All the talk in the movie world right now is around Barbie and Oppenheimer, they're both amazing movies but you need to make some time for the classics too, especially with these three top picks leaving Netflix in August.
Netflix is undoubtedly one of the best streaming services around but even the best can't hog all of the top-tier titles. These three movies all have over 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning they're essential viewing, so if you haven't seen them, please go and fix that while you can.
1. The Pursuit of Happyness
I'm not afraid to say that I had a tear in my eye watching this powerful movie about a father just trying to catch a break and do right by his son. The thought of father and son sleeping in a train station bathroom still gets to me, and with an 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, I'm clearly not the only one.
Will Smith and son Jaden carry this movie with their performances (making the ill-fated After Earth even more baffling), and in the current cost of living crisis, it's once again a poignant tale. The story is based on writer Chris Gardner's own experience of a year of living homeless in San Francisco.
Smith is at his best as Gardner, balancing single parenthood and homelessness while also working as an unpaid intern at a top stockbroker. It's a duality that hits particularly hard, with him refusing to reveal to his co-workers just how dire his situation is. Bring tissues.
The Pursuit of Happyness leaves Netflix on August 1st.
2. Skyfall
Arguably the best Bond movie of the Daniel Craig era (and the best ever maybe?), and not just for the Adele song. Skyfall sees the world's most famous spy on the back foot, returning from retirement to defend M16 itself from destruction.
This is arguably the movie that finally made the world ok with a 'Blonde Bond' and Craig's physical, grittier Bond shines (although the introduction of Q brings plenty of laughs). Javier Bardem always shows up to any role, but his turn as cyberterrorist Raoul Silvia is particularly skin-crawling.
It takes a lot to earn a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and Skyfall achieved it by blending some of the best action sequences in a Bond movie with a level of characterisation that was previously unprecedented in the franchise. Judi Dench and Craig have the best chemistry Bond has seen, save for that one glorious sequence with Craig and Ana De Armas in No Time to Die.
Skyfall leaves Netflix on August 1st.
3. Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan is currently lighting up the box office with Oppenheimer but don't sleep on another of his films, Dunkirk. With a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, you'd be a fool to miss out when it evacuates Netflix on August 16th.
Telling the story of the evacuation from Nazi forces to the safety of British shores, this is a historical epic that broke new ground, winning a host of technical Oscars with the sound in particular lauded. This might be one worth investing in a new soundbar for. It also introduced the world to a brilliant young cast that even includes pop star Harry Styles.
Despite being such a large-scale operation, the movie's focus on individuals (on land, sea and air) lends it particular power that many war films miss out on. If you love Netflix's All Quiet on the Western Front, watch Dunkirk before it's too late.
