Best Netflix films: top movies to check out now

Introduction

If you're looking for a film to watch on Netflix right now then you've come to the right place. T3 has spent hours trawling through the entire Netflix library on a quest to deliver you the absolute best films available. We've got comedy, action, adventure, horror and romance for you to get stuck into, so kick back, relax and let T3 save you from the paralysis of choice.

• In the mood for great TV on Netflix rather than a film? We've got you covered

• Don't have Netflix but do have Amazon Prime? Then check out our curated selection of its best TV here

• We've also got a curated list of Amazon Prime's best films you can watch right now too

• Looking for great movie experiences to fill up your diary?Here's a movie for each month of 2016 that we think has promise

• Want to start building an awesome 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collection? Then check out T3's top picks

A Knight' Tale

A fabulously entertaining new entry, A Knight's Tale can only be described as a medieval romp, with plenty of hot jousting action forefront and centre.

Poor but handsome squire William Thatcher, played by Heath Ledger (RIP), decides to change his fate after his master, a run down knight of noble blood, passes away, impersonating the deceased lord on the tourney circuit. The only problem is, he can't joust, or dance or speak and act properly.

After enlisting help to transform himself into a noble knight from fat squire Roland, played by an on-form Mark Addy, crazy commoner Wat, as played by Alan "Steve the Pirate" Tudyk, as well as Geoffrey Chaucer himself, played superbly by Paul Bettany, a coming of age tale then ensues. And it ensues with sexy results!

Naturally, Thatcher's journey is not a simple one, with big bad Count Adhemar - played by the always good value Rufus Sewell - not only a true aristocrat and master of the tourney but also determined to dismount, so to speak, Ledger as the imposter his is. Of course, Sewell also wants to beat Ledger as he want's the hand of Lady Jocelyn, who in turn wants a piece of Thatcher.

Throw in a rocking soundtrack, wilful historical innacuracy and the most dramatic jousting action yet put to film and it is easy to see how A Knight's Tale has gained cult classic status.

A great friday night film.

Watch A Knight's Tale

Creed

We've got to be honest, while we have a soft spot for the old Rocky films - mainly due to a series of top antagonists including Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago - they weren't actually very good as films.

Creed fixes this, delivering a far tighter and coherent narrative about Rocky's old adversary Apollo Creed's son, Adonis Taylor Creed, who after a troubled youth decides he wants to follow in his father's footsteps. Cue Adonis tracking down an aged Rocky to receive some top tips in the art of pugilism.

Naturally, Rocky is reluctant to take Adonis on, having left boxing far behind. However, certain events bring the two together for another, better told underdog story that sees Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan deliver some top, subtle performances.

The only mark against Creed is that the big bad doesn't measure up to the aforementioned past notables, however it is a minor criticism in a boxing film that isn't really about boxing.

Watch Creed

The Road to El Dorado

DreamWorks Animation really get an unfairly bad rap considering it has a past catalogue with stuff like this funny, well-animated romp contained within. The Road to El Dorado tells the tale of two con artists, voiced by the always good value Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline, who on the back of dice roll find themselves accidentally on board evil Hernán Cortés' voyage to find and plunder the legendary city of gold, El Dorado.

Much comedy and well-drawn action ensues, with funny man Kline and classically-trained acting master Branagh demonstrating a real repartee that you don't find in many animated films. There are songs too, which while not hitting peak-Disney output are composed by Elton John and Tim Rice, are catchy and well sung by the leads and, in general, the supporting cast of non-stars perform admirably.

Make no mistake about it though, the real star of the film is El Dorado itself, which is re-imagined here in a super-real, idyllic iteration where gold, food and the good life are in bountiful supply. The city and its characters are bright and zesty, asides from the film's other big bad Tzekel-Kan, and its buildings, games and culture are considerably grander than historical evidence would suggest they ever were in real life.

It's not a classic, however it is a solid, amusing and visually spectacular animation that feels nicely non-Disney.

Watch The Road to El Dorado

Watchmen

A super contentious superhero flick that, all the way back in 2009, made people line up to either praise or bash the film en-masse.

The detractors complained of its length, lack of coherency and, worst of all for many, its departure from the comic book source for its finale. These, to varying degrees, were valid criticisms.

However, here at T3 Towers, despite not being super invested in either camp, we definitely leaned more towards those who praised the film first and foremost.

Here's why. First off, the film is challenging and subversive throughout, introducing levels of maturity, moral and ethical ambiguity and extreme violence that - especially for the time - were unheard of in superhero films.

Secondly, running at a whopping 2 hours and 42 minutes, this film is not afraid to have its characters talk to each other, at length, and on relatively complex emotional arcs.

