November 2026’s Best Streaming Titles: Lord of the Rings, Trainspotting, Aliens, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Princess Bride

When a Seattle med student is suddenly turned into a zombie, she takes a job working as a medical examiner for the Seattle police to satisfy her craving for brains. But when she discovers that she takes on the memories and personalities of the people whose brains she consumes, she starts helping the police solve cases. Based on Chris Roberson and Michael Allred’s comic book series, iZombie stars Rose McIver, Malcolm Goodwin, and Rahul Kohli.

“Shall we play a game?” That’s the deadly question faced by a young hacker (Matthew Broderick) when he accidentally hacks into a military supercomputer in charge of America’s nuclear weapons. Though a big box office success, WarGames had a much bigger impact. Its representation of the internet, and the unintended impact that computers could have on security, led to the creation of the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as the first Presidential directive concerning computer security.

Amazon’s high-budget fantasy series continues apace, as Sauron continues to amass power. Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf and elven warrior Galadriel continue their race to stop the Dark Lord from bring all of the Middle-earth under his reign.

Michelle Yeoh stars as a replicant Blade Runner making her way through a Los Angeles in which the roles of replicants and human beings have changed, and now humans are the second-class citizens. Based on the trailer, the series looks to be visually stunning, but will it be able to find some new depths in the Blade Runner world as Denis Villeneuve did with 2017’s Blade Runner 2049?

Anthony Mackie stars as an FBI agent tasked with tracking down and arresting a thief, played by Jamie Dornan, who’s planning the biggest heist in European history. Created by Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton, 12 12 12 also stars Kali Reis, Agathe Rousselle, and Patrick Fabian.

How’s this for a premise: An unemployed puppeteer takes a job on a hidden floor in an office building where he discovers a door that transports him into the mind of actor John Malkovich. Make no mistake, Being John Malkovich is a bizarre film, and often quite disturbing in its tale of mental control, usurped identities, and immortality. But being the feature film debut of director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman, it’s quite unlike any other film you’ll see.

When a man discovers that his ex-girlfriend paid a company to erase her memories of their relationship, he sets out to do the same, sending him on a mind-bending journey through his own memories. What follows is an utterly unique film filled with ingenious visuals and a trippy storyline — as one might expect from a movie made by Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman, and starring Jim Carrey — that’s filled with unexpected poignancy as it explores themes of memory, love, grace, and forgiveness. (Read my review.)

Based on Cameron Crowe’s own undercover research at a San Diego high school, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of the classic high school coming-of-age movies of all time. Perhaps best known for Sean Penn’s portrayal of the stoner Spicoli — and sure, a certain pool scene — Fast Times at Ridgemont High follows a group of teens trying to navigate the various pitfalls of high school life. The movie also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Nicolas Cage, and a young Forest Whitaker in one of his very first roles.

In this madcap adventure from the Coen Brothers, a small-time thief and police officer get married and set out to start a family. But when their efforts prove unfruitful, they opt for the next best thing: stealing a baby from a wealthy family. What follows is a zany comedy of errors involving hapless bank robbers and a bounty hunter from hell. But beneath the hijinks — which include one of the best car chase scenes in cinema history — lies a heartfelt and surprisingly moving film about love and family.

It’s easy to dismiss The Replacement Killers as a second-tier Chow Yun-fat movie when compared to classic action titles like The Killer and Hard Boiled. But here’s the thing: second-tier Chow Yun-fat is still pretty darn great. Chow plays John Lee, a hitman whose conscience prevents him from completing his last job. Forced to go on the run with a skilled forger (Mira Sorvino), the two of them find themselves pursued by both the cops and Lee’s former comrades. Trivia note: The Replacement Killer set a record for the most bullets fired in an American film.

In Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed gangster film, a retired criminal is compelled to perform one last job. Filled with solid performances — especially Ben Kingsley as the sociopathic, obscenity-spitting Don Logan — and Glazer’s assured direction, not to mention a pitch-perfect streak of dark humor, Sexy Beast is widely regarded as one of the best films of the early ’00s.

“Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.” And so begins Danny Boyle’s riotous Trainspotting, which follows the lives of several drug addicts slumming around Edinburgh, Scotland. Filled with solid performances by the likes of Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, and Robert Carlyle, a bleaker-than-bleak sense of humor, Boyle’s trademark visuals, and an awesome soundtrack (e.g., Iggy Pop, Brian Eno, Underworld), Trainspotting isn’t the easiest film to watch, but its energy and verve are undeniable.

