Two wildly influential horror classics — one from the 2000s, one from the 1970s — are among the best movies leaving Netflix for U.S. subscribers in February, along with a Hitchcockian thriller, a gentle family comedy-drama, a broad riff on ’80s sex comedies and a favorite of bad movie aficionados. (Dates reflect the first day titles are unavailable and are subject to change.)
‘28 Days Later’ (Feb. 1)
As its latest sequel, “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” hits theaters (to rave reviews), now is a fine time to catch up with the 2003 zombie flick that started it all — not just this particular franchise but also the entire reimagining of movie zombies. The director Danny Boyle and the screenwriter Alex Garland take a realistic approach to a zombie apocalypse, focusing mostly on the disruptions to daily life, as experienced by Jim (Cillian Murphy), a former bike messenger who awakens in a hospital to find that London is a hollowed-out shell. Shot with maximum immediacy on digital video, it is a harrowing and haunting experience.
‘Anaconda’ (Feb. 1)
The recent slapstick comedy reboot of this 1997 jungle adventure was less acclaimed, having made the mistake of thinking the original wasn’t funnier. “Anaconda” wasn’t a comedy, to be sure, but it was a savvy bit of B-moviemaking, slyly self-aware of its roots in the cheapo drive-in monster movies of the 1950s. An all-over-the-place cast (including Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Owen Wilson and Eric Stoltz) plays a documentary crew who are on location in the Amazon rain forest when they encounter the titular beast, which picks them off one by one, in exceedingly gruesome fashion. The original New York Times review deemed it “a trashily entertaining reptilian version of ‘Jaws,’” and that sums it up succinctly.
‘Licorice Pizza’ (Feb. 1)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is looking more and more likely to win big at the Oscars, and that’s a good enough excuse to check out his previous feature, which also scored Oscar nominations for best picture, best director and best original screenplay. (It was also his first pairing with the “Battle” sensation Sean Penn.) Cooper Hoffman — son of Anderson’s frequent collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman — stars as Gary Valentine, a teenage hustler in the San Fernando Valley circa 1973 who falls for the slightly older and enigmatic Alana (played by Haim’s Alana Haim in an astonishing acting debut). Warm and nostalgic without veering into treacle, it’s one of Anderson’s low-key best to date.
‘What Lies Beneath’ (Feb. 1)
With the production of his “Cast Away” on hold while Tom Hanks got himself down to desert island weight, the director Robert Zemeckis spent his down time doing what came naturally: making another movie. Working from a smart, thorny screenplay by the actor Clark Gregg (best known these days as Agent Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Zemeckis cast Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford as a long-married couple whose seemingly stable marriage is tested by her growing obsession with the suspicious activities of their new neighbors. Zemeckis clearly revels in the opportunity to craft a Hitchcock-style thriller, pouring on wild plot twists and tense set pieces with aplomb, including the most suspenseful bathtub sequence since “Diabolique.”
‘Everybody’s Fine’ (Feb. 15)
A fair majority of Robert De Niro’s 21st century acting appearances have been either obvious paycheck turns or halfhearted covers of his greatest hits, and unfortunately, too few of his genuinely inspired performances broke through to a large audience. Case in point: this 2009 adaptation by Kirk Jones of the 1990 Italian film by Giuseppe Tornatore. De Niro stars here as a retired widower who hits the road to check on his adult children, charismatically acted by Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. The story beats are fairly predictable, but Jones (“Waking Ned Devine,” “Nanny McPhee”) and his star find the potent emotional core of the story and play it with sensitivity and grace.
‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (Feb. 18)
Tobe Hooper’s 1974 independent horror smash became such a widespread shorthand for “gory scary movie” that it’s almost shocking to discover how little blood is shed during its brisk 83 minutes; there are bones and bodies galore but surprisingly little graphic violence. Yet even jaded, contemporary viewers are often shaken by the picture, not because of its gore but because of its intensity. Loosely inspired by the real-life murders of Ed Gein, this story about a van full of young people who stumble across the wrong house in the middle of the Texan nowhere is a blistering, relentless descent into hillbilly hell, taut and terrifying in equal measure.
‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Seasons 3 & 4 (Feb. 26)
It’s a bummer that Netflix is streaming only these middle seasons of this delightful ensemble police comedy, a kind of “Barney Miller” for the 21st century. That said, if you were going to spend only two seasons with the squad of Brooklyn’s 99th precinct, it would be these; after the bumpy early years of figuring out who these characters were and how they best worked together, these episodes run like a well-oiled machine. Credit the showrunner Dan Goor and his co-creator, Michael Shur, for finding the right balance of absurdity, satire and emotion and a first-rate cast to bring this band of misfits to life with verve. Andy Samberg is particularly great as the likable central detective and Andre Braugher is outstanding as his seemingly humorless captain.
‘Bottoms’ (Feb. 27)
The director Emma Seligman and the actor Rachel Sennott first worked together on “Shiva Baby,” a nerve-jangling indie comedy of manners that found its laughter in discomfort and neuroses. They reteamed for this 2023 comedy that sounds completely different notes: It is a broad, high-spirited riff on the teen comedies of the 1980s, in which a handful of dorky dudes worked overtime to lose their virginity — except that those dudes are now dorky lesbians. Sennott and Ayo Edebiri shine in the leading roles while the screenplay (written by Seligman and Sennott) is deliciously ruthless in its pursuit of laughs, no matter how seemingly out of bounds.
Also Leaving
“Charlie’s Angels,” “Dr. Doolittle,” “The Foreigner,” “Groundhog Day,” “Kath and Kim” Seasons 1-4, “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Oblivion,” “Parasite,” “The Patriot,” “The Terminator,” “Turbo,” “Wick Is Pain” (Feb. 1); “Election,” “Mean Girls” (Feb. 5); “Spencer” (Feb. 8); “The A-Team” (Feb. 16); “Zodiac” (Feb. 17); “Operation Finale” (Feb. 20); “Cocaine Cowboys 2” (Feb. 21); “The Island” (Feb. 24); “Bones and All” (Feb. 27)
The post Stream These 8 Titles Before They Leave Netflix in February appeared first on New York Times.
