The best movies streaming on Apple TV right now
The best movies streaming on Apple TV right now
Jake Johnson takes on pickleball, Elizabeth Olsen faces an impossible romantic choice, and a horror classic returns.
This isn’t the Apple TV movie list you remember. When I went to write this article, I could not believe I hadn’t looked at this list since February 2025. Why? Because there was no reason to! Apple TV dropped movies at such a slow pace that there was no reason to update the list. But now? There are new movies, old movies, great movies — the vibe has officially shifted. A recent dump of licensed movies really helps the library, and there’s at least one below that’s not an Apple original. All in all, it’s a great time to be an Apple TV subscriber. So, here are my picks for the top seven movies streaming on Apple TV right now.
Top 7 movies streaming on Apple TV right now:
No. 7: ‘Matchbox: The Movie’ (2026) | Action comedy
Did we need “Matchbox: The Movie” to exist? Probably not. Is it mindless fun? Definitely. I will always like John Cena’s charm, and it goes a long way in this one as he plays Sean Walker, a CIA agent who heads back home to Ohio and reconnects with his childhood friends: Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, and Arturo Castro.
Naturally, the reunion turns wild when they’re dragged into an international conspiracy involving a nuclear weapon (!), and suddenly they’re running for their lives while trying to save the world. Even if it’s short on originality, you will get great action sequences, explosions, fights, one-liners, and full-size versions of tiny cars doing impossible things. If you’re okay with a by-the-book action movie and like car stunt eye-candy, definitely check it out.
Matchbox the Movie
When a group of former childhood friends reconnect, their reunion takes a wild turn as they stumble upon a dangerous international plot—and must save the world.
No. 6: ‘Eternity’ (2025) | Fantasy rom-com
Tara and I watched this one as soon as it dropped because we love rom-coms and the premise wasn’t anything I’d seen before. “Eternity” follows Elizabeth Olsen as Joan — a woman who dies and arrives in an afterlife where everyone gets one week to decide where they’ll spend forever… and with whom. But Joan’s choice seems a little impossible, because Luke, her first husband who died young, is there waiting for her (and has been for decades). It’s either him, or Larry — her second husband, who she spent most of her life with.
Now, it’s more drama than comedy (I expected more laughs), but it was also a little deeper too. Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner turn it into something more than a simple love triangle. And even though it’s maybe a bit predictable in terms of where it ends up, I found it quite moving. If you like rom-coms and haven’t seen it, check it out.
Eternity
In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.
No. 5: ‘28 Days Later’ (2002) | Post-apocalyptic horror
As it’s almost Halloween, I felt I had to include at least one horror movie on the list. “28 Days Later” is now streaming on Apple TV as part of the licensed movies that recently landed on the platform. This one dropped in October. And it’s lucky for us! Because watching Cillian Murphy as Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma in a London hospital only to discover that pretty much everyone has disappeared, is still (scary) fun!
Now, it may seem strange that one of the most famous zombie movies of all time doesn’t even have conventional zombies. Instead, people are infected with the Rage virus, which makes them violent, murderous, and SUPER fast. This is where things all began for director Danny Boyle with the franchise, one that has spawned three sequels. So if you haven’t seen the original and end up loving it, there’s plenty more Boyle weirdness to sink your teeth into.
28 Days Later
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. Carried by animals and humans, the virus turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs — and it’s absolutely impossible to contain.
No. 4: ‘The Instigators’ (2024) | Crime comedy
I liked this one more than Tara, enough to call this one a “guy’s movie.” “The Instigators” follows Matt Damon as a struggling dad who gets pulled into a heist with Casey Affleck, who’s basically a walking disaster. The job goes sideways (because there’s no movie if it doesn’t!), and next thing you know, they’re tearing through Boston with everyone from cops to criminals chasing them down.
It’s got all the things I want from the genre: guns, action, banter, grittiness, some fun twists, and two guys who grind each other’s gears. But Damon really elevates it. He plays against type here, which is fun, but he’s so watchable he makes any other shortcomings easy to overlook. Tara tapped out about halfway through, but by then I was pretty invested. To each their own, and the only way to know is to try it yourself.
The Instigators
Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up with an unusual accomplice — Rory’s therapist — to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.
No. 3: ‘The Dink’ (2026) | Sports comedy
Apparently, the war between tennis and pickleball is serious enough to make a whole movie about. Who knew?! “The Dink” stars Jake Johnson as Dusty Boyd, a former tennis prodigy whose career has gone exactly nowhere. He’s teaching tennis to kids at the country club owned by his father Chuck (Ed Harris), who HATES pickleball and would like to see it eradicated. Then, Dusty goes down when an old injury forces him to give up tennis for… you guessed it, pickleball. With some help from a new pickleball partner, Candace (Mary Steenburgen), Dusty starts coming around… much to his father’s shame.
What I love about this one is that it hits all the beats of the classic sports comedy — the washed-up athlete, the father desperate to hold onto the past, the underdog with one last chance to make his life mean something. And Johnson is perfect for it. If you’ve watched him in “New Girl,” you already know he’s got the perfect energy for the “screw-up redemption arc.” It’s predictable, yes, and a little cliché, yes, but it’s got heart, and it’s got something worth saying. That’s more than most.
The Dink
Desperate to save a struggling country club and earn his father’s respect, a washed-up tennis pro is compelled to break a sacred vow and do the unthinkable: play pickleball.
No. 2: ‘Tenzing’ (2026) | Biographical adventure
On May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest… I don’t know much about either of them, but history usually tells us Hillary’s story, not Tenzing’s. That’s what “Tenzing” wants to change. Genden Phuntsok plays the Sherpa mountaineer, who grows up in the shadow of the mountain and dreams of climbing it. Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary, the New Zealand climber who eventually makes history alongside him. You get the full scope of Tenzing’s life from his early years through the 1953 expedition where he changes mountaineering forever.
Some of the imagery here is truly astounding. And it should be, considering director Jennifer Peedom spent years making documentaries about mountaineering. The real locations, the climbing sequences, the suspense — it’s all masterfully crafted. And Tenzing’s perspective of the mountain as not something to be conquered but to be held sacred is a take you don’t often get. Even if none of this sounds appealing, consider giving it a chance just for the visuals… on the biggest TV screen in your house. I doubt you’ll turn it off.
Tenzing
A determined man embarks on a high-stakes quest—and defies seemingly impossible odds—to fulfill his dream of being the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
No. 1: ‘Mayday’ (2026) | Action comedy
When I think of big, star-powered action comedies made for streaming, I think Prime Video. But with “Mayday,” (and “Matchbox” above), Apple TV is suddenly taking up some of my (rather limited) brain space. Set in 1987, “Mayday” follows Lt. Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) — a quippy (does he play anything else?) U.S. Navy pilot sent on a mission over Soviet territory. After his plane goes down, Troy ends up stranded behind enemy lines and is found by Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh), a former KGB agent who happens to be obsessed with American culture. Nikolai may be Troy’s only shot at getting home, which turns the movie into an odd-couple escape adventure through the Soviet Union.
The love for “Top Gun” is loud and clear in this one, and the flying sequences are very well done, with enough tension to get my palms sweaty — especially the parachute scene near the beginning of the movie. But aside from the action, I loved the message. It’s about humanizing the people our countries force us to go to war with. It’s about putting faces and stories to the “enemy.” And in a time of such division both nationally and internationally, it really hits the mark. My only complaint? This movie should have been in theaters. But alas, I really loved it and I hope you do too.
Mayday
When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance at survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent.