What to Stream: 'The Bear,' Lorde, 'Smoke,' 'A Minecraft Movie,' 'Nosferatu'
and Nelly and Ashanti
[June 23, 2025]
By The Associated Press
The Jack Black-led movie phenomenon “A Minecraft Movie” and Lorde's
fourth studio album, "Virgin," are some of the new television, films,
music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The
Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: All 10 episodes of season
four of FX’s “The Bear” drop Wednesday, Nelly and Ashanti get their own
reality show and Bill Skarsgård leads an update of the 1922 silent
vampire classic “Nosferatu.”
New movies to stream from June 23-29
— The Porky Pig and Daffy Duck movie “The Day The Earth Blew Up: A
Looney Tunes Movie” is coming to HBO Max on Friday, June 27 (it will
also broadcast on HBO on June 28 at 8 p.m. ET). Reviews were a little
mixed, but mostly positive for the full-length animated feature. Bob
Strauss wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that “The laugh ratio is
more hit-and-miss than in the tightly scripted shorts, but enough jokes
land to satisfy most funny bones.” The film had a wild ride to end up
where it was originally intended, including a theatrical release in
December not from Warner Bros. but Ketchup Entertainment (who will also
distribute the previously shelved “Coyote vs. Acme” ).
— Mariska Hargitay’s documentary about her mother Jayne Mansfield, “My
Mom Jayne,” will also be streaming on HBO Max on Friday, June 27. The
Hollywood bombshell died in a car accident at 34, when Hargitay was only
3.
— La-la-la-lava, ch-ch-ch-chicken, Steve’s lava chicken is now streaming
on HBO Max, as is the rest of “A Minecraft Movie.” A box office
phenomenon with over $950 million in worldwide ticket sales and
counting, this movie adaptation of the popular game stars Jack Black and
Jason Momoa. In his AP review, Mark Kennedy wrote that “the Jared
Hess-directed action-adventure artfully straddles the line between
delighting preteen gamers and keeping their parents awake. It’s an
often-bananas adaptation, with bizarre digressions into turquoise
blouses and tater tot pizzas. It has Jennifer Coolidge being very
Jennifer Coolidge. Need we say more?”
— Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård lead the Robert
Eggers-directed update of the 1922 silent vampire classic “Nosferatu,”
streaming on Prime Video starting Friday, June 27. Jocelyn Noveck wrote
in her AP review that “it will chill you to the bone” but that “it may
not terrify you.” Everything, she adds, in Eggers “faithful, even
adoring remake... looks great. But with its stylized, often stilted
dialogue and overly dramatic storytelling, it feels more like everyone
is living in a quaint period painting rather than a world populated by
real humans (and, well, vampires) made of flesh and, er, blood.”
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
New music to stream from June 23-29
— What will the next era of Lorde look like? “What Was That,” the
singer’s first new single in four years, recalls the clever synth-pop of
her 2017 album “Melodrama,” casting aside the folk detour of 2021’s
“Solar Power.” The song that followed, “Man of the Year,” is stripped
and spare – just Lorde and a sorrowful bass. Who knows what will come
next? Listeners will have to wait until Friday, June 27, when she
releases her fourth studio album, “Virgin.”
— The “F1” movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, is quickly
gearing up to be a summer tentpole. Naturally, the filmmakers knew its
sound had to be massive, too. That arrives via a score by the many-time
Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and a huge soundtrack releasing as “F1 The
Album” via Atlantic Records, the team behind the award-winning “Barbie”
album — with bespoke tracks from Chris Stapleton, Ed Sheeran, Myke
Towers, Blackpink’s Rosé, Tate McRae and many more. Learn all about how
the soundtrack came together here.
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This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "A
Minecraft Movie." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
 — On Friday, June 27, arty alt-rock
legends Failure will receive documentary treatment in “Every Time
You Lose Your Mind: A Film about Failure,” available to stream on
Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The unorthodox and influential band
finally gets their due in the project, directed by frontman Ken
Andrews. And don’t worry if Failure isn’t a familiar name to you.
Some of the featured voices in the documentary certainly will be:
Paramore’s Hayley Williams, actor Jason Schwartzman, comedian
Margaret Cho, legendary producers Steve Albini and Butch Vig and
many more participate.
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
New series to stream from June 23-29
— All 10 episodes of season four of FX’s “The Bear” drop Wednesday
on Hulu. Viewers will find out if Michelin-starred chef Carmy
(Jeremy Allen White) can successfully run an acclaimed and
profitable fine dining restaurant in Chicago. The series has led to
acting awards for White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Liza
Colón-Zayas.
— Jensen Ackles (“Supernatural,” “Tracker”) stars in a new crime
thriller series for Prime Video called “Countdown.” Ackles plays a
LAPD detective assigned to a task force investigating the murder of
a government official. Eric Dane of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria”
also stars. It premieres Wednesday.
— Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s second shot at love didn’t work
out but there’s another celebrity couple who has rekindled a past
flame. Recording artists Nelly and Ashanti were an item for more
than 10 years before their breakup in 2013. They got back together
in 2023 and are now married with a son. The pair are the subject of
their own reality show called “Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together.”
It debuts Thursday on Peacock.
— Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett star in the new thriller “Smoke”
for Apple TV+ as investigators working together to catch two serial
arsonists. It’s created by Dennis Lehane and based on a true story
where an arson investigator turned out to be a serial arsonist.
“Smoke” reunites Egerton and Lehane who worked on the Apple
limited-series “Blackbird." John Leguizamo and Greg Kinnear also
appear in “Smoke,” out Friday.
— “Nautilus,” a reimagining of Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Seas” comes to AMC+ Friday, June 29. It’s an
origin story of the character known as Captain Nemo and portrayed by
Shazad Latif. Nemo is an Indian prince whose birthright was stolen
from him and he’s on a mission for revenge.
— Alicia Rancilio
New video games to play from June 23-29
— In 2019’s Death Stranding, a courier named Sam worked to reconnect
survivors in a postapocalyptic America beset by “beached things,”
gooey monsters trapped between the worlds of the living and the
dead. Sam is back in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, but now he
faces a question we’ve all asked in the internet age: Was connecting
everyone really such a good idea? The series is the brainchild of
legendary “Metal Gear Solid” mastermind Hideo Kojima, and fans know
they can expect a complex story, flamboyant graphics and some
off-the-wall gameplay ideas. (The original included a lot of walking
and inventory management next to some mind-blowing boss battles.)
Norman Reedus of “The Walking Dead” returns as Sam, and yes, he’s
still carrying a baby who has psychic powers. Embrace the weirdness
Thursday on PlayStation 5.
— Lou Kesten
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