23 Best Movies New to Streaming in July: ‘Beverly Hills Cop 4,’ ‘Godzilla x Kong: the New Empire,’ ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ and More

Eddie Murphy reprises one of his most iconic characters in Netflix’s long-awaited “Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F,” premiering over the July 4 holiday weekend. Directed by Mark Molloy, “Axel F” hits screens about 30 years after “Beverly Hills Cop III” was released in 1994. Murphy returns as the titular character, a Detroit cop solving crimes in Beverly Hills. Judge Reinhold and John Ashton also return as local cops Lt. Billy Rosewood and Sgt. John Taggart. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon are newcomers to the “Beverly Hills Cop” universe. Taylour Paige joins the cast as Foley’s estranged daughter, while Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot and Mark Pellegrino also star.

“Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” will be available to stream from home on Max starting July 4. The Adam Wingard-directed film was a box office hit earlier this year with $196 million at the domestic box office and $567 million worldwide. Starring Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens, the film finds the two iconic monsters having to team to save the planet against a ruthless ape from Hollow Earth called the Scar King. Despite strong box office numbers, “The New Empire” divided critics. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review: “The clash-of-the-titans climax lifts off into the awesome zone, but until then the fifth entry in the MonsterVerse is overly busy boilerplate.”

Rose Glass’s pulpy queer crime thriller “Loves Lies Bleeding” makes its streaming debut on Max this month after grossing $11 million worldwide for A24 this spring. Kristen Stewart plays the owner of a local gym in middle America who quickly falls for a bodybuilder who’s new to town. Their steamy romance is upended by murder. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman named “Love Lies Bleeding” a critic’s pick out of Sundance, writing: “The film tarts off lean and mean, then grows slowly and steadily more delirious… As the movie goes on, it generates enough ultra-violence and gonzo twists to be a midnight movie. ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ turns wild and garish, and you may think the film is losing control, yet Rose Glass is fiercely in control of what she’s doing.”

In Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” Winston Churchill authorizes an illicit mission to undermine Hitler’s fleet of German U-boats during World War II by rounding up a group of renegades with little respect for the rules. The group is led by cocky ex-criminal Gus March-Phillipps, played by Henry Cavill. Ritchie’s ensemble cast also includes Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding and Alex Pettyfer. From Variety’s review: “Since ‘No Time to Die,’ there’s been much talk about who might fill Daniel Craig’s shoes, but less speculation concerning which directors might handle the project. ‘Ministry’ marks Guy Ritchie’s best attempt at one-upping a franchise in need of a reboot.”

Jason Statham’s latest bonkers action movie “The Beekeeper” arrives on Amazon Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers after emerging as an unexpected box office hit at the start of 2024 with $152 million worldwide. From Variety’s review: “A professional assassin sets aside his peaceful honey-making activities to avenge an exploited friend’s death in director David Ayer’s unusually kooky, funny-terrible conspiracy thriller…’The Beekeeper’ is the best kind of bad movie — which is to say, it’s the sort that puts entertainment ahead of pretentiousness, embracing the laughter sure to accompany such an unapologetically stupid, ultra-violent premise.”

Variety film critic Peter Debruge named “The Monk and the Gun” the fifth best movie of 2023: “If you weren’t lucky enough to catch Bhutan’s official Oscar submission on the festival circuit this fall, keep an eye open for this unpredictable and enlightening comedy. Drector Pawo Choyning Dorji rewinds the clock a few years as Bhutan was preparing for its first democratic election — a concept none of the locals seem to grasp, or want, even as they sip Coca-Cola and watch Bond movies on TV. Dorji, who studied in the States, invites Western viewers to observe his idyllic kingdom, contrasting modern materialism with traditional Buddhist values via the film’s lone American character, a rare-gun collector who travels halfway around the world to retrieve a rare Civil War rifle. There’s just one problem: The weapon currently belongs to a pacifist monk.”

