Since its debut in 2021, Paramount+ has quickly risen to become one of the greatest subscription-based streaming platforms you can currently find online. Combining a range of properties from CBS, Paramount, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central, it boasts a rich library of beloved movies, TV series, and documentaries.
Like all the most noteworthy streaming platforms, Paramount+ also has a ton of exclusive content at its disposal, such as Star Trek: Picard, 1883, and The Good Fight.
Along with those exclusive titles, the platform also has a dense catalog of movies streaming on the service, from newer films like Smile and House of Gucci to classics like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and A League of Their Own.
Here are some of the best movies you can find playing on Paramount+ right now.
Updated: December 11.
Action: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The third and final entry in the original Indiana Jones trilogy, The Last Crusade is the movie that most closely harkens back to the tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Abandoning the more horror-based presentation of Temple of Doom, it has Spielberg, Ford, and Lucas delivering their signature swashbuckling thrills — not to mention a fair amount of comedy mixed in for good measure.
After his father (Sean Connery) goes missing while searching for the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) faces a team of Nazis who want to secure the artifact for their Führer.
Ford and Connery’s father-son relationship in The Last Crusade is what makes the movie. Arguably just as emotional and comedic as Raiders (if not more so), their constant bickering is enough to provoke consistent laughs, with their occasional heart-to-heart talks similarly capturing your attention. It’s easily the most underrated Indiana Jones movie, not to mention one of the most sadly overlooked movies in Spielberg’s career.
Horror: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Say what you will about Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the immortal horror classic, Dracula. It might be over-stylized, overly sensual, and in some cases even over-acted, but it's also one of the more frightening takes on Bram Stoker’s prototypical vampire novel.
Upon arriving in England, the ancient Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) pines after the fiancee (Winona Ryder) of Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), believing her to be the reincarnated soul of his lost love.
Except for Keanu Reeves's mangled accent (apologies, Keanu), Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a hauntingly brilliant revival of its source material. Setting itself apart from the Universal horror films of the ‘30s and the Hammer Horror films of the ‘50s, it's a movie that both manages to humanize its vampiric antagonist, and also present him as the terrifying demonic presence that he is.
Comedy: Bridget Jones's Diary
Based on its love triangle premise, the 2001 rom com Bridget Jones’s Diary seems like a modern translation of a Jane Austen or Brontë novel. In it, we witness a young woman coming to terms with what she wants out of a romantic relationship, and accepting the responsibilities that come with budding adulthood.
Under pressure to find a suitable man to settle down with, 32-year-old publicist’s assistant Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is courted by two men: the crude but exciting Daniel (Hugh Grant) and the painfully introverted Mark (Colin Firth).
One can call Zellweger’s Bridget Jones the British equivalent of Cher from Clueless. Both are vibrant, eccentric young women living carefree lives — yet they’re confronted with insurmountable problems related to their personal lives. And as we see in both cases, neither Bridget nor Cher are as fundamentally happy as they initially appear, lacking the romantic attachment to another person that they so subtly crave.
Thriller: High Plains Drifter
When three bloodthirsty criminals are released from jail, the residents of their hometown anxiously look for ways to defend themselves — hiring a mysterious gunfighter (Clint Eastwood) to prepare them for the gang’s arrival.
It’s almost impossible to classify Clint Eastwood’s 1973 film High Plains Drifter as a simple Western. Watching it, you’re aware that the movie is far too dark, strange, and macabre to exist in the same category as other Eastwood epics like the Dollars Trilogy or The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Instead, it’s a movie that can be more accurately described as a “Weird Western,” existing on the fringes of Western and horror, blurring the boundaries between the two distinct genres. For better or worse, it is — along with Eastwood’s role in the fascinating 1971 movie, The Beguiled — unlike anything Eastwood has ever worked on, and far and away his most experimental work to date.
Crime: Internal Affairs
Training Day tends to get most of the attention when it comes to corrupt cop movies. However, there’s plenty of other notable films within that very niche subgenre, including the supremely entertaining 1990 film, Internal Affairs.
With a gungho Internal Affairs officer (Andy Garcia) bearing down on him, a corrupt police officer (Richard Gere) does whatever he can to ensure his record and reputation remains intact.
