Now Streaming: Takeshi Kitano's BROKEN RAGE, Robert De Niro's ZERO DAY

A flurry of entertaining genre movies and television shows hit streaming services this week. Here's a guide.

Broken Rage
Now streaming on Prime Video.

(Spoilers below. The film is best appreciated without knowing anything about it in advance.)

Running just 67 minutes, Takeshi Kitano's latest is a straightforward gangster flick, following an aging hit man (Kitano) as he executes a couple of targets, then gets arrested by the police and turned undercover so they can arrest big criminal kingpins.

It's Kitano, but it feels pretty bloodless and routine, like something off a conveyor belt. As it concludes, everything turns on a dime. The story plays out again, only this time, everything possible goes wrong, as it's played for comic effect, carried out by the same actors, along with a few additions. It's splendidly inventive, and very, very funny.

Zero Day
All six episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

Robert De Niro is a former U.S. President who is called upon to serve on a commission to investigate a "Zero Day" incident in which all the power systems in the U.S. were taken offline by a shadowy group, resulting in the death of thousands and widespread panic.

Superbly directed in its entirety by Lesli Linka Glatter, the narrative soon gets weighed down by melodrama straight out of a soap opera, complete with hidden relationships, hidden affairs, hidden motives, and buried secrets. Even so, it's compulsively watchable, even as it gets risibly ridiculous, primarily because ... Robert De Niro can still kill it!

He's completely spellbinding in at least three standout sequences, which elevate his first acting role in a series into a must-see experience, even if you feel tempted to hit the 'fast-forward' button on your remote handy. Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, and Matthew Modine are also quite good.

Reacher S3
The first three episodes are now streaming on Prime Video, alongside the first two seasons in their entirety. Subsequent episodes will debut every Thursday.

Big and lumbering, Alan Ritchson continues to look the role of Lee Childs' protagonist. He's also good at staring into the distance, which allows the other actors to read meaning into his eyes, which we, the viewers, can't see at all.

Oh, well. There's plenty of movement on screen, as things go boom and bones get cracked and Anthony Michael Hall gets to play a bad guy with complete authority.

Surface S2
The first episode is now streaming globally on Apple TV+, alongside Season 1 in its entirety. Subsequent episodes will debut every Friday.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw returns as a philanthropist in San Francisco who spent Season 1 reclaiming her identity from her suspicious husband, venture capitalist Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Now she is known as Tess and has returned home to England, where her mission statement for the season is summed up in the last few minutes of the first episode of Season 2.

Created by Veronica West, who also wrote the first episode, I very much enjoyed Season 1, primarily because of Mbatha-Raw's ability to convey a variety of emotions in subtle ways. With the passage of nearly two years, it's still the most compelling aspect here, at least initially. The first episode hints at further mysteries to be explored, and I have faith in Veronica West's visit for where the series will go, even though I have no idea what that is, at this point.

Watchmen Chapter II
Now streaming on Max.

Non-heroic heroes predominate in this two-part adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' iconic series. (Moore has disavowed all adaptations of his work and so his name does not appear here, though Gibbons' name and artwork does, splendidly.)

The series was released in two parts on home video last fall, when I was fully consumed with other things and missed it entirely. Watchmen Chapter II debuted earlier this week, which prompted me to watch Watchmen Chapter I.

The key creative name here is J. Michael Straczynski, an immensely talented writer of movies, television, and comics. His faithful adaptation is a wonder to behold, even though it's been many years since I read the original series and watched Zak Snyder's movie adaptation. His words are buttressed by the skillful direction of Branton Vietti, who has brought his vision to a number of animated comic-book productions.

This version does not necessarily bring anything new or groundbreaking, but I wish this had been the first adaptation, rather than simply the latest, because it's the first that's made me want to go back and read the original series. It's splendidly complex and highly enjoyable.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.