Winter is a time for getting warm, staying indoors, and watching movies. Use these next few months to catch up on movies you missed during the past year or projects you’ve always wanted to see. If you’re looking for some inspiration, Snow Day, Winter’s Bone, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are some underrated movies that are perfect for winter.
Sticking with the underrated theme, we picked three undervalued dramas to watch this winter. Our picks include a revenge thriller, the eighth film from a master, and a dramatic tale of survival in the mountains.
Cold Pursuit (2019)
Liam Neeson’s action movies are my comfort food. These films always deliver on their promises to be ridiculous and violent. Cold Pursuit is one of Neeson’s best action movies. Nels Coxman (Neeson) is a snowplow driver and model citizen at a fictional Colorado ski resort. Nels’ life is thrown into disarray after the murder of his son by a local drug lord named Viking (Tom Bateman).
The murder awakens a monster within Nels, who begins killing cartel members to destroy Viking’s organization. Nels’ actions lead to a war between the cartel and the Indigenous people in the area. Like most Neeson action movies, Cold Pursuit ends in a violent confrontation, and Nels won’t go down without a fight.
Stream Cold Pursuit on Netflix.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Picking Quentin Tarantino’s best movie is an impossible task. Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglourious Basterds, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood are typically in the running for the top spot. The Hateful Eight is a film that’s never mentioned as the best, but deserves praise nonetheless.
It’s 1877 and bounty Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) is heading to Red Rock, Wyoming, when he encounters another bounty hunter, John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell), Ruth’s prisoner, “Crazy” Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and new sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). A blizzard forces the group to seek shelter at Minnie’s Haberdashery, where they meet four more strangers. With the “hateful eight” under one roof, loyalties will be tested, bonds will be broken, and not everyone will leave alive.
Stream The Hateful Eight on Netflix.
The Mountain Between Us (2017)
The Mountain Between Us is a survival love story featuring two acclaimed actors, Kate Winslet and Idris Elba (Beast). Alex Martin (Winslet) is a photojournalist racing home from Idaho to marry her fiancé, Mark Robertson (Dermot Mulroney). Dr. Ben Bass (Elba) needs to get to Baltimore for an emergency surgery. Alex and Ben must reach Denver to make their connections, but a snowstorm delays all flights.
Stressed for time, the duo hires pilot Walter (Beau Bridges) to fly them to Denver. However, Walter suffers a stroke during the flight, and the plane crashes on a mountaintop in the Utah wilderness. Walter dies, forcing Alex, Ben, and Walter’s dog to trek through the wilderness and brave the conditions. What starts as a trip between two strangers quickly becomes a fight for survival.
Rent The Mountain Between Us on YouTube, Apple, or Prime Video.
