Barbenheimer & Other New Movies That Will Delight On Showmax In May

By the end of May 2024, Showmax will be streaming the three biggest films of 2023 (Barbie, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Oppenheimer), as well as four of the top five (+ Fast X) and six of the top 10 (+ Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning).

Here are the Showmax movie premiere dates to diarise this month:

OPPENHEIMER | Stream from Monday, 6 May

Oppenheimer tells the true story of “the father of the atomic bomb”, American scientist J Robert Oppenheimer, and how he risked destroying the world in his attempt to save it.

The third biggest box office hit of 2023 globally, Oppenheimer won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan (Tenet, Dunkirk, Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight trilogy), and over 300 more awards.  

Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders, The Dark Knight, Inception) took home the Best Actor Oscar for his starring role as Oppenheimer, and Robert Downey Jr. (aka Sherlock Holmes and Marvel’s Tony Stark) won Best Supporting Actor as Lewis Strauss, with Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) nominated for Best Actress as biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with AV Club saying, “It’s Christopher Nolan’s best film so far, a step up to a new level for one of our finest filmmakers, and a movie that burns itself into your brain.”

BARBIE | First on Showmax | Stream from Wednesday, 22 May

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

With two-time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie in the title role, Barbie was the biggest blockbuster of 2023 globally and is the highest-grossing live-action comedy film of all time.

Barbie won over 190 awards and was up for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Screenplay (for director Greta Gerwig and cowriter Noam Baumbach), Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling as Ken and Supporting Actress for America Ferrera as Gloria.

Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s original song What Was I Made For? won Song of the Year at the Grammys, as well as the Oscar for Best Achievement in Music for a Motion Picture, beating Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s viral hit song I’m Just Ken, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

TROLLS BAND TOGETHER | Stream from Thursday, 16 May

After two films of true friendship and relentless flirting, Poppy and Branch (voiced by Oscar nominees Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake) are, finally, officially a couple (#broppy)! As they grow closer, Poppy discovers that Branch and his estranged brothers were once her favourite boy band, BroZone. When his closest brother, Floyd (Joburg-born Grammy nominee Troye Sivan), is kidnapped, Branch and Poppy must embark on a journey to reunite the family and rescue Floyd.

Trolls Band Together won three Hollywood Music in Media Awards last year, including Best Music Themed Film or Musical and Best Original Song in an Animated Film for Better Place from NSYNC, Justin Timberlake’s 90s boy band, who reunited for the movie with their first song in over 20 years.

Among the dazzling voice cast this time are Emmy winner Amy Schumer (I Feel Pretty), Grammy winner Andrew Rannells, Grammy nominee Camila Cabello, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Zosia Mamet (Star vs. the Forces of Evil, The Flight Attendant), with multiple Emmy winner RuPaul as Miss Maxine.

Common Sense Media recommends the film for ages 6+.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM | Stream now

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, after years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

Among other accolades, Mutant Mayhem was nominated as Best Animated Film at the 2024 Annie and Critics Choice Awards, as well as Best Superhero Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, where Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) was up for Best Actress in the category. Also listen out for the likes of Paul Rudd, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Post Malone, Ice Cube, Emmy winner Maya Rudolph, Emmy nominees Seth Rogen, Giancarlo Esposito and Rose Byrne, and YouTube phenomenon Mr. Beast.

MR. BONES 3: SON OF BONES | Stream from Friday, 3 May

In the sequel to 2008ʼs Mr. Bones 2: Back from the Past and 2001ʼs Mr. Bones, Mr Bones (Leon Schuster) attempts to pass on his wisdom to his son, Mathambo (Alfred Ntombela). Together, they’ll need to outsmart the business people who want to mine for oil in Kuvukiland, and find the lost Kruger millions first.

Look out for the likes of SAFTA winners Tumi Morake and Jerry Mofokeng, as well as SAFTA nominees Jay Anstey (Legacy, Inconceivable) and Tobie Cronje (Hans Steek Die Rubicon Oor).

RETRIBUTION | Stream from Monday, 20 May

Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Taken) stars in Retribution as a father whose normal commute becomes a twisted game of life or death, with kids strapped in the back, a bomb under his seat, and a mysterious caller giving him increasingly dangerous instructions.

Eswatini-born Tony nominee Noma Dumezweni (The Undoing, Only Murders in the Building, The Little Mermaid) co-stars, along with South African actress Embeth Davidtz (who made her Hollywood debut opposite Neeson in Schindler’s List). Also look out for the likes of Emmy nominee Matthew Modine (Stranger Things) and Jack Champion (Avatar: The Way of Water, Scream VI).

Variety says Retribution is “Speed in a Mercedes Family SUV,” adding that, “At 71, Neeson has lost none of his sullen machismo, and this booby-trapped-car movie whizzes by…”

A GOOD PERSON | Stream from Thursday,9 May

In A Good Person, Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (Se7en, The Shawshank Redemption) and Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Oppenheimer, Dune: Part Two) co-star as Daniel and Allison, whose lives are both shattered by the car accident that takes Daniel’s daughter’s life. As Daniel navigates raising his teenage granddaughter (Celeste O’Connor from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) and Allison seeks redemption, they discover that friendship, forgiveness, and hope can flourish in unlikely places.

Directed by Emmy nominee Zach Braff (Garden State, Scrubs), the film’s cast includes Emmy nominees Molly Shannon (The Other Two) and Jackie Hoffman (Only Murders in the Building, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), Nigerian-American Toby Onwumere (Sense8, Empire), and Chinaza Uche (Silo), who was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Best Actor award as Nathan.

FAST CHARLIE | Stream from Monday, 27 May

Fast Charlie stars former James Bond Pierce Brosnan as Charlie Swift, a fixer with a problem: the target he’s whacked is missing his head and the only way Charlie will be paid is if the body can be identified. Enter Marcie Kramer (Emmy nominee Morena Baccarin from Deadpool and Homeland), the victim’s ex-wife and a woman with all the skills Charlie needs.

The film has an 83% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Deadline calling it, “A down-home Southern gangster yarn with a staggering body count.”

Written by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer films, The Expendables 2) and directed by multi-award-winner Phillip Noyce (Salt, Rabbit Proof Fence), Fast Charlie cast includes award-winning American-Nigerian actor Gbenga Akinnagbe (Power Book II: Ghost, The Deuce, The Wire) and the late James Caan (Oscar-nominated as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather) in his final film appearance.

INSIDE | Stream from Thursday, 23 May

Four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse, At Eternity’s Gate) stars in Inside, a psychological thriller that follows ambitious art thief Nemo into a luxury New York penthouse… where he becomes trapped when the heist goes wrong. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive as he starts to lose his grip on reality.

Inside premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2023, where it was nominated for the Panorama Audience Award.

Little White Lies says, “A novel take on the heist film, Inside fosters a surreal, unnerving atmosphere and makes voyeurs of its audience – like spectators in a gallery, murmuring about the meaning of a dead man’s art.”