Ares,’ stream ‘Jay Kelly’ on Netflix

Hello, Yahoo readers! My name is Brett Arnold, film critic and host of Roger & Me, a weekly Siskel & Ebert-style movie review show, and I’m back with another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything.

There are several new options in theaters this weekend, including Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, the previously never-released original vision of the film that unites both volumes and adds, subtracts and remixes some sequences. There’s also a Downton Abbey parody called Fackham Hall that’s got a lot of laughs.

At home, you can rent or buy Angel Studios’ Truth & Treason and Disney’s Tron: Ares.

And on the streaming services you’re likely already paying for, there’s a new movie starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler on Netflix, while the latest (and allegedly final) entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise hits Paramount+, at long last.

Read on, because there are more, and there’s always something for everyone!

🎥 What to watch in theaters

My recommendation: Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

Why you should see it: It took well over 20 years, but Quentin Tarantino fans across the nation can finally see Kill Bill the way it was always meant to be seen: as a single, nearly four-and-a-half-hour experience.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2006, but has been a rare object of obsession for cinephiles ever since Harvey Weinstein persuaded Tarantino to split it into two parts for commercial reasons.

That print from the Cannes festival, complete with French subtitles, already plays fairly regularly at one of Quentin Tarantino’s movie theaters in Los Angeles, but now is the first time that the filmmaker’s original vision is available to the masses. And it’s every bit as glorious as fans of the film have hoped for, and a perfect way for a new generation of moviegoers to discover it.

In the film, Quentin Tarantino’s fourth feature, a former assassin (Uma Thurman) wakes up from a coma after her former boss and lover, Bill (David Carradine), shoots her in the head and steals her unborn child during her wedding rehearsal. She soon embarks on a bloody quest for revenge, hunting down members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad before confronting Bill himself.

The differences in this version are minuscule but deeply impactful. The moment it would have transitioned from Vol. 1 to Vol. 2 has some extended dialogue as well as an entire scene, and another limb, excised, and a major reveal meant to entice audiences to return is now saved for the climactic final act, which is certainly way more effective.

The legendary House of Blue Leaves sequence in which The Bride faces off against the Crazy 88, famously rendered black-and-white to secure an R-rating due to how over-the-top and bloody it was, is now in full color and extended, including some of the goriest bits that were previously cut. The animated sequence depicting O-Ren Ishii’s past now has an extra scene — and it’s killer.

The most striking thing about watching the film in one sitting is Uma Thurman’s outstanding performance, which was completely ignored by the Academy both years the films were eligible. Had they been released as one as originally intended, it’s hard to imagine Thurman not earning a nomination. It’s such a commanding movie-making turn that the lack of a nomination and the trajectory of her career post-Kill Bill really smarts; had Oscar voters seen it uninterrupted, it might’ve been a different story.

Watching Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair in a movie theater in the year 2025 is a transcendent experience. In the context of his filmography, Kill Bill stands out as possibly the most quintessentially Tarantino film, as it feels the most steeped in all of his various influences, synthesizing them into something new and entirely unique and exhilarating. It’s the total package as far as cinematic experiences go, complete with one of the most memorable and brilliantly curated soundtracks of all time and some of the most electric filmmaking of his entire career.

It’s probably unfair to other movies that came out this year, but my new favorite movie of 2025 may be the one from 2003.

What other critics are saying: They say: Go see it! Sean Burns at WBUR hilariously sums it up nicely: “Kill Bill is electrifying, frustrating, revealing, impeccably crafted and about as thrillingly, embarrassingly self-indulgent as one might expect from a prodigiously gifted, grown adult man given seemingly limitless resources to make a four-and-a-half-hour movie about a team of sexy female assassins named after poisonous snakes.” And Mark Dujsik of MarkReviewsMovies.com says it took 22 years, but it was worth the wait.

How to watch: Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is now in theaters nationwide

Get tickets

Bonus recommendation: Fackham Hall

Why you should see it: If this year’s remake of The Naked Gun had you wishing for a full-on resurgence of spoof and parody films, Fackham Hall is here to answer your prayers. Go ahead and say the title out loud if you want to understand the type of humor the movie’s after.

In this very specific yet entirely broad comedy that’s meant to send up traditional period dramas such as Downton Abbey, a new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known British family. The Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, is also dealing with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin. Familiar faces such as Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston and Thomasin McKenzie earn lots of laughs.

The film is completely silly and falls into the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker, aka Airplane and Top Secret!, mold of delivering a joke every few seconds. There’s such a wide breadth of gags here, you’ll be chuckling over the wordplay and miss another hilarious reference to a real-life person or pop culture item. There are running gags, there are sight gags … you name a type of stupid joke, and this movie’s got it.

Your mileage will certainly vary depending on your tolerance for both British humor and, frankly, dumb humor. But I found myself laughing out loud far more than expected.

