This post will be updated frequently as movies enter and leave the service. *New titles are indicated with an asterisk.
In 2021, CBS All Access rebranded with the name Paramount+, reflecting the history of the legendary film and TV company with that nifty little mathematical sign that all the streaming companies seem to love these days. The name Paramount brings a deep catalogue of feature films, and the streaming service also includes titles from the Miramax and MGM libraries. They have also added a more robust original selection than at launch to complement the service’s classics like Gladiator, the Mission: Impossible series and Grease.
For now, Paramount+ can’t compare to the depth of a catalogue like Max’s or the award-winning original works at other streamers, but it has a solid library with at least 30 films you should see.
This Month’s Editor’s Pick
*The Hurt Locker
Year: 2009
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
The director of Near Dark and Point Break became the first female Oscar winner for Best Director for a film that also won Best Picture and stands now as one of the best movies made to date about the American soldier experience in Iraq. Jeremy Renner stars as an explosives expert, the kind of guy who goes in the room that everyone else runs from, and someone brings home the trauma of what he sees overseas. As precise as the profession it captures, this movie has not one bit of fat on it, and it’s just as thrilling now as when it was released.
Almost Famous
Year: 2000
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Cameron Crowe
Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this masterpiece about a young man (Patrick Fugit) who ends up on tour with a rock band known as Stillwater. With incredible supporting performances from Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, this is one of the richest and most timeless films of its era, a rare movie that gets better every time you see it.
Attack the Block
Year: 2011
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Joe Cornish
Long before he won a Golden Globe for Small Axe, John Boyega broke through in this 2011 sci-fi/action flick from director Joe Cornish. With echoes of John Carpenter, it’s the tale of a street gang who end up being the final defense between the world and an alien invasion. Smart and action-packed, it’s a great one to catch up with on Max.
Babel
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h 23m
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu
Before Birdman and The Revenant, Alejandro González Iñárritu directed this highly acclaimed Oscar nominee in 2006 about intersecting lives in a moving narrative that takes place around the world. The remarkable ensemble includes Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Adriana Barraza, and Rinko Kikuchi — the last two were nominated for Oscars for Best Supporting Actress.
Beverly Hills Cop
Year: 1984
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Martin Brest
It’s hard to explain to people too young to experience it how big a star Eddie Murphy was in 1984 when his Axel Foley ruled the world. Murphy’s wit and charm were put to perfect use in Beverly Hills Cop that produced two inferior sequels, and both happen to also be on Paramount Plus.
Chinatown
Year: 1974
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Roman Polanski
Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown. One of the best movies of the ‘70s, this Best Picture nominee (and Best Screenplay winner) tells the story of Jake Gittes, played unforgettably by Jack Nicholson, as he investigates an adulterer and finds something much more insidious under the surface of Los Angeles. It’s a must-see, as important as almost any film from its era.
Collateral
Year: 2004
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Michael Mann
Tom Cruise gives one of his most fascinating performances as Vincent, the passenger to Jamie Foxx’s L.A. cab driver on a very fateful night. It turns out that Vincent is hitman and he needs Foxx’s character to drive him on a killing spree in this tense, gorgeously-shot thriller from the masterful craftsman Michael Mann.
Finding Yingying
Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi
Jiayan Shi directed and produced this heartbreaking documentary about the disappearance and death of Yingying Zhang in 2017. Shi has unique access to the story in that she knew Yingying, and so her film has an incredible you-are-there quality as Shi captures the investigation and grief that would emerge from this horrific crime. Paramount+ deserves credit for bringing smaller projects like this to their subscribers, ones that other major streamers might ignore.
Gladiator
Year: 2000
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Ridley Scott
One of the most popular films of its era, this action epic stars Russell Crowe as the legendary Maximus, a warrior whose family is murdered by the vicious Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Forced into slavery, Maximus has to rise the gladiator arenas to get his vengeance. The film made a fortune on its way to winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
The Godfather
Year: 1972
Runtime: 2h 55m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Maybe you’ve heard of it? In all seriousness, there’s a very cool opportunity right now to watch the entire Godfather trilogy on Paramount+, including the superior recent cut of the third film. You could then slide from some of the best filmmaking of all time into the streaming service’s original series The Offer, about the making of Coppola’s masterpiece.