The original Dune may be a train wreck, but it’s a fascinating train wreck. Just start with the fact that it was directed by the one and only David Lynch, who was so disappointed by the final film that he’s completely disowned it. However, parts of it still hold up pretty well (Kyle MacLachlan’s performance, the production design) and the film has since developed a considerable cult following.

Buddy desperately wants to be a hard-working elf in Santa’s workshop. There’s just one problem: he’s not an elf at all, but rather, a human being who mistakenly ended up at the North Pole as a baby. Determined to track down his real father, Buddy sets off for the magical land of New York City. But will Buddy’s dad welcome him with open arms or turn out to be on the “Naughty List”? Centered around Will Ferrell’s delightfully madcap performance, Elf is a modern Christmas classic.

All Clark Griswold wants to do is have the best possible Christmas with his family. His perfect holiday plans are challenged, however, by the arrival of some redneck cousins, bickering family members, yuppie neighbors, and his stingy boss. Originally released in 1989, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has since come to be considered a Christmas comedy classic up there with A Christmas Story and Scrooged.

Ridley Scott’s original Alien was as much a horror movie as it was a sci-fi flick. But with Aliens, director James Cameron decided to throw in lots of action, as well. Set nearly 60 years after the original film, Aliens finds Ellen Ripley returning to the moon where the xenomorphs were first encountered in order to investigate why the human colony there has gone silent. Joining her are a colorful bunch of Colonial Marines, and they’ll need all of the firepower they can muster to deal with what awaits them.

I don’t think anyone was asking for a followup to 1995’s Jumanji, but we got one anyway, and it turned out to be pretty good. When a group of high school students find themselves sucked into a video game, they’re only way out is to complete a dangerous quest to save the mystical world of Jumanji. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungl‪e‬ is a surprisingly fun film that contains as many laughs as it does action sequences (read my review).

Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star opposite each other in this thriller about a hitman who squares off against his future self as they both search for a powerful psychic who could alter the future. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Looper injects some clever new twists into the tried and true time travel formula. Johnson previously worked with Gordon-Levitt in 2005’s Brick.

Based on Stephen King’s The Body novella from 1982, this coming of age drama stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell as a group of best friends who set out on a journey that will forever change their lives. King has called Stand by Me his favorite adaptation of any of his works, which is high praise indeed.

Originally airing in the late ’60s and early ’70s, The Brady Bunch was ripe for satire with this 1995 film, which finds the Brady family living their groovy lives in a contemporary setting, where they stick out like a sore thumb. It’s absolutely silly, but also delightfully goofy in its own way. The Brady Bunch Movie stars Gary Cole, Shelley Long, and Christine Taylor, with several members of the original cast (like Florence Henderson) making cameos.

This World War 2 film is based on the life of famous Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev, who must battle the encroaching German army during the infamous Battle of Stalingrad. But as his reputation increases, he finds himself being used by the Russian government for propaganda purposes and caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a legendary German sniper. As with most war films, Enemy at the Gates plays fast and loose with history, but the drama between the two opposing snipers is often riveting.

Alex Hitchens (Will Smith) is an expert at teaching other men how to woo women. But his latest case may prove his most challenging yet. Adding further complications, Alex finds himself falling for a cynical reporter who seems resistant to his charms, and who could ruin his career. Hitch’s plot may have you rolling your eyes, but it’s still a fun date movie due in large part to Smith’s charisma and comedic timing.

This is one of those movies that I’ll pull up every now and then just because it’s so solidly made and entertaining (read my review). Based on the best-selling Tom Clancy novel about an experimental Russian submarine, and starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery, The Hunt for Red October is classic Cold War action/intrigue that is eminently watchable. (But what else would you expect from director John McTiernan?)

When George Bailey’s life takes a sudden nosedive, he’s convinced that the world would be better off if he’d never been born — a haunting reality that his guardian angel decides to let him experience. Starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, and directed by Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, as well as a delightful exploration of the impact that one person can have on the world around them.

Baa-ram-ewe! Baa-ram-ewe! The Citizen Kane of talking pig pictures, as one critic called it, will start streaming as soon as the new month rolls around. I plan on watching it with my kids, and all the while, I’ll try to wrap my mind around the fact that the man responsible for this charming little film is the same deranged genius who gave us Mad Max.

When a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) want to scare away the new occupants of their beloved country home, they seek aid from a fellow spirit who specializes in exorcizing humans (Michael Keaton). Only they’re not quite prepared for the chaos that they’re about to unleash on both the world of the living and of the dead. One of Tim Burton’s signature films, Beetlejuice also stars Winona Ryder in one of her most famous roles.