Winner of three British Independent Film Awards, the provocative queer thriller “Femme” centers on the relationship between a celebrated drag artist in London (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and the closeted gay man who brutally attacked him (George McKay). The two meet months later at a sauna and begin an affair all while the desire for revenge looms in the air. From Variety’s review: “A pair of sensational performances by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay, locked in a nervy duet as two men with virtually nothing in common but their sexuality, represents the chief selling point for this stylish, commendably uncompromising fusion of genre fireworks and measured, thoughtful character study.”

Michael Keaton directs and stars in “Knox Goes Away,” a thriller about a hit man trying to make amends with his son before his dementia takes over. The supporting cast includes James Marsden, Suzy McKinnon, Marcia Gay Harden and Al Pacino. From Variety’s review: “‘Knox Goes Away’ is a silky and entrancing thriller directed by its star. In addition to being a noir that holds you exactly the way a noir should, it may be one of the best dramas about dementia I’ve ever seen… As a hit-man thriller, ‘Knox Goes Away,’ in my opinion, leaves David Fincher’s meticulously engineered but rather hollow ‘The Killer’ in the dust. That’s because Keaton, in every scene, blends execution with humanity.

The eye-popping documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story” follows daring Moscow couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, who saved their relationship and career by climbing one of the world’s tallest buildings. The documentary took seven years of production, and Netflix acquired the title after its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year. From Variety’s review: “It’s full of amazing, terrifying, transfixing verité shots of young daredevils scaling the spindly spires that shoot out of the tops of skyscrapers. Yet it’s also a tumultuous love story.”

“Spirited Away” animator Yoshiyuki Momose and Studio Ponoc are behind Netflix’s original animated offering “The Imaginary,” which is based on A.F. Harrold’s book of the same name. The story centers on Rudger, the imaginary friend of Amanda who was created to share thrilling adventures with her. But when Amanda suddenly leaves Rudger behind, he’s forced to enter The Town of Imaginaries to find new work and instead uncovers a mysterious threat. The voiceover cast includes Louie Rudge-Buchanan, Evie Kiszel, Hayley Atwell, Sky Katz, Jeremy Swift, Kal Penn, LeVar Burton, Jane Singer, Ruby Barnhill, Roger Craig Smith and more.

Jay Hernandez and Dennis Quaid lead the cast of “The Long Game,” which tells the true story of the San Felipe Mustangs. They were a group of Mexican-American youths in the 1950s who became Texas state golf champions despite the prejudices they faced playing at a white country club. From Variety’s review: “‘The Long Game’ is an utterly predictable yet thoroughly engaging period drama. Director Julio Quintana doesn’t shy away from clichés and conventions, but he and his fine cast infuse even the hokiest moments with a disarming sincerity.”

Hollywood icon Faye Dunaway gets the documentary treatment from HBO in “Faye,” in which she openly discusses the ups and down of her career. Per the network’s synopsis: “Through those reflections, she courageously explores personal discoveries including her struggles with mental health issues and bipolar disorder, her family history growing up in a small town in Florida, and how the intensity of the characters she played still impacts who she is today. In addition to Faye, the film features interviews with her son Liam Dunaway O’Neill, as well as her colleagues and friends including Sharon Stone, Mickey Rourke and James Gray.”

Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman reunite in Amazon Prime Video’s sequel to “My Spy,” their 2020 family action comedy about a CIA agent who befriends the precocious 9-year-old girl of the family he is surveilling. In the sequel, subtitled “The Eternal City,” the two are thrown into an international terrorist plot when Bautista’s J.J. is convinced to accompany Coleman’s Sophia on a school trip to Italy. The supporting cast includes Kristen Schaal, Flula Borg, Craig Robinson, Anna Faris and Ken Jeong.

Netflix’s big original romantic-comedy offering of July is “Find Me Falling,” starring Harry Connick Jr. as a rock star whose old flame re-enters his life. You can see where this one is going. The film’s official synopsis reads: “Coming off a flop album and his biggest hit’s dwindling popularity, aging rock star John Allman (Connick Jr.) decides to take a break from his career to reclaim his spark. He moves to an isolated cliffside home on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His dream of keeping a low profile is derailed when he is routinely confronted by desperate souls and later faced with even more complicated surprises when an old flame reignites.”

