Given its name represents one of the most storied movie studios in Hollywood history, Paramount+ has to have (and indeed does have) an excellent selection of classic movies. Here’s critic Craig Mathieson’s guide to the best of the best.
See also
* The 50 best movies on Netflix Australia
* The 50 best movies on Stan
* All new streaming movies & series
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Watch on Paramount+Mike Myers love of 1960s espionage films, petty dictator comedy, and cultural wordplay reached its peak with the second Austin Powers film. The British spy returned, with Heather Graham as a CIA love interest, but it was Myers’ antagonist, supervillain Dr Evil, who steals every scene with an assist from Seth Green as his bored teenage son.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Watch on Paramount+Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay reached the peak of their American idiot phase with this truly inspired and deeply loopy comedy about a 1970s newsreader whose self-assurance and magnificent hair are shaken by the arrival of a female co-anchor (a note-perfect Christina Applegate). Truly sublime stupidity.
Argo (2012)
Watch on Paramount+Ben Affleck, who’d burned down his career and somehow rebuilt it, directed and starred in this Academy Award Best Picture winner, which liberally retold the tension-laced story of American embassy staff hiding in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Affleck’s CIA agent has to exfiltrate them, although on screen Affleck wisely lets Alan Arkin and John Goodman, as veteran Hollywood hands, steal their every scene.
The Babadook (2014)
Watch on Paramount+One of the great Australian debuts of all time, and an equally great horror film from Jennifer Kent, where the monster is not only under the bed but also inside Essie Davis’ besieged parent. Whether it’s fear of love or love of fear, this claustrophobic thriller lodges itself where it can’t be ignored.
Batman Returns (1992)
Watch on Paramount+After the blockbuster success of Batman, Tim Burton had carte blanche for the sequel, and he created a gilded soundstage fairy-tale that took in both German Expressionism and sumptuous satire. Michael Keaton’s Batman gets sidelined for the villains, but what an amazing trio they are: Christopher Walken’s Max Schreck, Danny DeVito’s Penguin, and above all Michelle Pfeiffer’s defiant Catwoman.
Before Sunrise (1995)
Watch on Paramount+The definitive Gen X screen romance, set over a 12-hour assignation in Vienna between a young American visitor (Ethan Hawke) and an unexpected French acquaintance (Julie Delpy), has a timeless quality. Richard Linklater’s twenty-something romance unfolds with the tender grace that comes from the fulfilment of adolescent desires.
Clueless (1995)
Watch on Paramount+While the best lines from Amy Heckerling’s knowingly sweet teen comedy live on as memes, the film itself remains a perfectly calculated pleasure, with Alicia Silverstone as the teenage sophisticate who sails through her privileged L.A. high school life while the ageless Paul Rudd waits in the wings.
Confess, Fletch (2022)
Watch on Paramount+An outlier in the blockbuster age, this character-driven crime-comedy has an idiosyncratic sense of humour and one sharply drawn supporting character after another—Annie Mumolo’s scene is a tour-de-force—for Jon Hamm’s irreverent investigative journalist to play off. Director Greg Mottola puts the character’s Chevy Chase era to rest with sharp, noir-flecked movie.
The Conversation (1974)
Watch on Paramount+A gripping psychological thriller about an individual’s unwillingness to reveal himself, Francis Ford Coppola’s prescient subject is Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a surveillance expert increasingly worried about his latest assignment. Long takes and a procedural’s insight create a paranoid netherworld that may well feature Hackman’s definitive performance—a recessive soul left on the brink of self-destruction.
Crazy Stupid Love (2011)
Watch on Paramount+A relationship comedy with contrary instincts, tender insight, and an absolutely killer finale, this entertaining genre spin stars Steve Carell as a depressed and newly divorced suburban dad who becomes a reclamation project for Ryan Gosling’s alpha male, who in turn is pursuing Emma Stone’s unimpressed law student. Every playful move has a deceptive twist.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Watch on Paramount+With Heath Ledger’s Joker—a jittery, nihilistic force who feels like a city’s dread come to life—as the antagonist, Christopher Nolan took the Batman franchise to a new level, grounding the superhero epic in the streets and giving a muscular authenticity to the deeds of Christian Bale’s masked vigilante.
