25 of the Best Titles Now Streaming on Howdy

Based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest war movies of all time. Coppola’s harrowing film chronicles the spiritual and psychological horrors of war on a haunted soldier as he travels deep into enemy territory to kill a colonel (played by Marlon Brando) who’s gone rogue. Filmed at tremendous cost and beset by numerous disasters and setbacks, Apocalypse Now contains some of cinema’s most indelible images.

Guillermo del Toro directed the second film in the Blade series, which finds Wesley Snipes’ vampire hunter teaming up with vampire royalty to fight a menace that threatens both vampire and human society. Blade 2 is a vast improvement over the first Blade movie, thanks to del Toro’s direction and visuals, a hint of body horror, and Donnie Yen’s martial arts choreography. The film also stars Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, and Norman Reedus.

When three student filmmakers venture into a Maryland forest to investigate a local myth, they soon become hopelessly lost while assaulted by strange and frightening phenomena — all of which suggest that the myth is more than just a myth. Its legacy may be tarnished thanks to the countless films that have copied its “found footage” aesthetic, but when The Blair Witch Project debuted in 1999, it was unlike anything seen before. More importantly for a horror film, it was absolutely terrifying.

After directing the 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly seemed destined for greatness. But instead of going down the Hollywood path, he opted to get even stranger, first with Southland Tales and then The Box. Based on a Richard Matheson short story, The Box puts a married couple in the middle of an ethical dilemma that gets into government conspiracies and otherworldly phenomena. Maybe too weird for its own sake, The Box does make you wonder what might’ve been had Kelly continued making films after its release.

Quentin Tarantino plays homage to the grindhouse films that influenced him with this twisted tale of a psychotic stunt driver (Kurt Russell) who uses his car to kill young women. But when he runs afoul of an ambitious stuntwoman (played by real life stuntwoman Zoë Bell), he might have just met his match. Death Proof might not rank up there with Tarantino’s more well-known works, like Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, but its an unmistakably Tarantino flick, start to finish.

Martial arts superstar Mark Dacascos stars in this action comedy about an enhanced super soldier who turns on his employers with the help of a struggling musician (Kadeem Hardison) and an unhinged young woman (Brittany Murphy). Originally released in 1997, Drive is one of those unsung direct-to-video cult classics that really deserves a much wider audience, thanks in large part to Dacascos’ fighting chops and some truly outrageous action choreography (read my review).

In this high school melodrama, Hailee Steinfeld (Ender’s Game, True Grit) plays an awkward student who discovers that her best friend is in a relationship with her cooler-than-thou older brother. Also starring Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick, The Edge of Seventeen garnered widespread acclaim for its honest — and humorous — look at teenage life.

Snake Plissken is one of cinema’s great anti-heroes, a cynical and violent man willing to do anything to survive. That survival instinct will come in handy, though, when Plissken is sent into Manhattan (which is now a maximum-security prison) to retrieve the President after Air Force One crashes there. Directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, and Adrienne Barbeau, Escape from New York is a classic example of dystopian cinema.

I didn’t really know what to expect the first time I watched Evil Dead 2, but I don’t think I was expecting it to be as over-the-top funny as it is. The legendary Bruce Campbell — in his most iconic role — is Ash Williams, who just wanted a romantic weekend with his girlfriend in a remote cabin, only to find himself facing off against unimaginable evil with nothing but a shotgun, a chainsaw, and a perfect blend of gore and slapstick comedy.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest action movies of all time, Hard Boiled was John Woo’s final Hong Kong film before he moved over to Hollywood — and he pulled out all the stops. Chow Yun-fat stars as a driven police officer who will stop at nothing to bring down gangsters, while Tony Leung plays an undercover officer who’s in so deep, he’s losing sight of his identity. Woo brings these two character together in some of the greatest and most over-the-top action sequences ever committed to film.

The Coen Brothers pay tribute to the classic screwball comedies of Howard Hawks (e.g., His Girl Friday) with this story of a lowly mailroom clerk at Hudsucker Industries who suddenly finds himself the president of the powerful company, with all of the complications and conspiracies that come with such a lofty position. Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, and Bruce Campbell, The Hudsucker Proxy was box office bomb when it was released in 1994, but it remains one of the Coens’ most stylized works.

Brad Bird — best known for his Incredibles movies — made his directorial debut with this adaptation of Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man. Set during the ’50s, The Iron Giant blends classic sci-fi and Cold War-era paranoia into a charming coming-of-age story about a boy and a gigantic robot. I unashamedly wept the first time I saw the film’s heart-wrenching finale, and I still get chills whenever I think of the word “Superman.” The Iron Giant did poorly during its initial release due to the studio’s poor promotion, but the ensuing years have been very kind to its legacy, and for good reason: it’s a classic in every sense of the word.

