Netflix has plenty of movies to watch. Maybe too many. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. Let us help you. Below is a list of some of our favorites currently on the streaming service—from dramas to comedies to thrillers.
If you decide you’re in more of a TV mood, head over to our collection of the best TV series on Netflix. Want more? Check out our lists of the best sci-fi movies, best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best flicks on Disney+.
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The Blackening
When a group of Black college friends hold a reunion for Juneteenth, the vibe seems off. For starters, they’re meeting at a cabin in the woods, which is a little too close to horror movie territory. Such genre-savviness begins to pay off when they discover a suspicious board game in the basement and find themselves playing by a serial killer’s twisted rules—starting with determining the “Blackest” member of the group to sacrifice. With a cast of comedy greats including X Mayo, Jermaine Fowler, and Jay Pharoah, The Blackening is a self-aware and smartly satirical twist on horror movie conventions that brilliantly plays on its tongue-in-cheek tagline: “We can’t all die first.” Packing in just the right level of scares to avoid going full parody, this is perfect Halloween viewing.
The Running Man
In an America that has become a totalitarian police state, the corrupt government maintains power through propaganda and control of communication, making those it deems criminals fight for their freedom in a lethal game show that has replaced true justice. That’s in the dystopian “future” of 2017 though, where Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the latest victim of the system, forced to compete after being framed for a series of murders. Released in 1987, The Running Man finds Arnie at his cheesiest, delivering one-liners while killing outlandish goons with panache. While it loses a lot of the satire and cultural warnings of the original Stephen King novel, this action classic remains an entertaining watch, and well worth a look ahead of the upcoming remake, directed by Edgar Wright, which looks set to stick closer to the source material.
Mantis
Set in the same universe as Kill Bok-soon, this Korean action extravaganza shifts focus to contract killer Lee Han-ul (Yim Si-wan), better known as Mantis, who returns from a vacation—even assassins need a break—to find the violent world in which he operates in chaos. The shadowy organization MK ENT has fallen, leaving no one to enforce the honor rules that once governed the profession, but more importantly, creating a power vacuum to be filled. As Mantis aims to take control and restore order, his complicated relationship with ally/rival(/love interest?) Shin Jae-yi (Park Gyu-young) threatens to make everything a thousand times worse. While it takes a lighter tone than Kill Bok-soon, leaning more on comedy than action, Mantis serves up phenomenal fight choreography and sizzling chemistry between its leads, making for a solid spinoff.
Devo
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