Summer may be the best time to go to the movies, but Netflix is making a pretty strong argument for staying at home to watch some great films from the comfort of your couch.
Heading into the weekend, there are only two Netflix originals among the streamer’s top 10 movies. The rest are all on loan from Hollywood studios.
The Watch With Us team is eager to start the weekend a little early, so we’ve put together our picks for the three popular Netflix movies you should watch right now.
Our first selection is a heist film with an A-list cast, followed by a mythological action flick and one of the best horror movies of the last decade.
Just in time for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t to arrive in theaters later this year, the first two films are now on Netflix. Now You See Me establishes the origin of the Four Horsemen: J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). Each of these performers has mastered a particular field of magic, and they put on a hell of a show together.
When the Four Horsemen seemingly pull off a real money heist in front of a live audience, the authorities arrest them for robbery. Proving their guilt is too much for FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), who turns to former magician Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) for help. Bradley’s made a career out of exposing other magicians’ tricks, but the Four Horsemen won’t make it easy for him.
Now You See Me is streaming on Netflix.
‘Wrath of the Titans’ (2012)The director of Now You See Me, Louis Leterrier, has more than one movie in Netflix’s top 10 this week. Leterrier also helmed Wrath of the Titans, a sequel to the remake of Clash of the Titans. Avatar‘s Sam Worthington reprises his role as Perseus, the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), and the man who defeated the Kraken in the first film. But rather than continue his heroics, Perseus has retired to raise his son in peace.
As Zeus’ powers wane, he falls prey to a conspiracy launched by his treacherous brother, Hades (Ralph Fiennes), and his son, Ares (Édgar Ramírez). With Zeus out of the way, the Titans will soon be free to ravage the Earth. That’s not only going to force Perseus out of retirement, it also means he needs help to fight the ancient enemies of the gods.
Wrath of the Titans is streaming on Netflix.
‘Barbarian’ (2022)
It makes sense if you go into Barbarian expecting Bill Skarsgård to be the bad guy. He was, after all, the evil naked vampire in Nosferatu as well as Pennyworth the Dancing Clown with an appetite for children in Stephen King‘s It. In this film, he’s just an ordinary guy named Keith who happened to check into his Airbnb before Tess (Georgina Campbell).
Neither Tess nor Keith knew each other before they were double-booked for the same small vacation home. They get along well, and maybe something romantic could happen. Except this isn’t that kind of story, and that house has secrets that may scare the bejesus out of you. We can’t tell you why it’s a great horror movie without spoiling the surprises. So have fun discovering them for yourselves.
Barbarian is streaming on Netflix.
