It’s only the beginning of April, but it’s already heating up over on Hulu. Not literally, of course — the action/comedy The Heat was just added to the streamer, and it tops Watch With Us’ weekend binge list. If you’re craving more good films that don’t involve fluffy bunnies or resurrected saviors,...
It’s only the beginning of April, but it’s already heating up over on Hulu.
Not literally, of course — the action/comedy The Heat was just added to the streamer, and it tops Watch With Us’ weekend binge list.
If you’re craving more good films that don’t involve fluffy bunnies or resurrected saviors, then we've got you covered.
The underrated Michael Keaton drama My Life will jerk some tears from your eyes, while the sci-fi flick Moon will make you second-guess space travel.
‘The Heat’ (2013)
Straight-laced FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is good at her job, especially when she flies solo. But when she’s assigned to work with hot-headed Boston police detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), she struggles to get along with her abrasive new partner. They're opposites in almost every way, but they’ll both have to overcome their differences to apprehend the elusive drug lord Simon Larkin, whose identity is still unknown to the authorities.
Sarah and Shannon are an odd couple, but their clashing styles may be what it takes for them to bring the heat and get their man.
A big box office hit in 2013, The Heat is still a winner over a decade later. A big part of why the movie works is the casting of Bullock and McCarthy, whose screen personas are as different as their characters. It’s this friction that gives The Heat’s comedy an edge that other comedies around that time lack.
They’re supported by a deep bench of talented character actors, which includes SNL vets Taran Killiam and Jane Curtain, Marlon Wayans, Bill Burr and Nate Corddry. The film also works as a straightforward action picture, with several sequences showcasing the actresses’ fighting skills.
The Heat is streaming on Hulu right now.
‘Moon’ (2009)
In the distant future, humanity regularly travels to the moon to mine its resources for energy. Lunar Industries has made a fortune replacing oil with helium-3 as the go-to fuel for what’s left of the human race, and it relies on ordinary worker Samuel Bell (Sam Rockwell) to oversee its base of operations on the moon. Sam is all alone in space, except for GWERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), an artificial intelligence that’s a lot more helpful than 2001’s HAL-9000.
When Sam crashes his moon rover during a routine mission, GWERTY saves him — but he soon realizes everything is not what it appears to be. There might be someone else with him on the moon, and Sam will have to quickly figure out if it's friend or foe.
Directed by Duncan Jones, Moon is a quiet sci-fi drama that’s best left unspoiled before you watch it. The more it reveals, the more hypnotic it becomes, but the film never reaches Event Horizon-levels of outer space insanity. Instead, it asks deep questions about the nature of humanity and the inevitability of death.
It’s not a depressing bummer, though. Through Rockwell’s empathetic performance, Moon is oddly uplifting and a great example of modern hard science fiction.
Moon is streaming on Hulu.
‘My Life’ (1993)
What would you do if you knew you were going to die? That’s the heavy premise behind the drama My Life, a now-forgotten 1993 film starring Michael Keaton as Bob, an expecting father who learns he’s dying of kidney cancer. With only months to live, Bob becomes obsessed with filming videos instructing his not-yet-born son how to cook pasta, shave and other valuable life lessons.
Bob’s fixation on his unborn child prevents him from settling unresolved issues in his life, like reconciling with his estranged parents and learning to appreciate the brief time he has left with his wife, Gail (Nicole Kidman).
Don’t expect Terms of Endearment-level writing or direction with My Life, which keeps things pretty formulaic. There’s a cheesy subplot with Bob visiting a Chinese healer that should’ve been cut, and the film showcases an overly simplistic — and slightly queasy — New Age spirituality that was all the rage in the early ‘90s. But there’s no denying that the film is moving, with Keaton giving a deeply felt performance as a man living on borrowed time.
My Life is streaming on Hulu.
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