The Hunt for Red October
Year: 1990
Runtime: 2h 15m
Director: John McTiernan
This adaptation of the 1984 novel of the same name introduced the film world to Jack Ryan, played here by Alec Baldwin (and currently by John Krasinski on the Prime Video series). Still the best Ryan movie, The Hunt for Red October sees the character match wits with a Soviet naval captain played by Sean Connery, who wants to defect to the United States but may cause World War III by doing so.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Steven Spielberg
The first four films in the franchise featuring one of the world’s most famous action heroes is finally back on Prime Video (jump over to Disney for the fifth if you must). Of course, the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, remains the best of the bunch but there’s some value and fun in Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade too (and even parts of Crystal Skull. Yeah, we said it.)
Interstellar
Year: 2014
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Christopher Nolan
No one else makes movies like Christopher Nolan, a man who took his superhero success and used it to get gigantic budgets to bring his wildest dreams to the big screen. Who else could make this sprawling, emotional, complicated film about an astronaut (Matthew McConaughey) searching for a new home for humanity? It’s divisive among some Nolan fans for its deep emotions, but those who love it really love it.
Jackass
Year: 2002
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Jackass Forever helped 2022 start with a bang. Now you can go back and watch the whole series exclusively on Paramount+ right now! (Even the “alternate” ones like Jackass 3.5). Go back to the heyday of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and the rest of the dangerous idiots. These movies are often derided as being dumb but they’re a glorious, infectious kind of dumb that wants nothing more than to make you laugh.
The Lost City
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 52m
Director: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee
With echoes of beloved rom-coms like African Queen and Romancing the Stone, this film truly felt like an anomaly in 2022, and yet it turned into a pretty big hit at the theater. It’s already on streaming services, and it’s a great choice if you’re looking for some escapism tonight. Travel to the middle of nowhere with a romance novel writer (Sandra Bullock) and the cover model (Channing Tatum) who tries to save the day.
Minority Report
Year: 2002
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Steven Spielberg
One of Steven Spielberg’s best modern movies is this adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story about a future in which crime can be predicted before it happens. Tom Cruise stars as a man who is convicted of a crime he has no intent of committing in a fantastic vision of a future in which the systems designed to stop crime have been corrupted. It’s timely and probably always will be.
*Mulholland Dr.
Year: 2001
Runtime: 2h 26m
Director: David Lynch
Rest in Power, Mr. Lynch. Arguably the best movie of the ‘00s, David Lynch’s masterpiece is a dreamlike tale of sex and horror in modern Los Angeles. Naomi Watts plays Betty Elms, a woman who arrives in the city of angels and meets a brunette (Laura Harring) who has lost her memory. Explaining what Mulholland Dr. is “about” in a brief paragraph cannot possibly convey why it’s an essential modern film. It’s a mood piece, containing some of the most striking, unforgettable imagery of Lynch’s notable career.
Muriel’s Wedding
Year: 1994
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: P.J. Hogan
This 1994 breakthrough for Toni Collette has maintained a loyal following for over a quarter-century for a reason, and it’s not just the great songs by ABBA. Collette is delightful as a socially awkward young woman who moves to Sydney to start life anew away from her small Australian town. It’s a delightful comedy about a memorable oddball but it has a huge heart.
*Pan’s Labyrinth
Year: 2006
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Arguably more fantasy than horror, Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece has just enough nightmare fuel to qualify, and that’s not even including the incredibly dark “real-world” themes with which GDT is playing here. Del Toro’s first Oscar winner blends the fantasy world of a girl named Ofelia and the abject cruelty of her stepfather, a Captain during the Spanish Civil War. Even in a movie that features a child-eating creature called the Pale Man, the real monster may be human.
Past Lives
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Celine Song
A current Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominee, this phenomenal film isn’t on any of the other streamers. It stars the excellent Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as a couple who were close as children but reunite years later after she immigrated to the United States. It’s as much a story of what people leave behind when they change their entire lives as it is a traditional story of unrequited love. It’s beautiful and unforgettable.