When comparing the two, Training Day seems to owe a lot to the cat and mouse style scenario of Internal Affairs — both movies featuring a rookie cop trying to expose a respected veteran policeman’s corruption to his peers. While it can be debated that Training Day is the superior film (Denzel Washington’s performance is top-tier), Internal Affairs is still a tense, suspenseful thriller featuring Richard Gere in his most loathsome role.
Biopic: La Bamba
Pretty much everyone is at least partially aware of the infamous plane crash that killed musical titans Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens. Far less known is the specific surrounding each musician’s incredible careers, with 1987’s La Bamba shedding adequate light on the life and times of Chicano rock star, Ritchie Valens.
In late 1950s California, teenager Richie Valenzuela (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his family try to scrape together a living by working on local farms in their area. As he establishes himself in the music industry under the name “Ritchie Valens,” the teen and his family experience a major change in their lives thanks to Richie’s newfound fame.
Passing away at the tragically young age of 17, Valens made an indelible mark on the music industry within a shockingly small time frame, ascending through the rock and roll genre at a rapid rate. His life story and rise to prominence from financial poverty are nothing short of inspirational, with La Bamba managing to capture Valens’ miraculous life story — and his all too untimely death.
Sports: A League of Their Own
With its 2022 Prime Video series having been released only a few months ago, viewers can now revisit the 1992 sports comedy classic, A League of Their Own, now streaming on Paramount+.
With their husbands away fighting in World War 2, a group of women — including competitive sisters Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty) — join the first female pro baseball league, mentored by a bitter, alcoholic ex-baseball player (Tom Hanks).
Like its later television adaptation, the movie version of A League of Their Own is extraordinarily entertaining, both boasting fantastic casts that are used to the best of their abilities. Between Davis’s relatable Dottie and Tom Hanks’ oafish yet conversely tragic Jimmy, A League of Their Own hits a home run in terms of its historical setting, emotional storyline, and frequently humorous elements.
Romance: The Hours
The Hours is a literary adaptation done right. Based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this 2002 film recaptures all the heartfelt and poignant themes of the original book, translating it effortlessly well into a succinct film.
Divided into three separate plotlines set in the ‘20s, ‘50s, and early 2000s, The Hours follows three women (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep) as they navigate bleak situations in their personal and romantic lives.
A main contender in various categories at the 2002 Oscars, The Hours is as much a drama film as it is romance — perceivably more the former than the latter, actually. Focusing on the idea of putting others before yourself, it's a movie that only continues to be ever prescient and relatable, whether you find yourself more closely aligning with Kidman, Moore, or Streep’s characters.
Drama: The Ice Storm
The holidays can be a very stressful time of year, bringing with it a renewed sense of angst, dread, restlessness, or frustration in regards to your current position in life (whether from a professional, romantic, or emotional perspective). Perfectly capturing those complex feelings is a movie like The Ice Storm, a profoundly existential movie from Ang Lee.
Over Thanksgiving weekend in early 1970s Connecticut, a family experiences several drastic changes, stemming from the father’s (Kevin Kline) affair with his neighbor (Sigourney Weaver) to the teenaged daughter’s (Christina Ricci) sexual awakening.
The Ice Storm is an examination of how the traditional American family was changing by the 1970s. With each family starting to undergo a more fundamental transformation, addressing their own individual needs for the first time, the results splintered the nuclear family model, challenging preconceptions when it came to familial roles.
Underrated: In & Out
Another fantastic Kevin Kline film, In & Out is also one of the few mainstream ‘90s movies to handle LGBTQ+ themes in a positive, nuanced, and meaningful way.
After a former student (Matt Dillon) publicly outs him during his Academy Award speech, a popular Midwestern teacher (Kevin Kline) and his tight-knit community begin to wonder about his sexual orientation.
With an absolutely stacked cast that includes Dillon, Joan Cusack, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, Bob Newhart, and Tom Selleck, In & Out’s list of talented actors is alone worthy of praise. But Kline’s sympathetic main character and his subsequent coming to terms with his homosexuality give the movie a heart instead of simply a comedic sensibility. It’s funny, light, and no doubt one of Kline’s finest films.
This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
source https://wealthofgeeks.com/the-best-movies-streaming-on-paramount-plus/
No comments:
Post a Comment