Stream on Demand: ‘Willow’ returns for more adventures

Fri., Dec. 2, 2022

By Sean Axmaker For The Spokesman-Review

What’s new for home viewing on Video on Demand and Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.

Top streams for the week

“Willow: Season 1” (TV-14), a sequel to the 1988 fantasy adventure, sends the sorcerer Willow (Warwick Davis, reprising his role) on a new quest leading a group of misfit heroes on a harrowing rescue mission through a magical world of brownies, sorcerers, trolls, and other mystical creatures. Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Ellie Bamber, and Joanne Whalley costar. New episodes on Wednesdays. You can also stream the original “Willow” (1998, PG) starring Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley with Davis. (Disney+)

Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell star in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (2022, R), a new adaptation of the classic D.H. Lawrence novel about the neglected young wife of an impotent Baronet who has an affair with the country estate gamekeeper. Director Laura de Clermont-Tonnerre embraces the agency of her heroine as well as the heat of their sexual chemistry. (Netflix)

The comedy “Irreverent: Season 1” (not rated) stars Colin Donnell as a criminal mediator who flees the Chicago underworld and reinvents himself as the new reverend of a remote community in Australia. While he struggles to maintain his cover, the mob comes looking for him. All episodes streaming. (Peacock)

Arriving Saturday is the action comedy “Bullet Train” (2022, R) starring Brad Pitt as a reformed assassin trying to embrace peace while on a mission that pits him against a lethal collection of adversaries who will kill for his bounty, all stuck on the fastest train in the world. David Leitch (“Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2”) directs. (Netflix)

Holiday Highlights

The Christmas musical “Dolly Parton’s Magic Mountain Christmas” (2022, TV-PG) guest stars Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jimmy Fallon, and Willie Nelson. (Peacock)

The animated musical “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” (2022, TV-Y7) features the voices of Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Jonathan Pryce, and Johnny Flynn. (Netflix)

Writer/director James Gunn reunites the cast of the Marvel movies for a Christmas quest in “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” (2022, TV-14). (Disney+)

Brittany Snow and Justin Long star in the holiday romcom “Christmas With the Campbells” (2022, not rated). Streams same day as theaters. (AMC+)

Classic pick: “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947) with Maureen O’Hara and young Natalie Wood is one of the great Christmas movies and a perennial holiday favorite. (Peacock)

Netflix

True stories: Robert Downey Jr. pays tribute to his filmmaker father in “Sr.” (2002, R), directed by Chris Smith, and “Take Your Pills: Xanax” (2022, TV-14) looks at the complicated history of the anti-anxiety medication.

True crime: “Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields” (TV-MA), the third season of the anthology series, looks at a series of unsolved murders going back decades.

Hulu

A young girl (Riele Downs) must help the ghost of the school’s Queen Bee (Auli’i Cravalho) in the supernatural comedy “Darby and the Dead” (2022, PG-13).

Other streams

25 years after the previous installment of the offbeat TV series, Lars Von Trier returns to his supernatural soap opera with “The Kingdom Exodus” (Denmark, 2022, with subtitles). New episodes on Sundays. (MUBI)

New on disc and at Redbox: “Don’t Worry Darling”