Dirty Harry (1971)
Watch on Paramount+Clint Eastwood’s feel for sparse dialogue and director Don Siegel’s eye for hard-nosed pulp combine in this action thriller about a San Francisco police inspector, Eastwood’s Harry Callahan, pursuing a sociopathic sniper. The movie is full of digs at 1960s permissiveness, but the images lean to the point of iconic at times. It started a franchise, but this remains the prime cut.
Dunkirk (2017)
Watch on Paramount+Christopher Nolan shifts time yet again, reimagining the historic World War II evacuation of British soldiers from the titular French port via land, sea, and air combat as a succession of intimate moments: unexpected, destructive, or simply horrifying. Shorn of extraneous dialogue, harried faces and their uncompromising decisions acquire a tender resonance as the countdowns converge.
Elf (2003)
Watch on Paramount+Will Ferrell uses naivety and enthusiasm as his comedic weapons in this fairy-tale farce about a human baby raised by Santa’s elves—Ferrell’s Buddy—who’s sent to New York at Christmas to meet his real father (a curmudgeonly James Caan). Jon Favreau crafts a funny, fantastical comedy that engages both children and adults.
The Exorcist (1973)
Watch on Paramount+The first horror film nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, William Friedkin’s hugely influential depiction of the battle between Catholic priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) and a demon that has possessed a 12-year-old girl (Linda Blair) remains a terrifying landmark. Shocking in design, graphic in execution, it retains the power that had audiences compelled and cowering.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Watch on Paramount+Stanley Kubrick’s final feature, which he directed with typically unyielding precision, is an emotionally roiled marital drama about a Manhattan doctor (Tom Cruise) who goes on a psychosexual journey after discussing infidelity with his wife (Nicole Kidman). Kubrick’s take on sexual pleasure is mainly demonstrative, but Kidman is electric in her scenes—you wish it was her film.
Game Night (2018)
Watch on Paramount+Salted with 1990s movie nods, this entertaining Hollywood studio comedy neatly plays to Generation X as a couple’s weekly game night for friends gets entangled with a criminal conspiracy. There’s quick-witted dialogue, an evolving plot, and comic equality between the leads: both Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams take turns flipping out or delivering burns.
The Godfather (1972)
Watch on Paramount+Strip away the long-celebrated gangster film tropes and Francis Ford Coppola’s breakthrough is a study of family and country, specifically Italian immigrants and America, which reveals how each shapes the other. It’s both immense and woundingly intimate with scenes that redefined the crime epic—and The Godfather: Part II, the peerless sequel, is also available.
Goodfellas (1990)
Watch on Paramount+With cocaine camera pans and Keith Richards riffs, this organised crime epic from Martin Scorsese was based on the (low) life and (bad) times of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a wiseguy from his youth sequestered with the calculating Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and the violent Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci). Magisterial filmmaking, damning anthropology.
Gravity (2013)
Watch on Paramount+Alfonso Cuarón’s orbiting survival story follows biomedical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), who on her first space mission, alongside veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), loses the tiny tether they have to safety. Swathed in silence, with a vast blackness looming, the pair try to jump from one temporary way stop to the next while Ryan confronts past trauma. The structure and motivation are straightforward, but the setting keeps changing your expectations—a fire in a zero-gravity environment is entrancing.
Heathers (1988)
Watch on Paramount+“Dear diary, my teen angst bullshit now has a body count.” The seminal satire of the teen movie, Michael Lehmann’s scorching black comedy—determined to bite every hand that would even think of feeding it—offers a bleakly hilarious high school critique with note-perfect performances from Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Watch on Paramount+The western is brilliantly reincarnated as an end-of-the-line dissection of inequality, as communities collapse, people break, and institutions corrupt around a pair of brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who go on a bank-robbing spree to avoid foreclosure while pursued by an ornery Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges).
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+Adapted from Cressida Cowell’s excellent series of children’s novels, this witty, heartfelt animation follows a Viking child (Jay Baruchel) doubting his warrior father (Gerard Butler), even as their village faces dragon attack. Buoyed by an immersive visual aesthetic, it shows how intelligence and acceptance can win out over xenophobia and brutishness.
Inception (2010)
Watch on Paramount+In which Christopher Nolan makes a truly cerebral James Bond film, with Leonardo DiCaprio as a master thief of the id who operates inside the brain of his marks and distorts reality until it is an abstract concept. Cityscapes fold into Escher patterns and muscular action scenes frame a plot deep in guilt, as Marion Cotillard and Tom Hardy provide immaculate supporting turns.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Watch on Paramount+Flecked with an Apocalypse Now vibe that suits the discombobulated 1970s setting, this reincarnation of the cinema’s signature giant ape has the likes of Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson dodging the footfall of the mighty Kong. It’s an adventure-thriller that has a weird compass in the form of John C. Reilly’s long-lost exile to match the impeccable digital effects.
