Are you ready for Glicked? Yes, that’s the actual nickname for the simultaneous release of Gladiator 2 and Wicked this weekend. Hollywood is hoping for another bountiful Barbenheimer box office bonanza (say that three times fast), and if the tracking is correct, they are going to get it. Expect tons of crowds at movie theaters this weekend.
If you’re like me and hate people, er, crowds, then don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. You can stay in and enjoy some films that have been overlooked. I’ve assembled a list of three underrated movies that are streaming on Max right now. None of them have the spectacle of Ariana Grande singing in a floating pink bubble or Paul Mescal in a blood-stained toga, but maybe that’s a good thing.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Out of the Furnace (2013)
Christian Bale is one of the best actors working today, and chances are, you haven’t seen one of his best performances ever. That’s because Out of the Furnace didn’t get the attention it deserved when it was released in 2013, even though it was praised by critics. It’s never too late to correct that mistake, and you’ll get to see both Bale in his prime and a picture you won’t soon forget.
Out of the Furnace concerns two brothers, ex-con Russell (Bale) and amateur boxer Rodney (Casey Affleck), who are both working class and rely on each other to survive. When Rodney gets into trouble with some shady characters, Russell must bail his brother out of trouble before it’s too late.
I’m keeping this plot description deliberately vague as Out of the Furnace takes some wild turns and ends up becoming a gripping thriller that also works as an effective character study. Bale may have won his Oscar for The Fighter, but he deserved another one for his superb work here.
Out of the Furnace is streaming on Max.
Anaconda (1997)
Ice Cube. A giant snake. Oscar winner Jon Voight. Jennifer Lopez before she was J.Lo. Eric freakin’ Stoltz. There was a time in history when one movie contained all of these disparate things, and that movie is Anaconda. The 1997 action-thriller is as cheeseball as it gets, but it knows it, and the director, Luis Losa, works the material with a B-movie zeal that’s hard to come by nowadays.
While trying to film a documentary about native tribes near the Amazon River, a film crew, headed by director Terri (Lopez) and including cameraman Danny (Ice Cube), and sound engineer Gary (Owen Wilson), encounter shady snake hunter Paul (Voight), who subtly manipulates the crew to help him find the fabled anaconda snake. Paul gets his wish, and soon, everyone on the boat must fight to survive and avoid getting killed by the deadly, oversized reptile. Does everyone make it out alive? Nope. Is Anaconda the definition of a guilty pleasure. If you watch it and like it, don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.
Anaconda is streaming on Max.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
One of the all-time great marketing campaigns occurred at the end of 2011, when Sony decided to market its highly anticipated adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling mystery, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as “the feel bad movie of Christmas.” They weren’t wrong as the movie deals with heavy topics like rape, trauma, and murder, but you don’t feel bad after watching it. The filmmaking by director David Fincher is too good, and the dynamic lead performance by Rooney Mara is too exhilarating to feel negative about anything.
For those that don’t know, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is Lisbeth Salander (Mara), a computer hacker who is very good at her job. She crosses paths with journalist Mikael Blomkvist (James Bond actor Daniel Craig), who is investigating the 40-year-old murder of a teenage girl in Sweden. By combining forces, they hope to solve a murder and uncover dark family secrets. In the process, they grow closer to one another, which threatens to change Lisbeth from a social outsider to someone who can at last trust people again.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is streaming on Max.