The best international movies to stream on Showmax this December

From The Lost City to Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Venom: Let There Be Carnage to The Suicide Squad

COMING SOON

THE LOST CITY | Stream from 24 October

Brilliant but reclusive author Loretta Sage (Oscar winner Sandra Bullock) has spent her career writing popular romance-adventure novels about exotic places. Her books’ handsome cover model Alan (People’s Choice winner Channing Tatum) 

has dedicated his life to embodying the hero character, Dash. 

While on tour promoting her new book, Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (People’s Choice winner Daniel Radcliffe), who hopes that she can lead him to the treasure of an ancient lost city from her latest story. 

Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure, the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the ancient treasure before it’s lost forever.

Lost City is currently the 18th-biggest box office hit of 2022 globally. Radcliffe won Best Villain at the 2022 MTV Movie + TV Awards, where Bullock was up for Best Performance and Best Team, with Tatum and two-time Oscar winner Brad Pitt. 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 | Stream from 27 October

The world’s favorite blue hedgehog is back for a next-level adventure in Sonic The Hedgehog 2, currently the ninth biggest box office hit of 2022 globally. 

After settling in Green Hills, Sonic is eager to prove he has what it takes to be a true hero. His test comes when Dr. Robotnik returns, this time with a new partner, Knuckles, in search of an emerald that has the power to destroy civilizations. Sonic teams up with his own sidekick, Tails, and together they embark on a globe-trotting journey to find the emerald before it falls into the wrong hands. 

For the first film, Jim Carrey won the 2021 Critics Choice Super Award for Best Villain as Dr. Robotnik. Listen out for Idris Elba joining the cast this time as Knuckles. 

VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE | Stream from 31 October

The seventh-biggest box office hit of 2021, Venom: Let There Be Carnage sees Eddie Brock trying to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady. Eddie and his extra-terrestrial passenger have their claws full when another symbiote, Carnage, makes itself at home in Cletus. 

Oscar nominees Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris co-star, with direction from the king of performance capture, Andy Serkis (better known as King Kong, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, and Caesar in Planet of the Apes). 

“A sequel aimed squarely at fans of the original’s odd couple chemistry, Venom: Let There Be Carnage eagerly embraces the franchise’s sillier side,” says Rotten Tomatoes’ critics’ consensus. 

STREAM NOW

THE SUICIDE SQUAD | Superhero movie

Our only hope to save the world is a bunch of supervillains – what could go wrong?

The 25th-biggest box office hit of 2021 globally, The Suicide Squad was nominated for four Critics Choice Super Award in 2022: Best Superhero Movie, Best Actor (John Cena as Peacemaker and Idris Elba as Bloodsport) and Best Actress (Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn). 

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X for a search-and-destroy mission to the island of Corto Maltese. 

The Suicide Squad has a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Evening Standard calling it “an epic that’s as adorable as it is violent” in their five star review. 

AFTER WE FELL | Romance

Showmax is now streaming the first three After films, so you can fall all over again for Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes-Tiffin in their Teen Choice winning roles as Tessa and Hardin.

Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Anna Todd, the third film, After We Fell, picks up with Tessa making the biggest decision of her life, only to find everything changing. Revelations about her family, and then Hardin’s, throw everything they knew before in doubt and makes their hard-won future together even more difficult to claim.

The 16LSDV romance’s cast includes Oscar winner Mira Sorvino (Shining Vale), Teen Choice nominee Arielle Kebbel (9-1-1), BAFTA nominee Chance Perdomo (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Louise Lombard (Star Crossed) and Kiana Madeira (Fear Street). 

THE ICE ROAD | Action

After a remote diamond mine collapses in far northern Canada, to save the trapped miners, a big-rig ice road driver must lead an impossible rescue mission over a frozen lake.

As Mike McCann, Liam Neeson was nominated for a 2022 Critics Choice Super Award for Best Actor in an Action Movie. 

Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Amber Midthunder (Prey), Benjamin Walker (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) and Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) co-star. 

NIGHT RAIDERS | Dystopian sci-fi

Set in a dystopian North America in the year 2044, Night Raiders centres on a Cree woman named Niska (multi-award-winner Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), who joins an underground band of vigilantes in a bid to save her daughter from the military government.

Cree-Métis writer-director Danis Goulet won the Emerging Talent Award at the Toronto International Film Festival for Night Raiders, which is executive produced by Oscar winner Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows). Night Raiders also won six 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, among other accolades.

Emmy winner Amanda Plummer (The Fisher King, Pulp Fiction) and Alex Tarrant (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) co-star. 

Night Raiders has an 84% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Globe and Mail saying, “Night Raiders combines genre filmmaking with a fiery through-line of social justice… Both a chilling vision of what’s to come and a nervy reminder of Canada’s past… Night Raiders should become the most talked-about Canadian film of the year. And for good reason.”

ZEROS AND ONES | Thriller

The thriller Zeros and Ones stars four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight, The Good Lord Bird) as Jericho, an American soldier stationed in post-apocalyptic Rome under a pandemic and war-torn lockdown. After witnessing the Vatican blow up in the night sky, he sets out on a mission to uncover and document the truth for the world to see and stop the true terrorists responsible. 

