The Movies You Have To Watch Before They Leave Netflix In August 2019
A new month means a new slate of television series and movies hitting everyone's favorite streaming service: Netflix. August 2019 brings a bevy of binge-able shows like GLOW and Mindhunter, both of which are delivering brand-new seasons that subscribers are bound to devour like fresh-baked cookies, as well as much-loved films (Groundhog Day, anyone?) and cool comedy specials (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 4 isn't one to miss).
Sadly, there's no saying hello to those awesome additions without needing to bid farewell to some truly great movies. Of course, it will be difficult to check out everything that's leaving Netflix's digital shelves, so we have a list of the best of the best films you have to watch before they disappear. Between now and the end of August, sign into your Netflix account (or continue mooching off your roommate's or parents' subscription) and load up these movies you won't want to miss.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - August 1
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam's psychedelic satirical black comedy based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name, is a flick you either love with every fiber of your being, don't really understand, or haven't seen at all. The film divided critics upon its release in May 1998, largely for its pendulous nature and bizarreness that can make your head spin. But in the two decades since, Fear and Loathing has picked up a swarm of fans who will go to bat for it.
Set in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas centers on journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro), as they take a road (and drug) trip from the sunny skies of Los Angeles to the sin-filled deserts of Las Vegas. What begins as an effort to document the news of the city with true journalistic integrity devolves into an exploration of an otherworldly dystopia that gets more and more haunting the further Duke and Gonzo venture in.
Some think Fear and Loathing is Gilliam's worst film by a mile and is "intensely pretentious," while others have called it "a stylish and faithful adaptation of a lasting classic of American literature." Find out which side of the argument you fall on, or revisit an old favorite, before Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas departs from Netflix on August 1.
Final Destination 1, 2, 3, and 4 - August 1
Want to indulge in some silly scares as summer winds down? Before August 1, load up Netflix and watch the first four installments in the over-the-top horror franchise Final Destination.
Each entry in the saga, which only excludes Final Destination 5, centers on a group of young adults who fight for their lives after a friend of theirs is suddenly struck with a vision and warns they will all die in a freak accident — like a mid-air plane explosion that college student Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) foresees in Final Destination, a massive car pile-up that Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) senses will happen in Final Destination 2, a rollercoaster crash that Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition of in Final Destination 3, and a race car crash Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) predicts will happen in The Final Destination. All seems okay when the group isn't involved in the accident their friend foretold, but the hand of fate soon swoops down and plucks them off one by one, killing them in increasingly bizarre ways. There's no avoiding Death or their final destination: the grave.
Though none of the Final Destination movies have been critical hits, they've performed fairly well at the box office and have amassed something of a cult following. They're campy and inane and the perfect movies to mindlessly watch after a long summer day spent lounging in the sun (because if you know anything about the Final Destination films, you avoid tanning beds at all costs).
Hot Fuzz - August 1
Writer-director Edgar Wright and writer-actor Simon Pegg started the underappreciated Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy with 2004's zombie romp Shaun of the Dead, then built it out with 2007's Hot Fuzz — a "bitingly satiric and hugely entertaining parody" of the buddy cop genre featuring Pegg as London police constable Nicholas Angel and his Shaun of the Dead co-star, Nick Frost, as Angel's overeager partner, Danny Butterman.
After Angel realizes that his flawless track record of catching baddies has made his London superiors angry (his achievements are making them look bad), he's transferred to Sandford, Gloucestershire, and partnered up with the action movie aficionado Butterman. Angel reluctantly settles into the calmness of the countryside town and gets used to having the oafish Butterman at his side, but things take a dark turn when a string of "accidents" unleashes horror and chaos onto Sandford. The two cops buddy up (Hot Fuzz is nothing if not self-aware) to discover the culprit and true meaning behind the crimes.
Hot Fuzz, regarded as "everything an action-comedy should be," leaves Netflix on August 1.
The Fifth Element - August 1
It's visually creative and just a little bit confounding, gleeful and garish, rowdy and rollicking. It's a splash of Star Wars with some vaudevillian-style humor swirled throughout, and it features gorgeous, look-at-me costuming by haute couture and prêt-à-porter designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. It's a gonzo sci-fi feat, it's The Fifth Element, and it's on Netflix until August 1.
