airplanes.

Whenever the movie isn't in blockbuster action-sequence mode, however, it slows down to the point where you'll likely be checking your watch. There's a new complication in the mix involving a survivor of a past Godzilla attack, and I'm not sure the movie properly explores it. There's another character who lost his wife and kid to a Godzilla attack, though, which leads to a memorable NYC-set dream sequence. I found that imagery unforgettable and its ideas about revenge potent.

Godzilla Minus Zero may not feature quite enough Godzilla for some of the lizard's most diehard fans, but its exploration of big ideas similar to those explored in Chris Nolan's Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer does still render it far more impactful than your average giant monster movie.

What other critics are saying : It's getting good reviews, mostly, but they all have caveats like mine. The AV Club's Matt Schimkowitz writes that it's "not a bad movie, and it's an above-average Godzilla film. But it's also a different type of throwback, one that recalls the days when you wouldn't be roared at for checking your watch during the human scenes." The Associated Press's Jake Coyle was even less enthusiastic, writing, "If every Godzilla film is building toward its finale, Minus Zero doesn't stick the landing."

How to watch: Godzilla Minus Zero is now playing in theaters nationwide .

The expected Oscar darling: Wild Horse Nine

Why you should see it: What Wild Horse Nine lacks in originality it more than makes up for with its nasty sense of humor and soulful reflection of a man facing the end of his life and attempting to find meaning in it.

Martin McDonagh, the beloved Irish filmmaker whose previous efforts have earned several Oscar nominations, from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to The Banshees of Inisherin, returns to familiar territory here. The premise itself sounds identical to the setup for his debut, 2008's In Bruges, a personal favorite of mine that stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen lying low after a tough job.

Wild Horse Nine follows CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) as they are dispatched to Easter Island shortly before the coup in Chile in 1973. As the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris's newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone's trip on this remote paradise sideways.

By setting the movie against the backdrop of very real historical events, McDonagh adds a layer of social commentary and critique about American interventionism abroad. At the same time, the movie is laugh-out-loud hysterical throughout, full of the sardonic wit and cracking dialogue for which McDonagh is known. Most of the laughs come from the bickering between Rockwell and Malkovich, both of whom are Oscar-worthy. Malkovich's lack of discretion, such as when he openly discusses staging military coups to anyone within earshot, is particularly funny. There's a running gag involving Steve Buscemi's character that has a terrific and very silly payoff.

Wild Horse Nine might not bring a litany of new ideas to the table, but it engages with old ones in ways that are both entertaining and thought-provoking.

What other critics are saying : It's well-reviewed! Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times writes, "Only classic screwball comedians have delivered dialogue as blithely as Malkovich does here, with zingers that float off unburdened by the heaviness of the real world." Kristy Puchko at Mashable , meanwhile, says that the film is "deepened by its repetition," citing connections to its stars' previous roles.

How to watch: Wild Horse Nine is now playing in theaters nationwide .

Why you should see it: Anthony Ippolito's performance as Sylvester Stallone is so uncanny, there are a few shots in the film where your mind actually tricks you into believing you're watching archival footage of Stallone making Rocky. Stallone's manner of speaking and entire persona are so distinctive that a sustained impersonation shouldn't work, but Ippolito sells it so well, it's not a problem at all.

Rocky is one of the greatest and most rousing crowd-pleasing underdog stories of all time, so making a movie about it is kind of a cheat code already . But what really makes it sing is that Stallone's journey of getting Rocky — and himself — on the big screen is an underdog story of its own.

The movie starts with Stallone calling himself Mike, despite his real name being Sylvester. He's an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn't just meant to write Rocky — he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told "no" at every turn, Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds.

Much of the movie's drive comes from the negotiations with the studio, which is doing everything in its power to make Rocky without Stallone in the lead role, while the actor remains indignant, saying he won't let them. Everyone thinks he's a madman, but it's that belief in himself and his refusal to give up on his dream that make the movie so affecting and effective. There's a poetic poignancy here, even if the movie gets a little repetitive with the back-and-forth of "this guy won't play Rocky" and "this guy must play Rocky."

