The weekend is almost here, which means it’s finally time to sit back and relax! If you’re planning a chill weekend in front of the TV, then this list of the three best new movies on Netflix is designed to help you navigate the streamer’s huge catalog.
We’re moving out of February and into the start of March, when loads more new films will be landing on Netflix. For this list we’ve picked out two films that came to Netflix earlier in the month, and one that will be available to watch on Sunday. As an all time classic by one of the canonical greats of cinema we can promise that it’s worth the wait, though.
3 new to Netflix movies to stream this weekend
Ex Machina
Available: US
Civil War director Alex Garland delivered arguably his best work to date with this modern science fiction classic. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is a programmer who wins the chance to spend a week at the luxurious – and isolated – home of CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). While there, Caleb signs an NDA and is given access to a remarkable humanoid robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander), a next generation AI who Bateman wants to prove is truly capable of independent thought and consciousness.
Of course, it’s not long before things take a sinister turn in the compound, especially when Caleb starts to develop feelings for Ava. Brilliantly shot, designed, and acted, Ex Machina is a chilly and dystopian vision, and one of the best sci-fi films of the last 20 years.
Watch Ex Machina.
State of Fear
Available: US/UK
This gritty crime thriller, directed by Pedro Morelli, takes place in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. When shady lawyer Cristina Ferreira’s (Naruna Costa) niece Elisa (Yetunde Hammed) is kidnapped by a pair of corrupt cops, Cristina is forced to work with members of the Brotherhood gang (which is lead by her own brother) to try and bring Elisa back.
The film is a spin-off from Brotherhood (AKA Irmandade), the crime series that Morelli created for Netflix back in 2019 and which ran for two seasons. Don’t worry if you’ve not seen the show, though, State of Fear works just as well as a standalone thriller with some well-executed action sequences.
Watch State of Fear.
Casino
Available: US
Martin Scorsese’s crime classic is coming to Netflix this weekend. Adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, it tells the story of Sam “Ace” Rothstein (a fictional character inspired by the life of Frank Rosenthal) a gambling expert handicapper who is hired by the Chicago mafia to run operations at a Las Vegas casino. Things go well, at first, but over time the conflict of interests between the mob, the casino, and Rothstein’s personal affairs becomes highly combustible.
Rothstein is played by Scorsese’s greatest collaborator, Robert De Niro, and the combination of these two great talents leads to a fantastic movie that’s up there with the very best of the ’90s. Absolute – as the meme goes – cinema.
Casino is streaming on Netflix from March 1.
Get more from your weekend with GamesRadar+
Will Salmon
Recommendations for what to watch on Netflix this weekend has come via Will Salmon, GamesRadar+’s Streaming Editor. Will has been writing about film and TV for the last 20 years in the pages of SFX magazine and online here and loves mystery, sci-fi, and horror series in particular. If you still need a hand with what to watch this weekend, here’s a little quiz to help:
Looking for something else to watch? Check out our guides to the best Prime Video shows, the best Netflix shows, and the best Paramount Plus shows.
