Hulu’s movie selection for February combines prestige plays with blockbuster success. The Oscar-nominated A Real Pain is heavily featured on the streamer. Jesse Eisenberg’s road-trip dramedy received two Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin. Elsewhere, the biggest blockbuster on Hulu’s homepage is Alien: Romulus, the latest terrifying chapter in the Alien franchise.
A Real Pain and Alien: Romulus will certainly be seen by many subscribers. However, there are numerous movies to watch that can be found on the genre pages. If you scroll carefully, you’ll find a few diamonds in the rough. To save you time, here are three underrated movies to watch right now. Our picks include a quick thriller, an alien-in-the-ocean horror, and a raunchy comedy.
We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, 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+.
Underwater (2020)
Underwater channels Ridley Scott’s Alien, posing the question: What if the creature were beneath the surface? Directed by William Eubank, Underwater follows a group of employees at a research and drilling facility at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Part of the facility is destroyed during an underwater earthquake.
With no escape pods left, the group — including Norah Price (Kristen Stewart), Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), and Paul Abel (T.J. Miller) — decides that their only chance of survival is to walk to another research base one mile across the ocean floor. Big mistake because unknown creatures terrorize the crew upon their every movement. Like Alien, the team must get creative to survive or risk a painful death.
Watch Underwater on Hulu.
Phone Booth (2002)
Colin Farrell is in the midst of a career-defining run thanks to his Oscar-nominated role in The Banshees of Inisherin and his Golden Globe-winning turn as Oz Cobb in The Penguin. Farrell’s always done good work throughout his three-decade run. Phone Booth is a case in point for Farrell’s early work. Farrell stars as Stu Shepard, a sleazy New York City publicist who has been unfaithful to his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell).
While in Times Square, Stu enters a phone booth to call his mistress. A mysterious man (Kiefer Sutherland) calls the booth and forces Stu to remain inside the phone booth. Stu doesn’t take this threat seriously. However, this is no laughing matter. The man holds Stu at gunpoint and tells him to obey the rules or face the consequences. Phone Booth is a brisk 81-minute nail-biter with a good cat-and-mouse dynamic between Farrell and Sutherland.
Watch Phone Booth on Hulu.
Dirty Grandpa (2016)
It’s OK to laugh at stupid humor. There is a lot of lewdness, raunchiness, and stupidity in Dirty Grandpa. Not everything has to be Citizen Kane. Sometimes, watching Zac Efron and Robert De Niro embark on a hijinks-fueled road trip will suffice. Jason Kelly (Efron) is a high-strung Alabama lawyer who will soon marry his boss’s Type A daughter (Julianne Hough) in one week.
Before Jason walks down the aisle, he must drive his grandfather, Richard “Dick” Kelly (De Niro), to Boca Raton, Florida. While on the road trip, Dick tricks Jason into driving them to spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida. While Dick wants to party with booze and women, Jason cannot stop thinking about his future and refuses to relax. That’s where Grandpa comes in, who shows his grandson how to let loose and have a good time.
Watch Dirty Grandpa on Hulu.