Directed and co-written by Luc Besson, who began writing the story 22 years before it debuted in theaters in 1997, The Fifth Element takes place (mostly) in the 23rd century, when Earth is on the brink of collapse hundreds of years after the Mondoshawan aliens collected four elemental stones (earth, air, water, and fire) from Egypt in 1914. It's up to Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), an ex-special forces major and current flying taxicab driver, and Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), the orange-haired humanoid with an insanely long full name who crashes into said taxicab, to combine the four elemental stones with the fifth element (that being Leeloo herself) to prevent a massive ball of flaming lava from hurtling into the planet. If their mission fails, evil industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) will give the signal to destroy Earth. Dallas and Leeloo meet a host of colorful characters — like the alien opera singer Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn Le Besco) and the flamboyant talk show host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) — along the way, which makes their already unforgettable experience that much more memorable.
Zombieland - August 1
Got your Twinkies? Got your shotgun? Got your nickname taken from a city in the U.S.? Well, get ready to roll, 'cause the zombie apocalypse is about to be over, and you don't want to miss your shot at killing some undead creatures.
Ruben Fleischer's runaway hit horror-comedy Zombieland follows a group of four humans who survived the apocalypse that occurred when a mutation of mad cow disease turned Americans into flesh-eating zombies. Making his way from his dorm room in Austin, Texas, to Columbus, Ohio, to see if his parents are still alive, geeky college kid Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) meets three strangers who become his makeshift family: sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who have some unique ways of dealing with chaos, and zombie-killing expert Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). Their journey places them in sticky and unusual situations, and despite following a list of 33 rules to deal with life post-apocalypse, the foursome start to wonder whether they're better as a dysfunctional team or if they should risk their lives and split up. There's humor and gore, violence and a kickin' soundtrack, an appearance from Bill Murray as a fictionalized version of himself, and even some romance — you know, something for everyone.
Zombieland is set to jump off Netflix on the very first day of August, so hop to it. Then, look forward to catching the sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap, in theaters on October 18.
No Country for Old Men - August 11
With a deep voice that could turn every head in his direction, acting chops that have remained unparalleled, and strong facial features, Javier Bardem was basically born to play antagonistic characters. He's taken his fair share of turns as baddies in films like Skyfall and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, but no villainous character Bardem has embodied comes close to the psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in Joel and Ethan Coen's neo-Western crime thriller, No Country for Old Men. In other words, Netflix subscribers won't want to miss out on the intense experience of watching Bardem's performance as Chigurh before the film leaves the site on August 11.
Set up as a cat-and-mouse game, No Country for Old Men begins with a discovery: Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) steps into the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong, and finds $2 million in cash sitting in the back of a truck. It's an unexpected payday for Moss, but it changes his life forever. Chigurh soon sets out to recover the money, tossing a coin in the air to decide what Moss' fate shall be when they cross paths. Meanwhile, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) faces insurmountable troubles of his own, as violence in West Texas continues to rise.
An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men is thrilling and bleakly funny as it explores themes of religion and fate against the arid backdrop of the Lone Star State.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - August 20
Directed by Garth Jennings in his feature debut, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows after a few other adaptations of seriously well-loved source material. The 2005 film brings to life the weird and wonderful novels of the late Douglas Adams, which were turned into a 1978 radio broadcast series, a 1981 television series, and a 1984 video. However, none of those page-to-screen translations captured the unique magic of Adams' original novel quite as well as the Jennings-directed film.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy centers on Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), an English everyman who's having a particularly troubling day. He learns that his house is scheduled for a bulldozing, that his friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def), is actually an alien journalist working on a universal guide book, and that Earth will be demolished to clear space in the solar system for a hyperspace bypass. (Makes the whole "your house is getting knocked down" thing seem like small potatoes, huh?) Arthur's only shot at surviving is to climb aboard a passing spacecraft, and thus he embarks on a journey he never could've imagined. Our unlikely hero discovers that everything he thought he knew about life has been wrong, and everything he needs to know rests in Ford's own Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Also starring Zooey Deschanel as a humanoid named Trillian, Hitchhiker's Guide has been remembered as a delightful sci-fi treat that simply couldn't have been better. The film leaves Netflix on August 20.