The Movies You Have To Watch Before They Leave Netflix In March 2020
As we all know, Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away — and lo and behold, it's taketh-ing a lot of really great flicks during March 2020. From a few of the greatest superhero movies of all time, to one of the most singularly weird and awesome animated films ever, to Quentin Tarantino's inspired deep dive into the kung fu genre — everything must go, and while everybody's favorite streaming service has plenty of great stuff splashing down in its catalog in March, there seems to be an unusual number of must-watch films vacating the premises to make room.
With roughly a ker-billion titles to choose from at any given time (we exaggerate, but not by much), it can be difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings on Netflix — but fortunately for you, we're on top of it. Here are all of the movies that you simply demand one last viewing before they leave Netflix in March 2020.
Black Panther will be prowling from Netflix to its new home
Most of Marvel Studios' releases have already boogied off of Netflix and onto their new home on rival streamer Disney+, and the stragglers won't be around for long. As of now, you can still catch Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Black Panther on Netflix — but if you're keen to relive King T'Challa's awesome 2018 solo adventure, you'd better do it pretty soon.
Black Panther, in case you forgot, is a history-making film; it's the first superhero movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, the first representative of its genre to score multiple Oscar wins (three), and the first comic book film by a black director, featuring a black protagonist (not to mention a majority black cast), to shatter the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.
You shouldn't watch it again for these reasons, though; you should watch it again because it is freaking amazing. Star Chadwick Boseman gives a powerful, regal performance, his co-stars Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright deliver star-making turns, and Michael B. Jordan brings to life one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most complex villains to date. Black Panther is one of Mighty Marvel's greatest films, and that is really saying something. Stream it on Netflix until March 3.
Men in Black and Men in Black II are leaving Netflix's orbit
The franchise may have flagged a bit with last year's soft reboot Men in Black: International, but the first three films in the MiB series — the ones which benefited from the sure direction of Barry Sonnenfeld and the otherworldly comedic chemistry of stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith — are about as good as sci-fi comedies get. The first two of those, 1997's Men in Black and 2002's Men in Black II, are available for streaming on Netflix, but not for long.
If you haven't caught either of these flicks for awhile, it will amaze you to be reminded just how fun and funny they are — especially the first one, which sports a secret weapon in the form of an insanely committed (and, well, just insane) performance by the great Vincent D'Onofrio as a humble farmer named Edgar, who becomes the unwilling host of one nasty bug. Smith's ever-inflating charisma and star power is on full display, Jones is as cool as ever, and supporting players such as Linda Fiorentino, Rip Torn, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Johnny Knoxville round out the supporting casts of Men in Black and Men in Black II; watch them again on Netflix until March 14.
Coraline will be departing Netflix's world
Coraline is one of two amazing, innovative animated films which everyone assumes were directed by Tim Burton, but were actually the work of Henry Selick, one of Burton's longtime associates. (The other is The Nightmare Before Christmas.) Based on a novel by master of dark fantasy Neil Gaiman — the mind behind the iconic comic book series The Sandman — Coraline goes to some very unusual places, not the least of which is the alternate dimension visited by its child protagonist.
Dakota Fanning stars in the title role, and she's supported by an amazing cast that includes the likes of Keith David, Ian McShane, and Teri Hatcher. Like its story, Coraline's visual aesthetic is singularly unique; it was shot using the time-honored stop motion technique, using thousands of 3D models created specifically for the movie. It's a stunning visual and narrative achievement, one which you'll want to catch again before its time on Netflix is up — and if you've never seen it, you'll probably want to get on that. Coraline is available to stream until March 15.
Zodiac will be slashed from Netflix's servers
David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece Zodiac is several cuts above your average true-crime thriller; meticulously researched, flawlessly written, and featuring a crackerjack cast, the movie provides an exhaustive examination of the Zodiac murders, perhaps the most notorious unsolved serial killings in American history. Like the real-life case, it's agonizingly suggestive without providing answers; also like the case, it can at times slow to a crawl before catching the viewer totally off-guard with shocking, punishing bursts of violence.