La La Land (2016)
Watch on Paramount+Both incandescent and heartbreaking, Damien Chazelle’s update of the classic Hollywood musical is dazzling but never oppressive—the everyday tips over into the extraordinary as Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s Los Angeles hopefuls perform with heart but never mere technical mastery. It’s a film about creative endurance and personal sacrifice that’s both thrilling and enduring.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Watch on Paramount+Peter Jackson and a small army of New Zealand collaborators set the modern ideal of the fantasy epic in stone with this epic middle instalment of the Tolkien trilogy where good and evil clash on both vast and intimate levels and the technical skill—as much physical as digital—brings a world into being.
Lost in America (1985)
Watch on Paramount+A little-seen classic from the filmmaking career of Albert Brooks, with the co-writer and director starring opposite Julie Hagerty as a pair of prototype Californian yuppies whose quest to drop out and start anew swiftly descends into excruciating failure that is both hilarious and deeply observed. Made today, this would be an absolute sensation.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Watch on Paramount+Mel Gibson’s lone warrior wandered out of the desert once more for the final instalment of George Miller’s original apocalyptic action trilogy, encountering both signs of civilisation—with Tina Turner’s Aunty Entity presiding over Bartertown—and a fantastical future. It’s a film of bracing action set-pieces and hopeful
gestures, a curious and sometimes straining combination.
Mean Girls (2004)
Watch on Paramount+Lindsay Lohan was a natural teenage comedienne and she never had better material than this anthropological inquisition into high school cliques penned by Tina Fey, who’s also in the supporting cast. The film has spawned numerous memes and catchphrases, but it’s a vibrant whole that uses satirical extremes and deft twists to reinvent the cafeteria comedy.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Watch on Paramount+The action franchise’s first step is now a delightful period piece, with Brian de Palma building clockwork set-pieces around Tom Cruise’s spy, who gets burnt on a job and has to go rogue to clear his name. Cruise looks like a sleek modernist sculpture, an all-American action man, which makes for great friction with a European supporting cast that includes Emmanuelle Beart, Jean Reno, and Vanessa Redgrave.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Watch on Paramount+Ignore the many sequels. Oren Peli’s original low-budget horror hit remains a terrific reminder of how a memorable concept and effective technique can trump blockbuster effects. An unnerved San Diego couple set up a high-definition video camera in their home in an attempt to figure out what is going bump in the night, and unseen sounds and spectral glimpses soon take hold.
Pet Sematary (2019)
Watch on Paramount+The second adaptation of Stephen King’s celebrated 1983 novel is a thoughtful, heartbreaking horror film about love’s tragic reach, with a couple played by Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz and their children discovering an ancient burial ground near their new rural home that has unforeseen properties. Jump scares aside, it’s a dark and atmospheric journey that lets your worst fears seep in.
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Watch on Paramount+The best of John Hughes’ 1980s teen movies—directed with yeoman-like attentiveness by Howard Deutch—is a coming-of-age tale for high school senior Andie (Molly Ringwald) that is alert to class, attraction, and the sheer uncooperative struggle of adolescence. And the soundtrack slays.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Watch on Paramount+A before-and-after line for American filmmaking. Nearly a quarter century old, Quentin Tarantino’s joyous dive into the mores of L.A. crime, narrative illusion, and actual conversations between men and women still crackles with delectable energy. An ensemble cast that includes John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Bruce Willis enjoy the juiciest of parts.
The Queen (2006)
Watch on Paramount+Prior to The Crown, screenwriter Peter Morgan established his bona fides channelling the House of Windsor with this Stephen Frears film: Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth II is a woman whose power is suggested but rarely exercised. Offset by Michael Sheen’s masterful Tony Blair, the monarch’s young Prime Minister, it’s a portrait of grieving and dissolution in the unyielding public eye.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Watch on Paramount+Jim from The Office—who knew? John Krasinski launched a blockbuster horror franchise with this impeccably assembled tribute to escalating risk and insidious circumstances as alien creatures that hunt by noise pursue a family, with Emily Blunt and Krasinski as the parents, hiding out on a farm in a post-apocalyptic America. The simplest of stakes, merely staying quiet, assumes life and death risk.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Watch on Paramount+Steven Spielberg’s tribute to old Hollywood adventure serials—with Harrison Ford as the whip-wielding archaeologist facing off against Nazis—is primed full of iconic action sequences, tart twists, and surreptitiously perverse pleasures. It hasn’t aged a day.
