Best movies to stream this April, from The Flash to Mutant Mayhem to A Thousand And One
THE FLASH | Stream from 22 April
The #20 biggest movie of 2023, DC’s The Flash sees worlds collide when Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past. But his attempt to save his family creates a world without superheroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.
The Flash is directed by multi-award winner Andy Muschietti (the It films), with Ezra Miller reprising their Justice League role as Barry Allen. The stacked support cast includes Oscar nominees Michael Keaton and Michael Shannon as well as cameos from the likes of Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Jeremy Irons, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, and more.
CNN.com says The Flash “wears its love for the comics that inspired it on its crimson-streaked sleeve. Funny, action-packed and effectively touching…” while Rotten Tomatoes calls it, “one of the best DC movies in recent years.”
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM | Stream from 28 April
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, after years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.
Among other accolades, Mutant Mayhem has been nominated as Best Animated Film at the 2024 Annie and Critics Choice Awards, as well as Best Superhero Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, where Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) is up for Best Actress in the category. Also listen out for the likes of Paul Rudd, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Post Malone, Ice Cube, Emmy winner Maya Rudolph, Emmy nominees Seth Rogen, Giancarlo Esposito and Rose Byrne, and YouTube phenomenon Mr. Beast.
Mutant Mayhem is the best reviewed film (or series) in the franchise yet, with a 95% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “With its unique visual style and a story that captures the essence of the franchise’s appeal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is an animated treat for the whole family.”
A THOUSAND AND ONE | Stream from 11 April
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, A Thousand And One follows unapologetic, free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability, in a rapidly-changing New York City.
As Inez, Teyana Taylor (Coming 2 America) won the Breakthrough Performance Award at last year’s Critics Choice Awards, among other accolades. Named among the top 10 independent films of 2023 by the National Board of Review, A Thousand and One won Best First Feature at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards and Outstanding Independent Film at the 2024 Black Reel Awards. Writer-director A.V. Rockwell also took home the Breakthrough Director award at the 2023 Gotham Awards.
Not released in South African cinemas, A Thousand and One holds a 97% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As Empire Magazine says, “Come for Taylor’s breakout performance; stay for a tender, confidently told story of Black motherhood and sacrifice. Rockwell is one to watch.”
The film’s cast includes rising young stars Aaron Kingsley Adetola (Akin Omotoso’s Rise) and Aven Courtney (Strive), who were both nominated for Outstanding Youth Performance at this year’s Imagen Awards as the six- and 13-year-old Terry respectively.
PAW PATROL: THE MIGHTY MOVIE | Stream from 31 March
A #1 box office hit in the US last year, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie takes our favourite pups to a whole new level, on a whole new adventure – just in time for the school holidays.
When a magical meteor crash lands in Adventure City, it gives the PAW Patrol pups superpowers, transforming them into The Mighty Pups! But things take a turn for the worse when the pups’ arch-rival Humdinger and a mad scientist plot to steal the superpowers. For Skye, the smallest member of the team, her new powers are a dream come true, but with the fate of Adventure City hanging in the balance, she will have to learn that even the smallest pup can make the biggest difference.
The sequel to 2021’s blockbuster PAW Patrol: The Movie features the voices kids know and love from the TV series, along with Emmy nominee Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as Skye and multi-award-winning Sweet Tooth star Christian Convery as Chase. Parents can listen out for the voices of Taraji P. Henson, Marsai Martin, Chris Rock, Lil Rel Howery, Serena Williams, James Marsden, and Kristen Bell, as well as Kim Kardashian and her children North and Saint West.
In their 4/5-star review, Common Sense Media recommends the movie for kids aged 5+ (there’s a little more peril than in the previous movie), saying it’s, “another winning instalment in the PAW Patrol universe… the adorable rescue pups continue to charm little kids and their parents, and this sweet sequel reminds all viewers that even the tiny can be mighty.”
THE FABELMANS | Stream from 25 April
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical masterwork The Fabelmans was nominated for seven Oscars last year and won 30 awards, including Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director.
The film follows young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle from The Predator and American Gigolo, in a Critics Choice Award-winning role) as he grows up in post-World War II-era Arizona and falls in love with filmmaking.
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn) and Judd Hirsch (Ordinary People, Independence Day) were up for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor Oscars for their roles as Sammy’s artistic mother, Mitzi, and her uncle Boris respectively. The cast also includes the likes of Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and even four-time Oscar-nominated director David Lynch as four-time Oscar-winning director John Ford.
The film has a 92% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus says, “Part memoir, part ode to the power of the movies, The Fabelmans finds Steven Spielberg digging at the family roots that helped make him a beloved filmmaker – and proves he hasn’t lost his magic touch.”
RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN | Stream from 14 April
Sometimes the hero you are meant to be lies just beneath the surface.
In Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed.
Listen out for Teen Choice nominee Lana Condor (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) as Ruby, as well as the likes of Oscar nominees Toni Collette (Knives Out) and Colman Domingo (Rustin), Oscar winner Jane Fonda, and Emmy winner Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek).
