Are you ready to get Glicked this weekend? No, I didn’t call you a dirty name, that’s the actual moniker being used for the simultaneous release of Wicked and Gladiator II. I’m not going to see either this weekend as both are expected to make tons of cash and draw in a lot of crowds in theaters over the next few days.
I’m content to stay in this weekend and queue up a good movie (or three) on Netflix. Feel the same way? Well, here’s a handy list of a few underrated movies that are worth your time. You can always watch Glicked later in the year … or never, if that’s more your vibe.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Spy Game (2001)
Sometimes, you just need to see two bona fide movie stars show off their charisma for two hours even if the movie they are in is only so-so. That’s the case with Spy Game, a 2001 action thriller from Top Gun director Tony Scott. The stars in question are Robert Redford, then entering his senior citizen heartthrob phase, and Brad Pitt, who was still in his prime, golden locks and all.
It’s a pity the movie itself wasn’t any better. Redford stars as Nathan Muir, a grizzled CIA officer who is pulled into one final case involving his former protégé, Tom Bishop (Pitt). It seems Bishop has run afoul with China’s government and is set to be executed in 24 hours. Muir is the only one who can save him, but as he reflects on their complicated past and their shady spy missions in locales such as West Germany, he wonders if this isn’t the fate Bishop deserves.
Spy Game is streaming on Netflix.
In Good Company (2004)
In Good Company is just good enough, and what’s wrong with that? The 2004 comedy, which is just about to celebrate its 20th(!) anniversary, is the very definition of vanilla, with squeaky clean stars like Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, and Dennis Quaid all bringing varying degrees of beige to their respective roles. Yet the movie works, and Quaid in particular stands out as a star who knows how to turn on the charm to win over an audience.
Dan Foreman (Quaid) is a longtime ad executive who is good at his job. That doesn’t prevent his company from undergoing severe layoffs and demoting him so he now reports to Carter Duryea (Grace), a 26-year-old business prodigy who is separating from his cheating wife. That’s awkward enough, but when Dan invites Carter over to dinner one night and his young boss begins to fall in love with his even younger daughter Alex (Johansson), things go from awkward to just plain weird fast.
The movie plays this scenario largely for laughs, and it is funny to see Quaid work through the sheer absurdity of watching his twentysomething boss awkwardly try to romance his college-bound daughter. Is it also icky? Yeah, a bit, but Quaid and the rest of the cast sells it and the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously.
In Good Company is streaming on Netflix.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Animation is currently in a golden age of creativity. The Spider-Verse films, The Boy and the Heron, and this year’s The Wild Robot are some of the best ever made in the genre, and that’s just the non-Disney ones! One of the very best in the last decade is Kubo and the Two Strings, a stunning stop-motion animated film from the good folks over at Laika Studios, who gave the world the modern goth girl classic Coraline. This one is just as good, and features the vocal talents of Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Art Parkinson as the 12-year-old title protagonist.
In feudal Japan, the one-eyed Kubo is sent by his mother to a faraway land to flee his evil aunties and find his missing father’s armor. There, he teams up with Monkey, a snow monkey charm come to life, Little Hanzo, an origami figure resembling Kubo’s long-absent dad, and Beetle, a former samurai who cannot remember his past, to travel through strange lands and battle mystical creatures in an attempt to find the armor and avoid capture (or worse) from Kubo’s wicked extended family.
As typical with movies like this, what Kubo finds instead is the value of friendship and the necessity of letting go of loved ones. The film features superb animation and a stirring score by Dario Marianelli, both of which create a colorful fantasy world that would impress even the most jaded cinephile. It’s a great kids film, yes, but it’s also a great film period, and all adults should watch Kubo and the Two Strings and ignite their imaginations once again.
Kubo and the Two Strings is streaming on Netflix.
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