It might come as a surprise to find that there are a whole bunch of free movies
available to watch on YouTube — and it might come as an even bigger surprise
to find that some of them are actually great. Here are a few of the very best.
In 1986, John Carpenter broke the cinematic mold with Big Trouble in Little China,
a satirical kung fu movie that sets Kurt Russell down in a labyrinthine Chinatown,
and leads him through an intriguing plot involving kidnapping and sorcery. Unfortunately,
Big Trouble in Little China bombed at the box office on release, making back
only around $11.1 million of its budget, which has been estimated at roughly $20 million.
In fact, it bombed so badly that it drove Carpenter away from Hollywood altogether.
But over the years, the film's reputation has increased, and it's now considered a bona fide
cult classic. Empire magazine rated it among the top 500 movies of all time,
and many of its vocal defenders praise it for its skewering of stereotypical Asian roles in movies.
At the time, it was rare for a Western movie even to feature a predominantly Asian cast.
As actor James Hong has said:
"There will never be another Big Trouble in Little China. [...] Martial artists,
the greatest of all, actors, writers, [in] that movie, John gave us all a chance."
There's never a bad time to watch The Terminator, James Cameron's spectacular
1984 sci-fi action movie about time travel, killer robots, and romance.
In case you somehow don't know the premise, Sarah Connor is an ordinary young woman whose
life is suddenly upended when she turns out to be the target of a Terminator - a cyborg sent from
the future to destroy her before she can sire the son who will lead humanity against the machines.
Luckily for her, someone else has come from the future: Kyle Reese,
a soldier sent to protect both Sarah and humanity's hope for victory.
"Come with me if you wanna live."
Groundbreaking, intense, and incredibly fun to boot,
The Terminator fully deserves the praise heaped on it by Variety, who called it:
"A blazing, cinematic comic book, full of virtuoso moviemaking, terrific momentum,
solid performances and a compelling story."
And the best part of all? Once you're done with this one, you'll have a whole
franchise of Terminator movies, shows, comics, and video games to explore.
Author Walter Tevis' stories are having a bit of a renaissance these days, mostly thanks to the
breakout success of the wildly successful Netflix adaptation of his novel The Queen's Gambit.
So now's as good a time as any to enjoy an equally powerful adaptation of one of his other stories.
Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money is a "25 years later" sequel to The Hustler,
with Paul Newman reprising his role from the original. Newman plays Fast Eddie,
a former pool hall hustler who starts mentoring Vincent, an up-and-coming player.
There's no way to do a belated sequel and please everybody, even if you're Martin Scorsese,
but this is still the film that finally got Paul Newman his well-deserved Best
Actor win at the Oscars. The cast is the strongest selling point here: Sheila Benson,
writing for the Los Angeles Times, describes the core players a,
quote, "an electrifying unholy trio." Throw in a great soundtrack and some
typically brilliant direction from Scorcese, and you've got the recipe for a genuine must-watch.
Let Me In is the English-language version of the Swedish movie Let the Right One In,
and it actually achieves the incredibly difficult task of living up to the original. In fact,
plenty of critics even argue that Let Me In is the better film. Horror site Bloody Disgusting said:
"[Director Matt] Reeves takes a bold (and dangerous) step in (basically) doing a
shot-for-shot remake of the Swedish vampire flick, but finds a way to season it with a
little more emotion and flavor. Yes, I said it, Let Me In is a BETTER movie."
Meanwhile, Stephen King called it the best horror film of the decade,
and Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said:
"Prepare to be wowed. It's a spellbinder."
High praise all around. So what's it all about? Well, Let Me In is a quiet, unsettling study of
the friendship that develops between Owen, a bullied young boy, and an otherworldly young
girl named Abby. Things get much creepier and much darker from there, but it'd be a shame to give
away too much. All you need to know is that Let Me In is beautifully made and basically impossible
to look away from - and more than justifies all the praise it attracted from critics.
Tune into the beginning of an epic franchise with the original Stargate, the 1994 sci-fi
film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. This movie would eventually result in a sprawling set
of TV series, which ran for a combined total of 17 seasons, and a whole host of tie-in novels.
But it all started out relatively modestly, with a standalone film about an expedition going through
a Stargate to a distant planet, discovering aliens who once came to Earth and posed as Egyptian gods.
Spader plays Daniel Jackson, a civilian linguist, and Russell is Colonel Jack O'Neil,
an Air Force officer who is more than okay with this being a suicide mission.
The film got a rocky critical reception on release.
In fact, Roger Ebert hated it so much that he included it in a 2005 round-up of his most
hated films. But it got a few kinder notices too, including one review from MovieLine,
which described it as, quote, "an instant camp classic"; that is, the good kind of bad.
"How ya doing?"
And of course, at the time no one could see the kind of mark it would eventually
leave on the TV landscape. It really is the little sci-fi film that could.