In their four-star review, Common Sense Media recommends the film for ages 6+, while RogerEbert.com says, “One of the best family films of the year, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken has humour and heart, buoyant energy, witty and imaginative visuals, and never-less-than brilliant voice talent.”
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3 | Stream from 1 April
In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, rejoin the Portokalos family on a new adventure as they travel to a family reunion in Greece for a heartwarming and hilarious trip full of love, twists and turns. Opa!
Franchise writer and star Nia Vardalos was nominated for an Oscar, a Critics Choice award, and a Golden Globe for the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the sleeper hit indie that went on to become the highest-grossing romcom of 2002.
Vardalos steps in to direct this time round as well, while reprising her role as Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos alongside the likes of Emmy winner Andrea Martin (Only Murders in the Building, Evil), Emmy nominee John Corbett (Sex and the City/And Just Like That’s Aidan Shaw) and NSYNC band member and TV personality Joey Fatone.
TONY HAWK: UNTIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF | Stream from 13 April
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is a wide-ranging definitive look at one of the most influential skateboarders of all time, who is still pushing his limits in his 50s.
Named Best Sports Documentary at last year’s Producers Guild Awards, the HBO documentary features unprecedented access, never-before-seen footage, and interviews with Hawk and prominent figures in the sport including Stacy Peralta and Rodney Mullen.
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off has a 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As The LA Times says, “What makes this such an engaging and enlightening documentary is Hawk himself — so frank and reflective in his interviews.”
WHEN WE WERE BULLIES | Stream from 6 April
In When We Were Bullies, a mind-boggling coincidence leads filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt to track down his fifth-grade class and fifth-grade teacher to examine their memory of and complicity in a bullying incident 50 years ago.
The HBO short documentary premiered at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar.
The Daily Beast calls the “35-minute gem… a candid confrontation of an old wound that’s never quite healed.”
MARLOWE | Stream now
Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Taken) was nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award for his performance in Marlowe as the title character, a streetwise, down on his luck detective originally created by Raymond Chandler and immortalised on the silver screen by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep.
Based on the novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black (the crime-writing pseudonym of Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville), the gripping noir crime thriller is co-written by Oscar winners William Monahan (The Departed) and Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), who also directs.
Cannes Film Festival Award winner Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) co-stars as beguiling heiress Clare Cavendish, with double-Oscar winner Jessica Lange (American Horror Story) as her movie-star mother, Dorothy Quincannon. The supporting cast includes British-Nigerian Black Reel nominee Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (His Dark Materials, Oz) and multiple Emmy nominee Alan Cumming (Eli Gold in The Good Wife).
MAFIA MAMMA | Stream from 29 April
Oscar nominee Toni Collette (Knives Out) stars in Mafia Mamma, an action-packed comedy about a suburban American mom who inherits her grandfather’s Mafia empire and, guided by the Firm’s trusted consigliere, defies everyone’s expectations, including her own, as the new head of the family business.
IndieWire says, “Collette is in her comedic prime… and it’s easy to enjoy when she is having so much fun herself.”
Directed by Sundance winner Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Twilight), Mafia Mamma’s cast includes Golden Globe Italy winner Monica Bellucci (The Matrix Revolutions) and Sophia Nomvete (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), the niece of Lockdown star Pamela Nomvete.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: WARWORLD | Stream from 29 April
Until now, the Justice League has been a loose association of superpowered individuals. But when they are swept away to Warworld, a place of unending brutal gladiatorial combat, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the others must somehow unite to form an unbeatable resistance able to lead an entire planet to freedom.
Listen out for People’s Choice winners Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) and Stana Katic (Castle) as Batman and Wonder Woman respectively, as well as Emmy winner Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Glee) as Superman.
As Decider says, “This is an excellent DC movie that travels off the beaten path when it comes to animated superhero movies. It’s mature, exciting, inventive, and a lot of fun… Anyone who loves Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman should certainly make some time to hungrily devour this movie.”
Classics on the Couch
Showmax is also bringing back a host of classic movies this April, including:
- Oscar winners like Jaws and King Kong (both from 4 April), as well as Jurassic Park (18 April) and Ex Machina (25 April)
- Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated Casino, starring Robert de Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci (from 15 April)
- Five Feet Apart (from 22 April), which earned Cole Sprous the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Drama Movie Star
- #1 box office hits like Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson (from 25 April)
Awards Update:
At next week’s Critics Choice Super Awards, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning leads the film category with five nominations: Best Action Movie, Best Actor (Tom Cruise) and Best Actress (Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson and Pom Klementieff).
Other nominated films on Showmax include:
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Best Superhero Movie, Actor (Shameik Moore), Actress (Hailee Steinfeld)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (stream from 28 April): Best Superhero Movie, Actress (Ayo Edibiri)
- M3GAN: Best Horror Movie, Best Actress (Amie Donald and Jenna Davis), Best Villain
- Fast X: Best Villain (Jason Momoa)
- The Equalizer 3: Best Actor in an Action Movie (Denzel Washington)
- Knock at the Cabin: Best Actor in a Horror Movie (Dave Bautista)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Best Actor in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie (Chris Pine)