And, finally, the super dreamy Matthew Goode is absolutely top notch as the film's big bad Ozymandias and, if anything, deserves more screen time than he gets.

Dark, gritty and real-world inconclusive, Watchmen is definitely worth a watch if you have the time.

Watch Watchmen

Red

This star-studded action-comedy was one of the surprise sleeper hits from 2010, raking in a tasty $199 million dollars worldwide, making almost four times its budget back.

Now, it doesn't matter where or who you are, that is one successful film. Indeed, it was so successful that Red 2 was released in 2013 and, amazingly, that also did gangbusters, so later this year the third film in the trilogy is coming. Therefore there is no better time to get into this genuinely entertaining romp starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker and Karl Urban than now.

The basic sell with Red is that all the old-timers are ex-special forces / secret service bods who, for one reason or another, were forced to retire from active duty. And, when the film opens, that's just fine for Bruce, with him living a quiet and largely uneventful life.

When a wetwork hit squad comes to kill dear old Bruce though one evening, an explosive series of events is begun that sees Bruce and, after some recruiting, Morgan, Malkovich and Mirren attempt to outrun hunky and deadly Karl Urban while unravelling a juicy conspiracy.

Yeh, the plot is total action flick bullox, however the acting class of the leads, as well as their evident enjoyment on set, make it incredibly watchable, with genuine repartee and chemistry on display.

Imagine a Jason Bourne film where Jason is 60 and still kicking ass. Yep, that's Red.

Watch Red

X-Men

Now look, we're really not the biggest fans of the superhero genre of film here at T3 Towers, for a long list of reasons that you dear reader can probably guess.

That said, however, we'd be doing a disservice to this list if we didn't include the original, year 2000, X-Men.

That's because this superhero flick actually isn't, to quote Revenant directorAlejandro González Iñárritu, "cultural genocide" and delivers a piece that features just as much thought and character depth/motivation as it does quips, Lycra and mindless mayhem.

Whoever made the casting call to place baddie Magneto in the hands of the superlative Ian McKellan needs to be given their own Oscar, as he absolutely owns the part and, with the also good value Patrick Stewart, the entire movie.

Obviously, as if you needed to be told, Hugh Jackman is also rather good in the role of fan-favourite mutant Wolverine.

This first film isn't the definitive entry in the series, with X-Men 2 still to be topped even today, however it is definitely worth a rewatch.

Watch X-Men

Predator

Ok, we know, we know. You are probably well aware of this 80s classic, however that is no reason not to include Predator on this list as, if we're being honest, it probably remains one of the top three action movies of all time.

Good old Arnold is on absolute fire here, not so much acting-wise but rather in looking super ripped-wise, with Dutch and his team of commandos tearing up Central America with an array of huge weapons, muscles and one-liners.

The real star of the film though is the Predator itself, with some top-draw creature effects as designed by the late-great Stan Winston, really elevating this pressure cooker of an action flick above the throng. The director, John McTiernan - yes, the same McTiernan who directed that other action tour de force, Die Hard - also knows that less is more, with very little of the Predator shown until the back half of the movie.

Predator is also incredibly tight. It is well edited and there is zero flab to disrupt the gradual building of tension and drama.

There's just so many memorable bits in Predator, so many set pieces that leave lingering images and sounds in your mind long after you've watched it, that it is essentially a must watch. It also has some of the best minigun action yet put on film. T3 wants to see more films with hot minigun action!

Watch Predator

Looper

In this low-budget but high-concept sci-fi movie, Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play the same character but from different times periods - and also timelines - in their character's life, with Bruce returning from the future to kill a little boy in the past. Yep, you read that right. To make things more confusing, Joseph, playing a young version of Bruce, then spends most of the film trying to the balder, older Joseph. Yeh, I know it sounds confusing and odd, but T3's spoiler-bot has determined that to say any more would kind of give away too much of the film'splot.

Needless to say though, both male leads put in a good turn, while the film's female lead Emily Blunt also does very well, delivering on both the acting and the ass kicking. Weirdly, Looper is kind of like the bastard child of Terminator 2 and Back to the Future 2, so if you liked both of those then you'll probably like this.

Watch Looper

The Man in the Iron Mask

Long before he's-so-hot-right-now Leonardo DiCaprio was being mauled by a computer generated grizzly bear, he was lending his school boy face to this star-studded adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask. And boy what a cast. The famous musketeers are played by Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu and Gabriel Byrne, while handsome Leo gets the dual role of both wicked King Louis XIV and his imprisoned brother Philippe.

