Hulu is already off to a good start in 2024, but that doesn’t mean it’s free from the monthly churn of films and TV shows that affects all streaming services. Even some of Hulu’s 20th Century Studios titles are going out the door this month, presumably to reside on some non-Disney-owned platform.
We’ve always felt that subscribers of any given platform deserve to get their money’s worth, especially when it comes to their favorite movies. While we’ve previously run down everything leaving Hulu in January, these are the five movies that you have to watch before January 31 arrives. If you want to catch these five movies leaving Hulu in January, start making your plans now.
Armageddon (1998)
We’re not going to pretend that Armageddon is a masterpiece, but this Michael Bay flick is fun to watch because it’s so hilariously over the top. Just over two weeks before an asteroid strike will wipe out all life on Earth, NASA recruits driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) to go up into space and drill a hole in the asteroid before dumping a nuke inside of it to blow it off course.
Under less than ideal circumstances, Harry and his team, including A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck), Rockhound (Steve Buscemi), Charles “Chick” Chapel (Will Patton), Oscar Choice (Owen Wilson), Max Lennert (Ken Campbell), and Otis “Bear” Curlenbear (Michael Clarke Duncan), have to learn how to be astronauts in an accelerated time frame. And that’s a recipe for disaster in space. Like the Aerosmith song that was made for this movie, you won’t want to miss a thing.
Watch Armageddon on Hulu.
Australia (2008)
Baz Luhrmann never does anything small, and Australia certainly lives up to that statement. In the runup to World War II, Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, an English woman who arrives in Australia in 1939 following the murder of her husband. Lady Sarah is also the new owner of a cattle station called Faraway Downs, and she needs all the help that she can get running it.
That’s where The Drover (Hugh Jackman) comes in. The handsome stranger agrees to work with Lady Sarah and they slowly fall in love. Meanwhile, Lady Sarah also sees a young Aboriginal boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters) as her surrogate son, and she’ll fight to protect him and her station no matter what it costs her.
Watch Australia on Hulu.
Pacific Rim (2013)
Pacific Rim‘s story is only there to justify the film’s battles between giant robots and giant monsters, and there’s nothing wrong with that! Director Guillermo del Toro was clearly having a blast with his Kaiju versus Jaegers movie, which is why the first film is so much more enjoyable than the lifeless sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising.
Charlie Hunnam stars as Raleigh Becket, a washedup Jaeger pilot who hasn’t been the same since his brother died while they were fighting a Kaiju. But because Raleigh is the first person to fly a Jaeger solo, Marshal “Stacker” Pentecost (Idris Elba) recruits him back into the defense program. Now, Raleigh just needs a new co-pilot who is “drift compatible,” and the only suitable candidate is Pentecost’s adoptive daughter, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a woman with a lot of hidden trauma of her own.
Watch Pacific Rim on Hulu.
The Sandlot (1993)
If you grew up in the ’90s, you probably heard “you’re killin’ me, Smalls!” a lot. That came from The Sandlot, and was directed at its leading character, Scott “Scotty” Smalls (Tom Guiry). In 1962, Scotty is the new kid in town and is having trouble finding a place for himself. That’s why he joins a local sandlot baseball team that includes Benjamin Franklin “Benny” Rodriguez (Mike Vitar), Hamilton “Ham” Porter (Patrick Renna), Michael “Squints” Palledorous (Chauncey Leopardi), Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan (Marty York), and Kenny “The Heater” DeNunez (Brandon Quintin Adams).
The summer is magical until Scotty uses a baseball owned by his stepfather, Bill (Denis Leary), which turns out to be a valuable collectible signed by Babe Ruth himself. When the ball is lost in the yard of the enigmatic Mr. Mertle (James Earl Jones) and his dog, “The Beast,” Scotty decides to embark on a foolhardy plan to retrieve it.
Watch The Sandlot on Hulu.
Trance (2013)
Hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) is thrust into a heist in Trance, and she may be in over her head. Elizabeth has to help Simon Newton (James McAvoy) remember where he put a stolen painting after he double-crossed his partner, Franck (Vincent Cassel). But ever since Franck cracked Simon on the head, his memories have been less than reliable.
Although Elizabeth is able to negotiate a cut of the heist for herself if she is successful, she underestimates the danger involved. The situation is also complicated by Simon’s fractured recollections, which place Elizabeth at the scene of the crime and hint at a deeper obsession. The answers lie somewhere in Simon’s mind, and time is running out for all of them.
Watch Trance on Hulu.
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