2008's Slumdog Millionaire probably needs no introduction. Featuring a star director
in Danny Boyle and a star lead in Dev Patel, this movie was a huge success,
first on the festival circuit and then at the box office. It even went on to
win an incredible eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
And, of course, it has a terrific hook. The film tells the life story of Jamal Malik,
a poor young man who has had an unexpected and thrilling
victory on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,
not missing a single question. Now he has to tell his life story to prove he came by the answers
honestly. Described by CinemaBlend as a story of coincidence, luck, and eventually fate, Slumdog
Millionaire isn't so much a strict retelling of events as it is, as the Los Angeles Times says:
"A Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major
studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way."
Of course, the film isn't above criticism, especially in India - a country which some
have argued the movie misrepresents. Whether you fall for the magic or just roll your eyes,
however, Slumdog Millionaire is still bound to be a heck of a conversation-starter.
The 2004 documentary Super Size Me chronicles Morgan Spurlock's ambitious - and unusual - quest
to eat nothing but McDonald's for every meal for a month, in order to better understand the effects
of fast food on the human body. And it should go without saying, but: Don't try this at home.
Still, as much as no one wants to see Spurlock vomiting in a parking lot,
Super Size Me is funny, riveting, and thought-provoking, to boot.
It's very easy to take issue with the validity of Spurlock's experiment, but it's hard to
argue with the hugely entertaining film that results. As Empire magazine says:
"It's a hugely enjoyable descent into epic gluttony. It's the thinking man's Jackass."
Moulin Rouge! is wonderfully and unabashedly overblown,
from its swoon-worthy romance to its gorgeously artificial sets and its exuberant musical numbers.
The story follows Christian, an aspiring young writer living in a garret in Paris.
When he meets Satine, a courtesan and star performer at the Moulin Rouge cabaret,
the two fall in love at first sight. But Satine needs to be practical - she's promised to the
weaselly Duke, who has invested heavily in the Moulin Rouge's new show... which Christian is
supposed to write. It's a tangled web of desire, secrets, danger, heartbreak, and can-cans.
In the movie itself, the artists of the Moulin Rouge promise that the new show will leave its
audience "dumb with wonderment," and that's exactly the effect of Moulin Rouge! itself.
Entertainment Weekly sums it up well, saying:
"Baz Luhrmann's trippy pop culture pastiche from 2001
[is] an aesthetically arresting ode to poetry, passion, and Elton John."
If that sounds at all like something you would like,
well, then - Moulin Rouge! was pretty much made for you.
Even if you haven't seen Ghost in the Shell, you've probably seen Ghost in the Shell.
This cyberpunk noir anime, centering on a cyborg government agent investigating a hacker,
has exerted a huge influence on science fiction movies.
For example, when the Wachowskis saw it, their pitch for The Matrix finally gelled:
they screened the movie for prospective producers and announced that they wanted to do it for real.
“Woah.”
James Cameron, who is also one of the film's many admirers, borrowed a little from it in
making Avatar, while Steven Spielberg did the same with AI: Artificial Intelligence.
It really was a perfect storm of stunning visuals, high-concept ideas, and futuristic speculation.
And, as one of the breakout anime movies in the West, it remains a terrific
gateway into the form. Reel Rundown gives it an enthusiastic recommendation, saying:
"As deep as its wonderful animation and posing lots of philosophical questions,
Ghost in the Shell is a world-class piece of science fiction that is uniquely Japanese and
utterly irresistible... dark, brooding and adult."
If you've ever found yourself curious about anime, there's no better place to start than this.
2008's Traitor is a gripping, tense thriller that, thanks to its casting of Don Cheadle and
Guy Pearce, now has the benefit of feeling like a very weird Iron Man 3 reunion.
The movie dives straight into a thicket of moral dilemmas and high-stakes conflicts.
Cheadle plays Samir Horn, a Sudanese-American man who seems to be engaging in some murky dealings;
so naturally FBI Agent Roy Clayton suspects him of terrorism. But this is more than a cat and mouse
game: It's really a kind of character study that acts as a vehicle for Cheadle's superb
performance. Even critics who found the politics clumsily handled or the twists implausible agree
that it's hard to look away from the movie's star. A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote:
"Cheadle's performance gives Traitor a sense of ethical gravity and real
intrigue. [...] Somehow the character retains his credibility even as the movie,
perhaps inevitably, trips over some of its own complexities and confusions."
If you can allow for a slightly messy plot as long as a film is ambitious enough - and
has a damn fine lead performance - then Traitor is bound to glue you to your seat.
Sometimes cult classics are weird, challenging movies that could never have found a mainstream
audience… and sometimes they're adorably silly rom-com sports movies. Take The Cutting Edge,
for example; the endearing early '90s movie about a prima donna figure and the former ice
hockey star who becomes her new skating partner. The movie has plenty of loyal fans who are more
than capable of summing up its sunny appeal. In their review for the movie, Decider wrote:
"At its core, The Cutting Edge is an endlessly rewatchable, immensely enjoyable film that not
only understands but embraces the fact that rom-coms are supposed to be fun."
And Fansided agreed too, saying:
"[The movie is] like a fine wine [...] [it] has gotten better with age."
And sure, it's not exactly Citizen Kane - but not every movie has to be a classic.
Sometimes all you need is a little romance... and a whole lot of cheese.
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