What other critics are saying: Reviews are mixed-positive. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter says it’s “unlikely to enter the pantheon of great movie spoofs. But it offers sufficient laughs to amuse Downton Abbey fans,” though Matt Hambridge at FandomWire.com calls it a chore to get through. Comedy is subjective, after all!

How to watch: Fackham Hall is now in theaters nationwide.

Get tickets

But that’s not all …

Bear and blue rabbit from Five Nights at Freddy's 2 — *Five Nights at Freddy’s 2*. (Universal/Everett Collection)

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2: This sequel to the wildly successful but also critically maligned Five Nights at Freddy’s is as inert as the original. It’s an adaptation of a video game whose mechanics simply don’t translate particularly well to the screen, and both films are deadly in terms of backstory. Sadly, it’s even worse in terms of scares and nearly devoid of laughs despite some cheap attempts. This series is decidedly not for me or my generation, but it’s hard to imagine what fans of the property will get out of this one, which feels like it’s constantly teasing you with what must be Easter Eggs for fans of the game and planting seeds for future movies. Hopefully, it will end here, but if it makes anywhere near the amount of money that the original did, pack your bags for another five nights. Get tickets.
Merrily We Roll Along: Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez star in this filmed Broadway production of the Sondheim musical. Spanning the decades, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends — writer Mary and lyricist and playwright Charley. It’s a great show, and the camerawork and editing of this pro-shot film allow the director to better emphasize key moments. If only we got filmed versions of Broadway shows more often! Get tickets.

💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy

My recommendation: Truth & Treason

Why you should see it: The latest effort from Angel Studios is an inspiring and thrilling story of a group of teenagers in Nazi Germany who dared to defy the regime and expose the truth of Hitler’s evils.

Based on a true story, the film depicts 16-year-old Helmuth Hübener as he forms a resistance group with friends Karl and Rudi after his Jewish friend’s arrest by Nazis. Their brave actions lead them to a trial in Nazi Germany’s highest court.

It’s a very well-made and well-performed film about following your convictions and doing what’s right, no matter how massive and institutional the obstacles are, and how it takes young people who still have this fight in them to do it. It’s a rousing and inspiring look at how it might not be easy to affect change, but standing up to oppressive systems is imperative for the world to be a place for everyone to thrive.

Bizarrely enough, Truth & Treason is now also available in limited series form, with added sequences that extend the runtime, but the movie is what was viewed for this review.

What other critics are saying: Reviews are mixed on this one. Variety’s Murtada Elfadi writes, “Matthew Whitaker’s film never surprises at any point during its running time, failing to add any singular artistic flair. While telling a compelling story, it plays like so many other films about that dark time in not-so-distant European history.” The Observer’s Rex Reed, however, calls it a sobering drama about the youngest victims of the Third Reich’s brutality.

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

Watch on Apple TV

Bonus not-quite-a-recommendation: Tron: Ares

Why you should maybe wait for Disney+: Movies have changed quite a bit since Tron debuted in 1982. Its vision of the digital world, accomplished via a combination of very early computer effects and practical means, was once an incredible, ahead-of-its-time spectacle to behold. Now, damn near every movie of this size takes place in a computer-generated digital world!

2010’s Tron: Legacy was Disney’s attempt to turn a cult item into a franchise, and if the 15-year gap between the second and third movie is any indication, it didn’t exactly succeed. The most memorable element of that first sequel is that beloved, elusive electronic music duo Daft Punk did the score, which became a centerpiece of the marketing campaign.

Disney ran that playbook back here, recruiting Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails to provide the propulsive, penetrating music that loudly blankets the entire film. If you view the entire project as a visual NIN album, it actually works fairly well. It has a striking look, and the new music rocks, making clear that the band didn’t compromise its sound in any way. It’s when you factor in the actual story and plotting where things go a bit sideways.

In Tron: Ares, a highly sophisticated program called Ares is sent from the digital world of the Grid into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with AI beings.

Jared Leto stars as Ares, and he may get top billing here, but the true star is the color red. Leto turns in an absolutely lifeless performance, though I guess he has plausible deniability since he’s playing a robot. It’s an uninspired take on an artificial being, which brings me to the movie’s next problem: it’s completely derivative.

It’s a movie about evil corporations creating nonhuman super-soldiers, which is not a new or particularly interesting idea, regardless of its relevance to our current society’s recent shift toward AI. There’s an evil CEO who wants to use AI as a weapon, and a good CEO who wants to use it to 3D-print trees and solve all the world’s problems.

It’s essentially one long chase scene as Leto’s digital creation is let loose in the real world; the influence of the Terminator films is deeply felt. When the movie is in the Grid, it has style and looks great, but whenever we cut to the Tron elements on Earth, it does not. Taking lightcycles outside the Grid is a fundamental misunderstanding of what these movies are, which is, to quote Jeff Bridges’s character in Legacy, “biodigital jazz, man!”

