Clooney makes ‘Money Monster’ worthwhile

What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.

Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand

“Money Monster” fails as a critique of Wall Street and the media circus, but it’s an entertaining thriller thanks to George Clooney as a slick, glib financial TV news host and Julia Roberts as his frustrated producer. The pay-per-view rental includes a featurette. Rated R. Also DVD and Blu-ray and at Redbox.

Susan Sarandon is “The Meddler” in this comedy of a lonely widow who follows her daughter (Rose Byrne) across the country. PG-13. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.

Also new: the period piece “Genius” with Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, and Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe (PG-13), drama “A Bigger Splash” with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes (R), horror film “The Darkness” with Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell (PG-13), “Being Charlie” from filmmaker Rob Reiner (R), and “The Wailing,” a thriller from South Korea (not rated, with subtitles).

Available same day as select theaters nationwide is Meg Ryan’s directorial debut “Ithaca,” a family drama with Ryan and Tom Hanks (PG). Also new: the comedy “Brother Nature” with Taran Killam and Gillian Jacobs (R) and the documentary “For the Love of Spock” (not rated).

Netflix

“The Finest Hours” (2015), inspired by the real-life Coast Guard rescue of oil-tanker crews during a blizzard in 1952, stars Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster (PG-13).

Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons star in “High-Rise” (2015), a near-future thriller of modern living gone mad (R).

Streaming TV: the complete run of “Galavant,” a musical spoof of romantic medieval adventure tales, and the action thriller “The Blacklist: Season 3” with James Spader.

Amazon Prime Video

Tig Notaro returns home in “One Mississippi,” a semi-autobiographical comedy series she created with Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody and producer Louis C.K. The entire first season debuts on Amazon.

More streaming TV: “Doctor Who: Season 9” with Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and Jenna Coleman in her final season as his companion, and the complete first season of the political comedy “Braindead.”

Amazon Prime and Hulu

The gimmick in “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” (2015), the sixth film in the low-budget horror franchise, is a camera that can see ghosts (R).

HBO Now

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” (2015) is the fourth film with Jason Lee playing exasperated dad to animated singing rodents. If your kids are excited, be aware that the first “Alvin and the Chipmunks” (2007) leaves HBO in two weeks. Both PG.

Now available at Redbox

“Money Monster,” “Now You See Me 2,” “Equals,” “Genius,” “Compadres”

Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.