Ultimately, Ippolito sells the hell out of it. It's charming!

What other critics are saying : They like it! David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter writes, "The element that holds the movie together is Ippolito, who nails the garbled, rumbling diction, hangdog expression and hulking physicality of Stallone while never losing sight of his insecurities at this unproven point in his career." Variety's Owen Gleiberman writes, "The pleasure of I Play Rocky is that it understands the karmic way in which the story of Rocky — the underdog who triumphs against all odds — was echoed in the saga of how Stallone got the movie off the ground."

How to watch: I Play Rocky is now playing in select theaters before expanding on Nov. 20.

Cat in the Hat : There's "doing too much," and then there's this. This new adaptation of the 1957 Dr. Seuss classic adds so much lore and so many complications that it barely resembles the very simple story upon which it's based. The film immediately sets up a Monsters, Inc. -like world in which Seussian creatures like the Cat in the Hat are assigned to bored children to help them have a nice day. He ends up being assigned to siblings Gabby and Sebastian as they adjust to life in a new town. Known for pushing boundaries, the Cat in the Hat is an agent of chaos who must prove himself or risk losing his magical hat forever. It's incredibly busy and borrows from several kids' flicks, never settling on a single energy. Get tickets .

Jimmy : KJ Apa, Archie on the TV series Riverdale, is excellent as Jimmy Stewart in this movie, which tells the story of an actor's life that didn't get as much attention as his movie stardom. It's far more about his time in the U.S. military and how, despite the Hollywood system begging him to use his celebrity to get out of serving, Stewart felt compelled to fight for his country anyway, movie career be damned. I do wish the movie spent more time on the Hollywood stuff, but there's always room for a sequel, I suppose. Get tickets .

Why you should watch it: There have already been seven Resident Evil movies — six of them in a more action-oriented series starring Milla Jovovich, four of which were directed by her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, plus an unrelated "reboot" in 2021 called Welcome to Raccoon City that went for more of a John Carpenter vibe and was more of an attempt to truly "adapt" the games. There's also a Netflix TV show version that ran for a single season in 2022. Countless other works in the horror genre have unofficially cribbed from the Resident Evil games over the years. It's an incredibly influential series.

And yet, Zach Cregger, hot off his Oscar-winning original horror film Weapons, is the first filmmaker to truly feel like he's adapting the experience of playing the games, arguably the scariest survival-horror ones ever made, rather than simply incorporating story and plot elements to explain the outbreak of infected people. In Cregger's hands, Resident Evil is pure crowd-pleasing popcorn cinema, best experienced in a packed movie theater with dozens of other people reacting loudly to the madness.

The premise couldn't be simpler — and the runtime a brisk 90 minutes — as we follow a medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams, proving himself to be the Bruce Campbell for a new generation) who unwittingly finds himself fighting for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in a swirl of chaos. Fans of the video games will recognize various Easter eggs and nods to game mechanics, including the importance of conserving ammo and checking every last drawer for more of it.

But you don't need to be familiar with the games at all to enjoy the movie, which is an efficient horror set-piece machine that just keeps putting Abrams in increasingly concerning situations. I can't stress enough how much this is a one-man show anchored by Abrams, and he crushes it. He's in every scene, earning tons of laughs simply by reacting as a normal person would in this situation; he's a true audience-surrogate character, ushering us through the chaos. His comedic timing, paired with Cregger's assured camerawork and editing, is a match made in genre-movie heaven.

I didn't expect it to be so heavily inspired by genre classics like The Thing and Evil Dead. In fact, it's a better Evil Dead movie than the last several movies with " Evil Dead " in the title, nailing the horror-comedy tone that only Sam Raimi and a few others can pull off with aplomb. Cregger has a ton of fun with the various monstrous forms that the infected take here, from fusing multiple humans together to crafting his own horror take on a big, scary guy like Dune 's Baron Harkonnen. Resident Evil movies have thus far treated the zombies as pretty traditional movie zombies; Cregger's version gets at the attempt to create the next stage of human evolution.

