Fans have just a few more days to take in a trio of modern-ish classics on Netflix before they depart the world’s No. 1 streamer. Happily, several blockbusters of yesteryear — and a few passed-over flicks from the filmography of a departed master — are en route.
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Let’s take stock of some of the three primo titles leaving Netflix stateside.
Leaving Jan. 31
Parasite (2019): One of the rare examples of a Best Picture Academy Award winner that actually deserved the honor, Bong Joon Ho’s brilliant class thriller highlights two violently intersecting households as a poor family gradually insinuates itself into the deluxe household of a rich one. Parasite is such an uncomfortable experience that it’s not, say, re-watchable at the level of a Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But it’s worthy of a dive.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005): The blockbuster action romance that launched a billion tabloids is actually a rip-roaring good time, loaded with nifty setpieces as cultivated by the steady hand of genre vet Doug Liman — who at the time was fresh off The Bourne Identity.
Anaconda (1997): We’re not talking about the new comic reboot, but the wacky original. The Jennifer Lopez-starring horror actioner boasts a snarkily scenery-chewing performance from Mrs. Smith’s dad, Jon Voight, doing some… unplaceable accent work. Unlike Parasite, this one can probably be binged 20 times straight without doing any emotional damage.
Arriving Feb. 1
Independence Day (1996): Off the heels of the first Bad Boys, Will Smith fully cemented his star with this ensemble alien invasion blockbuster. He and Jeff Goldblum make an unlikely buddy pair for the movie’s grand finale. The Roland Emmerich epic pairs well with the zany Tim Burton satire Mars Attacks!, which sadly wasn’t appreciated when it hit theaters months later.
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993): Divorced San Francisco dad Robin Williams disguises himself as an elderly British nanny to covertly spend more time with his kids beyond his ex-wife Sally Field’s purview. Williams’ winning dual performance, both as the titular phonny babysitter and as the desperate dad, remains relentlessly charming 33 years later.
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Ghosts of Mississippi (1996): The late great Rob Reiner might be best remembered for a Herculean decade-long directing run from 1984-95 (with one blemish, North, that we don’t have to talk about here). It’s true that he didn’t quite scale the heights of stuff like This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men or The American President with his subsequent fare, but then again, who could? He hit plenty of solid doubles and triples in the intervening years and decades.
Ghosts of Mississippi is an underseen legal thriller, starring Alec Baldwin as an initially apathetic attorney who discovers a cause he finally cares about, Whoopi Goldberg as the bitter, hardened widow of a slain civil rights activist, and James Woods as the unrepentant monster who managed to skirt a conviction for said activist’s assassination decades ago.
Alex & Emma (2003): Reiner’s sweet, scaled-back tale of a desperate novelist (Luke Wilson) and the stenographer he hires to help him finish his book on a tight deadline and unfreeze his writer’s block (Kate Hudson) feels like a play. It didn’t hit at the box office, but is a cosy little trifle.
Another later-period Reiner flick, the Woody Harrelson presidential biopic LBJ (2016), will hit the app on Feb. 5.
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