Featuring cinema’s most infamous wood chipper scene, the Coen brothers’ Fargo is yet another twisted moral tale told with a sense of humor as black as the film’s wintry setting is white. When a hapless car salesman (played to perfection by William H. Macy) contracts with a couple of goons to hold his wife for ransom, he sets in a motion a twisted tragicomedy of errors that pulls in one of the Coens’ noblest and purest heroes, police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand).

The casting of Jack Black as the voice of Po, a panda who dreams of being a martial arts legend, was clearly a stroke of genius. Set in an version of medieval China populated with anthropomorphized animals, Kung Fu Panda is a thoroughly entertaining action/comedy for the whole family that also packs some delightful depth beneath the martial arts hijinks. (And for what it’s worth, I contend that Tai Lung’s prison escape is one of the great cinematic action scenes of all time.)

The Princess Bride is a classic family film that has it all: comedy, romance, swashbuckling sword fights, memorable dialog, and André the Giant. What more could you want? Just before the beautiful Buttercup’s wedding day, she’s kidnapped by a group of outlaws, which finds her ultimately reunited with her long-lost love. Her enraged fiancé will stop at nothing to get her back, but as we soon find out, not even death can stop true love.

In 2009, Michael Schur and Amy Poehler teamed up to give us Parks and Recreation, one of the greatest TV comedies in recent years. And now, Schur and Poehler are delivering a new series based Kate Myers’s 2023 novel, Excavations. Poehler stars as a member of an archaeological team whose latest discovery lands them in the middle of an international conspiracy. Dig also stars Geraldine Viswanathan, Hugh Laurie, and Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Neil Gaiman’s darkly fantastical storytelling and Henry Selick’s stop-motion animation are a match made in movie heaven. Coraline’s titular heroine dreams of a nicer, more magical home — which is exactly what she gets when she discovers a portal to another world. Of course, given that this is Neil Gaiman we’re talking about, things soon get dark and weird, and Selick’s clever visuals are a perfect tool for conveying that (read my review).

It’s always a risk when talking about The Crow; the tragic on-set death of Brandon Lee has become so interwoven with the movie’s mythos that enjoying it can seem disrespectful. But the fact is that The Crow remains a singular movie of the ’90s, as stylized and goth-y as can be, with intense action and a brooding soundtrack featuring a host of alt-rock superstars (read my review). Lee is absolutely perfect as the titular character, a musician brought back to life to avenge the death of his fiancé, which only adds to the movie’s poignancy.

Jerry Shaw is a college dropout who just wants to get by. But his humdrum life is upended when he comes home to find his apartment filled with illegal weapons and he’s arrested by the FBI. Helped only by a mysterious voice on the phone, he must piece together the conspiracy that has captured his life, and threatens the lives of countless innocents. Eagle Eye received a critical drubbing back in 2008, but I still think it’s a fun, if totally ludicrous, thriller that’s a decent way to spend a Friday night.

There are certain movies that, if I ever come across them playing on the TV, I will stop everything I’m doing and watch them. Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element is one such movie, with its sci-fi tale about a great evil that can only be stopped by a young woman. Packed to the gills with stunning visuals and set design, as well as an intriguing mythology all its own and a manic sense of energy, The Fifth Element is a blast to watch.

A group of strangers at a rundown motel start getting must band together when they start getting knocked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer. And what does their plight have to do with a murdered sentenced to death? Directed by James Mangold and starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, and Alfred Molina, Identity throws in some interesting twists on the usual thriller tropes.

Starring Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock, Ice-T, Mario Van Peebles, and Judd Nelson, New Jack City chronicles the rise of a vicious drug gang and the detectives determined to take them down. Upon its release in 1991, the film was a critical and commercial success and had a massive influence on the hip-hop and R&B scenes. The soundtrack, which featured songs by Ice-T, Keith Sweat, Color Me Badd, and 2 Live Crew, dominated the Billboard charts and quickly went Platinum, selling over a million copies.

In the final days of the Vietnam War, a group of Army soldiers are recruited for a top secret mission to explore a mysterious island. As you might expect from the movie title, they soon discover far more than they bargained for. Obviously inspired by Apocalypse Now, Kong: Skull Island turns out to be a pretty fun movie thanks to some crazy monster action, some inspired visuals, and a solid cast highlighted by some delightful John C. Reilly kookiness (read my review).