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil may not feature characters that gaming fans recognize, but it's spiritually more in line with the games than any of the ones that do. Adaptation stuff aside, it's also just a heart-pounding, adrenaline-fueled roller-coaster ride of a movie that has no grander ambitions than getting a rise out of the audience over and over again. It's a blast, and this time, you can't pause it, put your controller down and walk away when things get too intense.

What other critics are saying: The previous seven installments were panned by critics every time; the opposite is true here, as Cregger's take sports a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey writes, "It feels thoroughly like a film by Zach Cregger ... proving that subtle, psychological work isn't always the superior horror when you have a filmmaker who can deliver a jump scare shock with this much elegant panache." Jesse Hassenger at the Guardian writes, " Resident Evil has a streamlined single-mindedness, and as it barrels through its gamified plot, the tension and entertainment value never flag."

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

Why you should watch it: Primetime is the first narrative feature from documentarian Lance Oppenheim (the codirector of Nathan Fielder's You Can See Everything ). It functions best as a companion piece to last year's must-see documentary, David Osit's Predators, which I reviewed here and called a thought-provoking, bleakly hilarious look at our nation's unhealthy obsession with true crime as entertainment.

That description works just as well as a summation of Primetime ; both films are about the early-2000s NBC series To Catch a Predator, a spinoff of Dateline hosted by Chris Hansen, and the exploitative nature of the show despite its "good for society" intention of catching, publicly shaming, and arresting real-life pedophiles.

Primetime follows Hansen, as played by Robert Pattinson, in a disturbing, mannered, over-the-top caricature of a performance that works extremely well in this context. Hansen sets out to make television history by turning his undercover investigation into one of the decade's most controversial cultural phenomena, not to mention a hit show that rivaled big-budget entertainment like Lost in the ratings.

That's just one element of the plot, though, as we also follow one of the actors who plays the decoy children used as bait; Skyler Gisondo is terrific as the naive up-and-coming actor seeking his big break and finding it on To Catch a Predator. We also spend a lot of time with the show's producer, played by Merritt Wever, who seems to revel in the lurid excitement of it all despite the potential dangers.

Hansen himself, as depicted here, is both self-aggrandizing and self-loathing, and eventually becomes troubled by the impact of his work . "What would have happened if I wasn't here?" starts as something he tells a guy ensnared in the show and morphs into an acknowledgment of culpability. When a man recognizes him on an airplane and thanks him for his work, adding, "I don't know how you do it, I'd kill those guys with my bare hands," Hansen responds, "I think what I do is worse."

It really can't be stressed enough how unbelievably good Pattinson is — there's a multifacetedness to the performance that really gets at Hansen's contradictions, especially in the way he presents himself on television vs. how he acts in private. It's a performance of a character who's constantly performing; Pattinson makes you laugh and makes you uneasy, often in the same sequence.

Primetime is clever in how it gets at its messaging; there's a sequence that unfolds as if Hansen is grooming Gisondo's character to take advantage of him, much like the titular predators would with a child they target. But the documentary Predators threads the needle way more effectively on the idea of the inherent exploitation of "if it bleeds, it leads"-style salaciousness as entertainment, whereas the movie's subtle gestures at the same ideas just don't hit as hard.

The section of the documentary that focuses on YouTubers who have taken it upon themselves to mete out vigilante justice in the name of the program contains some of the most enlightening and upsetting material, and none of it makes it into this movie. And that's fine — they have different narrative goals — but Predators just feels like it tells a fuller story. Primetime's limited scope, however, allows it to go all in on Hansen in a way that's nightmarish and unsettling.

The movie is also a darkly hilarious time capsule of the Bush-era "you're either with us or with the bad guys" mentality, connecting the period's broader cultural and political landscape to the vigilante justice craze. Gisondo's arc is also one of the darker A Star Is Born- style narratives about what it takes to make it in the industry. The film is quite beautifully made, featuring various era-appropriate video formats whose grit adds to its intentionally grimy quality, as if you're watching a found VHS tape from some nightmare world.