Controversial independent director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King of New York) won Best Director at the 2021 Locarno International Film Festival, where Zeros and Ones was nominated for Best Film. 

The New York Times says: “Never less than intriguing, Zeros and Ones lingers in the mind. Even after you think you’ve brushed it off, its chilly tendrils continue to cling,” while indieWire says: “Every frame of this weird soup is suffused with the restless creative spirit of someone who’s been waiting for a new world order, and recognises that we only get so many chances to make it happen.”

SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS | Action

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins stars Teen Choice nominee Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, The Gentlemen) as Snake Eyes, a tenacious loner who is welcomed into an ancient Japanese clan called the Arashikage, where he finds a home and learns the ways of the ninja warrior. When secrets from his past are revealed, Snake Eyes’s honour and allegiance will be tested. 

Based on Hasbro’s iconic G.I. Joe character, Snake Eyes cast includes Critics Choice Super Award nominee Andrew Koji (Warrior), Samara Weaving (Bill & Ted Face the Music), Úrsula Corberó (Money Heist) and Iko Uwais (The Raid).

Screen Rant proclaimed Snake Eyes “the best G.I. Joe movie yet… the origin story we’ve been waiting for… A wildly entertaining thrill ride.” 

COPSHOP | Action

In Copshop, Frank Grillo (Boss Level, The Grey, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) stars as a wily con artist on the run from a lethal assassin (MTV Movie Award winner Gerard Butler from 300). He devises a scheme to hide out in a small-town police station but when the hitman turns up at the precinct, an unsuspecting rookie cop (Alexis Louder from Watchmen and The Tomorrow War) finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

Copshop is directed by Joe Carnahan (Boss Level, The Grey, The A-Team, Smokin’ Aces), who co-wrote the script from a story by Ozark creator Mark Williams. Also look out for Black Reel winner Chad L Coleman (The Walking Dead’s Tyreese Williams, and Dennis “Cutty” Wise in The Wire) among the cast. 

LA Times praised the film’s “intelligent, precise script” and the “well-staged action and strong performances throughout,” saying, “Butler turns in one of his best, most understated performances — but the star of this show is Louder,” while Hollywood Reporter says, “Copshop is ridiculous on almost every level, but damn if it isn’t a whole lot of fun.”

ALSO WATCH:

GIRL’S TRIP | Stream now

Tiffany Haddish won BET, Black Reel, Image and MTV awards for her breakthrough performance in Girls Trip, about four lifelong friends who travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, where sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered, and there’s enough dancing, drinking, brawling and romancing to make the Big Easy blush. Oscar nominee Queen Latifah, People’s Choice nominee Jada Pinkett Smith and multi-award-winner Regina Hall co-star. 

THE BIG SICK | Stream from 20 October

The 10th best romantic movie of all time according to Rotten Tomatoes, The Big Sick follows Pakistan-born comedian Kumail and grad student Emily as they fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings. Based on the real-life romance between star Kumail Nanjiani and writer Emily V. Gordon. 

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME | Stream from 24 October

James Ivory won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2018 Oscars for Call Me By Your Name, which was also up for Motion Picture of The Year, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet) and Original Song (Sufjan Stevens). The romance won 95 awards internationally, including the GLAAD award for Best Wide Release Film.  

SEARCHING | Stream from 31 October

After his teenage daughter goes missing, a desperate father tries to find clues on her laptop. Starring John Cho (Harold in Harold & Kumar, Sulu in Star Trek) and Debra Messing (Grace in Will & Grace), Searching won the Best of Next Audience Award and the Albert P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance, among other festival awards. 

CLASSIC OSCAR CONTENDERS AND #1 BOX OFFICE HITS

The Oscar-winning cult classic Pulp Fiction is still the #8 Top Rated Movie of All Time on IMDb. With a killer cast that includes Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames and Uma Thurman, and some of the most quotable lines in movie history, Pulp Fiction cemented Quentin Tarantino’s status as a pop-culture auteur and put John Travolta back on the map.  

Showmax now also offers Tom Cruise in the original Top Gun, which won Best Original Song at the Oscars; Memoirs of a Geisha, which won three Oscars, including Best Cinematography for Australian-South African Dion Beebe; Brad Pitt in the baseball drama Moneyball, which was up for six Oscars; and Mark Wahlberg as a navy seal in Lone Survivor, which was nominated for two Oscars. 

Also look out for #1 box office hits like Spider-Man: No Way Home Twilight and the Spider-Man collection of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, as well as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy: Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3; Sing 2; Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2, with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson; Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back; family animations Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 1 and 2; Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels; Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates; Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective; Will Ferrell in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues; Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector; and Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron in Baywatch.

EVERYTHING ON SHOWMAX IN OCTOBER 2022

To see everything on Showmax in October 2022, including the SXSW Cinematography Award winning local horror film Gaia, the Emmy-winning reality series We’re Here S2, and hit international series like The White Lotus S2, Minx, The Rehearsal and P-Valley S2, click here.