5 latest action thriller movies worth watching this weekend

A brand-new post-apocalyptic epic in theatres, a Statham revenge mission playing on the big screen, a martial arts showdown critics have called one of the year’s best, a ticking-clock heist about to land on a major streamer, and a pirate’s bloody homecoming already sitting at the top of the charts.

This weekend’s action thriller line-up covers a lot of ground, and every pick here earns its runtime.

1. The Dog Stars

In theatres now (opened on August 28)

Adapted from Peter Heller’s bestselling novel, it follows Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot who has carved out an isolated life on an abandoned airbase with a military survivalist, Bangley (Josh Brolin), years after a pandemic wiped out most of humanity.

The plot kicks into gear when a mysterious radio transmission convinces Hig that there might still be people worth finding out there, pulling him beyond the safety of the homestead and into a landscape where every stranger is a threat.

It leans more survivalist thriller than shoot-em-up, closer in spirit to The Road than to a conventional action blockbuster, but the tension it builds around scarcity, trust and violence is relentless.

With Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong and Allison Janney rounding out the cast, and Ridley Scott directing, this is the pick for anyone who wants their action seasoned with real dread.

2. Mutiny

In theatres now

In Mutiny, Jason Statham plays Cole Reed, a former Special Forces operator and bodyguard who watches his billionaire employer get murdered in front of him, gets framed for the killing, and boards a cargo freighter on a one-man hunt for the people responsible.

Director Jean-François Richet, who put Statham through similar paces in Plane, keeps things lean at 95 minutes. What Reed finds aboard the ship, alongside an unwitting crew member played by Annabelle Wallis, escalates from a personal vendetta into an international trafficking conspiracy, and the film uses that scale to justify a stream of brutal, close-quarters fight scenes.

It might not win anyone over who does not already enjoy a Statham movie, but for fans it is exactly the loud, acton-heavy weekend watch it promises to be.

3. The Furious

Rent or buy on major platforms

Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious follows Wang Wei (Xie Miao), a father whose daughter is abducted by a trafficking network, and Navin (Joe Taslim), a journalist searching for his missing wife, as they team up to tear through the people responsible.

Tanigaki, a veteran fight coordinator making his directorial mark, favours long takes and wide framing that let the combat, much of it hand-to-hand and brutally physical, play out in full rather than being chopped up by editing.

It earned a rare 98 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and has been picking up ever since its June theatrical run.

4. Fuze

Rent or buy on major platforms; arrives on HBO Max on September 4

Fuze is a ticking-clock thriller in the truest sense. When an unexploded World War Two-era bomb is discovered at a construction site in Paddington, London, bomb disposal officer Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is called in to defuse it before it levels the surrounding blocks.

What he does not know is that the resulting evacuation has handed a criminal crew, led by Theo James’s character, the perfect cover to rob a bank inside the blast radius.

Director David Mackenzie, who made Hell or High Water, splits his attention between the countdown and the heist, and the film is at its best when the two threads collide. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sam Worthington round out a cast that keeps the tension grounded even when the plotting turns busy.

Having quietly built viewership on digital platforms since its spring release, Fuze is about to reach a much wider audience when it lands on HBO Max next Friday, which makes this weekend a good time to catch up before everyone else does.

5. The Bluff

Streaming on Prime Video

Released earlier this year, The Bluff has held its place in Prime Video’s rotation for good reason. Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays Ercell Bodden, a former pirate living quietly on a Caribbean island with her family until her old captain, Connor (Karl Urban), resurfaces and drags her back into the world of blood and betrayal she thought she had escaped.

Directed by Frank E. Flowers and produced through the Russo brothers’ AGBO, the film trades the swashbuckling romance of most pirate stories for something grittier and more physical, built around Chopra Jonas’s committed, hard-edged performance.

It briefly took the number one spot on Prime Video’s charts after release, and while critics were divided on the writing, audiences responded strongly to the action itself.

For a weekend in, with nothing more required than a Prime Video subscription, it is a solid, bloody alternative to the usual streaming filler.

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