If you look at what’s coming out this weekend at the multiplex, you might get a little depressed. All Hollywood has to offer is a lame remake of The Crow and a #MeToo thriller directed by Zoë Kravitz. If you’ve already seen Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus, why on earth would you go back?
Well, I hope you have a Netflix subscription. If you do, you’re in luck as the streamer has a deep library of blockbuster hits, cult movies, and underrated films that are worth your time. From a heist movie with a former James Bond actor to a ’90s action movie starring the greatest actress of all time, these three movies on this list are guaranteed to entertain you.
Logan Lucky (2017)
Have you ever fantasized about robbing a bank? Or, at the very least, of getting rich quick? Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh’s fun, shaggy heist movie, takes that idea and runs with it, spinning a surprisingly realistic tale about how a group of struggling working-class West Virginians band together to steal a small fortune from the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The chief pleasures of movies like this one are seeing how the heist is methodically planned out and how it inevitably falls apart. Logan Lucky doesn’t change this formula, but what makes it so special is the care and attention the director and writer lavish on their characters. It helps that they have a stacked cast that features Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Jack Quaid, Sebastian Stan, Seth MacFarlane (!), and, in one of his most entertaining roles ever, Daniel Craig as the bleached-blonde criminal who masterminds the whole thing. Logan Lucky is always involving, and by the end, you might even be moved by it.
Logan Lucky is streaming on Netflix.
The River Wild (1994)
Meryl Streep … action hero? America’s finest thespian followed in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Last Action Hero) and Sly Stallone (Demolition Man), sort of, by starring in The River Wild, a 1994 action-drama from L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson. The film puts the future Mamma Mia! star on a small raft in the roaring rivers of Idaho, where she has to fend off nature, gun-toting criminals, and a crumbling marriage. Singing ABBA songs won’t get her out of this pickle!
Streep stars as Gail, a mother of two who takes her preteen son white-water rafting in Idaho. She’s unexpectedly joined by her estranged husband, Tom (David Strathairn), and they all get more than they bargained for when they encounter a trio of strange men on their trip. It’s soon revealed that they are up to no good, and they need Gail’s help to navigate down the river. If she refuses, her family could pay with their lives. Even if she agrees, she has no reason to trust that they will walk away unharmed. What’s a Boston mom to do?
The River Wild is streaming on Netflix.
The Wave (2015)
Hollywood isn’t the only place that makes visual effects-heavy action films. In 2015, Norway made its own eco-disaster film, The Wave, and surprise, it’s actually pretty good. It was so successful that it spawned a trilogy, with 2018’s The Quake and 2022’s The Burning Sea completing the Earth-is-doomed trifecta.
In the seaside resort town of Geiranger, stressed-out geologist Kristian is about to leave with his family when he notices some unusual underground activity in the mountains surrounding the town. Operating on his own intellect and gut instinct, he quickly deduces that a tsunami is imminent and could drown the entire village. Now it’s a race against time as Kristian tries to warn everyone about the impending giant wave that’s about to hit land before it’s too late.
The Wave is streaming on Netflix.
