We trawled through Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to find you all the best movies that hardly ever show up on your respective home feeds. Here are 18 to get you started. We promise to keep updating this list as we find more fun stuff for you to consume.
This list was updated on Tuesday, the 24th of March, 2020.
Bahir: A Clockwork Orange is one of those movies every aspiring movie buff needs to watch; ultra violent, introspective, disturbing. You’ll never hear “Singin’ In The Rain” the same way ever again.
Iain: It’s a tale as old as time. Girl goes surfing. Girl meets shark. Shark tries to eat girl REPEATEDLY. Girl gets stuck on bouy for hours. Girl must find inner reseves of strength and resolve she didn’t know she had to try and survive the ordeal. The Shallows is a fun shark movie that doesn’t fall prey to the silliness of the “Sharksploitation” genre with a great central pefomance by Blake Lively.
Iain: Prepare for the drudgery of being trapped at home by watching Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) relive the exact same day over and over again, right after she’s been brutally murdered. If you missed this gem at the cinema this Groundhog Day meets MURDER and comedy is well worth a watch.
Iain: We really don’t know why this film didn’t become a bigger hit back in 2010. Joe Carnahan’s fun action film features the great cast of Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Sharlto Copley, Patrick Wilson and (that damned Kittridge!) Henry Czerny with fun nods to the old 80’s TV show and the immortal line “No, they’re trying to fly that tank”. What more could you ask for!
Bahir: This was my first introduction to the genius that is Bong Joon-ho; Snowpiercer is a smartly told tale of the imbalances of class structure, the environment, and the need to move forward. Watch this while waiting for the long-delayed television series to drop.
Iain: “This was my first introduction to the genius that is Bong Joon-Ho; a smartly told tale of the imbalances of class structure, the environment, and the need to move forward.” and a giant freaking sewer monster! Expecting a slow, Jaws-like build to the creature’s reveal, Bong Joon-ho examines family dynamics then shows his monster rampaging around in full view in broad daylight! It’s not the last time this excellent creature feature subverts your expectations.
Uma: A thriller about how the virtual world can lead you to question the very nature of your existence, The Thirteenth Floor had the misfortune of coming out the same year as The Matrix and eXistenz. This one had neither the wild action of the former nor the Cronenberg aesthetic of the later, but I for one loved the dark moody noir tone the filmmakers decided to take. The concepts in the movie might come off as a little dated in 2020, but the style and atmosphere of the movie more than make up for it.
Bahir: Space Jam is, well, my jam. To see Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, and the Looney Tunes gang go toe-to-toe with aliens for the fate of the world in a game of basketball? What more could a Chicago-Bulls-Michael-Jordan-Obsessed 13 year old in 1996 want?
Iain: Look, we all know Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, but how many of you have actually sat down and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey all the way through? Even ignoring the differences in pace between a movie made in 1968 and a modern one, it does have a quite languorous pace. So now – when you’ve got all the time in world at home – is the perfect moment to sit through it…. and be enthralled.
Iain: One of the best bank robbery movies of all time that may not, in fact, involve a bank getting robbed. From Clive Owens misleading opening set up and the pounding strains of “Chaiyya Chaiyya” Spike Jonze’s tricksy thriller is a masterclass in tight plotting from the start to end
Iain: I’d never seen the Saturday Night Live sketces upon which Coneheads was based, instead assuming that this INSANE tale of aliens with GIANT FREAKIN’ CONEHEADS had arrived fully formed from some beautiful other world. It absolutely makes for better experience not knowing the insanity you’re in for in this ludicrous tale of an alien invasion force, settling down in the suburbs, and living the American Dream. Starring a cornucopia of 90’s comedy talent from Dan Aykroyd & Jane Curtin’s perfect aliens parents Beldar & Prymatt, to supporting roles from Phil Hartman, David Spade and the fantastic Michael McKean. “Flarndip’s” (A masher, a hustler, an uninvited grasper of cone.) need not apply.
Iain: Tom Cruise wasn’t always the seemingly ageless demigod that he is now. Once he was even younger! In Legend Tom Cruise plays Jack, protector of the unicorns, in Ridley Scott’s attempt at doing Lord of the Rings style epic fantasy in 1985! It’s a weird movie but well worth it for Tim Curry’s magnificent performance as the darkness (not to be confused with the hair metal band from the early 2000’s).
Iain: During this time of fear of contagion this suspenseful tale of an invasive organism from another world might not be the best for worrisome souls, but if you like to take your mind off current events by scaring your pants off this might the film for you. One of Kurt Russel’s (and Wilford Brimley’s!) best roles ever as helicopter pilot MacReady.
Iain: Another one for the horror fans. Alexandre Aja, director of the hugely fun aligator movie Crawl, brought us this creepy supernatual reflection on mirrors in 2008. Kiefer Sutherland plays a security guard in an old hotel where the mirrors are acting pretty weirdly. Plenty of great scares and an ending that will stay with you, it should get your mind off current affairs for some time.
Iain: In between making Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and the The Lone Ranger director Gore Verbinski made this wacko animated western-meets-incredibly-NOT-CUTE-talking-animals film Rango. Despite the freaky looking desert dwellers and the presence of Johnny Depp in the lead role, Rango has its own kind of cowboy charm and is pretty funny too. Well worth a watch.
Bahir: As far as movies from the 80s go, Top Gun is right up there with some of the best. The movie that drove the Ray-Ban Aviator craze, Top Gun has half-naked men playing volleyball, fighting, fighting with fighter jets, explosions, and Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle without a helmet. What better time to revisit this while waiting for the long awaited follow up Top Gun: Maverick to come out.
Uma: Arnie’s most meta-movie, Last Action Hero was both a critical and commercial failure when it was released in 1993. At the time, it was dismissed by critics as just another gimmicky action movie. But director John McTiernan is a master stylist and this send-up of a genre he practically invented isn’t just the first truly funny Schwarzenegger comedy, but also an astute satire on the end of the Hollywood action hero.
Uma: There has never been a more fully realised dystopia in cinema than the one Terry Gilliam created for Brazil. The story of a day-dreaming civil servant who looks for the girl of his dreams in an Orwellian future, Brazil is a nightmarish vision that inches closer to reality with every passing year. Gorgeous. Darkly humours. Chock full of Gilliam’s surrealist stylings, this is a movie that is absolutely essential viewing.
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