The Best Streaming Titles Arriving in January 2017

I consider my first viewing of Caddyshack a foundational experience. Granted, I didn’t understand everything that went on — I just thought it was funny when Bill Murray tried to blow up the golf course — but I’ve since come to appreciate Chevy Chase’s screwball humor, the endless site gags and puns, and of course, that sweet, smooth Kenny Loggins soundtrack.

When Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker for a remote hotel, he looks forward to writing his new book. But malevolent forces in the hotel have other plans, and soon, Jack begins sliding into a madness that threatens the lives of his wife and son. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the 1977 Stephen King novel contains some of the creepiest and most indelible images in all of film history.

The comedy giant’s latest stand-up special will be a Netflix exclusive. Suffice to say, there’ll be a lot of jokes about having lots of kids and eating lots of bad food. And they’ll all be hilarious.

The plot to this indie-horror film seems rather trite: an unstoppable entity tracks down people who’ve had sex and kills them — unless they have sex with someone else first. However, the film garnered lots of acclaim due to its level of suspense, visuals, and creepy soundtrack.

The first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender was a real treat, blending action, humor, and fantastic animation (courtesy of the same studio behind The Legend of Korra). The first season ended on a massive cliffhanger that immediately raised the stakes for the highly anticipated second season, as you can see in the trailer below.

In this 2001 film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a young woman (Audrey Tautou) with a vivid imagination sets out to change the lives of her friends, family members, and neighbors while trying to track down a mysterious man. Filled with whimsical special effects, fairy tale-esque storytelling, Yann Tiersen’s evocative score, and most of all, Tautou’s delightful performance, Amélie is just about as charming as cinema gets.

In truth, the Lethal Weapon series probably went on too long, though Jet Li is phenomenal as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4. However, the first two Lethal Weapon movies are action comedy classics, and Danny Glover and Mel Gibson are a match made in movie heaven.

Thanks in large part to Tom Cruise’s willingness to risk life and limb, the Mission: Impossible movies have arguably become our best modern action movie franchise (sorry, James Bond). Compared to the franchise’s most recent entry, the first Mission: Impossible movie might seem a bit sedate and underwhelming — but make no mistake, it’s still a solid spy flick in its own right.

“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.

I confess, I haven’t watched any of this Hulu series starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) as a man who gets caught up in a cult — but I’ve heard nothing but good things from folks I trust. Apparently, the first season ends with quite the twist that promises to take The Path’s second season in some interesting directions.

An incredibly gut-wrenching depiction of how racism and hatred corrupts, American History X stars Edward Norton as a former neo-Nazi who, upon leaving jail, attempts to prevent his younger brother from making the same mistakes he did. Director Tony Kaye disowned American History X due to studio tinkering but there’s no denying the film’s power, especially Norton’s performance.

Guillermo del Toro has proven himself with fantastical arthouse fare like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. However, his adaptation of Mike Mignola’s acclaimed Hellboy comic is proof that the director is skilled at more straightforward action stuff, as well (read my review). Well, maybe “straightforward.” In Hellboy, a demonic-looking superhero and a clandestine government agency square off against Nazi occultists who want to summon extra-dimensional horrors that will bring about the end of the world.

It’s that movie where Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter) plays a farting corpse. Paul Dano is a suicidal man trapped on an island who discovers Radcliffe’s corpse — a corpse with all kinds of surprisingly useful abilities (e.g., the aforementioned flatulence).