Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To GeekAugust on Netflix has arrived, and with it comes the anticipation for a handful of marquee new original movies the streamer will be trotting out in the coming weeks, including a sci-fi horror starring Greta Lee (The Last House) and, late in the month, a chilling-looking murder thriller (The Whisper Man) starring Adam Scott and Robert de Niro.
In the meantime, however, August 1st comes with a pile of good movies on loan to Netflix for the next little while, a few of which we dig into below for your weekly movie nights. The first is the most tearful and highest-rated in a long franchise of speedy-car movies; the second is a classic Beverly Hills ’90s comedy that’s highly quotable; and my top pick this week is an ever more classic action staple about a bus that can’t slow down.
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Furious 7
The franchise’s high-flying farewell to Paul Walker
Fans of the high-octane Fast & Furious franchise of action movies are in luck this month, as the first seven of its 10 blockbuster movies are streaming on Netflix for U.S. subscribers this month. And while we could focus this write-up on the pole position film that started it all, we felt it more fitting to honor the one that’s remembered as Paul Walker’s final, and most critically acclaimed, film, before his death in 2013—Furious 7.
Quiz
New Netflix movies and shows in August 2026
Trivia challenge
From thrillers to docuseries — how much do you know about what’s hitting
Netflix in August 2026?
DramaComedyDocumentaryThrillerSeries
Thriller
The Whisper Man is a Netflix thriller based on a bestselling novel by which author?
psychological thriller of the same name. The novel became an international bestseller, blending a
haunting mystery with deeply emotional storytelling about grief and fatherhood.
Man was a major bestseller that blended psychological suspense with an emotional father-son story,
making it a compelling choice for a Netflix adaptation.
Documentary
Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing focuses on controversies surrounding which aircraft
model at the center of fatal crashes?
catastrophic crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. Freefall examines the corporate decisions,
regulatory failures, and human cost behind one of aviation’s most devastating scandals.
scandal. Two fatal crashes within five months of each other led to a global grounding of the jet and
intense scrutiny of Boeing’s safety culture and its relationship with regulators.
Series
My Life With the Walter Boys returns for its third season on Netflix. Where is the
series primarily set?
where city girl Jackie Howard moves in with a large, boisterous family after a personal tragedy. The
stunning Rocky Mountain scenery has become one of the show’s signature visual elements.
New York City to a sprawling Colorado ranch forms the backdrop of the series, which is based on Ali
Novak’s popular Wattpad novel of the same name.
Comedy
Ricky Gervais: Alley Cats marks which milestone for Gervais as a Netflix stand-up
special?
continuing his long and successful partnership with the platform. Previous specials include SuperNature,
SuperMassive, and Humanity, all of which sparked significant cultural conversation.
has built an extensive library of comedy content on Netflix, with specials that have consistently
generated both laughs and controversy in equal measure.
Series
Outer Banks: Season 5 follows the cast in their ongoing adventures. What is the name
of the central friend group the show follows?
heart of Outer Banks, named after the poorer side of the fictional OBX island they call home. Their
rivalry with the wealthy Kooks has driven much of the show’s dramatic tension across all five seasons.
social status on the island, as the working-class residents are nicknamed Pogues while the wealthy class
are called Kooks. This class divide is a central theme of the entire series.
Documentary
Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy examines the rise of which fast food chain that
became a cultural phenomenon?
chicken restaurant; it is instead an examination of the broader global fried chicken industry.
industry as its host eats nothing but fried chicken for 28 days.
Drama
The Last House, arriving on Netflix in August 2026, falls into which primary genre?
through atmosphere and character rather than relying purely on shock-value horror. The genre has proven
hugely popular on Netflix, with audiences gravitating toward suspenseful, character-driven storytelling.
invested heavily in the genre given its strong performance with subscribers, and The Last House follows
in the tradition of slow-burn, tension-filled narratives the platform has successfully championed.
Sports
The Netflix documentary Mourinho profiles one of football’s most controversial
managers. Which club did José Mourinho famously describe himself as a ‘Special One’ upon joining?
first Chelsea press conference in 2004, after arriving from Porto where he had just won the UEFA
Champions League. The phrase instantly became one of football’s most memorable quotes and defined his
larger-than-life persona.
arrived at Chelsea in 2004. He had just led Porto to Champions League glory and arrived in the Premier
League with supreme confidence, a quote that would follow him throughout his entire career.
Your Score
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Picking up just after the events of Fast & Furious 6, where we find Jason Statham’s special-ops agent-gone-rogue, Deckard Shaw, hunting down Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), and their crew, seeking revenge for what they did to Deckard’s mercenary brother Owen, in a timeline that goes back to the Tokyo Drift timeline. But Dom and the family aren’t ones to sit and wait for their fate. Instead, they make a deal with government fixer Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell)—he helps them get to Shaw, and they help him find a kidnapped hacker.
