It’s that time again: each of the best streaming services have a limited-time that you can watch some films, and that means every licensed movie will eventually face the final curtain – or at least, the final one until the rights are renewed and it reappears in a new catalog.
Some of this month’s movie exits from HBO Max will be missed more than others – for me, it’s a sad goodbye to Detective Pikachu and a ‘don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out’ to Ted 2 – but some of this month’s departures include films that are as watchable as any of the best Max movies.
I’ve chosen three very different movies for you to catch while you can. One’s a family-friendly animation, one’s a surprisingly dark 80s actioner with a Shane Black script and one is a drama featuring one of the world’s biggest movie stars in front of and behind the camera. But while all three are different kinds of movie I think there’s something in all of them that makes them worth watching.
Two of the movies here are also interesting because of their influences and influence: while Lethal Weapon wasn’t the first buddy-cop movie it set the template for the decade and beyond, and without the clearly Hitchcock-inspired Play Misty For Me there would be no Fatal Attraction. To the movies!
Lethal Weapon
Multiple Lethal Weapon movies are on their way out from Max this month, but if you’re tight for time then only the first two are must-watch action flicks: after that the quality nosedives, with Lethal Weapon 3 struggling to get a 60% rating and the utterly inessential fourth movie garnering a frankly rotten 52% from the critics.
There’s some argument over which of the first two Lethal Weapons are superior. Many people plump for the sequel, but for me the first movie is the best. In this film Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) isn’t movie-crazy; he’s crazy-crazy, Mel-Gibson-stopped-by-a-cop scary: he’s going out of his mind with grief and that makes him incredibly dangerous to others and to himself. That gives the first movie a weight that the more conventional buddy sequels don’t carry.
“Lethal Weapon is a film teetering on the brink of absurdity when it gets serious,” Variety wrote, but “thanks to its unrelenting energy and insistent drive, it never quite falls.” Reviewing the 4K re-release, Starburst said that it “stands out as the epitome of 1980s shoot-’em-ups, set in a bygone Hollywood fantasy world where cops and guns are great and an action star like Gibson flexing his pecs and martial arts skills would fill up cinemas. It’s not difficult to see why it’s considered a classic – the action is bloody fun and the buddy cop chemistry strong.”
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
One of the things I really love about animation is that it makes the impossible possible, and this cute kids’ film – which is fun for adults too – is a great example of that: you’ll believe a man can fry (sorry).
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs has a great premise and a great cast too: “Where else can you find the varied likes of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, and – yes – Mr. T together and all on their A game?” says The Movie Report. It’s about an eccentric inventor (Hader) whose machine makes it rain all kinds of food, saving a struggling fishing town from its sardine-based sadness. But then the machine goes out of control with often hilarious consequences.
Reviews were mixed, and it’s definitely not up there with the likes of DreamWorks’ or Pixar’s best. But as Empire put it, it’s “no Pixar, but a lot of fun.” The film is “bright, silly and a good shout to entertain the whole family.”
Play Misty For Me
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room first: this film was made in 1971 and that means its sexual politics, its understanding of mental illness and director and lead actor Clint Eastwood’s sideburns and flares have all aged terribly. But it’s an effective potboiler about a late-night DJ whose one night stand with a troubled woman (Jessica Walter) turns into something sinister.
“Eastwood… has obviously seen Psycho and Repulsion more than once,” TIME Magazine said, “but those are excellent texts and he has learned his lessons passing well.” The Chicago Reader agreed: “Clint Eastwood wisely chose a strong, simple thriller for his first film as a director, and the project is remarkable in its self-effacing dedication to getting the craft right.”
The film enabled Eastwood, by then a huge movie star, “to be unsympathetic, selfish and – in the words of the title song – as helpless as a kitten up a tree,” Empire wrote, describing it as “thrilling” and giving the film four out of five stars.
