The long Labor Day weekend is here, and what better way to celebrate than to watch a good movie? Don’t go to the movie theaters this weekend though; all they have debuting is Afraid, a crummy techno thriller about an evil Amazon Echo and a cheap biopic about Ronald Reagan. I did warn you.
Staying at home is always a great option to watch good flicks, especially if you have a Netflix subscription. But aside from new movies like The Union or the modern classic heist movie Logan Lucky, there are hundreds of underrated movies just begging to be watched and discovered. Here are three of them that will keep you occupied during this Labor Day weekend.
Life (2017)
If Alien: Romulus has got you in the mood for a sci-fi picture that’s slightly derivative, yet tons of fun, then Life may be for you. A relatively realistic sci-fi movie, Life is set on the International Space Station, with a small crew of scientists and astronauts discovering something startling: a new alien life form. Rory Adams (Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Ryan Reynolds) and the rest of his crew examine “Calvin,” a strange, slimy, tentacled creature that was discovered on Mars on a past expedition.
Guess what happens next? Calvin hates being a test subject, and soon escapes from his prison. What makes things worse is that Calvin is constantly evolving, so the longer he is out, the bigger and deadlier he gets. Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson co-star in this surprisingly effective horror thriller that owes more debt to Alien than the U.S. does to foreign nations. It’s fun, though, and the ending is a genuine jaw-dropper.
Reality Bites (1994)
There are only a handful of movies that give you a truly good sense of what Generation Xers were like in their prime, and Reality Bites is one of them. Directed by Ben Stiller, who also co-stars as a yuppie cable TV executive, the film follows the complicated post-collegiate lives of four friends: Lelaina (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Winona Ryder), an intelligent and perky woman flailing to find her place in life; Troy (Ethan Hawke), whose only place in life is in front of a TV set dissecting ’70s sitcoms; Vickie (Janeane Garofalo), a sarcastic Gap employee who can fold a sweater like no one else; and Sammy (Steve Zahn), whose defining character trait is that he’s gay.
Less of an ensemble and more of a strained love triangle between Stiller, Ryder, and Hawke’s characters, Reality Bites bites of more than it can chew in its attempt to be The Graduate for its generation. Yet, time has been kind to this movie simply because it serves as a fascinating capsule of a brief period when dirty flannel, soul patches, and cigarettes breath were all considered appealing. Hey, it still beats stupid TikTok dances and Hawk Tuah Girl.
Reality Bites is streaming on Netflix.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Never, ever trust a man wearing a fedora hat who isn’t Indiana Jones. And if you see an army of them coming at you, run. That’s the big takeaway from The Adjustment Bureau, a not-bad sci-fi movie adapted from a short story by Phillip K. Dick, who knew a thing or two about being paranoid about strange men in suits.
Matt Damon stars as David, a regular Joe who meets Elise (The Fall Guy‘s Emily Blunt). Elise has everything David wants in a woman: beauty, brains, and style. The only problem? David can only see her once. If he defies this rule, bad things will happen. He defies it, of course, and that leads to the aforementioned men, the Adjustment Bureau, chasing both of them. What purpose do they serve? And will David and Elise have a happily ever after? If you want answers, you have to watch the movie!
The Adjustment Bureau is streaming on Netflix.