In an odd coincidence, the flick's three leads happened to go on to important roles in the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Jake Gyllenhaal starred in 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home as Quentin Beck/Mysterio, Mark Ruffalo has appeared in an even half-dozen movies as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and Robert Downey, Jr. inhabited one of the most beloved cinematic heroes of all time in Tony Stark/Iron Man. The rest of Zodiac's all-star cast includes the likes of Dermot Mulroney, Donal Logue, Brian Cox, Anthony Edwards, and Chloë Sevigny; screenwriter James Vanderbilt offers up a master class in screenwriting, and Fincher's direction has never been sharper or more deliberate. This is one hell of a good film, folks; stream Zodiac on Netflix until March 19.
Batman Begins and The Dark Knight won't be protecting Netflix for long
The films of director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy are some of the finest examples of the superhero genre, and they blazed more trails than you might remember. Before 2005's Batman Begins, the word "reboot" was used solely to describe the process of restarting a computer; Nolan's complete revamping of Batman for the big screen was gritty, grounded, and inspired, even if its took audiences forever to get their heads around the fact that it was not a sequel to the Tim Burton-Joel Schumacher Batman movies.
The film's legacy would have been impressive enough on its own, but then came 2008's The Dark Knight, which simply shattered everyone's notions of what a comic book film could be. The late, great Heath Ledger's jaw-dropping performance as the Joker won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar — a first for the superhero genre, and a precursor to Joaquin Phoenix winning himself a statue for playing a version of the same character eleven years later — and the film's crazy action set pieces and pitch-dark tone are a strong influence on the genre to this day.
Fans of superhero cinema, take note: Gotham's protector won't be sticking around for much longer. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight will be available to stream until March 30.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will walk out of Mordor
Spectacle movies don't get much more spectacular than Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the second and third films — The Two Towers and The Return of the King — are revered by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy novels. Sure, Return of the King ends about six different times, but fans didn't mind; heck, the movie was so damn good that they probably would have been fine with two or three more fakeout endings.
Mind-blowingly staged and perfectly cast, the Lord of the Rings flicks set a standard for big-budget fantasy that no movie without Harry Potter in the title has even come close to approaching. The films made superstars of Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen, provided meaty roles for acting powerhouses like Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, and John Rhys-Davies, and gave us one of the most stunningly modeled CGI characters of all time in Gollum — the role which established Andy Serkis as the reigning king of motion capture.
Time is running out to feast your eyes on the final two films in the greatest fantasy series of all time. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will be departing Netflix on March 30.
Paranormal Activity will jump off of Netflix soon
Its five sequels have provided somewhat diminishing returns, but it's hard to overstate what a revelation Paranormal Activity was when it hit screens in 2007. Its inspired tweak to the conventions of the found-footage genre — all of the action takes place on cameras which a young couple set up throughout their home in an attempt to record, er, the paranormal activity plaguing the joint — allowed it to be made on a shoestring budget, which a) in no way kept it from being the scariest film of its year, and b) made its $193 million worldwide box office cume even more impressive than if the film hadn't been made for the cost of a pretty nice used car.
Director Oren Peli masterfully ratchets up the tension during the film's scant 85-minute run time, and then-unknown stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat (playing characters with those same first names) turn in naturalistic performances that make the frequent scares land that much harder. With an excruciating third act and a final shot guaranteed to separate you from your skin, Paranormal Activity is one of the very best found-footage flicks ever made; stream it on Netflix until March 30.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 will finish their mission on Netflix
As a director, Quentin Tarantino is every bit as skilled as he is wildly unrestrained, and we love him for both of those qualities. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 are very much two halves of one big movie, and it is part kung-fu flick, part revenge movie, and all Tarantino.
Uma Thurman stars as a master assassin, once a key member of the feared Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, who is brutalized and left for dead on her wedding day by her former cohorts — including their leader, Bill (David Carradine), who responds to her plea to spare her life and the life of their unborn child by shooting her in the head. Over the course of the two movies, she exacts her revenge on the Squad's members without mercy, eventually (spoilers, we suppose) fulfilling the flicks' titles by way of the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. She is Beatrix Kiddo... but you can call her The Bride.
The Kill Bill flicks are pure, distilled Tarantino — which is to say that they are uber-cinematic, super-stylized, unbelievably violent fun. They are two of the straight-up craziest movies you will ever see, and you've only got so much time left to see them on Netflix; Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 will be leaving the streamer on March 30.