Henry Cavill's Clichéd Thriller Is Officially the Streaming Guilty Pleasure You Can't Skip

Although Henry Cavill hasn't had a theatrical hit as a leading man in quite some time, he remains a hugely popular draw on streaming. As we speak, three incredibly diverse titles headlined by Cavill are witnessing continued success on three different platforms. In the Grey, Cavill's latest theatrical release, is currently the number one movie on the domestic Starz leaderboard. Meanwhile, Cavill's 2023 film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is the number-two movie on the domestic Netflix chart. Both In the Grey and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare were directed by Guy Ritchie, who remains a major streaming draw himself. However, a third movie starring Cavill is currently among the most-watched titles globally on Paramount+, despite poor reviews and zero involvement from Ritchie.

The film in question was released in 2019, sandwiched between Mission: Impossible — Fallout and the long-awaited release of Zack Snyder's Justice League. It was also during this time that Cavill appeared as Sherlock Holmes in the Netflix franchise-starter Enola Holmes, and began playing the titular role in the streamer's The Witcher. All of this is to say that Cavill was on a roll, and the effective burial of his 2019 thriller on VOD was a surprising turn of events. The film also featured a stacked supporting cast including Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, Stanley Tucci, Minka Kelly, and Nathan Fillion.

Henry Cavill's Small-Scale Thriller Is Taking on Giants

We're talking about the thriller film Night Hunter, which also goes by the title Nomis in certain territories. The movie received poor reviews and is now sitting at a 14% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator website's consensus reads, "Contrived and clichéd, Night Hunter wastes a solid cast in pursuit of action-adventure thrills that stubbornly refuse to materialize." Despite the poor reception, the movie remains extraordinarily popular on Paramount+. According to FlixPatrol, Night Hunter is currently among the streamer's most-watched titles worldwide, having spent 260 days on the top-10 list so far this year. For context, the blockbuster franchise films Top Gun: Maverick and World War Z — headlined by A-listers Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, respectively — have spent 262 days on the Paramount+ charts this year.