Coming after the brilliance that was Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown seemed pretty reserved, even underwhelming. Tarantino’s adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch is arguably his most understated film, but it features the absolutely dynamite pairing of Robert Forster as a world weary bail bondsman and blaxploitation queen Pam Grier as the titular stewardess who sets out to double-cross a violent gun runner.

Action superstar Jackie Chan reprises his Kevin Chan character from the Police Story movies, but this time, he’s working with the CIA to investigate the smuggling of nuclear weapons. Of course, things go awry, and soon, Chan’s on the run from everyone with no idea of who to trust. Which sucks for him, but also means plenty of opportunities for Chan to show off his inimitable blend of martial arts action and slapstick comedy.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black, who’s written such classics as the first two Lethal Weapon movies and The Last Boy Scout. Starring Robert Downey Jr. as a bumbling thief who bluffs his way into Hollywood and a murder mystery, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a blast to watch, an equal parts love letter to, and deconstruction of, the hardboiled action comedies that catapulted Black to fame. Oh, and I’d be remiss to not mention Val Kilmer, who steals every scene he’s in.

In this Swedish cult hit, a lonely boy befriends a mysterious girl who has just moved into his apartment complex. However, he soon learns that his new friend is more than she seems, and her secrets may prove deadly. Billed as a horror film, Let the Right One In has its fair share of chills and bloodshed, but it’s more a brilliant atmospheric film built around a truly unique and haunting relationship.

In this wonderful and moving sci-fi thriller, a man is on the run with his young son who has begun to exhibit strange and miraculous powers — powers that have piqued the curiosity of both the U.S. government and a religious cult. As the father tries to stay one step ahead of their pursuers, he must also deal with his son’s powers, which are growing in intensity. Midnight Special stars Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, and Adam Driver.

Directed by Sammo Hung, Mr. Nice Guy finds Jackie Chan working as a chef down in Australia who lands in hot water when a videotape incriminating some local criminals lands in his possession. The action flies fast and furious — including a dazzling fight sequence in a construction site — as Jackie tries to protect his friends from the thugs, who are led by Richard Norton’s sneering mobster (read my review).

Guy Pearce stars in this Australian western as a gang member who’s given an impossible task: hunt down his older brother, who leads the gang, or let his younger brother be executed. Penned by Nick Cave (who also co-wrote the soundtrack with violinist Warren Ellis) and starring Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, Danny Huston, and John Hurt, The Proposition is as brutal and unrelenting as it is haunting and deeply affecting (read my review).

I fully admire and respect Requiem for a Dream, but I’m not sure I ever want to watch Darren Aronofsky’s movie about a group of people struggling with various addictions ever again. It’s a brutal film, to be sure, as we watch the characters’ lives sink ever more deeply into the toilet. But it’s told with such verve and style, from the masterful editing to the powerful Clint Mansell/Kronos Quartet soundtrack, that it’s a sheer juggernaut.

Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut is a stylish and bloody film about a group of thieves trying to find the mole in their midst after a heist goes wrong. Reservoir Dogs features all of the usual Tarantino-isms — whip-smart (and profane) dialog, pop culture references, non-linear storylines — and has been called the “greatest independent film of all time” by some.

Set in Seattle during the height of the grunge era, Cameron Crowe’s Singles follows a group of twentysomethings living in an apartment complex as they search for love and meaning. The movie’s cast is peak ’90s, including Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Matt Dillon, and Eric Stoltz, while members of Pearl Jam have extended cameos while Alice in Chains and Soundgarden all appear in the film. Not surprisingly, the soundtrack is a who’s who of the early ’90s Seattle music scene.

Sometimes all you need to make a great movie is an iconic car, and it doesn’t get much more iconic than the Firebird Trans Am that Burt Reynolds drives in Smokey and the Bandit, as he tries to deliver a shipment of bootleg Coors beer without getting caught by the police. So in this movie, you’ve got a bitchin’ car, Burt Reynolds at his most Burt Reynolds-est, and Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice (who delivers some of the greatest insults in cinema history). What else could you possibly want?

Imagine if one day, you heard a voice in your head that accurately narrated the events of your life… and foretold your death? That’s the situation faced by a nebbishy IRS agent when he somehow finds himself a character in the latest novel by an acclaimed author. This heady comedy can get pretty meta, but it’s anchored by solid performances by Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah.

Clint Eastwood’s award-winning Unforgiven — among other things, it earned Oscars for “Best Picture” and “Best Director” in 1993 — works as both a deconstruction of the Western epics that helped make Eastwood’s career, as well as an excellent Western in its own right. Eastwood plays a reformed bandit and murderer who returns to his violent ways in order to save his family, but at what cost to his soul?