Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.
Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.
Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College’s Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.
An avid skier, when all the snow’s gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.
Now that Paramount+‘s massive UFC event, which was broadcast live from the White House lawn Sunday night, is done and dusted, it’s back to the streaming service’s regularly scheduled programming, which, for this post, means movies, movies, movies. Luckily, there’s still a lot to tap into for the rest of June, if you’re looking for something good to watch this week.
So consider this a shortcut through the scroll: For this week, I’m suggesting a few recently-added titles worth making time for: a horror sequel critics aren’t loving, but viewers turned into a Top 10 hit, a sharp and surprisingly tender ’90s indie that’s only gotten better with age, and a gargantuan concert documentary crafted with some cutting-edge restoration tech.
Ghostface just can’t leave Sidney Prescott alone, and audiences are better off for it. After sitting out of Scream VI, Neve Campbell is back as the stalwart victim of the iconic horror franchise with the melty white face. The seventh chapter in Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s slasher films that started back in 1996, Scream 7 takes us to the small town of Pine Grove, Indiana, where Sidney has finally managed to settle down with local police chief Mark (Joel McHale), runs a quiet coffee shop, and is raising her 17-year-old daughter, Tatum (Isabel May).
And wouldn’t you know it, a new Ghostface manages to find them in the sleepy town, starts a spree of murders, and then sets his sights on Tatum. But as we know from previous Scream movies, messing with Sidney doesn’t always go so well, and the same is true here, especially when the Pine Grove murders attract the journalistic eye of reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox).
From the frontier to the final frontier — can you identify Paramount+’s biggest shows from just a clue?
This Taylor Sheridan drama follows the Dutton family as they fight to protect their Montana ranch — the largest in the United States — from developers, politicians, and rival landowners. What is it called?
This Paramount+ Star Trek series stars Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as a retired admiral who is drawn back into action to protect a mysterious young woman. What is the show called?
This long-running animated comedy series, now exclusive to Paramount+, is set in the fictional Colorado mountain town of the same name and follows four foul-mouthed fourth-grade boys. Name it.
This Taylor Sheridan prequel series follows the Dutton family’s treacherous 1800s wagon train journey from Texas to Montana, and stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James and Margaret Dutton. What is the title?
Originally airing on Syfy and later moving to streaming, this critically acclaimed sci-fi drama reimagined a 1970s series about humanity’s android-like enemies hunting down survivors of a nearly destroyed human fleet. What is it?
This Taylor Sheridan crime drama stars Sylvester Stallone as a New York mob boss who is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and forced to build a new criminal empire from scratch in unfamiliar territory. What is it called?
This Star Trek series on Paramount+ is set aboard the USS Enterprise before the events of the original series, featuring Captain Christopher Pike and a young Spock on episodic adventures. Name the show.
This Paramount+ series stars Jeremy Renner as a powerful fixer and power broker in a Michigan city where the local economy revolves entirely around a massive prison complex. What is the show called?
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Campbell’s return to the role may have been the secret sauce to the film breaking franchise box office records, grossing $214 million worldwide. And even though the critics turned their noses up at it (with a franchise-low 31% RT score), audiences thought otherwise, with a 75% score. Scream fans will enjoy it for what it is—a fun slasher romp with some genuine scares and familiar faces.
I recently wrote about Kevin Smith’s groundbreaking low-budget debut indie Clerks, which, little would we all know, would blossom into the interconnected world of his View Askewniverse, where several of Smith’s characters and narratives would appear across his films, including Mallrats, Dogma, the Clerks sequels, and various Jay and Silent Bob projects. However, one Askewniverse movie stands out as Smith’s most “normal” and most dramatic—1997’s Chasing Amy.
Comic-book artist Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) falls in love with Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), but there’s a problem—she’s a lesbian. But when Alyssa finds herself falling for Holden, too, she realizes her sexuality might be more fluid than she thought, so they begin a relationship. Holden starts to struggle as his traditional views of relationships are challenged, and his jealousy starts to fester. Meanwhile, Holden’s relationship with Alyssa is driving a wedge between Holden and his business partner and best friend, Banky (Jason Lee), threatening their partnership.
Chasing Amy was a hit for Smith, establishing him as more than just a niche, indie jokester, with the film grossing more than $12 million from just a $250,000 budget. Its frank, messy take on sexuality was rarely seen in cinema at the time, and while it divided some viewers, it largely won over critics, and it still carries an 86% RT score.
I’ve watched my fair share of music documentaries, and many of them just offer a parade of talking-head interviews extolling the virtues of their subjects. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, new to Paramount+ this month, does the opposite—no interviews, no historians or “experts,” just Elvis talking you through in his own words, pulled from unheard tapes in which the famously guarded star finally tells his side of his wild career.
While making his 2022 biopic Elvis—the awards magnet that turned Austin Butler into a star—director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) uncovered a film archive buried away in Kansas, and hauled out dozens of boxes of pristine but completely silent concert film, shot for 1970’s Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and 1972’s Elvis on Tour. To bring sound back to that footage, Luhrmann and editor Jonathan Redmond enlisted Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production and the same AI-driven restoration tools the team built for its Beatles work on Disney+: The Beatles: Get Back, the rescued 1970 Let It Be, and last year’s Anthology.
What they’ve assembled is jaw-dropping—vivid, crystal-clear images of The King at his absolute peak, paired with audio that’s been scrubbed clean and remixed to fill a big room (it ran in IMAX theaters, and it shows). Whether you’re a fan of Elvis or just know of him through your grandparents, EPiC is just that, epic, and critics have happily gone along with that—it holds a remarkable 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences scoring it even higher at 98%.
If you’re a “I’ll know what I want when I see it” kind of viewer, hopefully one of these Paramount+ movie selections scratches an itch you didn’t know you had. If not, strut on over to our streaming section for tons more recommendation guides.
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