Friday is stacked. Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama lands in IMAX, Wile E. Coyote finally takes ACME to court, a bright-orange kids-show unicorn goes full nightmare, and Netflix drops a De Niro serial-killer thriller. Here is GotchaMovies’ guide to the new and hot titles opening this weekend — plus a trailer for each.
The Dog Stars
In theaters and IMAX Friday, August 28 · R · Directed by Ridley Scott
Jacob Elordi plays Hig, a pilot living in an abandoned airport hangar with his dog and a hard-edged survivalist (Josh Brolin) after a superflu wipes out most of the world. A mysterious radio voice pulls him off the runway and into the ruins, where Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, and Benedict Wong wait. Scott and screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) adapt Peter Heller’s novel as a dusty, lethal road picture about whether hope is still worth the flight. This is the weekend’s biggest original studio swing.
Coyote vs. ACME
In theaters Friday, August 28 · PG · Directed by Dave Green
After decades of exploding anvils, rocket skates, and cliff dives, Wile E. Coyote sues the company that sold him every defective gadget. Will Forte is the down-and-out lawyer who takes the case; John Cena is ACME’s polished courtroom attack dog; Lana Condor and a parade of Looney Tunes regulars fill out the circus. James Gunn produced this live-action/animation hybrid after Warner Bros. famously tried to bury it for a tax write-off. It finally arrives as the weekend’s crowd-pleaser — slapstick, courtroom farce, and beep-beep energy.
Buddy
In theaters Friday, August 28 · R · Directed by Casper Kelly
Remember the cheerful orange unicorn from that forgotten 1990s kids show It’s Buddy!? Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks) does — and he wants to ruin the memory. Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy; Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Shannon get pulled into a candy-colored world that turns vicious the second one child refuses to play along. If you like nostalgia used as a weapon, this is the wild card of the weekend. Do not bring actual children.
Finding Emily
In theaters Friday, August 28 · PG-13 · Directed by Alicia MacDonald
A lovesick musician (Spike Fearn) gets the wrong number for the girl he just met. A driven psychology student (Angourie Rice) treats his search as a live case study. Campus chaos follows. Minnie Driver co-stars in this British rom-com from the Working Title team behind Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually. Light, messy, and the date-night pick if the rest of the slate is too grim.
It Ends
Expands nationwide Friday, August 28 · R · Directed by Alexander Ullom
Four recent grads take one last late-night drive and turn onto a two-lane road that never ends. Get out of the Jeep too long and the woods come for you. Neon’s festival hit (SXSW, Fantasia Best First Feature) is existential horror more than jump-scare horror — cramped, funny, and increasingly cosmic. It opened limited last weekend and goes wide now. If The Dog Stars is the prestige apocalypse, this is the Gen-Z one.
The Whisper Man
Streaming on Netflix Friday, August 28 · R · Directed by James Ashcroft
Adam Scott is a widowed crime writer whose young son vanishes. Robert De Niro is the estranged retired detective dad who once caught the serial killer known as the Whisper Man. Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton round out a stacked cast adapted from Alex North’s bestseller. Stay-home thriller of the weekend if the theater slate doesn’t grab you.
Colony
Limited theaters Friday, August 28 · R · Directed by Yeon Sang-ho
The Train to Busan director is back with evolving infected. Gianna Jun (Jun Ji-hyun) plays a professor trapped in a sealed biotech conference after a mutating virus turns attendees into something worse than standard zombies — a hive that shares information. Bloody, strange, and worth hunting down if your local multiplex is carrying it.
Also new (and worth a look)
Idiots (limited, R) — Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are two rock-bottom drivers hired to haul a rich, unhinged teen (Mason Thames) to rehab. Peter Dinklage and Kiernan Shipka drop in. Macon Blair’s Sundance comedy used to be titled The Shitheads. Trailer
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (25th-anniversary rerelease, Thursday Aug. 27) — One-week return for the first Hogwarts movie if you want a family option that isn’t Coyote.
Still packing theaters
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still the 800-pound gorilla after a record August. The Odyssey and last weekend’s Insidious: Out of the Further are the other holdovers most likely to keep screens. New releases this Friday are competing with those, not an empty multiplex.
Quick picks
| Mood | See this |
|---|---|
| Big-screen spectacle | The Dog Stars (IMAX if you can) |
| Family / comedy | Coyote vs. ACME |
| Date night | Finding Emily |
| Horror that messes with your head | It Ends or Buddy |
| Zombie mayhem | Colony |
| Couch + remote | The Whisper Man on Netflix |
That’s the weekend. Grab tickets early for The Dog Stars and Coyote vs. ACME — those two will eat the good showtimes.
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