Primetime is an incredibly well-acted movie full of memorable performances — I haven't stopped repeating Wever's frantic line of "Puca shells? No puca shells?" — that gets at the incongruity between sensationalist exploitation and need-to-know news. It's a movie about the kind of person you need to be to succeed in an unethical world, and how people like that make the world more unethical as they succeed. It may tread familiar ground, but it does so bombastically enough to entertain and is thought-provoking all the same. It brings up a lot of uncomfortable questions and contradictions that don't have easy answers.

What other critics are saying: It's getting rave reviews, but is not without its detractors. Rolling Stone's David Fear writes, " Primetime recounts how this show didn't create a sense of collective bloodlust; it just rode a wave that was already there. Then it tells us we're free to go, knowing what awaits us right outside the front door." Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times , however, found it to be too much, writing, "There's not a single shot of a healthy human being in the movie, only wraiths filmed in sickly shades of pink, red and blue."

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

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: Mahershala Ali is terrific in this movie about a devoutly religious hit man struggling to balance work, faith and fatherhood. After his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children as he confronts the forces that are closing in around him. John Cho also stands out as the scenery-chewing villain. Rent or buy .

The History of Concrete: John Wilson of HBO's beloved docuseries How To With John Wilson makes his feature debut with this hilarious, idiosyncratic and totally on-brand documentary that's ostensibly about, well, the history of concrete. But in the process, it's really about the human experience. It's not as pretentious and lofty as that sounds — in fact, it's as hysterical as it is insightful and purely fascinating. Wilson's fans are in for a treat, as it plays pretty much identically to his series, though it does gesture toward some deeper, perhaps darker, revelations about society. (You may find yourself wondering, "What do Chef Boyardee, or a guy who hands out free booze at liquor stores, have to do with the idea here?") But in a uniquely John Wilsonian fashion, it all feels quite revelatory and makes perfect sense by the end. It works great as an introduction to his sensibilities as a documentarian for newcomers and functions just as well as an expansion of his television work for those familiar. Rent or buy .

Sense and Sensibility : A new take on Jane Austen's iconic novel, this is a charming, witty and deeply relatable story of love and sisterhood starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles . Rent or buy .

📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have

Why you should see it: Remember back in the '90s when it seemed like every indie movie was about lovers on the run? Carolina Caroline is such a strong entry into this particular canon that you'll be hoping it spurs another wave of 'em.

In this sexy crime romance, a young woman (Samara Weaving), desperate to leave her small town, runs away with a charming con man (Kyle Gallner) and embarks on a crime-and-passion-filled journey through the Southeast to find her estranged mother. It feels indebted to Badlands and Natural Born Killers as much as to Bonnie and Clyde. T here's also the added element of a con and the act of teaching someone how to pull it off, reminiscent of Will Smith and Margot Robbie's Focus, to name a fairly recent example.

Carolina Caroline may be the best showcase of Weaving, who has thus far largely played scream queens in horror movies but rarely gets to show her true range. I've repeatedly praised her work in dozens of extremely bad genre movies, with my usual refrain being that she is always the best thing about them. She's generally far better than the movies she appears in; Carolina Caroline may be the first one that feels worthy of her talent.

That's not to shortchange Gallner, who is every bit as good as Weaving here. He's another actor who's been quietly racking up credits for decades — his first was 2001's Wet Hot American Summer — and found himself doing great work in genre fare, often in character-actor-type smaller roles. He's wonderful in a lead role here, equal parts charming and menacing.

Carolina Caroline works because its central romance does. It's electric stuff, and you feel it. The pitch-perfect country-western soundtrack helps with that too. It's an engaging, engrossing crime thriller that's full of tension. Don't miss this indie gem!

What other critics are saying: They like it! Vikram Murthi at the AV Club writes, "Both Weaving and Gallner excel playing distressed criminals who feel the heat on their tail, but the way that distress curdles into shared heartbreak and grief as they slowly reach clarity draws serious blood." Variety's Guy Lodge correctly points out that the two leads should be bigger stars, writing, "Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner, two fine actors rarely granted the glow that comes with a proper star vehicle, positively bask in it here; together, they give a potentially standard film an active heart rate."