*Pulp Fiction
Year: 1994
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
There are certain tentpoles of American film history that changed the form forever, and this is undeniably one. Heck, we’re still getting Tarantino riffs almost thirty years later, as everyone wants to make a movie as effortlessly cool as his masterpiece. What more could possibly be written about Pulp Fiction? You know you love this and want to see it again. Now you can!
A Quiet Place
Year: 2018
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: John Krasinski
Who could have possibly guessed that Jim from The Office would be behind one of the most successful horror films of the ‘10s? You’ve probably already seen this story of a world in which silence is the only way to survive, but it’s worth another look to marvel at its tight, taut filmmaking and a stellar performance from Emily Blunt. Plus, Paramount+ recently added the sequel, so: double feature time!
Scream
Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Wes Craven
The Ghostface killer came back in January 2022 with the release of Scream, the fifth film in this franchise and the first since the death of Wes Craven, and the fun continued with another sequel in 2023 (although the troubles around the production of the seventh film have been, well, notable). Paramount+ is the best place for a marathon with the original trilogy and the fifth and sixth films (but, bizarrely, not Scream 4.) The first movie is still a flat-out genre masterpiece.
Shakespeare in Love
Year: 1998
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: John Madden
The Best Picture winner for 1998 (controversially over Saving Private Ryan), this John Madden film stars Joseph Fiennes as the Bard himself, who falls in love with Viola de Lesseps (Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow) while writing Romeo & Juliet. The ensemble here is aces, including Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, and Judi Dench, who won an Oscar for only eight minutes of screen time.
Smile 2
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 7m
Director: Parker Finn
It’s very rare for a sequel to be better than the original, but that’s the case here as writer/director Parker Finn builds on the ideas of the first Smile in a manner that’s ambitious and accomplished. Naomi Scott gives one of the best performances of the year as a pop star who becomes attached to the smile demon, sending her down a terrifying rollercoaster to one of the most memorable horror movie endings in years. Finn has said he’s working on a third film, but the bar is now remarkably high.
Titanic
Year: 1997
Runtime: 3h 14m
Director: James Cameron
More than just a blockbuster, this Best Picture winner was a legitimate cultural phenomenon, staying at the top of the box office charts for months. There was a point when it felt like not only had everyone seen the story of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet), but most people had seen it twice. History has kind of reduced this epic to its quotable scenes and earworm theme song, but it’s a better movie than you remember, a great example of James Cameron’s truly robust filmmaking style.
Top Gun: Maverick
Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Joseph Kosinski
It’s the movie that saved movies last year! The truth is that Paramount wanted to drop this long-awaited sequel on a streamer during the pandemic, but Tom Cruise knew it was the kind of thing that should be appreciated in a theater. He bet on himself and the result is arguably the biggest hit of his career, a movie that made a fortune and seems primed to win Oscars in a couple months.
Trainspotting
Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle really broke through with his second film, this beloved adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel about addiction. Ewan McGregor plays Mark Renton, the most charismatic member of a group of friends who became instantly iconic, including Spud (Ewan Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and the sociopathic Begbie (Robert Carlyle). Propelled by one of the best soundtracks of the ‘90s, this movie has more energy than nearly anything else on Paramount+.
The Untouchables
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma directed one of the best movies of his notable career in this action epic that won Sean Connery an overdue Oscar. Connery co-stars with Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness and Robert De Niro as Al Capone in this story of how Ness took down one of the most famous criminals of all time. Tense and riveting, it’s a great action movie that’s anchored by phenomenal performances and De Palma’s unique eye.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Year: 2013
Runtime: 3h
Director: Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for his amazing performance as Jordan Belfort, the financial criminal that rocked Wall Street and shocked audiences in one of Scorsese’s best late films. Arguments over whether or not this film glorifies a “bad guy” have become prominent—and could only really be made by people who haven’t actually watched it. Most of all, it’s a shockingly robust film, filmed with more energy in a few minutes than most flicks have in their entire runtime.
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