Tron: Ares is a familiar affair despite its franchise’s totally specific and unique trappings, as our world has essentially caught up with the world of the film. I left thinking: The Tron movies walked so The Matrix movies could run, as far as movies with computer programs running around are concerned.

What other critics are saying: Reviews are not super-encouraging. Fred Topel at UPI writes, “There is a bit of retro fan service near the end of the film that suggests what could actually make Tron awesome now, but it’s too little too late.” Variety’s Peter Debruge adds, “whereas the original 1982 Disney film on which it was based felt ahead of its time … [the] latest attempt to franchise-ify the Tron brand reads mostly as an exercise in nostalgia.”

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

Watch on Apple TV

📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have

My recommendation: Jay Kelly

Why you should watch it: The latest film from Noah Baumbach is less a celebration of movie stars and the art of moviemaking than it appears, and more an acidic, introspective and far more interesting character study of a George Clooney-esque movie star that aims to show how hollow life at the top can be.

George Clooney stars as the titular Jay Kelly, a successful actor very much modeled after Clooney himself, a meta detail that adds poignancy if you care to view it in such a way. The famous movie star and his devoted manager, Ron (Adam Sandler), embark on a journey through Europe. Along the way, both men confront the choices they’ve made, relationships with loved ones and the legacies they’ll leave behind.

It’s a deeply sad treatise on the art form that is cinema and the people who make films happen. It’s less a love letter, and more an examination of, “Was it worth it, and what was it all for?” for the stars at the center of them. (Was it worth it to do that movie in another country and be away while your kids were in their formative years?) It’s a movie seeking answers on what’s truly important in life, and recognizing the transactional nature of what’s not.

I appreciated that Baumbach gets at the pluses of movies — it’s not pure vanity; art can help the viewer comprehend their own feelings, which has value, in addition to being an art form — and the inherent minuses, like how this is often achieved at the direct expense of those closest to a famous movie star. It’s fascinating to watch after the recent Ben Stiller documentary, in which he discovers he’s abandoning his own children to pursue his art.

A key line from the film is, “All my memories are movies,” a very real sentiment that surely rings true for many cinephiles and not just the people that make them. Baumbach expertly weaves that idea into the very structure of the film. I personally can’t recall details of actual “important” moments in my own life, but can tell you exactly where I sat, and at what theater I saw, damn near every movie I’ve ever seen. It also does a great job of showing how artists put things in their work that they’re incapable of communicating in real life. It’s sentimental in a way that ultimately really choked me up.

Jay Kelly is a melancholic experience, to be sure, but also features some of the best work of both George Clooney’s and Adam Sandler’s storied careers, and terrific supporting turns from the likes of Billy Crudup and Laura Dern. By the time the final sequence and perfect last line hit, I was a mess. The power of the movies!

What other critics are saying: It’s getting mostly great marks: Rolling Stone’s David Fear says it “makes the most of the star power at the center of it.” But Nick Schager at the Daily Beast wasn’t moved, saying it “mistakenly assumes that the woe-is-me routines of the rich and famous are the stuff of great drama.”

How to watch: Jay Kelly is now streaming on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix

My bonus recommendation: Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

Why you should watch it: The alleged final film in Tom Cruise’s long-running franchise is probably the weakest of the bunch. But considering the highs of the series and that there’s not a truly bad entry among them, it’s barely an insult. Even the “worst” Mission: Impossible is better than most other blockbusters at this scale, and there’s simply no other actor on the planet doing the kind of stunts that Cruise pulls off. Final Reckoning may even sport the most jaw-dropping moment of them all, teased in the trailer above.

It’s a movie of high highs and low lows. When it came out in theaters, I wrote that those peaks are so satisfying to watch that they almost make you forget that the first hour of this movie is all montage and exposition.

It also falls into the same trap as the previous entry in trying to add legacy sequel elements and clumsily tie all 29 years of movies together, which provides some comedic moments that likely weren’t intended to be funny. There is a payoff to a throwaway line of dialogue from the very first installment here that’s such a great gag, it won me over. Don’t even get me started on the real-life metaphor of it all!

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is overstuffed and too long, but delivers where it counts. If you missed it in theaters, you can now watch Cruise defy death from the safety and comfort of your couch.

What other critics are saying: Critics lean positive but are pretty mixed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%. Lindsey Bahr at the AP agrees “that in attempting to tie everything together, Mission: Impossible lost the plot.” Rolling Stone’s David Fear was kinder, saying the movie “feels like a conclusion to 30 years’ worth of proving that yes, you still can conjure up a certain vintage strain of Hollywood magic.”

How to watch: Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is now streaming on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+