It's a solid adaptation - if not sparkling - too, with plenty of intrigue, espionage, bromance and heroic deeds. It is quite talky in places though, so if you're only interested in sex and blood, then you are probably better served musketeer-wise with the BBC's recent TV show The Musketeers (which is handily covered in T3's best TV shows to watch on Netflix). For those who want more stately and classic musketeer action though, then it is definitely worth a watch. Well, either this or the excellent 1970s film, The Three Musketeers starring Michael York and Oliver Reed.

Watch The Man in the Iron Mask

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel sees the superb Ralph Fiennes play Gustav H, the concierge at one of Europe's most prestigous hotels. He's joined in his escapades, which because this is a Wes Anderson flick are whimsical, funny and off-beat, by a star studded cast that includes, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan, Jeff Goldblum and Jason Swartzman.

The standout though is Fiennes, who takes a turn from playing bad guys and bastards (Amon Goeth and Lord Voldemort to name but two) and turns in a fantastically understated and controlled comic performance. Anderson meanwhile continues his golden period with another entertaining, if not cinematically perfect, movie that delivers plenty more of his trademark shots, techniques and hidden musical gems.

Watch The Grand Budapest Hotel

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:Sword of Destiny is the follow up to the legendary 2000 martial arts flick, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The sequel sees the always good value Michelle Yeoh reprise her role as renowned warrior Yu Shu-Lien, coming out of retirement to stop the evil warlord Hades Dai from getting his villainous mits on the Green Destiny sword.

While not reaching the beautiful heights of the original, mainly as original director Ang Lee is not at the helm, Sword of Destiny offers a lot more of what you really want from a martial arts flick, and that is a dump truck load of action. New male lead Donnie Yen has the fighting chops too, if not the acting talent and charisma of the original film's Chow Yun-fat.

Watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

Troll Hunter

TROLL! This is a really cool Norwegian B movie that tells the story of three students who, for a university film project, decide to go and track down a legendary bear poacher who claims that he really hunts trolls. Despite clearly have a skeletal budget, Troll Hunter proceeds to punch well above its weight, with a series of troll hunts leaning heavily on the 'what you don't see is scarier than what you do' Jaws-type of film making. When the trolls then are revealed in short, sharp, action-packed set pieces, it makes it all the sweeter. It's all in Norwegian but that's a good thing, as this film works as it riffs so well on traditional Norwegian culture and mythos. And yes, there's even a troll that lives under a bridge!

Watch Troll Hunter

Ghost In The Shell

Laced with haunting imagery, stunning dystopian cityscapes and some of the coolest action ever drawn, Ghost In The Shell is just pure anime perfection. Whether it's cyborg enforcer Motoko Kusanagi taking on the seemingly invincible Tachikoma tank beneath a carving of the tree of life, the Mobile Armored Riot Police chasing smoke in their hunt for the shadowy Puppet Master, or watching a cloned basset hound have his ears carefully lifted out of his food bowl by his owner, this film is just fantastic, beautiful and an absolutely essential watch.

It's massively layered too, with almost every scene laced with so much detail and imagery that it takes multiple viewings to take it all in, to actually absorb everything that its creator, Masamune Shirow, is trying to communicate about society, technology and humanity in his fiction. This depth, this amazing partnering of philosophical thought, fluidly choreographed combat and a unique eye for everyday detail, makes this still - even now over 20 years after its original release - probably the best anime film of all time.

That bit when Batou places his coat around Kusanagi's shoulders still gives me chills.

Watch Ghost in the Shell

About Time

This is a lighthearted rom-com where the protagonist has the ability to time travel at will. That protagonist is played by hot young Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson, he of recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant fame, and he does well along with father Bill Nighy in elevating this above the standard rom-com dirge. What probably also helps is that this is from British rom-com master Richard Curtis, who wrote other top genre films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill. Essentially the film revolves around Gleeson repeatedly going back in time in an attempt to rectify mistakes he makes in life, as well as in courting love interest Rachel McAdams. Funny and poignant, About Time is definitely worth your time.

Watch About Time

Enemy At The Gates

Containing Ed Harris' best role to date - well, alongside his superb turn in The Rock - Enemy At The Gates sees Ed's German sniper Erwin König go up against Jude Law's Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev amidst the historical World War II Battle of Stalingrad. Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Bob Hoskins and Ron Perlman also star, bringing a dump truck-load of acting class to this classically shot war movie, while director Jean-Jacques Annaud builds tension well throughout the film, highlighting the brutality of combat and mental strain placed upon the characters in the pressure cooker of ruined Stalingrad. A fitting companion piece to the more expansive Saving Private Ryan.