As with all the brilliantly action-packed Fast movies, you can expect burning rubber, muscle cars doing things muscle cars can’t really do (like skydiving), lots of explosions, and a genuinely touching sendoff to Walker. Furious 7 has an 81% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cast
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Lucas Black, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, John Brotherton, Luke Evans, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou, Noel Gugliemi, Ali Fazal, Sung Kang, Ronda Rousey, Miller Kimsey, Charlie Kimsey, Eden Estrella, Gentry White, Iggy Azalea
Runtime
139 minutes
Director
James Wan
Writers
Chris Morgan, Gary Scott Thompson
Producers
Michael Fottrell, Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel
Prequel(s)
The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6
Sequel(s)
The Fate of the Furious, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, F9: The Fast Saga, Fast X, Fast Forever
Franchise(s)
Fast & Furious
Main Genre
Action
Budget
$190 Million
Studio(s)
Universal Pictures
Distributor(s)
Universal Pictures
Executive Producer(s)
Amanda Lewis, Samantha Vincent, Chris Morgan
2
Clueless
Alicia Silverstone’s career-defining Cher Horowitz is still a queen of comedy
If you have children of the teenage persuasion, the time has come for you to finally expose them to the movie that defined a generation, delivered so many quirky and quotable lines, and gave us Paul Rudd’s screen debut. Yes, Clueless, the updated retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Emma, is on Netflix for the next little while, at least.
Alicia Silverstone stars as Cher Horowitz, a rich and stylish Beverly Hills high schooler obsessed with social status and with setting up her teachers and friends with potential love matches. When she and her bestie Dionne (Stacey Dash) take it upon themselves to make over awkward new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy), and turn her into a “Betty,” they get a rude awakening when Tai’s new look makes her the most popular girl in school.
If ‘As if,” “Whatever,” “Way harsh,” and “Totally buggin'” were part of your everyday vernacular growing up, prepare for nostalgia overload and some of the funniest movie comedy moments of the decade.
Cast
Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Elisa Donovan, Breckin Meyer, Jeremy Sisto, Dan Hedaya, Aida Linares, Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan, Justin Walker, Sabastian Rashidi, Herb Hall, Julie Brown, Susan Mohun, Nicole Bilderback, Ron Orbach, Sean Holland, Roger Kabler, Jace Alexander, Josh Lozoff, Carl Gottlieb, Joseph D. Reitman, Anthony Beninati, Micki Duran
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Amy Heckerling
Writers
Amy Heckerling
Main Genre
Comedy
Budget
$12 million
Studio(s)
Paramount Pictures
Distributor(s)
Paramount Pictures
Cast
Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Elisa Donovan, Breckin Meyer, Jeremy Sisto, Dan Hedaya, Aida Linares, Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan, Justin Walker, Sabastian Rashidi, Herb Hall, Julie Brown, Susan Mohun, Nicole Bilderback, Ron Orbach, Sean Holland, Roger Kabler, Jace Alexander, Josh Lozoff, Carl Gottlieb, Joseph D. Reitman, Anthony Beninati, Micki Duran
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Amy Heckerling
Writers
Amy Heckerling
Main Genre
Comedy
Budget
$12 million
Studio(s)
Paramount Pictures
Distributor(s)
Paramount Pictures
1
Speed
Keanu and Sandra versus a bus that can’t slow down
To this day, two iconic movie lines are regularly spoken in my car: “Hey Doc … We don’t have enough road to get up to 88,” from Back to the Future, and “Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus … If it drops below 50 miles per hour, it blows up. What do you do? What. Do. You Do?!” OK, so the second one is paraphrased a little, but the point is, it’s from one of the best ’90s action movies of all time, Speed, and you should watch it this week.
Not only did Speed win two Academy Awards for its sound work, but it allowed for one of the best pairings ever—Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. The premise is gloriously simple: unhinged ex-bomb-squad officer Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) rigs a Los Angeles city bus to explode if it drops below 50 mph. Hotshot LAPD SWAT cop Jack Traven (Reeves) boards the rolling bomb, and when the driver is wounded, brave passenger Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock) takes the wheel, crashing the lumbering transport through gridlock traffic, actual gaps in the freeway, and bouldering down an airport runway.
It’s 116 minutes of ramping tension. The infamously Keanu-free sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control—proudly sitting at 4% on Rotten Tomatoes—is also streaming this month, if you dare.
Cast
Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton, Jeff Daniels, Alan Ruck, Glenn Plummer, Richard Lineback, Beth Grant, Hawthorne James, Carlos Carrasco, David Kriegel, Natsuko Ohama, Daniel Villarreal, Simone Gad, Loretta Jean, Sherri Villanueva, Margaret Medina, Jordan Lund, Robert Mailhouse, Patrick Fischler, Patrick John Hurley, Susan Barnes, Rick Dano, Michael Sottile
Runtime
116 minutes
Director
Jan de Bont
Writers
Graham Yost
Producers
Ian Bryce
Sequel(s)
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Main Genre
Thriller
Budget
$30 million
Studio(s)
20th Century
Distributor(s)
20th Century
Executive Producer(s)
Ian Bryce
A whole new round of movie madness
August is off to a great start for movie lovers, with a solid mix of library additions and some new originals that will surely hit the streamer’s Top 10. As always, keep dialing in to the streaming section of How-To Geek for more weekly recommendations.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
Two or four
Live TV
No
Price
Starting at $8/month