Scream (1996)
Watch on Paramount+Writer Kevin Williamson took the teenage VHS cassette horror experience back into the multiplex with this self-referential horror reboot, expertly crafted by veteran director Wes Craven. A slasher film that explicitly acknowledges the genre with a new masked murderer in Ghostface, it put Neve Campbell at the centre of a high school killing spree that begins with Drew Barrymore’s now iconic cameo.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Watch on Paramount+For a film about the true nature of freedom, Frank Darabont’s penitentiary period drama has a powerful sense of self-control. The bond between Tim Robbins’ newly imprisoned banker and Morgan Freeman’s old hand is developed through brutal reckonings and sentimental triumphs, culminating in a release that is deeply powerful and well-earned despite lingering cliches.
Sicario (2015)
Watch on Paramount+A horror film told through female endurance, Denis Villeneuve’s crime thriller stars Emily Blunt as an FBI door-kicker seconded to a drug cartel task force, menacingly staffed by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, whose purpose is at odds with her belief and, ultimately, her safety.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Watch on Paramount+The highest grossing R-rated animation film in America for almost two decades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s super-sized episode of their hit television show elevated their excess with swearing, a plot involving the U.S. invading Canada, more swearing, and some of the franchise’s most iconic songs. Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman did themselves proud.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Watch on Paramount+The second—and best—of the Star Trek franchise’s 2010s reboot, with Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, explores the militarisation of space and the perils of buried history, as terrorist attacks lead the Starship Enterprise to alien space and Benedict Cumberbatch’s bravura antagonist. J.J. Abrams directs, lens flare and all.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Watch on Paramount+Posthumously narrated by the dead screenwriter memorably featured in the opening scene, Billy Wilder’s acidic love letter to Hollywood is more scything than any movie the movie industry has made about itself in the many decades since. William Holden plays the struggling hack, who finds refuge with a reclusive silent movie star, Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond. Self-loathing, delusion, and cruel truths fight it out.
The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
Watch on Paramount+For his follow-up to The English Patient, the great Anthony Minghella drew deeply perceptive performances from his young stars. Matt Damon is the ambitious impersonator who ends up in the 1950s Italian court of Jude Law’s fickle heir, in a masterfully complex thriller where the glorious production design perfectly offsets the amoral judgments of Patricia Highsmith’s original novel.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Watch on Paramount+A mere 36 years after the original Top Gun, Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski managed to duplicate the feel of the Reagan-era original while repositioning Cruise’s naval aviator as a veteran trying to right wrongs with the son of his late comrade, played by Miles Teller, while taking on a final mission. It is hokum, but expertly executed, with MVP status for Jennifer Connelly, who makes Cruise into a romantic lead.
Trainspotting (1996)
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+Sleazy, stinging and sometimes surreal, Danny Boyle’s black comedy about a wayward pack of Edinburgh junkies has survived carrying generation-defining weight (and a so-so sequel) to resonate. With a breakthrough performance from Ewan McGregor, this scabrous tale took social realism to the most illuminating of extremes.
Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Watch on Paramount+A black comedy about inequality at every level of life, Ruben Ostlund’s English-language debut—winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival—piles on the vituperative realisations and absurdist flourishes. Whether at a restaurant dinner or on a luxury cruise, it’s rarely subtle—which is Ostlund’s point about the haywire systems we’re informally governed by. It’s a film where the shit literally hits the fan.
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Watch on Paramount+Alongside Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn gives one of the cinema’s great verbal performances—he masterfully cajoles, invokes, fulminates, and pleads—in this romantic comedy about male opportunism. With a stacked supporting cast, the duo’s technique of picking up at wedding receptions leads to slapstick weekend-away chaos.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Watch on Paramount+Outback horror was reborn for the 21st century with Greg McLean’s forthright and savage genre piece, where the sparse, vast beauty of Australia’s interior can’t obscure the lurking menace. Three young backpackers end up in the clutches of an initially genial psychopath, who tortures and hunts them without ever quite dispelling his blokey Aussie veneer.
Titles are added and removed from his page to reflect changes to the Paramount+ catalogue. Reviews no longer available on this page can be found here.
