3 Best New HBO Max Movies I'm Watching This Weekend (July 24-26): ‘Mortal Kombat II' and More

Are you ready to fight?

Not literally, of course – the Watch With Us crew is all about peace and brotherhood. But that doesn't mean we can't stream movies on HBO Max with people tearing each other apart.

The streamer just added the 2026 sequel Mortal Kombat II, which pits ninjas and movie stars against shape-shifting monsters with metallic teeth.

The cult classic Evil Dead II depicts a different type of fight – a battle between lead star Bruce Campbell and his sentient severed right hand. My bet is on the hand.

While there's no physical fighting in Dumb Money, there's still a battle between Paul Dano's middle-class stock investor and Seth Rogen and Sebastian Stan's financial bros over the future of GameStop and, in a way, America's economy.

‘Mortal Kombat II' (2026)

The YouTuber known as Roaring Kitty is onto something. The alias for middle-class financial analyst Keith Gill (Paul Dano), Kitty has been buying up stock for the troubled video game company GameStop for a small amount of money. His followers do the same, which causes the stock to skyrocket in value. This attracts mass media attention, which exposes a hedge fund investment firm's attempt to short-sell the company's stock for profit.

Based on real-life events, Dumb Money is a spiritual – if not literal – sequel to 2015's The Big Short. Like that film, it takes the unsexy topic of stock trading and makes it interesting by putting a human face on it. With an ensemble cast that includes Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, Sebastian Stan and America Ferrera, the film tells its story using a variety of different viewpoints that encompass the 1 percent and everyone else. The result is a fascinating movie that shows how America's widening economic gap was briefly overcome by an average dude with a dream and a YouTube channel.

Dumb Money is streaming on HBO Max.

‘Evil Dead II' (1987)

All Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) wants is to spend some quality time with his girlfriend, Linda (Denise Bixler). He thinks a weekend at an isolated cabin will do the trick, but something unexpected happens: Linda becomes possessed by an evil spirit and attacks Ash. Ash has no choice but to decapitate her with a shovel and bury her in a shallow grave nearby, but that's just the beginning of a nightmare that seemingly has no end.

Evil Dead II shouldn't work; it's a virtual remake of the original, 1981's The Evil Dead, and has a small cast, one location and a relatively simple concept that shouldn't sustain a full-length feature film. But due to Sam Raimi's go-for-broke direction and Campbell's wildly unhinged performance, Evil Dead II works – as a horror movie with all kinds of gore, and as a comedy with moments of unexpected hilarity. When Ash is forced to battle his severed hand, the sequel attains a kind of blissed-out excellence no other horror movie has ever quite matched.

Evil Dead II is streaming on HBO Max.

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This story was originally published July 24, 2026 at 2:20 AM.