Watch Enemy at the Gates

The Man Who Would Be King

This sort of classical epic is what Sunday afternoons are made for. The Man Who Would Be King is an on-screen adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling novel of the same name, which tells the tale of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. While the plot is a simple one of two men going in search of fame and fortune, only to discover and then take control of a native civilisation, the fact that the two leads are played by none other than Michael Caine and Sean Connery kind of tells you all you need to know about whether or not you should watch this film. Both men exude charm and charisma and genuinely work well together on screen. Connery, to this day, states this film is the best he ever made.

Watch The Man Who Would Be King

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Shooter

Talk about guilty pleasures! Damn, Shooter could very well be the most guilt-inducing of them all. Marky Mark Wahlberg stars as super American Bob Lee Swagger, an expert sniper and war veteran who is forced to leave self-imposed exile to help track down an assassin who is planning to kill the U.S. President. Cue absolutely ridonculous levels of bro-itude, swagger (see what I did there?) and almost jingoistic levels of American patriotism, with Marky Mark proceeding to gun down a stupid amount of baddies to protect the country and people he loves. What little realism and class there is in the film comes courtesy of detailed representations of sniper techniques and tactics, with Walhberg trained for the film by real life U.S. Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity. If you don't want to think at all, but do want to see things go BOOM, then this is the Saturday night action flick for you.

Watch Shooter

Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith's original rom-com comes to Netflix and delivers the same sharp dialogue and surprisingly insightful emotional landscape that have become staples of his work to date. Chasing Amy tells the story of two comic book artists, Ben Affleck's Holden McNeil and Jason Lee's Banky Edwards, whose friendship becomes fractured when beautiful a bisexual woman, played by Joey Lauren Adams, captures Holden McNeil's heart. Complicated human relationships ensue, with sexual exploits, jealousy and a good dose of dry humour carrying this film through to a bittersweet finale. It's a rom-com with Jay and Silent Bob - what more could you want!

Watch Chasing Amy

The Raid 2

The sequel to the excellent action flick, The Raid, this insane Indonesian martial arts movie dials the action up to 11, with an almost non-stop series of fantastically brutal combat scenes. The plot of the film is 80s B-movie cliched, with rival underworld crime bosses engaging in a turf war, however the action is some of the absolute best yet to put to film. It's like someone rolled together Ong Bak, Hard Boiled and Old Boy and then decided to inject that hybrid with cheetah blood, as the VFX-free fight scenes and stunts are simply laden with jaw drop-ability. The Raid 2 isn't as tight as the first film, with the plot sometimes getting in the way of a natural flow, however if you've even the slightest interest in martial arts or 80s-style action flicks, then it's a must watch. You should track down the original too if you get the chance, as it's pure 5-star goodness.

Watch The Raid 2

The Hound of the Baskervilles

One of Hammer Films' golden run of horror films dating from the 1950s to the 1970s, this gothic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective novel is a real treat. Famous British actor Peter Cushing stars as Sherlock Holmes, who is tasked with going to the ancestral home of Sir Henry Baskerville - who is played by the late-great Sir Christopher Lee - to unravel the mystery of a hellhound who is terrorising the moors of rural Devonshire. A murder mystery of the highest order ensues and, with a series of lavish old-school film sets, a faithful and entertaining albeit slow-paced retelling of The Hound of the Baskervilles ensues. The hound also looks surprisingly good still, despite this film first hitting cinemas in 1959.

Watch The Hound of the Baskervilles

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

No other film quite captures that feeling of total freedom and infinite possibility that a new day can deliver quite like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the film Ferris, a high school senior student, bunks off school to spend the day having fun in downtown Chicago along with his girlfriend Sloane Peterson and best friend Cameron Frye. The school's officious dean of students Edward Rooney has other ideas though and, after realising Ferris and company are bunking off, heads off an personal mission to catch them red handed. Comedy ensues, with Ferris creatively escaping Rooney's grasp, while frequently breaking the fourth wall and speaking to the audience directly about his thoughts and feelings as a teenager. What's more, 2016 is the film's 30th year anniversary, so what better time to watch or re-watch this classic.

Watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off

A Little Chaos

And finally we have this thoughtful and poignant period piece from the late-great Alan Rickman. A Little Chaos tells the tale of the relationship that blossoms between famous head gardener of King Louis XIV' gardens of Versaille, André Le Nôtre, and unconventional but visionary amateur gardener Sabine de Barra. Sabine, as played by the talented Kate Winslet, is the real star of the piece, with Winslet portraying the damaged Sabine with aplomb. Alan Rickman, as well as directing, also makes an appearance as King Louis XIV himself in a good turn, as too does the always good value Stanley Tucci. It's a piece about human relationships and how people deal with loss, however it is covered with a sweet veneer of comedy and drama that continuously inject the film with forward momentum.

Watch A Little Chaos

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