“Jesus Camp” directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are executive producers of the HBO original documentary film “Quad Gods,” which is “a high-stakes and heart-warming film that follows the lives of three New Yorkers with quadriplegia that meet in a neuro-rehabilitation lab where they create the world’s first-ever, fully quadriplegic e-sports team. As they navigate New York City, confronting challenges at every turn, they pursue their shared dream to compete as athletes while subverting assumptions about disability.”

Tyler Perry directs Meagan Good in Prime Video’s marriage drama “Divorce in Black.” Good is front and center as Ava, a banker left devastated when her husband, Dallas, announces he’s abandoning their marriage. The separation forces Ava to come to terms with his wicked deeds, which include sabotaging Ava’s previous relationship with her true soulmate. The cast also includes Cory Hardrict, Joseph Lee Anderson, Shannon Wallace, Taylor Polidore, Richard Lawson and Debbi Morgan. Perry wrote and directed the feature.

Prime Video has its own original comedy offering for July, and that’s the Emma Roberts-starring “Space Cadet.” The film casts Roberts as Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, whose dream of always going to space becomes a possibility when her doctored application to NASA gets her into the organization’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. It’s sort like “Legally Blonde” but at NASA. The supporting cast includes Tom Hopper, Poppy Liu and Gabrielle Union.

“Love Lies Bleeding” is not the only queer A24 movie heading to streaming this month that’s worth seeing, as Elegance Bratton’s remarkable 2022 feature directorial debut “The Inspection” arrives on Netflix. Jeremy Pope gives an acclaimed performance in this autobiographical drama about a young man forced to suppress his sexual identity in the military. Variety‘s Peter Debruge named the film a critic’s pick, writing: “This deeply personal narrative debut is one gay Black man’s way of showing how he not only survived the experience but was strengthened by it.”

Family audiences will surely be tuning in to Disney+ when the long-awaited new movie in the “Descendants” franchise debuts alongside three singalong versions of the original “Descendants” trilogy. The franchise centers on the children of some of Disney’s most famous villains. The new film, “Descendants: The Rise of Red,” centers on the rebellious daughter of Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts from Wonderland. She must team up with Cinderella’s daughter to travel back in time and undo the traumatic events that made their mothers rivals. Brandy reprises her role of Cinderella from the 1997 movie.

The Disney baseball classic “Angels in the Outfield” arrives on Disney+ this month. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an orphan who teams up with a literal angel played by Christopher Lloyd, who helps the Anaheim Angels win the pennant so his deadbeat dad will come back. Danny Glover portrays the coach, and Matthew McConaughey, Adrien Brody and Tony Danza make up the team.

Christmas may still be six months away, but Peacock is celebrating early with its Hallmark’s Christmas in July series this month. The series includes “Falling Like Snowflakes” (streaming June 29), the extended cut of the already-popular “Three Wise Men and a Baby” (streaming July 6), “Rescuing Christmas” (streaming July 13), “A Very Vermont Christmas” (streaming July 20), and “An Ice Palace Romance” (streaming July 27).

“Bob Marley: One Live” arrives on Amazon Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers after originally making its streaming debut on Paramount+ in April. While the Bob Marley biopic did not exactly impress film critics, it did prove to be a box office hit in theaters with $179 million worldwide. Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as the iconic reggae singer-songwriter and Lashana Lynch plays his wife, Rita Marley. The cast also includes James Norton as record producer Chris Blackwell, Tosin Cole as keyboardist Tyrone Downie, Aston Barrett Jr. as Aston “Family Man” Barrett, Anthony Welsh as Don Taylor and more.

“Lisa Frankenstein” made its streaming debut on Peacock following its winter theatrical release earlier this year, and now it arrives in July on Amazon Prime Video at no extra cost to subscribers. Written by “Juno” Oscar winner Diablo Cody and helmed by Zelda Williams in her feature directorial debut, “Lisa Frankenstein” stars Kathryn Newton as a high schooler who becomes infatuated with the undead corpse she brings back to life.