How to watch: Carolina Caroline is now streaming on Netflix .

Why you should see it: There was a 17-year gap between the original Super Troopers and its crowdfunded sequel, which is so forgettable that I barely remember it, other than as a massive disappointment.

Fans of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe didn't have to wait that long for another bite at the apple, though, as another sequel is here. Luckily, it's a major improvement on 2018's Super Troopers 2. When Farva's over-the-top Indian engagement to Thorny's sister spirals into chaos, the Super Troopers must navigate Thorny's schemes to break up the relationship, all while trying to bring down a pernicious new drug ring.

It goes for broad, cheap laughs and only sometimes works; every lazy reference to now-iconic jokes from the original is eye-roll-worthy. But there's a lot that did make me laugh in here, including some out-of-left-field Star Wars- inspired silliness in the final act. I found that it got better as it went along, and really won me over by the end.

What other critics are saying: Most were not as kind as I was. TheWrap's William Bibbiani writes, "If all you want is to see these lovable goofballs again, you'd be better served watching the first two Super Troopers movies and reliving their good old days. Those films are still mostly funny and the new days aren't so good." Jesse Hassenger at the AV Club , however, was more on board: "As with its predecessors, ramshackle high spirits carry Super Troopers 3 through its less inspired patches, and toward the group's more charming comic tastes."

How to watch: Super Troopers 3 is now streaming on Hulu .

The Uprising : This perfectly serviceable but rather dull historical action film is overtly political and doesn't have to tie itself in knots to make connections between the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England and how wealth and power function today. It's not subtle about it; the rebelling commoners are at one point referred to as "deplorables." Andrew Garfield plays the leader of a ferocious rebellion against the tyranny of King Richard II, forming an army of the people to face the king's might in a fight for justice. The most interesting thing about this movie is, unfortunately, extratextual, as the U.S. marketing pivoted late in the game to calling it The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood. It also emphasized that the film was "set against the true events of the uprising that helped inspire the legend of Robin Hood," even as the non-U.S. marketing departments insisted that it was not, in fact, about Robin Hood. I can confirm, dear reader, that the movie does, in fact, pivot to a stealth origin story for Robin Hood eventually, much like it unfolded in the press: at the absolute last minute! It's far more compelling as a movie about the Peasants' Revolt than as a Robin Hood picture, and that's without getting into the muddying of timelines for those who care about historical accuracy. Now streaming on Peacock .

Motor City : A compilation mixtape in search of a movie, Motor City is an almost entirely wordless action movie that assumes audiences will be happy with bare-minimum plotting as long as a song they enjoy is playing. In 1970s Detroit, John Miller ( Alan Ritchson ) falls for a local gangster's girl and lands in prison for a crime he didn't commit. With his life ruined, Miller plots revenge against the man who took his girl away. There's a scene early on that just plays the entirety of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," a four-and-a-half-minute song, over a slow-motion action scene. It's so incredibly labored that the audience I saw it with was laughing at the movie, not with it. Every scene is unnecessarily stretched out in similar ways, and you feel every second. It's gimmicky BS, frankly, that flattens the material into the most generic version of itself possible in an attempt to be different. Now streaming on AMC+ .

Making Marie Antoinette : This lovely and deeply personal film is far more than a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette . What makes it so special is that it's compiled from incredible on-set footage shot by Coppola's late mother, Eleanor. The Coppola matriarch's notes and observations from the time come alive via narration from actor Diane Lane, providing rare insight into the famous family and their artistic process. You can actually feel Eleanor's pride in her daughter beaming off the screen, and it's infectious. You also get to see Coppola leading a massive production as a young, relatively inexperienced female filmmaker, with sequences that showcase her struggle to realize her artistic vision amid various challenges, including male crew members who often think they know better. It's fascinating, insightful and just an incredibly moving work of art about a mother's admiration for her daughter. Now streaming on Mubi .

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.