Even more great movies cord-cutters can stream for free – TechHive

The great John Carpenter made this taut, ferocious action-thriller after his low-budget student sci-fi film Dark Star, and before the hit Halloween. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) was inspired by Howard Hawks’s Western Rio Bravo, in which a small group of mismatched misfits must defend a stronghold against an onslaught of attackers from outside. Police Lieutenant Bishop (Austin Stoker) is assigned to the final few hours of a decommissioned police station in an intensely crime-infested neighborhood. Unexpectedly, a busload of prisoners arrives, as well as the father of a murdered girl, just before ruthless street gangs begin to attack. Bishop reluctantly teams up with a killer (Darwin Joston) and a secretary (Laurie Zimmer) to survive the night. Carpenter’s widescreen staging provides a perfect backdrop for the movie’s gritty energy and crackling tension. And, as usual, he also provided the pulse-pounding music score. Co-star Nancy Loomis went on to appear in Halloween.

Attack the Block

(Crackle)

Screen Gems

After seemingly dozens of terrible alien-invasion movies, this fresh, smart, playful film came along, and has already become something of a cult classic. Attack the Block (2011) begins as nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) takes the wrong street on her way home and is mugged by a group of thugs, led by Moses (John Boyega, later cast as Finn in the Star Wars movies). Something strange falls from the sky, and thus begins an alien invasion. Sam finds herself joining forces with her former muggers, as well as a goofball pot dealer (Nick Frost), to try to defend their neighborhood. This clever movie is actually about flawed perceptions, not only in how the humans and aliens view each other, but also in how the different humans view each other. It was the directorial debut of English comedian Joe Cornish, and it was produced by filmmaker Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead); the two friends also co-wrote The Adventures of Tintin and Ant-Man.

Boy

(Vudu Free, Hoopla, Kanopy)

Paladin

New Zealand filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi gained international fame with his Thor: Ragnarok, and then won an Oscar for his Jojo Rabbit. This earlier effort is a little different, but it still has Waititi’s unique blend of humor and sincerity, as well as that lovely, sing-songy (and very funny) dialog. Boy (2010) remains one of the best coming-of-age movies of the last couple of decades. It’s the 1980s in New Zealand. “Boy” (James Rolleston) is an 11-year-old who loves an older girl almost as much as he loves Michael Jackson. His mother has passed on, and he’s in charge of his younger siblings. Suddenly, his father, Alamein (Waititi)—who is nothing more than a big, irresponsible kid himself—returns. He wishes to unearth a hidden box of money, and he makes Boy dig holes while searching for it. The father-and-son relationship goes through many ups and downs (Alamein compares his mood changes to the Incredible Hulk), but eventually reaches a touching plateau.

Bubba Ho-Tep

(Vudu Free, Pluto TV)

Cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, who is perhaps best known for the Phantasm movies, made this bizarre, incredible horror-comedy, based on a novella by Joe R. Lansdale. In a Texas rest home, a man claiming to be Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell, from the Evil Dead films) is friends with a man claiming to be former President John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis, from Do the Right Thing), even though he is black. (Both men have hilarious, convoluted stories that explain why they are who they say they are.) If that’s not loony enough, both men must work together to stop an attack from a re-animated ancient Egyptian mummy, that, for some reason, wears cowboy gear. Despite the general weirdness inherent in Bubba Ho-Tep (2003), Coscarelli manages to bring his characters to life with many funny and touching moments, as well as crafting genuine chills and suspense. It’s one of the great modern “B” movies.

Donnie Darko

(IMDb TV, Roku, Tubi, Pluto TV, Kanopy)

20th Century Fox

This ingenious, twisty movie was released in the fall of 2001, but after the events of 9/11, it was not quite what anyone wanted to see; it eventually found a cult following on DVD. In Donnie Darko (2001), Jake Gyllenhaal plays the teen title character, whose weird sleepwalking habit sometimes takes him miles away from home. One night his condition unexpectedly saves him when an airplane engine crashes into his room. After that, however, very strange things begin to happen, including the appearance of a weird, six-foot demonic bunny that talks to Donnie about the end of the world. Making his debut, Richard Kelly skillfully controls everything from dialog to music to imbue the movie with an intriguing sense of finality; it’s an incredible, existential puzzle. Jena Malone co-stars as the new girl in school, Drew Barrymore is a favorite teacher, and Patrick Swayze is great as a sleazy self-help guru. (This is the original 113-minute theatrical cut, which is preferable to the 134-minute director’s cut.)

Gattaca

(Crackle)

Andrew Niccol’s brilliant Gattaca (1997) is one of those rare sci-fi movies that emphasizes ideas over explosions, and its eerie themes are still resonant today. The story takes place in the future, where parents can genetically pre-program their children with ideal traits. But the downside is that “natural” born people are outcasts, facing discrimination and prejudice. One of those is Vincent (Ethan Hawke), who dreams of going into space, but can only work as a janitor. He gets his chance to move up thanks to Jerome (Jude Law), who has perfect DNA but lost the use of his legs in a car crash and is no longer an “ideal” citizen. Vincent borrows Jerome’s DNA to get the job of his dreams, and he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman) while preparing for a possible trip to Saturn, but the risk of getting caught is excruciatingly high. Niccol’s incredible use of the widescreen frame emphasizes a sense of isolation in man-made spaces, and Michael Nyman provides a haunting music score.

Heathers

(Hoopla, Tubi)

New World Pictures

Written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, Heathers (1989) is the pinnacle of 1980s black comedy, taking themes like bullying, popularity, and social status in high school and bringing them to an entirely new level. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) has recently been allowed to join the most elite group of girls on campus of Westerberg High, consisting of three Heathers (one played by future TV star Shannen Doherty). Meanwhile, a mysterious, cool new guy at school, J.D. (Christian Slater), turns Veronica’s head. He introduces her to a whole new way of dealing with the cool kids, and it involves murder made to look like suicide. The movie’s finishing touch is a popular song about teen suicide (“don’t do it!”) that sweeps the school. Lehmann and Waters manage to get big laughs while digging into the blackest reaches of the human soul and coming up with a fairly accurate portrait of high school. The movie has since inspired both a TV series and a musical.

High Fidelity

(Roku)

Buena Vista

Perhaps the ultimate “guy” movie, High Fidelity (2000) is part of an unofficial trilogy—with Grosse Pointe Blank and Hot Tub Time Machine—by actor/writer John Cusack and writer/director Steve Pink, about men who look to their pasts for clues to their present. Adapted from Nick Hornby’s English novel and directed by Englishman Stephen Frears, the film is set in Chicago and has an American sensibility. Cusack plays Rob Gordon, a thirtysomething who runs a worn-out record store with two misfit employees (Jack Black and Todd Louiso), regularly re-organizes his own record collection, and can’t seem to commit to his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle). So, he takes a trip down memory lane and visits his “top-five” former girlfriends to get some perspective. The filmmakers allow for so many delightful moments of humor, anxiety, joy, and music that there barely even seems to be a plot. But by the time the conclusion comes, we know that these unforgettable characters have been on a real journey. (Co-star Lisa Bonet’s daughter Zoë Kravitz now appears on a new, updated Hulu series, also based on the novel.)

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