‘American Ultra’ turns Jesse Eisenberg into Jason Bourne
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.
Pay per view / video-on-demand
“American Ultra” turns “The Bourne Identity” into a violent black comedy when an amiable stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) is attacked by a hit squad and discovers he’s a sleeper agent with a killer instinct. Kristin Stewart co-stars. Rated R for extreme violence, drug use and language. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Meryl Streep is a rock ’n’ roll mom who returns home after years in “Ricki and the Flash,” co-starring Kevin Kline and Rick Springfield and written by Diablo Cody (“Juno”). PG-13.
“Shaun the Sheep Movie” comes from Aardman Animation, the folks behind “Wallace and Gromit,” and is PG for “rude humor.” Baa!
Also new: the survival thriller “No Escape” with Owen Wilson and Lake Bell (R) and the indie comedy “Mistress America” from director Noah Baumbach and co-writer/actress Greta Gerwig (R).
Netflix
“Home” (2014) is a busy, colorful animated comedy about a misfit alien (voiced by Jim Parsons) helping a human girl (Rihanna) search for her mother after an interstellar invasion. Younger kids love it but it may grate on adults. PG for some rude humor.
Streaming TV: “The Red Road: Season 2,” originally made for the Sundance Channel, is an intelligent drama of culture clash and crime in rural New Jersey.
More family-friendly is the ABC Family series “Switched at Birth: Season 4.” The Disney Channel’s “Liv and Maddie: Season 2” is for teens and tweens, and the littlest ones may enjoy “Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu: Season 3” and “Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 3.”
Amazon Prime Video
Looking for grown-up fare for the weekend? Amazon Prime has Michael Mann’s thrilling “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992) with Daniel Day-Lewis; “Excalibur” (1981), John Boorman’s glorious take on the King Arthur legend; and Kathryn Bigelow’s gritty modern vampire film “Near Dark” (1987). All rated R.
“Kate & Leopold” (2001) is a time-travel romance with Meg Ryan as a modern businesswoman and Hugh Jackman as a 19th-century gentleman (PG-13).
“Teen Wolf: Season 5, Part 1”: Alpha wolf Scott and his pack of shapeshifters and humans become test subjects in an insidious experiment in MTV’s hit supernatural show.
HBO Now
“Fifty Shades of Grey,” the big screen version of the best-selling bondage romance, is available in R-rated theatrical and unrated versions. Arriving Saturday night is the R-rated spy thriller “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2014).
Non-fiction: Sundance award winner “3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets” dissects the shooting death of a young man, and “The Ties That Bind” looks at Bruce Springsteen’s album “The River.”
Now available at Redbox
“American Ultra,” “Ricki and the Flash,” “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” “No Escape,” “Vacation.”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.